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Find the answers to all those questions you were too embarrassed to ask in Sunday School. Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. Hosted by Luke Taylor.
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The Geography of Sheol: Enoch’s Tour of the Underworld
Enoch 17-19
Introduction
We’ve spent a lot of time the past few months talking about this spiritual region called The Underworld, also known as Sheol in the Bible.
Now, it’s actually part of something I would call my Underworld series, which started in July and will conclude in a few weeks. Only I didn’t call it that because I thought that saying we would do a 10-week Underworld series would scare a lot of people off.
And that’s because most Christians equate the Underworld with Hell. But that would be a gross oversimplification. That would be like saying that going to Texas means you’re going to Dallas. Dallas is a place within Texas, but Dallas is not the same thing as Texas.
Now, you might say that driving through Dallas is like going to hell, but that would mix our metaphors, so I’ll try to stay on track.
Texas is a big state, and it has a geography. There are different places within Texas beyond just Dallas. Likewise, Hell—as the fiery place of judgment—is actually just one compartment within Sheol. There are other compartments in Sheol that the Bible also tells us about.
And not just the Bible; the Book of Enoch also contains a pretty lengthy description of this realm. In fact, Enoch got to take a tour of this region, and he told us all about it in his book.
Which is pretty weird. And I’d like to read about that today and see how it lines up with the Bible.
And if you want to find out with me, turn to Revelation 20, and let’s get weird.
[theme music]
An Overview of Vocabulary
Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. This is Luke Taylor, and today we’re going to be talking about the geography of the Underworld, viewed through the Bible and the Book of Enoch.
By the way, if you are new here, let me just put this disclaimer at the start: many Christians have been taught that the Book of Enoch is extrabiblical and therefore dangerous, because it quote-unquote “adds” to the Bible. But I spent about six months studying that book this year, and I found it to be the other way around: that the Bible writers themselves actually used this book for historical and spiritual understanding. They believed it, referenced it, and Jude even directly cited it. And there’s multiple pieces of evidence that Jesus Himself relied upon it as well.
So my contention is: if it’s good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for me. So I’m not gonna spend any time establishing its credibility today. If you want to know why I trust it, go back to my January 14 episode, titled “The Book of Enoch is Legit.”
And that kickstarted a six-month series that lasted until the end of June, where I concluded with Enoch 16. We spent six months looking at places where Enoch intersects with Scripture and only got through 16 chapters. I mean, wow! I got a lot out of that study, and I hope you did as well. And today, for one more episode, I’d like to pick up where I left off in Enoch and show you what he saw next.
Enoch is taken on a tour of the spiritual realm. It starts in Sheol, which I’m just going to call The Underworld today because (1) I speak English, and (2) I’d like you to understand what Sheol is.
A Cosmic Mountain
So that’s my explanation of the vocabulary I’m using. Let’s see what Enoch saw, and as I read through this, I believe it will tie together many concepts we’ve been studying the past few months.
Enoch 17 begins this way:
The angels took me, leading away to a certain place. The ones there were like a flaming fire, but when they wished, they appeared as men.
Angels who can appear like flaming fire, but also appeared as men. That is so perfectly congruent with Hebrews 1:7 and 13:2. The “certain place” they bring Enoch to is the Underworld, as we’ll see.
Enoch 17 continues:
They brought me to the place of darkness, and to a mountain with a summit that reached to heaven.
Now, how can a mountain in the Underworld reach to heaven? How does that make sense? Wouldn’t the earth be in the way? This is very mysterious because we’re in a different dimension here, and things might not necessarily work there like they’d work in our dimension. So a mountain that reaches from the Underworld to heaven might not necessarily make sense, but I think it makes perfect sense if Enoch is looking at a cosmic mountain.
There were three realms of God’s creation: the Heavenly realm, the Earthly realm, and the Underworld realm. A cosmic mountain is a point of connection between three realms. We’ve observed some cosmic mountains this year: Mount Eden, Mount Hermon, and the Mount of Olives. I believe that’s what Enoch is observing here: a cosmic mountain.
Now, is it Eden? That is my assumption. That’s because Eden was still in operation during the pre-flood world; man was just barred from it because there was an angel with a flaming sword, according to Genesis 3. And Enoch also mentions that.
Enoch 17 continues:
I saw the places of the luminaries, the treasuries of the stars and of the thunder; and saw into the farthest depths, where there was a fiery bow and arrows, their quiver, a flaming sword, and all the lightnings.
