I was playing dominoes with Zeus (he always cheats, that younger brother of mine), when he asks, "Have you read the Bible lately?" "No," I answer, "why would I bother with that?" "Well, take a look," he says, and tosses the book to me. Had it all bookmarked and everything. So I open up, and what do I read?

Matthew 11:23: "No, you will go down to Hades."

"There is more where that came from," says Zeus. "Look at that other bookmark."

Revelation 6:8: "I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him."

"You want more? I got more!", he says.

"What is the meaning of this?", I ask. "Do Christians believe in me? I noticed all of these mentions are from their side of the Bible."

"Not exactly," he replies. "I think it has to do with the translation of the Hebrew word Sheol."

"What on Earth is Sheol?"

"Not on Earth, exactly. Sheol is the Jewish world of the dead, where souls roam in eternal nothingness..."

"Sounds a lot like Hades... Well, not me, Hades, but my kingdom, Hades."

"Right? It's almost like the Jewish afterlife and the Greek afterlife are the one and the same? Only they don't have YOU overseeing it."

"Their loss. So how..."

"Well, the Bible got translated to Greek, and since the two concepts were so similar, Hades got substituted for Sheol, and it stuck."

"I see. That still doesn't explain the pale horse part."

"Oh, that's just pure Christian nonsense."