What is the difference between Sheol, Hades, Hell, the lake of fire, Paradise, and Abraham's bosom?

Lazarus was in Abraham's bosom; the rich man was in torments. The Lord was speaking from the Jewish standpoint when He spoke of "Abraham's bosom." Abraham was the father of the Jewish nation, and the depositary of the promises; to be blessed in company with him was the expectation and hope of his seed. But since the day of Luke 16 Christ has died and risen again, and has gone up as Man into God's glory. Accordingly the blessedness of sleeping believers is now described in wholly different terms: "to depart and to be with Christ is far better": "absent from the body, present with the Lord" (Phil. 1:23; 2 Cor. 5:8). Neither the rich man nor Lazarus had yet reached eternal circumstances. The rich man was in Hades, not yet in Gehenna: and neither he nor Lazarus had yet experienced resurrection. The one will be as a complete man (spirit and soul and body) in the lake of fire for ever: and the other, as a complete man, will find his everlasting home in the Father's house. Every believer is predestinated to be with, and like, the First-born Son on high.

A. Christ in ascending led captive the evil powers which held man captive previously. It had nothing to do with the O.T. saints or any others. The Lord after death went to Paradise where His Father received His Spirit. It was in Hades, not yet Gehenna, that the rich man lifted up his eyes, being in torments. The express object of the parable is to show the great and immediate change in the unseen state for the believer, no matter how at ease here. Resurrection or final judgment is not in question. The converted robber on dying joined the Lord in Paradise. Abraham's bosom, the blessed expression before, was not suitable for Him and His now, though both speak of bliss in heaven; and Paradise still remains for the risen and glorified by-and-by (Revelation 2:7).

There is still another expression used as to hell*—“the lake of fire”—which we must consider. It occurs five times in the latter part of the Book of Revelation. Evidently it is the same place as gehenna. The proof of this lies in the fact that whilst the Lord speaks of the danger of being cast into gehenna, and clearly states such a doom will affect both soul and body, the Apostle John in vision presents the lake of fire as that into which souls and bodies of unbelievers will be consigned in their final doom. They cannot possibly be two different places.

There is still another expression used as to hell*—“the lake of fire”—which we must consider. It occurs five times in the latter part of the Book of Revelation. Most evidently it is the same place as gehenna. The proof of this lies in the fact that whilst the Lord speaks of the danger of being cast into gehenna, and clearly states such a doom will affect both soul and body, the Apostle John in vision presents the lake of fire as that into which souls and bodies of unbelievers will be consigned in their final doom. They cannot possibly be two different places.

In Matthew 5 the statement is general: danger of hell-fire — thy whole body cast into hell; referring to sacrificing one member rather than sin; clearly not the valley of Hinnom. "Fear him which is able to destroy both body and soul in hell," chap. 10:28. It is not the valley of Hinnom. They do not put souls there. It is metaphorically used for the place of final judgment and punishment. Chapter 18:9 is as in chapter 5; in chapter 23:15, a child of hell — one who is the natural heir — belongs to this place. That it is the place of condemnation in judgment Matthew 23:33 shews: "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the judgment (kriseos) of hell?" (Mark 9:43-48.) We have solemnly repeated the call to sacrifice the dearest thing that is a snare to us, under penalty of being cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched, where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. It is a judgment, a judicial punishment, for which there is no relief, of which there is no cessation.

133 In Luke 12 it is used as a known thing, a place, the effect of divine judgment. James 3:6 is only of importance as shewing that it is connected with pure unmitigated evil; where nothing else is. Now a person who reads all this cannot doubt that that which the word "hell" is used for in English is fully contemplated. The desirableness of not confounding it with Hades, the vaguest possible word for the unseen world, no reflecting mind would deny. It is a place into which God's judgment casts the unrepentant and rebellious wicked, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. That human figures of fire and worms are used may be; but the force of it is plain enough — it is the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels, where God casts in judgment those that are righteously rejected, where there is no remission, when God says gegone, It is done; and without are whoremongers, and all who love and make a lie. Hades is not Gehenna, and Gehenna in the New Testament is never used as the Valley of Hinnom. The proper English word is "hell"; that is, the place where pure evil, if such a phrase may be used, meets its final doom, after restoring means (even to God's giving His own Son, and beseeching men to be reconciled) are exhausted, and where the effect of judgment remains unquenched.

Now He goes down lower still, because Sheol, or Hades, as we have it, that is, the receptacle of departed spirits — is represented under the figure at any rate, and it may be the reality, of the heart of the earth. It is not the same thing as the lake of fire, but here we have a prison for those that have died. "Have the gates of death been opened to thee? Or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death? "

As far as I see, always in the New Testament, and generally, it may be always in the Old, it is the expression of the power of death, the place of the departed where death still reigns over them. Capernaum goes down "to Hades." The rich man in torment is in Hades. Hades delivered up its dead in the second resurrection; Revelation 1:18 and 6:8 would not alter this idea.

Sheol (Hebrew) in the Old Testament and Hades (Greek) in the New Testament mean exactly the same thing. In the Septuagint version of the Old Testament—the learned translation by Jews from the Hebrew to the Greek—the scriptures from which our Lord quoted when here on earth—Sheol is always translated Hades, so that what applies to Hades applies equally to Sheol.

sheol, ἅδης, the place of departed spirits. Gen. 37:35; Ps. 6:5; Hosea 13:14; 1 Cor. 15:55, etc. See HELL.

sheol, which is often translated, 'grave,' and three times it is 'pit.' It refers to an invisible place or state, which may have several applications, according to the connection of each passage. Korah and his company and their houses went down into 'sheol.' Num. 16:33. Jonah said, "Out of the belly of 'sheol' cried I" Jonah 2:2. "The wicked shall be turned into sheol." Ps. 9:17. "Let them go down quick into 'sheol,' for wickedness is in their dwellings." Ps. 55:15; Prov. 7:27. But for the redemption which faith looked for 'sheol' must have had to O.T. saints the character of eternal punishment, and so finally 'hades' will be cast into the lake of fire. The word also refers to the place of departed spirits. The Lord said, "Thou wilt not leave my soul in 'sheol.'" Ps. 16:10. This signification corresponds with