CHAPTER 3 HEAVEN AND HELL

The problem with the word “hell” in the Bible is that different Greek and Hebrew words that all translate as hell. We have the Greek word Hades which is the same as the Hebrew word Sheol. We have Tartarus which is only used by Paul. We have Gehenna which except for one occasion is only used by Jesus.

Let’s look at the evolution of the term hell from the time of Jesus to today. We’ll concentrate on just Hades and Gehenna since Tartarus is only used once in the New Testament and that’s by Paul and the Hebrew word Sheol is essentially the same as the Greek word Hades.

Basically Hades is a kind of "nothingness," an existence that is barely existence at all, in which a "shadow" or "shade" of the former self survives. Nothing is mentioned of torment. We have the soul, not the body in hell where they sleep not being punished.

Quote John 3:16 John 3:16 gives to options, eternal life or perish, it says nothing about punishment.

There is another word that is translated as hell in the New Testament. The Greek word is Gehenna which is a translation of the Hebrew Ge Hinnom, literally "Valley of Hinnom” Hinnom is a valley outside Jerusalem.

In the Hebrew Bible, the site was initially where apostate Israelites and followers of various Caananite gods, including Moloch sacrificed their children by fire.

In Jesus day, the Sadducees rejected the concept of a resurrection and afterlife. The Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the dead. There were to major schools of thought in Jesus day, the School of Hillel and the School of Shammai.

Ge Hinnom was used by the Rabbis of Jesus' day to reference the afterlife of sinners. Shammai and Hillel both used Ge Hinnom to speak metaphorically of a place of purification of the soul for those who were not righteous enough to directly enter Ga Eden which was a metaphor for heaven. Shammai believed that only the extremely righteous went to Ga Eden when they died; everyone else went to Ge Hinnom . Most would rise to Ga Eden after being purified, having their sins burnt up - similar to the Catholic concept of Purgatory.

Hillel taught that only the wicked went to Gehenna. Both Shammai and Hillel taught that the longest most people would stay in Gehenna was 11 months, and only the most wicked evil person would stay longer, possibly as much as 12 months. Nothing is said of eternal punishment.

When Jesus talks about hell, He uses Gehenna which is translated as hell and is confusing to us. He uses the term 11 times. Gehenna is a completely different concept than the neutral hell of Hades.

Read Matthew 10:28 No where in the Bible does it say that the soul is immortal and here we see that the soul can be destroyed. The Jews of Jesus day would have understood what he meant by Gehenna and fire and burning bodies,

Read Revelation 20:10-15 Here we see, among other things, Hades destroyed in the fire. This lake of fire sounds a lot like what Jesus was calling Gehenna. The fire burns eternally, but things thrown in there are destroyed.

The Gospels were written in Greek so the words Gehenna and Hades would have been used and that’s what early Christians would have been familiar with. They would have understood about the term Gehenna and its origin. In the late 4th century when the Latin vulgate translation was written the two terms were there also.

When the first major English translation of the Bible, Wycliffe Bible, appeared in the late 1300’s the two words Hades and Gehenna both appeared as hell. Remember that this translation is written almost 100 years after Dante’s Inferno (Inferno is Italian for hell) is written. Dante’s inferno was representative of the medieval concept of hell and consisted of a lot of suffering. So this begins the meshing of two concepts of hell, Hades and Gehenna, into a single concept of hell with suffering.

Most of what we believe about hell comes from Catholicism and ignorance of the Old Testament, not from the Bible. How do you feel about this statement?

The 16th century Tyndale translation and the 17th century King James translation both follow the trend of translating Hades and Gehenna as Hell. New 20th century translations such as the NIV and Living Bible only use hell for Gehenna and go back to using the word Hades. This is a complete switch from the way hell was understood in the days of Christ.

Why do you think this concept about eternal torment has become so popular and widespread?

Seneca (around 50CE) says: “Those things which make the infernal regions terrible, the darkness, the prison, the river of flaming fire, the judgment seat., are all a fable, with which the poets amuse themselves, and by them agitate us with vain terrors.

How comfortable are you with churches using the fear of hell rather that the love of God to get and keep converts?

Read Luke 16:19-31 What is your view on these verses?

There were similar stories from different origins in Jesus’ day. Some view this a a literal story.

Others say that this is not theology or a real story, it is a fictional metaphor and not to be taken literally. They say that it is an allegory about the conflict between early Christianity and Judaism. Others say it is an attack on the wealthy Sadducees who did not believe in an afterlife.

For 1st century Christians who were being persecuted, they would see that they would be reward in the next life and their persecutors would receive their just desserts. If we look back at Matthew 10:28, they would see that they don’t need to be worried about the people killing them, but need to stay true to their faith so they would not receive a worse punishment.

What can we take away from this train of thought. We can see that things might get really bad in this life. There might be heartache, pain, illness, injury, etc. but all this is temporary. If you remain faithful, you will be rewarded with an eternal life surrounded by love and not have to worry about those things that happened in this life.

What Jesus teaches is that the decisions you make in this life determine what happens to you in the after life. Do you think a decision for Christ can be made after death?

Read Luke 23:43 Where is the comma placed And He said to him, "Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise." And He said to him, "Truly I say to you today, you shall be with Me in Paradise."

Jesus and Paul speak very little about heaven and hell Jesus and Paul speak very little about heaven and hell. They speak more about: Second coming of Christ The coming Kingdom of God The future of God’s people Resurrection The millennium The new heaven and the new earth Why is there so little said about heaven and hell?

I’m not convinced that the eternal life part cannot be determined after death. For example, the people who died before Christ was born had a chance. Some people never had a chance to hear about Christ in their life due to where they were born.

Here’s a different way for you to consider thinking about the afterlife. When a person dies as a Christian, their soul goes to heaven and a non-Christian’s soul goes to Hades, which is non-suffering, to await the second coming. At the second coming, the Christians are given a new eternal body with soul while the non-Christians (body and soul) along with death, hades, etc are destroyed in the lake of fire (Gehenna)

The bottom line for me: If we have done all that is required of us in terms of salvation, then it really does not matter if hell is a holding place or a place where the dead sleep awaiting resurrection or a place of torment or a place of annihilation. We will be in heaven. We need to concentrate of sharing about God’s love and grace not make people fearful.

Link for more reading Jesus Teaching on hell http://www.tentmaker.org/articles/jesusteachingonhell.html