What does “gates of hell” mean in Matthew 16:18?

Question

Matthew 16:18 (KJV):

And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

I take it "gates of hell" is a metaphor (there are no literal gates to Hell, are there?), but what is it a metaphor for?

Answer 1

The Greek word is πυλαι and does literally mean "gates", and this is the only reference to the gates of Hades/Hell in the NT. It's also the first use of the word εκκλησια, "the called-out", "church".

The gates of a city are the point at which attackers lay siege, the weakest point. The strength of a city is directly related to the strength or power of its gates. Here Hades or hell is represented as a city with its strength in its gates. The gates represent the power of hell, and the Church is stronger.

Gates also keep people in. Jesus may be referring to his death: Hades could not contain him, and it will not contain the Church either, those who are called out to belong to Christ. The Church will never succumb with the physical death of its members and fail; it will never die.

Answer 2

I look to the Amplified version for questions like this. It says,

And I tell you, you are Peter [Greek, Petros--a large piece of rock], and on this rock [Greek, petra--a huge rock like Gibraltar] I will build My church, and the gates of Hades (the powers of the infernal region) shall not overpower it [or be strong to its detriment or hold out against it].

Matthew 16:18 (AMP)

So, Jesus is talking about the powers of hell.

Answer 3

The translation is literally, the "Gates of Hades", i.e. Death will not prevail against it. As passing through the gates of Hades would imply Death. So what Jesus is saying is that this Church will never die, it will never go out of existence.

Answer 4

There are no literal gates to Hell, are there?

The original Greek of the verse has Jesus speaking of Ἅιδης (Hades), and that Greek word is believed to be a translation of the Hebrew concept of שאול (Sheol), which like Hades was "the place where those that had died were believed to be congregated" (Jewish Encyclopedia).

Now the Old Testament indeed does say that Sheol has gates, e.g. in Job 17:16 (NKJV quoted):

Will they go down to the gates of Sheol?
Shall we have rest together in the dust?

And Isaiah 38:10:

I said,
“In the prime of my life
I shall go to the gates of Sheol;
I am deprived of the remainder of my years.”

The 'gates of death' are also mentioned in Job 38:17 and Psalm 9:13.

If they are not in fact literal gates in the supernatural realm, the idea must be that this is the passage into the land of the dead—i.e., actual death itself. Either way it is a one-way journey—they are prison gates which do not open from the inside—but Jesus is here giving us hope that the rock and the church built upon it will one day "proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound" (Isaiah 61:1).

Answer 5

An example of another metaphor like this is the image in King Nebuchadnezzar's dream. The Rock that was cut without hands hits the feet of the image, and, of course, the images does not prevail against it (Dan 2:34). Another example is the Chief Cornerstone that grinds to powder those on whom the Rock falls (Matt 21:44)

The Rock in both these examples is clearly the Christ, and I think these metaphors are all related. The gates of hell must certainly represent all of hell and death itself and more. In antiquity, the gates of a city not only represented the defenses and entrance of a city, but also important places of civil government and commerce. See Deut 16:18 and Ruth 4.

Therefore, the government of the godless (in the image of Nebuchadnezzar), the wickedness of the builders (who rejected the chief cornerstone), and place of hell itself (created for Satan and his angels), are all encompassed in the gates of hell.

In the second death, Hell and Death are thrown in the lake of fire. See Rev. 20:14. This will be the final fulfillment of Matthew 16:18.