Part 1
54x in the KJV
32x in the NKJV
13x in the NASB
11x in the CSB
0x in YLT
0x in the Complete Jewish Bible
This is a very deep and wide topic, so in this truth quest we are just going to scratch the surface by just looking at the use of the word Hell in the Bible, and then the word Hell in history.
It all starts with translation. Something good to remember: ALL translations are mistranslations. There is just no easy way to translate one language to another without losing something from the original. HOWEVER - there is a big difference in losing a little something in translation and completely changing the meaning of the original text by your translation. In the case at hand, four different words from the Greek & Hebrew were translated into English as HELL, depending on the translation you read. But let's just cut right to the chase - none of these 4 words actually mean Hell as we understand it today, and by doing this we have completely lost the intent and meaning of the original text and replaced it with something very different. This gross mistranslation has warped the true message of the Gospel. I wish I was exaggerating the situation, but I'm not. See for yourself...
Ok folks, we are digging into the Word today! I'm so excited! I love love love to let the Bible speak for itself!!
Thankfully, the use of the word Hell is starting to fade...
The 4 original language words are:
Sheol, Hades, Tartarus, Gehenna,
And fun fact, not one of them refers to a place of eternal damnation and torment! So, what do they mean exactly?
SHEOL
Sheol is only used in the Old Testament, and it's used 64 times. The King James translates every single usage as Hell, however most other translations leave Sheol as Sheol. Which is good, because Sheol is most definitely not Hell. It is a place where the OT Israelites believed ALL souls (good and bad) would go after their body dies - no rewards for good behavior, no punishments for bad behavior. Sometimes it is refers to the grave, sometimes it's spoken of with dread (as one would dread death in general), and sometimes it's spoken of as a place of rest. When we read Hell into these verses, we drastically change the meaning of the passage into something it was never meant to be. Examples:
2 Samuel 22: 4-7
I will call on the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.
When the waves of death compassed me, the floods of ungodly men made me afraid;
The sorrows of hell (Sheol) compassed me about; the snares of death prevented me;
In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried to my God: and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears.
Psalms 16: 8-11
I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.
For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell (Sheol); neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
In both of these passages, the author is praising God. Would such a person warrant being in Hell?? The sorrows of Sheol is a VERY different image than is the sorrows of Hell. And why in the world would David, of all people need rescuing from Hell?? But if we keep the original language, David is not talking about being tormented in Hell, he simply referring to Sheol - or 'the grave' - death, in general. We can WANT this to mean Hell all day long because we've always thought it did, but the simple fact is that the definition of Sheol is very different from the definition of Hell.
Let's look at one more:
Psalms 139:8b "...if I make my bed in Hell (Sheol), behold, thou art there."
Do I even need to say anything?? If I make my bed in Hell, God is there with me? Since when does God keep you company in Hell? Isn't that the point of going to Hell? Eternal separation from God? (scratches head in confusion...)
OK let's move on to the New Testament... Wait, that's it? No more Hell references in the OT?? Nope. Sheol is the only word that was translated to "Hell." So when someone says that Hell is all over the Old Testament - well, you can correct them -->> No, sorry, Sheol is all over the OT. And the KJV and NKJV are the only modern versions that have "Hell" in the Old Testament (if you can call KJV a modern translation). ALL the other moderns versions left Sheol as Sheol. We can have a conversation another day about why King James would want to add Hell and the fear that comes with it to his English translation. (whispers in ear: it wasn't an accident... he did it on purpose!)
HADES
You may have heard this one before. It is a word borrowed from Greek mythology. It was the name of the king or god of the underworld and his realm shared his name. Like Sheol, the belief was that ALL souls went to Hades. Originally it was just the underworld, the realm of souls, but during the age of Greek philosophers, a final judgement of souls was added determining whether incoming souls were to be cursed or rewarded. While Hades is described as gloomy, it is not a place of torment. It is certainly not a "Hell" as we would describe Hell, with fire and brimstone and agonizing torment.
Not surprisingly, the KJV translates all usages of Hades to Hell. But the other translations kept it in place. Even the NKJV switched it back and left Hades alone. It is used 11 times in the NT.
These are the 11 verses that contain the word Hades:
(all verses are YLT)
Matthew 11:23 "'And thou, Capernaum, which unto the heaven wast exalted, unto hades shalt be brought down, because if in Sodom had been done the mighty works that were done in thee, it had remained unto this day;"
Matthew 16:18 "'And I also say to thee, that thou art a rock, and upon this rock I will build my assembly, and gates of Hades shall not prevail against it;"
Luke 10:15 "'And thou, Capernaum, which unto the heaven wast exalted, unto hades thou shalt be brought down."
Luke 16:23 "and in the hades having lifted up his eyes, being in torments, he doth see Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom" (Read more about this parable here)
Acts 2:27 "because Thou wilt not leave my soul to hades, nor wilt Thou give Thy Kind One to see corruption;"
Acts 2:31 "having foreseen, he did speak concerning the rising again of the Christ, that his soul was not left to hades, nor did his flesh see corruption."
1 Corinthians 15:55 "where, O Death, thy sting? where, O Hades, thy victory?'"
Revelation 1:18 "and he who is living, and I did become dead, and, lo, I am living to the ages of the ages. Amen! and I have the keys of the hades and of the death."
