The dead, they are conscious of nothing at all, neither do they anymore have wages (Ecclesiastes 9:5)

9 min readJul 30, 2024

Let us stop on the theme of the death condition. In the examination of chapter 3:19–21, the observation is clear, death is the opposite of life: “For the living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all, neither do they anymore have wages, because the remembrance of them has been forgotten. (…) All that your hand finds to do, do with your very power, for there is no work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol, the place to which you are going” (Ecclesiastes 9:5,10). This idea is repeated in chapter 9. However, what about many testimonies that would seem to say the opposite? Indeed, the Bible mentions that humans could “inquire the dead” (Deuteronomy 18:9–13). However, this practice, of inquiring the dead is, according to the context of Deuteronomy 18, classified as being an occult practice, that is to say, in connection with the direct relationship with demons. The Bible clearly designates the promoters of this lie, Satan the devil and the demons, describing death as a stage leading to another kind of life. They are demonic imposters who pretend to be the dead who can speak and contact the living ones. The second testimony, of this occult practice of inquiring the dead, is that of king Saul, who sought to inquire the dead “Samuel”, through a woman spirit medium (1 Samuel 28:3,11).

The Life

Jehovah God is the Creator of life, He is the Source of Life: “With you is the source of life; By your light we can see light” (Psalm 36:9; Hebrews 3:4; Revelation 4:11).

Jehovah God created the first man and the first woman: “And Jehovah God went on to form the man out of dust from the ground and to blow into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living person” (Genesis 2:7,22 (creation of Eve, the first woman)).

The word “soul” applied to both man and animals, comes from the Hebrew word “neʹphesh [נֶפֶשׁ]”, the Greek, “psy·kheʹ [ψυχή]” and from the Latin “aʹni·ma” (Genesis 1:20,21,24 (Bible verses where the word “soul” is applied to animals)). It is easy to understand, given the biblical context, that the soul refers to the living being itself, for both man and animal. Therefore, the soul refers to bodily shape of animal and human being.

Still in the biblical context, the word soul can be poetically applied to the “ego” (latin), that is oneself: “How long will my soul have anxious concern, With grief in my heart each day? How long will my enemy triumph over me? (…) My soul has been sleepless from grief. Strengthen me according to your word” (Psalms 13:2; 119:28).

The soul can allude to life itself: “Just as her soul was going out (for she was dying)” (Genesis 35:18) (This quote is according to the death of Rachel, giving birth to her son Benjamin). “Whoever finds his soul will lose it, and whoever loses his soul for my sake will find it. (…) For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Really, what good will it do a man if he gains the whole world but loses his life? Or what will a man give in exchange for his life?” (Matthew 10:39; 16:25,26). The New Testament was written in Greek, which means that the word “soul” is translated from the Greek word “ψυχή (psukhê)”.

The expression “living soul” shows in itself that the soul can die or be destroyed (the opposite would have been a pleonasm in the case of the concept of “the immortal soul”): “putting to death the souls who should not die and keeping alive the souls who should not live (…) The soul who sins is the one who will die” (Ezekiel 13:19; 18:4,20). Many other biblical texts show that the soul can die and, of course, cannot survive (in an invisible way) its own death…

According to the Bible, the soul is different from the spirit (“ruach” in Hebrew and “pneuma” in Greek). The spirit (connected with the soul) refers to the “breath of life”. Therefore, the breath, the air, the wind is an impersonal energy which animates the human soul and that of the animal soul. In Genesis 2:7 it is written: “And Jehovah God went on to form the man out of dust from the ground and to blow into his nostrils the breath of life”. The Hebrew word for “breath of life” is “neshamah”, which is synonymous with the word “ruah” or the Greek word “pneuma”. Indeed, in the Septuagint (Greek biblical text, translated from Hebrew), the expression “neshamah” from Genesis 2:7 was translated as “pnoe” (spirit, breath).

The word “spirit” can refer to spirit beings like God (John 4:24), spirit creatures (1 Kings 2:21,22) and the resurrected Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:45). In Genesis (6:3), the expression “my spirit” is a way of referring to oneself.

It is important not to mix up the different meanings of the word “spirit”; the breath of life which animates the soul is an impersonal energy, while the word “spirit” applying to God, to the risen Jesus Christ and to the angels, are beings animated by a personal energy, endowed with a conscience and intelligence.

