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.
There were similar stories from different
origins in Jesus’ day.
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. 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 nonChristians (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/jesusteachin
gonhell.html