Hell: Hades
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G86 names Hades, the realm or abode of the dead in New Testament usage, and can also appear in personified or figurative language about death, humiliation, confinement, and judgment. The passages include resurrection proclamation, prophetic warning, Jesus’ parable, church promise, and Revelation vision; genre and context must govern, and Hades must not be automatically equated with Gehenna, the lake of fire, the.
Reader summary
Full entry for ᾅδης (G86) · Open the biblical lexicon
G86 names Hades, the realm or abode of the dead in New Testament usage, and can also appear in personified or figurative language about death, humiliation, confinement, and judgment. The passages include resurrection proclamation, prophetic warning, Jesus’ parable, church promise, and Revelation vision; genre and context must govern, and Hades must not be.
The BSB source-word alignment has 10 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include Hades (9), of Hades (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 11:23. Its strongest book concentrations include Revelation (4), Acts (2), Luke (2), Matthew (2).
G86 names Hades, the realm or abode of the dead in New Testament usage, and can also appear in personified or figurative language about death, humiliation, confinement, and judgment. The passages include resurrection proclamation, prophetic warning, Jesus’ parable, church promise, and Revelation vision; genre and context must govern, and Hades must not be automatically equated with Gehenna, the lake of fire, the grave in every sense, or a complete map of the afterlife.
In Acts. 2. 31, the apostle Peter says David foresaw the resurrection of the Christ, who was not abandoned to Hades and whose body did not see decay. In Rev. 1. 18, the risen Jesus identifies himself as the Living One who died, now lives forever, and holds the keys of Death and Hades. G86 opens teaching on the reality and defeat of death by centering the risen Christ, who was not abandoned to Hades and holds authority over Death and Hades.
It corrects speculative afterlife charts, terror-driven preaching, the idea that Satan rules Hades independently, and careless claims that every biblical term or image for judgment names the same reality. G86 serves resurrection hope and sober warning: Peter proclaims that Christ was not abandoned to Hades and did not see decay, the risen Jesus declares that he holds the keys of Death and Hades, and Revelation’s final judgment shows Death and Hades themselves thrown into the lake of fire.
Hades is therefore an enemy under Christ’s authority and destined for defeat, not a rival kingdom beyond his rule. For G86, responsible teaching keeps lexical meaning, passage context, canonical synthesis, and present application distinguishable. The noun does not reveal the destiny of a named modern person, settle every debate about the intermediate state, authorize delight in punishment, or permit grief to be answered with threats and confident speculation.
G86 appears across passages that develop death, resurrection, Christ’s authority, judgment, the realm of the dead, final defeat, warning, hope, and the church’s witness. For G86, the immediate setting decides which part of the range is active, so the witnesses must remain distinct rather than being merged into one formula.
Foreseeing this, David spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did His body see decay.
The apostle Peter says David foresaw the resurrection of the Christ, who was not abandoned to Hades and whose body did not see decay.
The Living One. I was dead, and behold, now I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of Death and of Hades.
The risen Jesus identifies himself as the Living One who died, now lives forever, and holds the keys of Death and Hades.
Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death—the lake of fire.
In the final judgment vision, Death and Hades are thrown into the lake of fire, distinguishing the images while announcing death’s decisive defeat.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. The realm of the dead and departed spirits, distinct from the final judgment's fiery punishment of Gehenna
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
11 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Hades
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Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 4 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 10 lexical occurrence verses.
ᾅδης is built from these roots:
Describes conscious postmortem existence.Luke 16:19–31
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
G86 serves resurrection hope and sober warning: Peter proclaims that Christ was not abandoned to Hades and did not see decay, the risen Jesus declares that he holds the keys of Death and Hades, and Revelation’s final judgment shows Death and Hades themselves thrown into the lake of fire. Hades is therefore an enemy under Christ’s authority and destined for defeat, not a rival kingdom beyond his rule.
G86 names Hades, the realm or abode of the dead in New Testament usage, and can also appear in personified or figurative language about death, humiliation, confinement, and judgment. The selected witnesses keep the teaching concrete: Acts. 2. 31 shows that the apostle Peter says David foresaw the resurrection of the Christ, who was not abandoned to Hades and whose body did not see decay, while Rev.
1. 18 Shows that the risen Jesus identifies himself as the Living One who died, now lives forever, and holds the keys of Death and Hades. Rev. 20. 14 adds that in the final judgment vision, Death and Hades are thrown into the lake of fire, distinguishing the images while announcing death’s decisive defeat. G86 opens teaching on the reality and defeat of death by centering the risen Christ, who was not abandoned to Hades and holds authority over Death and Hades.
It corrects speculative afterlife charts, terror-driven preaching, the idea that Satan rules Hades independently, and careless claims that every biblical term or image for judgment names the same reality. A church teaching G86 faithfully will name both the promise and the boundary carried by these contexts, attend to vulnerable hearers, and refuse to make the lexical item prove more than its passages support.
The noun does not reveal the destiny of a named modern person, settle every debate about the intermediate state, authorize delight in punishment, or permit grief to be answered with threats and confident speculation.
Acts.2.31
G86 is the Greek noun Hades, used for the realm of the dead and in figurative or personified expressions; translation traditions vary, so readers should follow the underlying term and distinguish it from other judgment vocabulary.
Greek Old Testament use of Hades often represents Hebrew language about Sheol, the realm of the dead. New Testament proclamation brings that inherited death-language into focus around Jesus resurrection, authority, warning, and final victory, without making every Old Testament grave or death image lexically identical to G86.