[B]

The interpretation given by Schleusner, in his Lexicon of 'Adns (Hades), the invisible world, that which cannot be seen, (quod videri nequit), is an obscure dark place, situated beneath the earth, where (quoting the Scholiast on the Ajax) the souls of all the dead are assembled. And this common opinion of the heathen world, Lowth, in his seventh Lecture on Hebrew Poetry, seems to consider as the general belief of the Jewish people. "Hence it is evident that the dead are often said to go down into the cave, the lower regions of the earth,

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and the gates and ABODE of death* But as 'Adns (Hades) is generally

* Percrebuit apud Hæbreos, ut apud cæteros etiam, opinio quædam popularis agi sub terra vitam mortuorum deinceps consequentem, &c.

- The Dissertation on Hades by Josephus contains some account of the opinions entertained by the Pharisees.

Atque hinc plane est quod mortui toties dicuntur descendere in foveam, in inferiora terræ, &c. Lowth. de Poesis. Hæbr. Præl. vii. p. 79.

Lightfoot in his Hora Hebraicæ, gives a less gloomy account of the opinions of the Jews on this subject-Quod vulgo creditum est a Judæis animas puras et sanctas, cum migrarent è corpore

rendered by the Septuagint as the translation of Six (Sheol,) Buxtorf

transire in beatitudinem ad Abrahamum.

That it

was commonly believed by the Jews, that pure and righteous souls, when they departed from the body, passed into happiness to Abraham's bosom ; and then adds the following affecting anecdote from Midras Echah. fol. 66, 1. on the viith chap. of 2 Maccabees-The mother of seven martyrs when six of her sons had been slain, and the last a babe only two years and a half old, was brought out, said to Cæsar (Antiochus Epiphanes) I obtest you, by your life, that you will let me embrace and kiss my babe; on his granting her permission, she nourished him from her bosom, and then exclaimed, “I implore you, Cæsar, to slay me first and then him." Antiochus replied, "I will not hear you, for it is written in your law, the kine

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and Parkhurst give a more general interpretation to the word, and consider it as not meaning merely the sepulchre, but but "the place and state of the dead," where "Jacob

and the ewe, and the young, thou shalt not slay on the same day." To whom she answered, "O silliest of men, hast thou performed all the precepts, that thou mayest omit this alone?" Instantly he ordered the child to be slain. The mother rushing into the embraces of her babe, kissed him, and cried out, " Go, my son, to your father Abraham, and tell him, thus says my mother, boast not saying I built an altar, and offered up my son Isaac, for my mother hath built seven altars, and offered upon them seven sons in one day." Chap. VI. p. 179. Ed. Cant.

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would go down mourning into iw to his son." Gen. xxvii. 35. 'Adns (Hades) in the New Testament, is translated by the word Hell, which is derived from the Saxon Hillan or Helan, to hide, or from Holl, a cavern, and is often erroneously connected with an idea of a place of pain and misery, whereas it answers precisely to the meaning of the Greek word 'Adns, and denotes a concealed, or unknown place. It is not the object of this note to shew the nice distinctions that have been made in the signification of the Greek and Hebrew words; it will suffice to say, Hades means, when speaking of the body, the sepulchre; and when of the