It is an intriguing fact of the Bible that in no place is God on record as having made any sort of introductory or explanatory statement regarding the nature of the underworld. What can be learned about the nature of the place called Sheol or Hades must be pieced together at our own risk from the brief mentions and hints here and there in the writings―including, if we dare, from extrabiblical documents from the same Hebrew culture that produced the Bible.
And it would seem that many are as unwilling to look into the matter as they are to visit the underworld itself
And so it goes, handled most often―when it is handled at all―by the tongs of hearsay, by which it may be kept at a safe distance, as if human beings had no business learning what may be learned about it―for if God had meant for man to know about it, he’d have had it mentioned in the Bible.
