For centuries, the dominant translation of the Bible was the King James Version. And to answer the question, “Where did Christ’s soul go after His death?” Acts 2:27 of the K.J.V. reads:
Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Not surprisingly, people seized upon this verse to create a whole line of erroneous doctrinal thinking. It goes like this: “Christ’s soul went to hell when he died because He had to suffer our punishment in hell as a part of Him paying the penalty for our sins.” Have you heard that preached before?
But think about it, if Jesus really did have to endure the required amount of torment and suffering in hell to pay our sin debt, wouldn’t it have been eternal suffering? I mean, isn’t that the rule? When a sinner dies without Christ, his or her soul has to suffer a lot longer than three days worth of punishment in hell, right? Also, the whole idea of Christ’s soul suffering the torment of hell flatly goes against what He told the thief on the cross: “…today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43).
As I noted in my last post, whenever you read the word “hell” in the old King James translation you’ve got to dig a little deeper and find out which Greek word is being used in the original language. Concerning the Old Testament, in 100% of the instances where the K.J.V. reads “hell” the Hebrew word is Sheol. Interestingly, however, the Old Testament teaches that the souls of both the saved and the lost went to Sheol. For example, Psalm 9:17 puts the lost souls of the wicked there, but 2 Samuel 22:6 puts the soul of David right on the brink of being there.
This certainly hints at the fact that Sheol has two sections to it. It has a bliss section for the souls of the saved, and it has a torment section for the souls of the lost. Really, the Hebrew word Sheol is simply an umbrella word that refers to the general afterlife realm of the dead. That afterlife could be spent in the bliss section or the torment section, depending upon one’s salvation or lack of it. As a matter of fact, just as the K.J.V. Old Testament translates Sheol as “hell” in thirty-one instances, it translates it as “the grave” in another thirty-one instances.
As for the New Testament, the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew Sheol is Hades. And Luke 16:19-31, where the K.J.V. translates Hades as “hell,” leaves no doubt as to the place having two very different sections. The saved soul of the beggar Lazarus goes to the bliss section, while the lost soul of the rich man goes to the torment section.
And so, Christ’s soul went to the bliss section of Hades when He died, the same place where the souls of the Old Testament believers went. You see, even though Lazarus the beggar, the thief on the cross, and Jesus lived in the days of the New Testament, they still lived and died in what we might call the Old Testament dispensation. What I mean is, the really big changes concerning afterlife abodes wouldn’t take place until Christ’s resurrection and ascension.
Here now is where we bring things into our current era. So, please take special note of what you’re about to read: When Jesus ascended back to heaven forty days after His resurrection, He emptied the bliss section of Hades and took those saved souls formally into heaven with Him. The passage on this is Ephesians 4:8-10, which reads in the New King James translation:
Therefore He says: “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men.” (Now this, “He ascended – what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)
What Paul is doing in this passage is playing off the scene of a Roman general leading a procession through the streets of Rome after a victorious military campaign. The general would be at the front of the parade in such a procession. Behind him would be the “trophies” he had “won” through his military victories. Some of those “trophies” would be people who had been captured as prisoners of war by the general’s army.
By using this earthly illustration, Paul describes how Jesus “won” the souls out of the bliss section of Hades. First, Jesus descended into the lower parts of the earth. (Remember that in the previous post I explained that Hades is located somewhere deep in the heart of the earth.) Second, He ascended to heaven with those souls. Third, He marched victoriously into heaven with those souls behind Him. The N.I.V. translation does the best job of conveying Paul’s imagery. It renders Ephesians 4:8 as, “…he led captives in his train…”
You ask, “But why did all those saved souls have to wait until Christ’s resurrection before they could formally enter heaven?” It was because Jesus had to officially shed His blood in time and history before their sins could be eternally cleansed. Keep in mind that Hebrews 10:4 says that it wasn’t possible for the blood of the Old Testament sacrifices to take away sin. The best such blood could do was cover sin and stay the wrath of God. It is only Christ’s literal blood that can eternally cleanse sin. As I once heard a Bible teacher say, “Really, the Old Testament believers were saved on credit by looking ahead to Christ’s death on the cross just as we look back to it.”
