The Old Testament
The Old Testament refers to "Sheol" (Hebrew) or "Hades" (Greek) as the place of the dead where all who die go. It simply means "unseen." In no instance in the Old Testament does it refer to a place of torment where people go after death. The Anglo-Saxon (English) word "hell" originally also meant "unseen," so it was a suitable translation from "Sheol" or "Hades." However, hell came to be the place of torment, fire, and brimstone in church tradition, so it lost its original meaning in Anglo-Saxon.
Thomas B. Thayer on Hell in the Old Testament
(From The Origin and History of the Doctrine of Endless Punishment by Thomas B. Thayer, 1855)
The word hell, in the Old Testament, is always a translation of the Hebrew word Sheol, which occurs sixty-four times, and is rendered "hell" thirty-two times, "grave" twenty-nine times, and "pit" three times.
By examination of the Hebrew Scriptures it will be found that its radical or primary meaning is, The place or state of the dead.
It is plain that it has here no reference to a place of endless torment after death.
It is plain, then, from these citations, that the word Sheol, "hell," makes nothing for the doctrine of future unending punishment as a part of the Law penalties. It is never used by Moses or the Prophets in the sense of a place of torment after death; and in no way conflicts with the statement already proved, that the Law of Moses deals wholly in temporal rewards and punishments.
This position, also, I wish to fortify by the testimony of Orthodox critics, men of learning and candor [who were currently professors of history and theology at Oxford when Thayer wrote]. They know, and therefore they speak.
CHAPMAN. [Mark Chapman, Oxford theologian and historian] "Sheol, in itself considered, has no connection with future punishment." Cited by Balfour, First Inquiry.
DR. ALLEN says: "The term sheol does not seem to mean, with certainty, anything more than the state of the dead in their deep abode."
DR. CAMPBELL. "Sheol signifies the state of the dead without regard to their happiness or misery."
DR. WHITBY. "Sheol throughout the Old Testament signifies not the place of punishment, or of the souls of bad men only, but the grave only, or the place of death."
DR. MUENSCHER. [A distinguished author of Dogmatic History] "The souls or shades of the dead wander in sheol, the realm or kingdom of death, an abode deep under the earth. Thither go all men, without distinction, and hope for no return. There ceases all pain and anguish; there reigns an unbroken silence; there all is powerless and still; and even the praise of God is heard no more."
VON COELLN. "Sheol itself is described as the house appointed for all living, which receives into its bosom all mankind, without distinction of rank, wealth, or moral character. It is only in the mode of death, and not in the condition after death, that the good are distinguished above the evil. The just, for instance, die in peace, and are gently borne away before the evil comes; while a bitter death breaks the wicked like as a tree."
[Thayer continues] These witnesses all testify that sheol, or hell, in the Old Testament, has no reference whatever to this doctrine; that it signifies simply the state of the dead, the invisible world, without regard to their goodness or badness, their happiness or misery. The Old Testament doctrine of hell, therefore, is not the doctrine of endless punishment. It is not revealed in the Law of Moses. It is not revealed in the Old Testament. To such result has our inquiry led us; and now what shall we say of it?
Hell Is Not in the New Testament
http://30ce.com/developmentofhell.htm
