MATTHEW 16:18b

This well-known verse follows Peter's even more well-known Great Confession. It begins “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.” That statement is controversial enough with competing scholars opting as the definition of “rock” anyone and everything from Peter to all of the apostles to the whole papal succession to Jesus himself to Peter's confession. But what has confused me just as much, if not more, is Jesus' statement which follows in the second part of the verse: “and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (KJV)

When I was in elementary and middle school, one now-archaic skill I had mastered was the art of diagramming sentences, and I made myself rather obnoxious by constantly criticizing my teachers for getting it wrong on occasion. I realize that at this point I need to stop and explain what I am talking about, unless any of you happen to be octogenarians or older. Diagramming a sentence is a simple way to pictorially represent all the elements present (subject, verb, object, and modifiers) and the relationship between them.

It starts by drawing a horizontal line and first placing the subject of the sentence on the line followed by a vertical line (sorry, all I had was an exclamation point) to separate it from the verb. In this case, it would look something like this:

gates ! shall prevail

Thus, the gates (plural) will be or shall be doing something in the future. And what they are doing is “prevailing.” So far, this raises two questions. How can gates do anything but just open and close? What exactly does “prevailing” entail?

The next step, which I will not attempt to picture, is to hang any modifying words or phrases down from the elements on the top line using diagonal lines. There are two modifiers for “gates,” namely, “the” and “of hell.” The simple definite article “the” indicates two things: (1) these are particular gates, not just one or more of many similar gates, and (2) these gates belong to or are associated with hell (which is pictured as a walled city). Another question arises at this point: what is hell? Is it Hades, the realm of the dead (“Sheol” of the OT) or is it Hell, a place of punishment and the powers of evil?

Lastly, we have modifiers for the verb as well. The first is “not” indicating that whatever “prevailing” means, the gates will be unable or unwilling to do it. The second verbal modifier, “against it,” helps us understand that some sort of conflict or battle is taking place between two entities, and since a pronoun like “it” generally refers to the last noun mentioned (obviously excluding gates and hell), that means that “the church” is the object of the prepositional phrase “against it.”

Since the English word “prevail” is not very commonly used nowadays, it is perhaps helpful know that the corresponding Greek verb katischuo has been translated as “to be strong, able, powerful, dominant, superior to others, be the victor, or gain the upper hand.”

I will admit at the outset that every time I read this simple phrase, I am confused as to its exact meaning, especially regarding who is the aggressor in the conflict. But once I started looking at a number of Bible commentaries, I was comforted somewhat to realize that there is no real agreement between scholars either on how to answer the questions above. For a starter, look at the translations and paraphrases below:

    RSV: “and the powers of death shall not prevail over it.”

    NASB: “and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it.”

    NRSV: “and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.”

    NIV: “and the gates of Hades* shall not overcome it.” * that is, the realm of the dead

    NEB: “and the powers of death shall never conquer it.*” *Or the gates of death shall never close upon it.

    TEV: “and not even death will be able to overcome it.”

    AB: “and the powers of death shall not overcome it.”

    JBPhillips: “and the powers of death will never prevail against it.”

    Living Bible: “and all the powers of hell shall not prevail against it.”

    The Message: “not even the gates of hell will be able to keep it out.”

An additional point of disagreement comes up in comparing NEB with The Message: Are the gates trying to keep the church closed up, or are they trying to prevent the church from coming in? That is a lot of questions for such a short clause, and I am afraid the best I can do at this point is to simply offer the opinions below to let you decide for yourself which one is most likely to be correct. As for me, I am perhaps even more confused that ever but tend to side with France and those who agree with his interpretation (see below).

    Albright and Mann: “The sense here is that the powers of evil cannot contain or hold in check the new community.”

