What Are the "Gates of Hell"?
By Dr. Nicholas J. Schaser
According to most English translations of Matthew 16:18, Jesus tells Peter, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” In popular Christian thought, Jesus’ words to his disciple indicate that believers—members of the church—will avoid the fires of hell. However, this is not what the statement means. Rather than precluding certain people from entering hell after death, Yeshua refers to those who have already died coming out of the realm of the dead through resurrection.
The Greek phrase commonly translated “gates of hell” is πύλαι ᾅδου (pūlai hādou). Yet, this English rendering is imprecise. The original language refers to the gates of “Hades” (ᾅδης)—the Greek version of the Hebrew “Sheol” (שְׁאוֹל), or the realm of the afterlife. As an example, whereas the Hebrew of Psalm 16:10 says that God will not abandon the psalmist’s life “to Sheol” (לִשְׁאוֹל; lisheol), the Septuagint reads, “into Hades” (εἰς ᾅδην, eis hāden; cf. Acts 2:27). The psalmist is not concerned about being consigned to a fiery postmortem furnace, but rather to the realm of the deceased that exists apart from hell. The word for “hell” in the Gospels is not “Hades,” but “Gehenna” (γέεννα)—this location (and not Hades) is the place of punishment to which the wicked are dispatched at the eschaton. Thus, when Yeshua says that the “gates of Hades” will not prevail, he is envisioning the closed gates at the entrance of Sheol being forced open by the power of the gospel, which will allow for Hades’ inhabitants to emerge from the underworld via bodily resurrection.
Jesus’ language in Matthew echoes an earlier text in the book of Wisdom (c. late 1st century BCE to early 1st century CE) that clarifies the meaning of the phrase in the Gospel. Speaking of God, Wisdom 16:13 states, “For you have the power over life and death; you lead mortals down into the gates of Hades (πύλας ᾅδου, pūlas hādes) and back again.” This is the exact same Greek that appears in Matthew. What the writer(s) of Wisdom describes is not mortals coming out of a fiery “hell,” but rather God pulling the dead from Sheol. Thus, Yeshua does refer to the “gates of hell” as the entrance point to eternal destruction; instead, Jesus tells Peter that the gates of Hades will not be able to withstand the force with which the church, through the power of the Holy Spirit, will open those doors and allow the dead to exit on the day of resurrection.
You can learn more profound insights (CLICK HERE for more)
