Daily Reading

QUESTION: Where was Jesus’ spirit while His body was in the grave?
ANSWER: He was in Paradise. “And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). We note that after He had arisen, He appeared to Mary and said, “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father” (John 20:17). Clearly then, He was not in heaven during the three days. Neither was He in the place of eternal torment. The Greek word “hades” in the King James Version is most often translated as “hell” and very often does not refer to the place of eternal torment. For example, Acts 2:27 In reference to Jesus, the passage says, “Because thou will not leave my soul in “hell” (Hades) ...” So with consideration to each of these passages, we learn that Jesus was in Paradise or Hades! Hades is the place of departed spirits. The righteous, upon death, go to a place in Hades called Paradise or Abraham’s bosom (Luke 16:22). The unrighteous go to a different place in Hades; a place of torments (Luke 16:19-31). In 2 Peter 2:4, this place of torments is called Hell. The Greek word for Hell in this passage is Tartarus. Both the spirits of the righteous and the unrighteous dead will remain in the Hadean world (in either Paradise or Tartarus) to await the resurrection and final Judgement. After Judgment, the righteous will go to Heaven and the unrighteous will go to Hell, the place of eternal punishment (Matthew 25:46). The Greek word translated Hell that designates the final place of the wicked is Gehenna!
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