    France: “In the Old Testament the gates of death describes the place to which dead people go (Job 38:17; Pss 9:13; 107:18), and in Isa 38:10 the phrase 'the gates of Sheol' is used in the same way (cf. Also Job 17:16, 'the bars of Sheol'). 'Hades' is the New Testament equivalent of Sheol...The 'gates' thus represent the imprisoning power of death: death will not be able to imprison and hold the church of the living God. The metaphor, when seen against its Old Testament background, does not therefore encourage the suggestion of some interpreters that 'Hades' represents not death but the demonic powers of the underworld, which are then pictured as making an eschatological assault on the church. Still less does it support the romantic imagery, sometimes derived from the traditional but incorrect translation 'gates of hell', of the church as a victorious army storming the citadel of the dead.”

    Blomberg disputes France's two main points by stating: “That the 'gates of Hades will not overcome it' proves cryptic because gates are naturally seen as defensive protection, while 'overcome' suggests an army on the offense. Is Jesus saying that Hades (Heb. Sheol – the grave – probably, as with hell, in the sense of Satan's domain) cannot conquer the church or that it cannot resist the church's advances? Is Satan on the defense or offense here” The latter seems more likely. In other Jewish literature 'gates of Hades' is frequently idiomatic for 'powers of death' (based on Isa 38:10).”

    Hendricksen states that “in the Gospels 'Hades' means 'hell.'...those who favor the meaning 'the realm of the dead' experience great difficulty in their attempt to show in what sense the gates of that realm are striving to overpower the church, and are failing in their assault...'Gates of hell,' by metonymy [a figure of speech in which the name of an attribute of the thing meant is substituted for the thing itself] represents Satan and his legions as it were storming out of hell's gates in order to attack and destroy the church.”

    Hill says that the gates of Hades “will not close to imprison (in death) those who belong to the messianic community...The view that 'gates of Hades' actually denotes Hades, the abode of evil spirits, and that the meaning of the phrase is that the organized power of evil will not prevail against the organized Christians society, seems forced and unnatural.” Instead, he offers the following explanation: “The gates of Hades is a fairly common periphrasis for the nether world, the realm of the dead” in classical Greek. “The image is best understood as offering that death, in spite of its hitherto unconquerable power, will not win control over the rock, or more probably the ekklesia erected on the rock: death will not vanquish the messiah who builds the church, nor the members of the messianic community.”

    “The gates of Hades, representing the power of evil forces, will attack the church but cannot overcome it.” (Dictionary of Biblical Imagery)

    Vine speaks of the gates of Hades “than which nothing was regarded as stronger. The importance and strength of gates made them viewed as synonymous with power.” He also defines “prevail” as “to be strong against.” Notice that definition can apply to strength in resisting an aggressor as well as in being an aggressor.

    Barbieri: “Jews would understand Hades' gates to refer to physical death. Jesus was thus letting the disciples know that His death would not prevent His work of building the church.”

    Ellison views RSV's rendering 'the powers of death' as a good one but clarifies: “It is not a question of Satanic powers, but of death, which Jesus was to conquer in His death.”

    “As the gates of a city are essential to its power, the meaning here is probably the power of death.” (Inns)

Nixon notes regarding 'the gates of Hades', “The phrase occurs in the writing of Hezekiah (Is. 38:10). The gates suggest the picture of a fortress or prison which lock in the dead and lock out their rescuers. This would imply that the church is on the offensive, and its Master will plunder the domain of Satan (cf. 12:29; I Pet. 3:18-20).”

    Boettner: “The statement that the gates of hell will not be able to prevail against the church has usually been understood to mean that the church will be able to defend itself against all its foes, and that even the worst that the enemies of the gospel can bring against it will not be able to destroy it. We believe, however, that the real meaning is quite different. Gates are not offensive, but defensive weapons. They are stationary. They are not used to make an attack...Hence the real meaning of this verse is that the church will take the offensive.”

In any case, I think we can all agree with Paul in I Corinthians 15:54b-57 as he combines ideas from Hosea 13:14 and Isaiah 25:8 to write:

    “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (RSV)