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HUGO
MCCORD AND HADES Hugo McCord was a Christian, a preacher, a professor, an
author, and the translator of the Freed-Hardeman Version of the Bible. He passed away in 2004 at age 92. McCord’s
translation of Acts 2:27 Many Bible translations speak of the soul of Jesus in Hades
in Acts 2:27. For example, the New
American Standard Bible says, “You will not abandon my soul to Hades.” But McCord translated it, “you will not
abandon my corpse in the grave.” McCord’s
translation of Psalm 16:10 Actually, Acts 2:27 is a quotation of Psalm 16:10. And, sure enough, wheras the New American
Standard Bible says there, “You will not abandon my soul to Sheol” [thus, Sheol
is the Old Testament equivalent to Hades], McCord has it, “you will not leave
my body in the grave.” “Hades”
and “Sheol” as “the grave” It’s nothing new to translate the Greek word “Hades” as
“the grave.” The translators of the King
James Version did it in 1 Corinthians 15:55 (from the Greek text known as the
“Textus Receptus”). Likewise, the Hebrew
word “Sheol” is translated “the grave” in the King James Version 31 times. Indeed “Sheol” evidently does sometimes refer
to the grave (e.g., Ecclesiastes 9:10). “Body”
and “Corpse” instead of “Soul” And what about McCord using “body” and “corpse” instead of
“soul” in these verses? Well, in the
appendix to his translation, McCord pointed out that the Hebrew word used in
Psalm 16:10 sometimes means “body” (in Numbers 5:2; 6:6; 9:6, 7, 10; 19:11,
13). The
rich man and Lazarus But why translate Psalm 16:10 and Acts 2:27 as McCord
did? Well, McCord did not believe that
good souls went to Hades, only lost souls did.
He seems to have based this idea on the story of the rich man and
Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). He pointed out
that in Jesus’ telling of this story: Jesus placed the disembodied spirit of a
certain rich man in a Hades of fiery torment (Luke 16:23), but Jesus does not
place the disembodied spirit of Lazarus in Hades, nor in a subdivision of Hades
(from the article, “Two Paradises”). It’s true that Jesus doesn’t say that Lazarus went to
Hades. But Jesus also doesn’t say that
Lazarus didn’t go to Hades. Paul doesn’t
mention baptism as essential to salvation in Romans 10:9-10, but that doesn’t
mean that baptism isn’t essential to salvation (Mark 16:16; 1 Peter 3:21;
etc.). Did
Jesus make a distinction? But McCord thought that Jesus made a distinction between
Abraham’s bosom and Hades. I suppose
he’s referring to this part of the story: Now the poor man died and was carried
away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man died and was
buried. In Hades, he lifted up his eyes,
being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom (Luke
16:22-23 NASB). But suppose I said, “My wife went to Wal-Mart. In The
McCord also stated, “Abraham’s bosom is not a subdivision
of Hades, but separated by a ‘great gulf’ (Luke 16:26)” (in an article called,
“Is Tartarus Hell?”). However, that’s
not exactly what Luke 16:26 says. In
Luke 16:26, Abraham tells the rich man, “between us and you there is a great
gulf fixed.” But he doesn’t say that the
gulf is between them and Hades. Only
that it is between them and the rich man. Conclusion If we understand that Abraham and Lazarus were in fact in
Hades, separated from the fiery part by a great gulf, then Luke 16:19-31
presents no trouble with the way many of our Bibles translate Psalm 16:10 [“You
will not abandon my soul to Sheol”] and Acts 2:27 [“You will not abandon my
soul to Hades”]. |