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 HE learned
George Campbell, in his preliminary dissertations to the Gospels,
remarks on the original words, SHEOL and HADES. “It appears at
present (he observes) to be the prevailing opinion among critics,
that the term, at least in the Old Testament, means no more than
keber, grave or sepulchre.” He admits that it often means this, but
thinks that it denotes “the state or place of (conscious) departed
souls.” He quotes Job 11:7,8,9 Mt 11:23, &c., to prove
that the terms express the “lowest” depths, which a grave does not:
an additional proof, it appears, that it cannot denote a state of
conscious felicity, being in these very passages contrasted with
heaven, to which the saints are supposed by many to ascend at death.
He also remarks, “It is plain that, in the Old Testament, the most
profound silence is observed in regard to the state of the deceased,
their joys, or sorrows, happiness or misery. It is represented to us
rather by negative qualities than by positive, by its silence, its
darkness, its being inaccessible, unless by preternatural means, to
the living, and their ignorance about it. Thus much in general seems
always to have been presumed concerning it, that it is not a state
of activity adapted for exertion, or indeed for the accomplishment
of any important purpose, good or bad.”
If the departed saints are in a state of consciousness in the
“lowest depths of the earth, in “silence” and darkness, not engaged
in any good purpose, I hope my Christian brethren will not consider
me as worthy of many stripes, for attempting to deprive them of such
“glory.”
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