Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Sheol" in English language version.
Last modified:
"Sheol ... is the OT word for the underworld or unseen world of the dead where departed spirits go ... It was a place of stillness, darkness, ..."Rainwater, Robert (1990). "Sheol". In Mills, Watson E. (ed.). Mercer Dictionary of the Bible. Mercer University Press. ISBN 9780865543737.
While some have taken Sheol (and its synonyms) to refer simply to the grave, most [scholars] think something more is intended, especially in view of Sheol's topography ('depths' and 'uttermost parts' certainly seem to imply more than a few feet underground). [...] the denizens of the Hebrew underworld are occasionally referred to in the Old Testament as rephaim and (even less frequently) elohim. In Ugaritic texts, the cognates of both these nouns refer to the still-existing spirits of the dead.
...'Sheol' means the underworld, the realm of the dead deep below the earth. This is almost universally accepted. It is clearly below ground: to go there one 'descends' (y-r-d), and to escape one 'ascends' ('-l-h); it is often qualified by adjectives of depth; it is cosmologically opposite to 'heaven' (Job 11:8; Ps. 139:8; Is. 7:11; Amos 9:2; cf. Deut. 32:22); one digs towards Sheol (Amos 9:2); the earth opens its mouth and rebels descend there (Num. 16:30, 33); it is a cavernous communal tomb (Ezek. 32:18-32); and is associated with worms, maggots and dust (Job 17:16; ls. 14:11).
The underworld gates, like those of heaven were identical in structure to city gates on the earth's surface. These gates consisted of many gate parts, including doors, door frames, bolts, locks, and keys.
As Cooper concludes: Just as the Israelite view of human life was similar to their neighbours' psychophysical holism, the Israelite view of death exemplifies a typical ancient Near Eastern form of animism. Death is not the end of existence. It is rather the entrance of the individual as a ghost—an ethereal quasi bodily being, not a Platonic soul or Cartesian mind—into the dreary and lethargic, if not soporific, existence of the underworld, Sheol, Abaddon, or in the Septuagint, Hades...Details about degrees of consciousness and activity are unclear. But there is little doubt that the Israelites believed in the actual existence of the dead.
Moreover, as elsewhere in the ancient Near East, there is nothing beyond the grave. While people may be said to "live" in the grave, this "life" is only in the dust and gloom of the netherworld. Israelite attitudes toward death and the afterlife parallel those of their neighbors, and as one would expect, the funerary practices of the Israelites differed little from their Canaanite precursors and neighbors. At death a person entered into the netherworld, that dark, gloomy mirror of the earthly world typically termed "Sheol".
