"The sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done."
â Revelation 20:13
Quick Answer
Hades is the New Testament Greek word for the realm of the dead, corresponding to the Hebrew Sheol. It is where all the dead await final judgment, though Luke 16 shows it already includes conscious suffering for the unrighteous. Hades is temporary; at the final judgment it is emptied and cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:13-14).
A Word Borrowed from the Greeks, Filled with New Meaning
Hades was originally the name of the Greek god of the underworld and, by extension, the shadowy realm of the dead in Greek mythology. When Jewish scholars translated the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek some two centuries before Christ, they reached for this familiar word to render Sheol, the Hebrew term for the place of the dead. By the time the New Testament was written, Hades had become simply the standard Greek word for the realm where the dead reside, stripped of most of its pagan mythological baggage and filled instead with Hebrew theological content.
In the New Testament, Hades appears about ten times, and it consistently refers to the unseen world that receives the dead between death and final judgment. It is not identical to the English word hell as we commonly use it, and it is not the same as the lake of fire described in Revelation. Understanding Hades correctly helps you read passages about death, judgment, and the afterlife with much greater clarity.
Hades in the Teaching of Jesus
Jesus used the word Hades directly in a few striking places. In Matthew 11:23 he warned Capernaum that its unrepentant pride would bring it down to Hades, using the term as shorthand for utter ruin and separation from God. In Matthew 16:18 he promised that the gates of Hades would not overpower his church, picturing death itself as a fortress that cannot ultimately hold back the advance of the gospel.
The most vivid picture comes in Luke 16:19-31, the account of the rich man and Lazarus. After death, the rich man finds himself in Hades, in conscious torment, able to see Abraham and Lazarus far off but separated from them by a great chasm (Luke 16:26). Whatever else this passage teaches, it shows that Hades is not simply unconscious nothingness. For the unrighteous dead, it already involves real awareness, real regret, and real suffering, even before the final judgment.
Hades and the Resurrection of Christ
The apostles preached that Jesus himself entered Hades in his death, and that this was precisely why he could conquer it. In his Pentecost sermon, Peter quotes Psalm 16 and declares that God raised Jesus, having freed him from death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it (Acts 2:24), adding that David spoke prophetically of the Christ, whose soul was not abandoned to Hades (Acts 2:31).
In Revelation, the risen Christ tells John, I have the keys of Death and Hades (Revelation 1:18). That single sentence transforms how you should think about Hades. It is not an autonomous power that holds the human race hostage forever. It is a realm under the authority of Jesus Christ, who entered it, defeated it from within, and now controls its gates.
How Hades Differs from Gehenna and the Lake of Fire
The New Testament actually uses several different words that English Bibles sometimes all translate as hell, and keeping them straight matters. Hades is the temporary holding place of the dead, though by the time of Luke 16 it appears to already distinguish comfort from torment. Gehenna, by contrast, is Jesus favorite word for final, fiery judgment, drawn from the polluted Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem.
The lake of fire is different again. Revelation 20:13-14 describes a scene at the very end of history in which Death and Hades themselves give up the dead they hold, are judged, and are then thrown into the lake of fire, which is called the second death. Hades, in other words, is not the final destination for the lost. It is a waystation that will itself be emptied and abolished when Christ brings final judgment.
Why This Matters for You
None of this is abstract trivia. Every person reading these words will one day pass through death into the unseen world the Bible calls Hades, whether by natural death or, for believers still living at Christ's return, by transformation into resurrection life (1 Corinthians 15:51-52). The question that matters is not the vocabulary but the destination: will you meet death united to Christ, who already holds its keys, or apart from him?
The good news at the center of this doctrine is that Jesus did not stay in Hades. He rose bodily on the third day, proving that death has been defeated for everyone who trusts him (Romans 10:9). You do not have to fear what lies beyond the grave if you belong to the one who already walked through it and came back holding the keys.