True, but the Bible gave numerous prohibitions, all of which were broken at one time or another.
There are different ways this can be understood. A person in a coma is not conscious, but still alive in a real sense. Likewise, a soul in Hades lacks the faculties to smell, touch, etc, and thus isn’t consciously experiencing normal life as we are. So to simply say the dead are not conscious doesn’t automatically exclude anything.
In fact, if you examine Hebrew terms like
Rephaim, here is what the Insight on the Scriptures Encyclopedia says:The hebrew term
rephaim is
used in another sense in the Bible. Sometimes it clearly applies not to a specific people but to those who are dead. Linking the word to root meaning “drop down relax” some scholars conclude that it means “sunken powerless ones.” In texts where it has this sense, the [NWT] renders it “those impotent in death” and many other translations use renderings such as “dead things,” “deceased,” and “dead.” - Job 26:5, Psalm 88:10, Proverbs 2:18, 9:18, 21:16, Isaiah 14:9, 26:14, 19
In other words, the hebrew term
rephaim when applied to dead souls means something akin to a ghost or a soul separated from a body. This is
not the typical hebrew term for ‘death’, which also indicates a distinction. Even the JW rendering of “impotent in death” gives off the impression this person is not dead as in non-existent but rather dead but lacking power to perform common functions. It would be a tautology to say the “dead dead”.
This also ties into a study of the Hebrew term Sheol - the place of the departed souls. The
JW book What does the Bible Really teach says this:Ecclesiastes 9:10 states: “There is no work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol, the place to which you are going.”
Does this mean that Sheol refers to a specific, or individual, grave site where we may have buried a loved one? No. When the Bible refers to a specific burial place, or grave, it uses other Hebrew and Greek words, not
she’ohl′ and
hai′des. (Genesis 23:7-9; Matthew 28:1) Also, the Bible does not use the word “Sheol” for a grave where several individuals are buried together, such as a family grave or a mass grave.—Genesis 49:30, 31.
This is correct, Sheol is not used in reference to a grave site or even a mass grave. Thus, Sheol is someplace else. But look how the JW book continues:To what kind of place, then, does “Sheol” refer? God’s Word indicates that “Sheol,” or “Hades,” refers to something much more than even a large mass grave. For instance, Isaiah 5:14 notes that Sheol is “spacious and has opened its mouth wide beyond bounds.” Although Sheol has already swallowed, so to speak, countless dead people, it always seems to hunger for more. (Proverbs 30:15, 16) Unlike any literal burial site, which can hold only a limited number of the dead, “Sheol and the place of destruction themselves do not get satisfied.” (Proverbs 27:20) Sheol never becomes full. It has no limits. Sheol, or Hades, is thus not a literal place in a specific location. Rather, it is the common grave of dead mankind, the figurative location where most of mankind sleep in death.
Notice the official definition given: Sheol is not a literal place, but rather a figurative location. Now, how does this make any sense? Someone dies and travels to a figurative location? If someone
ceases to exist in any sense, with their body being a mere corpse, then to go off to sheol makes no sense.
The traditional Biblical, Catholic, and Hebrew view is that while Sheol is not a physical location (since the soul is not made of atoms), it is none the less a real, spiritual location. This renders Sheol an intelligible meaning.
Have you studied with the JW’s? Or are you just a logical thinking person?
Not torture us!
