HADES

hades ^86^, "the region of departed spirits of the lost" (but including the blessed dead in periods preceding the ascension of Christ). It has been thought by some that the word etymologically meant "the unseen" (from a, negative, and eido, "to see"), but this derivation is questionable; a more probable derivation is from hado, signifying "all-receiving." It corresponds to "Sheol" in the OT. In the KJV of the OT and NT; it has been unhappily rendered "hell," e. g., <Ps. 16:10>; or "the grave," e. g., <Gen. 37:35>; or "the pit," <Num. 16:30,33>; in the NT the revisers have always used the rendering "hades"; in the OT, they have not been uniform in the translation, e. g. in <Isa. 14:15> "hell" (marg., "Sheol"); usually they have "Sheol" in the text and "the grave" in the margin. It never denotes the grave, nor is it the permanent region of the lost; in point of time it is, for such, intermediate between decease and the doom of Gehenna. For the condition, see <Luke 16:23-31>.

The word is used four times in the Gospels, and always by the Lord, <Matt. 11:23; 16:18; Luke 10:15; 16:23>; it is used with reference to the soul of Christ, <Acts 2:27,31>; Christ declares that He has the keys of it, <Rev. 1:18>; in <Rev. 6:8> it is personified, with the signification of the temporary destiny of the doomed; it is to give up those who are therein, <20:13>, and is to be cast into the lake of fire, <v. 14>.#

Note: In <1 Cor. 15:55> the most authentic mss. have thanatos, "death," in the 2nd part of the verse, instead of "hades," which the KJV wrongly renders "grave" ("hell," in the marg.).

(from Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words)