The Death

It is God himself who defines it. Comparing Genesis 2:17 with 3:19, where it is written that if Adam disobeyed the commandment regarding to the forbidden fruit, he would surely die. At end, Adam disobeyed. Here is what it is written in the judgment of God against Adam and Eve: “In the sweat of your face you will eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For dust you are and to dust you will return” (Genesis 3:19). Therefore, death is the opposite of life, and the return to nonexistence (Psalm 146:3,4; Ecclesiastes 3:19,20; 9:5,10). Jehovah God, in his judgment, evokes the return to dust which is more generally designated in the Bible by an expression of symbolic place such as Sheol (Hebrew) or Hades (Greek), or even the “sea” where de very many humans perished (Revelation 20:13). Therefore, it is not difficult to understand and accept this simple biblical teaching point, death is absolute inexistence. The soul dies and the spirit or the vital energy disappears: “Do not put your trust in princes Nor in a son of man, who cannot bring salvation. His spirit goes out, he returns to the ground; On that very day his thoughts perish” (Psalms 146:3,4).

The Second Death, The Fiery Lake, The Gehenna

The expressions “second death” and “fiery lake”, which have been misinterpreted, have led to frightening and unbiblical human dogmas such as fiery hell and purgatory… They are in the book of Revelation: “The one who conquers will by no means be harmed by the second death” (Revelation 2:11; 20:6,14; 21:8). In Revelation 20:14, there is the connection between the second death and the fiery lake: “And death and the Grave were hurled into the lake of fire. This means the second death, the lake of fire”. It should be noted that this place is just as symbolic as are (generically) the death and Hades (place of the dead). In what part of the biblical history does the “fiery lake” come from? The book of Revelation mentions both the Ten Plagues of Egypt and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, even to the point of using a cross-referenced expression such as “Sodom and Egypt” (Revelation 11: 8). The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is biblically associated with fire and everlasting judgment (Hebrews 6:2; 2 Peter 3:7).

Therefore, this lake of fire mentioned in Revelation, probably alludes to the panoramic vision that Abraham had of the Dead Sea, after the destruction of all the cities like Sodom and Gomorrah, on its seaside perimeter (the city of Zoar having been spared by God for the sake of Lot (Genesis 19:23)). Here is the account of the awe-inspiring sight of the Dead Sea shortly after the destruction: “Now Abraham got up early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before Jehovah. When he looked down toward Sodʹom and Go·morʹrah and all the land of the district, he saw quite a sight. There was dense smoke rising from the land like the dense smoke of a kiln! So when God destroyed the cities of the district, God kept Abraham in mind by sending Lot out from the cities he overthrew, the cities where Lot had been dwelling” (Genesis 19:27–29). Therefore, the “lake of fire” probably refers to the sight of destruction over almost the entire seaside perimeter of the Dead Sea (an inland sea as a great lake). This destruction symbolizes death, the result of everlasting judgment, that is, without the possibility of resurrection.

The expression Gehenna of fire, used by Jesus Christ, has exactly the same meaning of everlasting destruction or death without the possibility of resurrection. Where was Gehenna? It was located in the south of Jerusalem, outside the city walls. It was simply the dumping ground for the city of Jerusalem, which existed in the time of Jesus Christ and was called, the Valley of Hinnon (Ge Hinnom) or Gehenna. The rubbish of the city were thrown and burned there, as well as the corpses of animals and criminals after their execution, unworthy of a burial (even, in the biblical collective imagination, unworthy of a resurrection (“With the burial of a donkey he will be buried, Dragged about and thrown away, Outside the gates of Jerusalem”(Jeremiah 22:19)).

The translation of the Bible into Latin has created confusion in the understanding of the condition of the dead. As we have seen, it is important to differentiate between the Hebrew word Sheol and the Greek word Hades, on the one hand, with Gehenna on the other. In some translations of the Bible, these three words have been translated as the original Latin word hell (infernus). In doing so, it created confusion in the understanding of the word gehenna, becoming an unbiblical teaching of the existence of a fiery hell.

Jesus Christ used the word “Gehenna” or “Gehenna of fire,” as a real place known to all his contemporaries, to illustrate the everlasting judgment and the idea of destruction without the possibility of resurrection, the second death. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ referred to this place three times, without necessarily specifying its meaning. Why ? Quite simply, even in Galilee 100 km north of Jerusalem, this place of destruction was well known and did not require any description or explanation (Matthew 5:22,29,30). Gehenna is associated with a fire that does not put out, why? For the obvious reason that such a place, near a city would have represented a danger to the health of most inhabitants, if it had not been fueled by a permanent or constant fire, based on sulfur, in order to decompose all the waste of the city more quickly (Mark 9:47,48).

Does the lake of fire mentioned in Revelation represent the place of Gehenna? Yes, as to its symbolism of everlasting destruction. No, as to the geographical allusion to this place; Gehenna was not a place like a lake or an inland sea. Moreover, this expression does not appear directly, or even in an enigmatic way, in the book of Revelation.

THE SPIRITUAL MAN (Existential meditation on the biblical book of Ecclesiastes):

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The Promise of God. The complete explanation of Genesis 3:15.

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