Systematic Theology, by Louis Berkhof - New Leaven

This representation would seem to be most in harmony with the statements of
Scripture, Gen. 37:35; Job 7:9; 14:13; 21:13; Ps. 139:8; Eccl. 9:10. There are some which
point to the fact that the body is included. There is danger that Jacob’s “gray hairs” will
be brought down to sheol, Gen. 42:38; 44:29,31; Samuel comes up as an old man covered
with a robe, I Sam. 28:14; and Shimei’s “hoar head” must be brought down to sheol, I
Kings 2:6,9. But if sheol is a place whither all the dead go, body and soul, what then is
laid in the grave, which is supposed to be another place? This difficulty is obviated by
those scholars who maintain that only the souls descend into sheol, but this can hardly
be said to be in harmony with the Old Testament representation. It is true that there are
a few passages which speak of souls as going down into, or as being in, sheol, Ps. 16:10;
30:3; 86:13; 89:48; Prov. 23:14, but it is a well known fact that in Hebrew the word
nephesh (soul) with the pronominal suffix is often, especially in poetical language,
equivalent to the personal pronoun. Some conservative theologians adopted this
construction of the Old Testament representation, and found in it support for their idea
that the souls of men are in some intermediate place (a place with moral distinctions
and separate divisions, however) until the day of the resurrection.
3. SUGGESTED INTERPRETATION OF SHEOL-HADES. The interpretation of these terms is
by no means easy, and in suggesting an interpretation we do not desire to give the
impression that we are speaking with absolute assurance. An inductive study of the
passages in which the terms are found soon dissipates the notion that the terms sheol
and hades are always used in the same sense, and can in all cases be rendered by the
same word, whether it be underworld, state of death, grave, or hell. This is also clearly
reflected in the various translations of the Bible. The Holland Version renders the term
sheol by grave in some passages, and by hell in others. The St. James or Authorized
Version employs three words in its translation, namely, grave, hell, and pit. The English
Revisers rather inconsistently retained grave or pit in the text of the historical books,
putting sheol in the margin. They retained hell only in Isa. 14. The American Revisers
avoid the difficulty by simply retaining the original words sheol and hades in their
translation. Though the opinion has gained wide currency that sheol is simply the
underworld to which all men descend, this view is by no means unanimous. Some of
the earlier scholars simply identified sheol and the grave; others regard it as the place
where the souls of the dead are retained; and still others, of whom Shedd, Vos, Aalders,
and De Bondt may be mentioned, maintain that the word sheol does not always have the
same meaning. It would seem that the last opinion deserves preference, and that the
following can be said respecting its different meanings:
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