The luminaries are angelic beings. Angels are also called stars in apocalyptic literature. So there are some connections here with Eden and this mountain that Enoch sees, but I’m not totally sure if it’s the same mountain. I do believe it’s a cosmic mountain. And that’s the first thing Enoch sees: this connecting point.
The Abyss or Tartarus
Enoch 18 says this:
I beheld a place at the end of the great earth, at the edge of the heavens. I saw a deep abyss, with columns of heavenly fire, and among them I saw columns of fire falling. They were beyond measure in height and in depth. Beyond that abyss, I saw a place that had no sky above, and no ground below.
Another manuscript says “a place that had no firmament of the heavens above, and no firmly founded earth beneath it.”
There was no water upon it, and no birds, but it was a desolate and horrible place.
What is this place? Is this hell? No, we’re not looking at hell yet. We’re looking at something worse. We’re looking at a place called The Abyss. We see this place mentioned throughout the Bible, but one of the clearest places is in Revelation:
Revelation 20 begins in the ESV
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. 2 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, 3 and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.
The ESV calls it the bottomless pit. But this is the Greek word abussos (ab-BOO-sauce), which is where we get the word “abyss.” You could also translate it as “abyss,” but “bottomless pit” conveys the idea a bit more clearly. This bottomless pit is what Enoch is looking at as he describes a place with no sky or floor.
The NIV of Revelation 20:1 says
And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain.
The abussos is mentioned 7 times in Revelation and 9 times total in the New Testament. It’s the place where the the demons begged Jesus not to send them in
Luke 8:31 (ESV)
And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss.
So this is a place that even the demons didn’t want to go. This abyss is a compartment within The Underworld. And if you were to place it geographically, I would call this the lowest point within the Underworld.
Kind of like how the physical earth has this molten core that’s just immensely hot, the Underworld region has this similar place. Again, Enoch described it as “a deep abyss, with columns of heavenly fire, and among them I saw columns of fire falling.”
This is the abyss that John sees in Revelation, and I also believe that this abyss is equivalent to Tartarus. Tartarus is one of the three Greek words translated as “hell” in the New Testament. It comes up in
II Peter 2:4 reads
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;
These angels that Peter refers to are the Watchers or fallen Sons of God, which are discussed at length in those first 16 chapters of Enoch, as well as in Genesis 6 of the Bible. They sinned in the pre-flood world, and Enoch’s book says they were locked away in the Underworld. Enoch sees them right here in Enoch 18 where he sees the Abyss. Enoch writes:
When I asked about these things, in response to me, the angel said, “This place is the end of heaven and earth; this has become a prison for the stars and the host of heaven. The stars that roll over the fire are those who violated the commandment of the Lord at the beginning of their rising…”
Again, stars are angels. And chapter 19 concludes this thought:
Uriel said to me, “The angels will stand here who mingled themselves with women. Their spirits, taking many different forms, defile mankind and will lead them astray into sacrificing to demons as gods. Imprisoned until the day of the great judgment where they will be judged with finality.”
So Peter calls this place Tartarus; Enoch calls it the Abyss. And they both describe it as the place where the angels are being imprisoned until judgment day. Also notice that it was described there by an angel named Uriel. Uriel is said in Enoch 20 to be (quote) “over the world and over Tartarus.” So I try not to assume but I think there’s ample evidence there that the Abyss and Tartarus are the same thing.
So that was an overview of Enoch 17 through 19. Enoch has seen a cosmic mountain; a mountain in the Underworld that reached up into the heavens. And then he saw this abyss of fire, which is the Abussos or Tartarus. So Tartarus is a container or compartment in the Underworld. I use the word “container” because it’s not a geographical region like Houston where you can come and go as you please. It’s a place of imprisonment that once you enter, you’re trapped and you can’t get out—much like Dallas.
The 7 Archangels
I’m going to skip Enoch 20. In this chapter, Enoch learns about the 7 archangels that God created, and it’s really really really interesting. And I believe it’s true information.
The problem is, there’s really no biblical intersection for that chapter. Of the 7 archangels listed for us in the Book of Enoch, only two of them show up in the Bible- Gabriel and Michael. And only Michael is said to be an archangel in the pages of Scripture.
