How come the early Jews believed that sheol was a dark, gloomy place...

[thatkidakayoungguy]

When even in the early parts of the OT there's references to Heaven, like with Abraham?

[PaulSacramento]

Sheol and heaven are not the same place.

[thatkidakayoungguy]

Sheol and heaven are not the same place.

Ik that, but a lot of times ppl thought Sheol was the end of the line.
But then there's ideas of heaven, and later hell, mentioned in the Torah.
Also, there's paradise (Abraham's bosom) and hades, two sections of the "sheol" world. One isn't gloomy.

[B. W.]

The ancient Jewish cosmology concern Sheol was that it was inside the earth and divided into two parts" One for the unrighteous people in what we term hell is and the other part for the Righteous people of God in a place of rest waiting for an appoint time to be released into heaven where God is now.

Jesus in Luke chapter 16 - Rich man and Lazarus - speaks of this same truth: Sheol in two parts, Hell, divide by a great gulf of space between the pace of rest known as Abraham's bosom - bosom means a cleft pocket in a garment that close to one's heart (context refer to Abraham's Heart - which indicates that the ancient righteous Jews found Faith like Abraham did by God's grace alone and thus changed and obeyed the Lord dwelt in that part of Sheol...
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[PaulSacramento]

It is important to understand that the OT was directed towards the hebrew people and they understood Sheol to be usch and such a place.

In the NT, the writers ( and Jesus) had an audience that had not only the classical hebrew understanding of Sheol BUT also the Hellenistic view of the afterlife (hence terms like Hades, Hell, tartarus, etc)