The Intermediate State of Zechariah and Elizabeth
Question: Where did Zachcharias and Elizabeth go when they died?
This answer argues from the text, not from tradition. If the passage will not carry a doctrine, the doctrine is set aside.
Zechariah and Elizabeth were described as exemplary under the Mosaic law. Luke records of them:
"And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.’’
On the basis of this clear testimony, they were genuinely righteous according to the law. Yet, according to the view presented here, prior to Christ’s death and resurrection, the righteous dead ordinarily did not enter the full unveiled presence of God in heaven. They went to Sheol, the realm of the dead, sometimes rendered “hell’’ in older English usage.
subsection*“Hell’’ and Sheol
Today many people use the word “hell’’ only for final, conscious torment. Earlier English could use “hell’’ more broadly for the unseen realm beyond death—the grave or the place “past the veil.’’
In Hebrew, that realm is Sheol. It is the place where all the dead went prior to the resurrection of Christ—righteous and unrighteous alike. In that older sense, saying that Zechariah and Elizabeth “went to hell’’ just means they went to the waiting place of the dead, rather than to final punishment.
Because modern usage has so narrowed the word “hell,’’ it is better today to say they went to Sheol, the waiting place of the dead.
Access note: public and archive access are still being finalized. Use the passages, test the reasoning, and question the assumptions.
subsection*Righteous under the Law, but Not in Heaven Yet
Luke’s witness about Zechariah and Elizabeth is important for another reason. Luke 1:6 is one of the clearest texts demonstrating that there was such a thing as righteousness according to the law:
"They were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.’’
This passage pushes back against the idea that no one ever kept the law at all. In this sense there was such a thing as “righteousness according to the law,’’ which is not the same as the righteousness by grace through faith that Paul later explains.
However, even those righteous under the law did not yet enter heaven. All indications from the Old Testament and the Gospels up to that point suggest that the dead went to the realm of the dead—Sheol—not to the throne room of God.
subsection*Sheol, Hades, and Paradise
A number of passages suggest that Sheol (and its Greek counterpart, Hades) is a dual realm: a place of comfort for the righteous dead, and a place of torment for the unrighteous. This underlies the picture in Luke 16, where the rich man is in torment and Lazarus is comforted “in Abraham’s bosom.’’ Both are in the realm of the dead, but in distinct compartments.
In that framework, it is reasonable to understand Zechariah and Elizabeth, as righteous Israelites, as having gone to the blessed side of Sheol, often called “paradise’’ or “Abraham’s bosom’’—a place of comfort and expectation, not of torment.
subsection*Their Status in Relation to the Body of Christ
Zechariah and Elizabeth lived and died under the dispensation of the law, before the revelation of the body of Christ and the dispensation of the grace of God given through Paul. They were not part of the body of Christ in the Pauline sense. Their hope was bound to Israel’s covenants and the promises given under that administration.
From a dispensational perspective, they await resurrection in the order and program God has for Israel. They are righteous and secure, but their experience and expectations are not the same as those of believers in the body of Christ.
subsection*Their Condition Now
Do they remain in Sheol now? There is some debate, particularly regarding what precisely occurred at Christ’s descent into the lower parts of the earth and His subsequent ascension. Some hold that the righteous dead were transferred to heaven at that time; others see the righteous dead still awaiting resurrection in the intermediate state.
The position articulated here is that Zechariah and Elizabeth are still in the waiting place of the dead, in the blessed side of Sheol (or Hades), awaiting resurrection. They are in a safe, conscious state, but their resurrection and final inheritance are still future.
Thus, in concise terms: Zechariah and Elizabeth, righteous according to the law, went to Sheol—the waiting place of the dead, in its blessed part often described as paradise—not to the final place of torment, and not yet to the heavenly presence as members of the body of Christ.