So again—I believe it’s true—and if I had bible verses to intermingle with that, I would have done a whole episode about it. But since I don’t, I will share that information in this weekend’s newsletter, for those who want to know more. If you want to get on the newsletter list, sign yourself up in the show notes.
The Lake of Fire
We’ll charge ahead with the next thing Enoch sees in the Underworld. In the second half of chapter 21, Enoch sees the Lake of Fire. He writes (Enoch 21:7-10)
From there I went to another place that was still more horrible than the last, and I saw a horrible thing; a great fire there that burned and blazed, and the place was split open to the end of the abyss, filled with great descending columns of fire. I could not see its extent nor magnitude, nor could I imagine it. Then I said, “How fearful is this place, and how terrible to look at!” Then Uriel, one of the holy angels who was with me, answered, saying, “Enoch, why do you have such fear and terror?” I answered, “Because of this fearful place, and because of the spectacle of the pain.” And he said to me, “This place is the prison of the angels; they will be imprisoned here forever.”
This is the Lake of Fire, spoken of in a few places in Scripture, mostly in Revelation. Speaking of the devil’s ultimate defeat and being cast into the Lake of Fire, along with the antichrist and the false prophet, it says in
Revelation 20:10
…the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Jesus also speaks of this place in the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats:
Matthew 25:41
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’”
So the Lake of Fire is another place within the Underworld. It’s not the Abyss. Enoch said he went to “another place” and called it “more horrible” than the Abyss.
So, a lot of these places in the Underworld don’t sound great so far, but that changes in the next section.
Abraham’s Bosom
We’ll look at one more chapter with a few more locations of the Underworld. Enoch 22. In this one, he sees four more compartments. I’m gonna say upfront is the part that will be the sketchiest to Bible students. Two of these compartments are spoken of in Scripture. Two of them are not. So you can take this with a grain of salt, if you wish.
Enoch 22 says
Then I went to another place, and he showed me in the west another great and high mountain of hard rock. In it were four hollow places, deep, wide, and very smooth. How smooth are the smooth places and deep and dark to look at. Then Raphael, one of the holy angels who was with me, spoke, saying, “These hollow places have been created for this very purpose, that the spirits of the souls of the dead should assemble in them, yes, that all the souls of the children of men should gather here. These places have been made to receive them until the day of their judgment and until their appointed time.”
So this is speaking of how those who died would descend into the Underworld in the Old Testament times—whether you were good or bad, believer or unbeliever, loyal to God or not, this is where you expected to go. You didn’t expect to go to heaven when you died; at least, not right away; the thought was that there would be a future resurrection in the far off future, but that you went to a holding place in the Underworld upon death.
Psalm 88:3 says
3 For my soul is full of troubles,
and my life draws near to Sheol.
In Genesis 37:35, Jacob spoke of going to the Underworld to be with his son that he thought was dead.
He said:
All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, “No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” Thus his father wept for him.
So why did Old Testament believers—saints—followers of God—expect to go down to the Underworld when they died? Because there was a compartment there where believers were kept. Enoch 22 says
Then I asked about all the hollow places, “Why is one separated from the other?” He answered me, saying, “These three hollow places were made so the spirits of the dead would be separated. This division was made for the spirits of the righteous, where there is the bright spring of water.”
The division is a compartment. So there’s a compartment where the righteous dwell. It’s not dark and scary like the other three.
This is what is known as Paradise and also as Abraham’s Bosom in your Bible. We read about it in Luke 16 the most specifically, which is the story of the Rich Man and a beggar named Lazarus. It’s not a parable, as some assume. This is a story about something that really happened in the spiritual realm.
Luke 16:22-26 in the NKJV says
22 So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
24 “Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. 26 And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’
So from this story, we see that there’s a sinful man who was selfish in his life, and he died and went to Hades, which is hell. That part isn’t so shocking; the confusing thing is this place called Abraham’s Bosom. That’s a place in the Underworld where believers could rest and were at peace, and it’s a holding place where souls went until Jesus died on the cross.
Once Jesus purchased our redemption, the souls in this Paradise compartment were allowed to ascend to heaven, as well as the soul of any Christian who dies now. If you died today, you can go to heaven. Paul said “to be absent from the body” is “to be present with the Lord” (II Corinthians 5:8).
