Common Grave?

GRAVE
A place of interment. Though today the term “grave” is generally understood to apply to an excavation in the earth for use as a place of burial, a common method of burial among the Hebrews and other Oriental peoples was by use of a natural cave or a rock-cut tomb, or vault. The Hebrew word qe′ver is the common word used to designate a burial place, a grave, or a graveyard. (Ge 23:7-9; Jer 8:1; 26:23) The related word qevu·rah′ similarly may refer to an earthen grave or to a tomb excavated in rock.—Ge 35:20; 1Sa 10:2.

Unending Torment or Common Grave?

Since the dead have no conscious existence, hell cannot be a fiery place of torment where the wicked suffer after death. What, then, is hell? Examining what happened to Jesus after he died helps to answer that question. The Bible writer Luke recounts: "Neither was [Jesus] forsaken in Hades [hell, King James Version] nor did his flesh see corruption."* (Acts 2:31) Where was the hell to which even Jesus went? The apostle Paul wrote: "I handed on to you . . . that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that he was buried, yes, that he has been raised up the third day according to the Scriptures." (1 Corinthians 15:3, 4) So Jesus was in hell, the grave, but he was not abandoned there, for he was raised up, or resurrected.