Matthew 16:18, The Gates of Hell
And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
//Ever wonder about this verse? What is it saying? That the fiery armies of the underworld cannot overcome the church?
Not likely. It’s actually sort of the opposite.
The word “hell” is a translation of the Greek word Hades, which in New Testament writings replaced the Hebrew concept of Sheol, so “hell”, here, should be understood as the realm of the dead. But the important thing to grasp is that, with very few exceptions, everybody went to Sheol/Hades/hell in the Old Testament! It was a holding place where you awaited resurrection; or, if you don’t believe in resurrection, it was where you slowly faded away into forgottenness.
Today’s verse is not saying that evil beings down in hell cannot prove victorious over the church, because in Hebrew thinking, there were no evil beings governing the underworld. Just dead people. Rather, it is saying something extraordinary, making a bold claim: that the gates of hell cannot keep the souls of believers from escaping back to the realm of the living … being resurrected again!
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Twice before Lee Harmon has written about Christian topics, once on the gospel of John and once on the book of Revelation. But the question people keep asking him is this: As a liberal Christian, why do you care so much about the Bible? Others wonder whether he is truly a Christian at all.
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What really happened 2,000 years ago? How did a persecuted minority of end-time believers known as Christians, with their dreams of Armageddon and a conquering Messiah named Jesus, evolve into the largest religion in the world? Author Lee Harmon explores the period in which the New Testament was written in his books about John's Gospel and Revelation.
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Hello! I'm an author, historical Jesus scholar, book reviewer, and liberal Christian, which means I appreciate and attempt to exercise the humanitarian teachings of Jesus without getting hung up on any particular supernatural or religious beliefs.
The Bible is a magnificent book that has inspired and spiritually fed generations for thousands of years, and each new century seems to bring a deeper understanding of life’s purpose. This is true of not only Christianity; through the years, our age-old religions are slowly transforming from superstitious rituals into humanitarian philosophies. In short, we are growing up, and I am thrilled to be riding the wave.
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You nailed this one.
I like that.
Could it also be saying “even death wont stop the church from growing”? I think the Good News translation says “even the power of death will not stop it” or something similar, meaning “even if my followers are persecuted and killed, my message will keep going strong”.
(My 2 cents)
I remember years ago being at a church leaders event, and someone presented a talk on “spiritual warfare” and how the church should be praying against evil spirits etc and his whole talk was based on this verse. During Q&A, I pointed out that the word is hades, not hell, and simply means death or the abode of the dead. I felt bad for him, because he had no knowledge of that, had no answer, and his whole talk disappeared like a puff of smoke.
Hi Martin! If there was an understood figure of speech regarding the “gates of Hades”, then your interpretation makes a lot of sense. Otherwise, the image of a gate (locking people in or out of the underworld) is picturesque.
Re your church leader, I have a habit of categorizing sermons as either historical/informative (in which case I am a stickler for facts) or as spiritual/inspirational (in which case how a verse makes you “feel” through the guiding of the Spirit is more important than proper interpretation) so I’d say the “whole talk” he gave is perhaps still quite helpful, ha!
Excellent post Lee! It’s been a while since I read something that so definitively challenged my thinking. I suspect you are right about this, but it is certainly different from how I thought about this before. I will need to process this a bit before formally abandoning my previous position, but at this point it looks pretty inevitable.
For the king,
Chris
Thank you, Chris!