Okay, then, what does all this mean for the Christian today? It means the Christian’s soul goes straight up to heaven at the moment of bodily death. There is now no longer a need for the bliss section of Hades. Surely that section still exists, but it’s empty.
The same Paul who wrote about how the resurrected, ascended Jesus entered into heaven with those saved souls from Hades also taught in 2 Corinthians 5:1-8 that deceased Christians are now absent from the body and present with the Lord. Paul also said in Philippians 1:23 that he desired to depart this earth and be with Christ, which is far better. In saying that, he knew full well that Jesus is now seated at the right hand of God the Father in heaven. For that matter, just before Steven died his martyr’s death he saw Jesus in heaven standing to immediately receive his soul (Acts 7:54-60).
And right there is where I’ll stop for now. With my next post, I’ll finish up the teaching on Hades by explaining what is going to eventually happen to the lost souls that are currently abiding in its torment section. You see, when all the dust has settled and everything is said and done before the dawn of eternity, there won’t be one soul left in either section of Hades. With this post I’ve explained how the bliss side got emptied, and I hope you’ll stay tuned for the explanation of how the torment side will eventually get emptied as well.
The Disciple's Road 
“Okay, then, what does all this mean for the Christian today? It means the Christian’s soul goes straight up to heaven at the moment of bodily death”.
If that is the case, then why did Jesus tell the thief “Today you will be with me in paradise”? Jesus died before the thief, so His blood was already spilled. The thieves legs were broken because they were still alive. When the Roman soldiers saw Jesus was dead, there was no need to break His legs (fulfilling scripture). If Jesus blood was already payment for the thief’s sin moments before the thief died, then, based on your above and prior statements, the thief would not have gone to paradise, but rather, straight to heaven.
Going back to the Old Testament law’s exact order of service for the Day of Atonement as found in Leviticus 16:1-34, the sacrificial blood had to be literally carried into the Tabernacle’s (later on the Temple’s) Holy of Holies by the High Priest and literally sprinkled there. You see, merely killing the animal and draining the blood wasn’t enough to complete the procedure. There also had to be the formal presentation and sprinkling of the blood inside the Holy of Holies.
Okay, since the Old Testament Tabernacle was in actuality an earthly representation of the Tabernacle in heaven (Hebrews 8:1-5; 9:23), Jesus had to carry His shed blood into the Holy of Holies of heaven’s Tabernacle and sprinkle that blood there in order for the eternal cleansing of sins to be completed. In other words, Him merely dying wasn’t enough to complete the process. As for when Jesus ascended to heaven and carried His blood into heaven’s Holy of Holies and sprinkled it there, the New Testament doesn’t give us that exact answer. But it does indicate that He did it (Hebrews 9:11-12; 9:23-26).
Some believe Jesus did it on the morning of His resurrection and that the K.J.V.s translation of His words to Mary Magdalene (“touch me not’) in John 20:17-18 are to be preferred over other translations rendering those same words “Do not cling to Me.” The idea behind this interpretation is that just as the Jewish High Priest would have become disqualified on the Day of Atonement if someone had touched him as he was in the process of going inside the Holy of Holies and sprinkling the blood there, Jesus would have become disqualified if Mary Magdalene had touched Him at that time. Admittedly, this interpretation is debatable, but it does make some scriptural sense and many conservative commentators hold to it.
Regardless, however, of whether or not that translation and interpretation is correct, it does seem clear that Jesus, sometime after His death, at some point did ascend to heaven for the purpose of sprinkling His shed blood inside heaven’s Holy of Holies. And to answer your question, apparently this event took place not only after Christ’s death but also after the death of the thief. That being the case, the thief’s soul couldn’t have gone straight to heaven until after Jesus had performed His High Priestly ministry inside heaven’s Holy of Holies.