nouns in the
original Greek--Gehenna and Hades. _Gehenna_ was the name of a deep,
narrow valley, bordered by precipitous rocks, in the neighbourhood of
Jerusalem, which had been desecrated by human sacrifices in the time of
idolatrous kings, and afterwards became the depository of city refuse
and of the offal of the temple sacrifices. The other noun, rendered by
the same English word _Hell_, is _Hades_, which means "covered,"
"unseen" or "hidden." _Hades_ is the abode of disembodied spirits until
the resurrection. The Jews believed it to consist of two parts, one
blissful, which they termed _Paradise_--the abode of the faithful; the
other _Gehenna_, in which the wicked are retained for judgment. Lazarus
and Dives were both in Hades, but separated from each other by an
impassable gulf, the one in an abode of comfort, the other in a place of
torment.[117]

As long as the spirit tabernacles in the body there are tokens of its
presence in the visible life which is sustained through its union with
the body. But when it departs from its dwelling-place in the flesh,
death and corruption begin their work on the body. Death is complete
only when the spirit has departed, and it is probable that this
statement in the Creed was meant to express in the fullest terms that
Christ's death was real. As man He had taken to Himself a true body and
a reasonable soul, and when His body was crucified and dead, His spirit
passed, as other human spirits pass at death, into Hades. It is not
without a meaning that we read, "When Jesus had cried with a loud voice,
he gave up the ghost."[118] Ghost is simply spirit, and in His case, as
in that of every man, there was a true departure of the soul from the
body at death. It was with His spirit that His last thought in life was
occupied. He knew that though it was to depart from the battered,
bruised tabernacle of His body, it was not to pass out of His Father's
sight or His Father's care. "Father, into thy hands I commend my
spirit,"[119] were His last words on the cross.

The descent into hell is not referred to in the Westminster Confession,
but in the Larger Catechism this statement is found: "Christ's
humiliation after His death consisted in His being buried, and
continuing in the state of the dead, and under the power of death, till
the third day, which hath been otherwise expressed in these words, 'He
descended into hell'"[120] What the Westminster Divines meant was, that
while Christ's bod