The Columbus journal., 1881-07-06
For he Journal.
A few Structures Upon VI. Id.
Conway.

thelr version. mere IL speclineui
from Moncure ID. Conway, a good
instance of his want of care and
conscientiousness in making bis
points against the orthodox. Here
is what he says: "The pit of hell,
which the new translators have
overlaid with the classic mythology
of Hsdes," etc, etc. Now where
people in general talk in this style,
we may reasonably sscribe Il to an
innocent ignorance. They know
nothing of Greek, and have no con-
ception of simple questions of schol-
srship. When they see Hsdes here
and there in the New Testament
where they had been used to see
hell, they naturally imagine that the
change is induced by a doctrinal
influence. But no such excuse can
be pleaded for Conway. In him il
must be either q scandalous indiffer-
ence to knowing the truth, or a
scandslous Indifference to speaking
the truth.
Now what are the facts? The
English Concordance gives hell as
occurring in % passages. OF these,
a Greek CONCORDANCE shows that in
the original III have Hades, Tar
tarus Qmplied in a verb and ii
Geenna. Ofthese three terms Geen-
ma, or Gehenna, was the Jewish
name of the place of torment; Tar
tsrus the Greek name of the same
and Hades the Greek name Grams
lating the Hebrew SheoD for the
place of the dead, without regard TO
character. Thus these two words
(throwing Tartarus in with Gehen-
ma have two meanings, the one
comprehending both the righteous
and the wicked, the other restricted
TO the wicked. What the revisers
have done is simply to distinguish
where the original has distinguish
ed; which they have done by giving
Hsdes where the Greek gives Hades,
and using hell for Gehenna and the
once used Tartarus, both which
mean what we commonly mean by
hell, namely, the place of future
punishment. To charge upon the
doctrinsl bias of our age something
which three glances into a Concord
snce immediately show to result
from simple fidelity to the original,
in common man would be simple
ignorance, but in Moncure ID. Con-
way il can be only prevarication.
But, it may be urged, the rich man
is said to have lifted up his eyes in
hell, being in torments, and that
here, too, the revisers have substi-
tuted Hades. Very true. They have
given Hades here, simply because
the original has ii here. The rich
man was in torments because he
was evil, not because he was in
Hsdes. That word is used because
he is described as conversing with
Abraham and as seeing Lazarus.
They were in Hades, but among the
blessed T; he was in Hades, but among
the damned. Here, too, the revis-
ers have done what fidelity bid them
do, rendered a neutral word by
transferring il, instead of allowing
IL TO remain mistranslated by a word
meaning what Hades does not mean,
though sometimes, as here, the con-
nection may add it.
Nor is this retrenchment of the
term hell to nearly half its former
frequency even, as some might
think, the fruit of an effort 10 bring
the translation up to an honesty
which it lacked before. Time had
made il misleading, 1911 was as
honest in this point as 1881. The
truth is that hell was then a very
good rendering of Hades, for that is
all il originally meant, and it had
not yet confined itself to the darker
meaning. Hels, in our old mythol-
ogy was the goddess of the Hollow
Place, the subterraneau realm of the
dead. But as the Teutons supposed
all their heroes and heroines, and
not merely the very chief to escape
her dominion, leaving only the more
worthless souls, a subordinate idea
akin TO the present sense of hell
came in. Thus this doubtful word
was very well suited 27O years ago
TO its two-fold use, and its applica-
ton TO both Hades and Gehenna
was as honest then as its retention
for Hades would be Objectionable
now.
This ambiguous sense of hell, as
then used, is shown by the words in
the Greed, where it is said that
Christ descended into hell" not
meaning Gehenna, but simply
Hades. In James is day I do not
suppose that anybody was troubled
by these words; but now they make
people uneasy, because they are mis-
understood. This Misunderstanding
should be obvisted by substituting
the original Hades in the Creed also.
Ii this were done, Moncure d. Con-