So it’s believed that when Jesus was in the Underworld for three days and three nights, He was setting the captive free or releasing these souls who were in the Paradise compartment and allowing them to ascend up into heaven. Perhaps he brought the whole compartment up into heaven.
Mel Gibson recently made some waves because he was doing some publicity on an upcoming movie that he’s working on called The Resurrection of the Christ. Mel Gibson directed the Passion of the Christ 20 years ago which was very popular and depicted the death of Christ; and now he’s working on a sequel movie that talks about the resurrection, but apparently it will also go into detail on the Underworld journeys of Jesus during the three days.
Mel Gibson told the Christian Post: Gibson’s two-part follow-up — which stars Jaakko Ohtonen as Jesus — will take audiences well beyond the events depicted in the original film, including depictions of Hell, fallen angels and the origin of Satan. “You're going to different realms, of course,” Gibson told The Christian Post. “I mean, you'll be in the firmament before the creation. You'll be in the Hell of the just, and then you'll be in the Hell of the damned. And so it jumps around a little bit. It doesn't just stay on the planet here. It gets around.”
That quote confused and upset a lot of people because they were like, “what is the hell of the just”? And he’s now being accused of adding to the Bible and all that. But this is biblical; the “hell of the just” is referring to Abraham’s Bosom or Paradise. It’s a little strange to call it the hell of the just, but it’s an entirely biblical concept. The Apostles Creed itself says, Jesus “was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to hell.
The third day he rose again from the dead.”
That’s just basic Christian doctrine that the early church believed. The church used to call it The Harrowing of Hell. That’s kind of a Catholic phrase now but I don’t think it’s wrong or misleading. But for clarity, I prefer to call it “Paradise” rather than “hell of the just.”
Hell
Now, there are three more compartments mentioned in Enoch 22. I’ll read about them and then talk about them one at a time:
This division was also made for sinners when they die, who are buried in the earth without judgment enacted on them in their lifetime. Here their spirits will be set apart in this severe pain until the Great Day of judgment, punishment, and torment of the blasphemers forever, and until the great day of retribution against their spirits; there He will bind them forever.
So this sounds like it’s talking about hell itself. This is like where the rich man went where he said he wished he could have a mere drop of water, and he called it torment, and Jesus often spoke of this place as being fiery and miserable. Luke 16 said there is a great gulf or chasm fixed between this compartment and Paradise. You obviously don’t have freedom to move back and forth between them. These compartments are holding places.
But then Enoch sees two more that I can’t give a biblical parallel for, so I’ll tell you about them and leave it at that. Enoch 22 continues:
And this division was made for the spirits of those who make their suit, who give testimony about their destruction, when they were killed in the days of the sinners.
So there’s a compartment for people who were unjustly murdered. Now, Scripture doesn’t say anything about this place, I will say, Scripture does have some verses that seem to comment on people who were unjustly killed- like Abel- and how their blood cries out from the ground. The Levitical Law has a whole ritual you go through for unsolved murders and the cleansing of the land. There is a strong emphasis on the shedding of innocent blood in the Bible. But I can’t see anything in the Bible that says there’s was a compartment in the Old Testament just for people who were unjustly killed.
However, there may actually be some biblical justification for this fourth compartment that Enoch sees:
This division was made for the spirits of men who were not righteous, but were sinners, whose actions were evil, and their evil was made complete. They will be separated with criminals like themselves, but their spirits will not be annihilated in the day of judgment, nor will they escape from there.
Enoch sees a compartment for the really bad sinners. So in other words, there are two hells: one for sinners, one for really bad sinners. Now is that idea biblical?
It might be a little more biblical than you think. Jesus does speak of some people in hell receiving a worse punishment than other people in hell (Matthew 10:15). Jesus often speaks of hell with parallel terms, like hades and Gehenna, or “death and hell” in Revelation. Could these be implications of two different compartments for sinners? It’s possible; I won’t push it too far though today.
Recap
But here’s what I’d like to discuss for the next couple weeks as we wind down my Underworld series.
First of all: there’s a whole lot more that could be said about the Abyss, and so that’s what we’re going to do next week. We’ll have a whole episode about the Abyss, as well as discussing the identity of The Angel of the Abyss. The Book of Revelation gives us his name. He is an Underworld spirit. I’ll introduce you to him next week.
And then two weeks from now, I’ll have one more part in this Underworld realm series and teach you about one or two other Underworld Realm spirits who are revealed in Revelation.
In closing, let me just recap the locations of the Underworld that we observed today in Enoch’s tour. Enoch was taken to Sheol, and the first thing he sees is:
A mountain with its top reaching to the heavens. That’s in chapter 17. I believe this is a cosmic mountain, which is the concept of a mountain that connects three realms.
After that, he sees a region called the Abyss and Tartarus. He speaks of this in chapters 18, 19, and 21. The Abyss is sometimes rendered “The Bottomless Pit” in some translations of the Bible, and they render it that way because they understand what it is. The Greek word is simply abussos.
However, I would say they are wrong to translate tartarus as “hell” in your Bible, because Tartarus and Hell are two different regions. Bible teachers, including myself, are often guilty of saying that Tartarus is the deepest dungeon of hell. But a more accurate way to say it is that it’s the deepest dungeon of the Underworld. And they don’t have to translate it as anything; they could just translate it as Tartarus, and then we could educate people on what Tartarus is. It’s not Hell, it’s the Abyss, and those are two different things.
Enoch is also taught about the 7 archangels in chapter 20. I skipped over that today, but I’ll try to post an article about that on my website this week, as well as put out a newsletter about it. So once again, make sure you’re signed up on the email newsletter list if you’d like to get that info.
After Enoch sees the Abyss, he sees the Lake of Fire in chapter 21. Now, it’s not called the Lake of Fire, so it’s a little ambiguous what it is because it seems that lots of things in the Underworld are described as fiery. But this is described as the final destination of the fallen angels, so according to the Scriptures, this would be the Lake of Fire.
And then in chapter 22, Enoch witnesses four compartments: one is Paradise or Abraham’s Bosom; another one is for the victims of unjust murder. Now, I have no Scriptural elaboration or verification of that one, so we’ll just put a pin in that for now, and I’ll let you all know if I ever find something in the Bible in relation to that.
And then we have two other compartments mentioned in chapter 22; one is for sinners, and we just call that “hell.” And the other one is for really bad sinners, and I’ll just call that one “Dallas.”
Now, I’m not really anti-Dallas. I like Dallas. I follow a lot of awesome ministries in Dallas. And when I pull up my podcast analytics, Dallas is consistently the number one city for listeners of my podcast. And if any of those listeners are still listening at this point and wonder why I’m being so hard on Dallas, it’s because my wife and I went on our honeymoon to San Antonio. And on our way down to San Antonio, we went through Dallas, and we got lost. And on the way back, we went through Dallas, and we got lost. There are so many winding roads, roads that don’t lead anywhere, and everyone is driving about 110 miles per hour. So I don’t hate Dallas. I hate Dallas traffic, which was the closest I will probably ever get to podracing. I couldn’t get through Dallas without turning off onto 15 different side roads that I didn’t even want to travel down.
Now, this podcast is called Weird Stuff in the Bible, not Weird Stuff in the Book of Enoch. Why did I take us down this side road into Enoch’s book today?
The reason is that Enoch’s book made sense of so many things to me. I used to think that hell was Tartarus, and that hell was the abyss, and that hell was the Lake of Fire, and that hell was the Underworld; basically, I just put all these things together in my mind.
It was the Book of Enoch which actually separated them out for me; then I looked back into Scripture and realized: oh, yeah, these are all different things. So this is another example of how the Book of Enoch helped unlock Scripture for me.
When I had to travel through Dallas, this was back before I had a phone that could do it; I think I had a flip phone back then. I was traveling through Texas with a paper map. I don’t think they even sell paper maps anymore, but back then you could get a paper map at the gas station.
I feel like Enoch has given us a map to help us understand Sheol, and so I appreciate that he wrote down these things for us.
And I think a lot of Bible studies, Bible commentaries, and even Bible translations are wrong in some of the ways that they translate these locations of the Underworld. And always remember that as you study the Word of God, make sure you do so not through the lens of a modern Bible study, but by looking at the worldviews and understanding of the original authors of Scripture.
The Biblical authors trusted in Enoch’s account, so that’s what I’m going to do as well. And if you think that sounds weird, I hope you’ll be a little more weird today, too. Thanks for listening, God bless you for sticking around until the end, and we’ll see you next time on Weird Stuff in the Bible.
Source for Gibson quote: https://www.christianpost.com/news/mel-gibson-says-resurrection-will-explore-different-realms.html