Revelation 6:8 "and I saw, and lo, a pale horse, and he who is sitting upon him -- his name is Death, and Hades doth follow with him, and there was given to them authority to kill, (over the fourth part of the land,) with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and by the beasts of the land."
Revelation 20:13 "and the sea did give up those dead in it, and the death and the hades did give up the dead in them, and they were judged, each one according to their works;"
Revelation 20:14 "and the death and the hades were cast to the lake of the fire - this is the second death"
Before we talk about the use of Hades, let's go ahead and look at the 3rd word translated as Hell...
TARTARUS
Tartarus is used only once, and it also is borrowed from Greek mythology. It is the lowest realm within Hades where the worst offenders go after judgment, and in the stories it is where the gods imprisoned the powerful Titans. Which is fitting because when Paul used the term, most scholars agree that he was referring to the ancient beings of Genesis 6, the Nephilim, and not humans. Most translations translate the word "messengers" to "angels."
2 Peter 2:4 (YLT) "For if God's messengers who sinned did not spare, but with chains of thick gloom, having cast them down to Tartarus, did deliver them to judgment, having been reserved..."
OK. Scholars tell us that Sheol in Hebrew, was thought of as the equivalent to Hades in the Greek. Quite simply, it was the term used when referring to the realm of souls, the grave or death itself. So, while we want to insert the concept of a fiery eternal torment into these verses, it simply isn't there. We have inserted our idea of Hell into these passages and verses, so much so that it can be hard to back it out of there and read it with the original intended meaning. The New Testament is written in mostly Greek, but if it had been written in Hebrew, the word used would have been Sheol. The Hebrew language and culture throughout their history had no word or belief construct for Hell or eternal torture. We'll talk more about this below in the "Hell in History" study, but suffice it say that these uses of the word Hades cannot possibly mean Hell. Here's something else interesting: there was no word in their own language that would reference a place of eternal torment. It did not exist in their vocabulary, or in their concept of the afterlife. One only needs to go as far as Wikipedia to learn that torment in Hell is not a belief of Judaism, and that Christians added that later! OK let's go to the last word that was translated/mistranslated.
GEHENNA
And last we have Gehenna. In my opinion, this is the WORST and most misleading mistranslation of them all. Gehenna is used most often by Jesus, who was echoing His Father's words in Jeremiah & Isaiah when He references this well known valley of pagan human sacrifice which eventually became the city sewage, open grave, perpetually burning trash pit. In the OT it was the Valley of Hinnom, or Ben-Hinnom, or Topheth. Let's look at the relevant usage of these words in the OT.
2 Kings 23:10 King Josiah is cleaning up the mess the Israelites have made and this is where the first reference to what happened in the infamous valley:
"He also defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, so that no one would make his son or his daughter pass through the fire for Molech."
2 Chronicles 28:3 tells us that King Ahaz sacrificed his own children in the valley:
"Furthermore, he burned incense in the Valley of Ben-hinnom, and burned his sons in fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD had driven out from the sons of Israel."
2 Chronicles 33:6 tells us the King Menassah did the same thing:
"He also made his sons pass through the fire in the Valley of Ben-hinnom; and he practiced witchcraft, used divination, practiced sorcery, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger."
Jeremiah 7:31-32 is where God renames it the Valley of Slaughter and tells them they will have to put their dead there:
“They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of Ben-hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, and it did not come into My mind. Therefore, behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when it will no longer be called Topheth, or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but the Valley of the Slaughter; for they will bury in Topheth because there is no other place.
Jeremiah 19:2-15, God is passing judgment and sending Jeremiah out to make the proclamation. In this passage, declares that among other horrors, their carcasses will be eaten by animals, they will have to put their dead here (a big deal - a proper burial was a huge deal in this culture), and that they would resort to cannibalism. Notice that all through this judgment, the theme of Topheth & the Valley is key. It is the atrocities they committed on this ground that caused this place to become what it did:
“Then go out to the Valley of Ben-hinnom, which is by the entrance of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you, and say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. This is what the LORD of armies, the God of Israel says: “Behold I am going to bring a disaster upon this place, at which the ears of everyone that hears of it will tingle. Since they have abandoned Me and have made this place foreign, and have burned sacrifices in it to other gods that neither they nor their forefathers nor the kings of Judah had ever known, and since they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, a thing which I did not command nor speak of, nor did it ever enter My mind; therefore, behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but rather the Valley of Slaughter and I will frustrate the planning of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hand of those who seek their life; and I will make their carcasses food for the birds of the sky and the animals of the earth. I will also turn this city into an object of horror and hissing; everyone who passes by it will be appalled and hiss because of all its disasters. And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh during the siege and in the hardship with which their enemies and those who seek their life will torment them.”’
“Then you are to break the jar in the sight of the men who accompany you and say to them, ‘This is what the LORD of armies says: “To the same extent I will break this people and this city, just as one breaks a potter’s vessel, which cannot again be repaired; and they will bury their dead in Topheth, because there is no other place for burial. This is how I will treat this place and its inhabitants,” declares the LORD, “so as to make this city like Topheth. “The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled like the place Topheth, because of all the houses on whose rooftops they burned sacrifices to all the heavenly lights and poured out drink offerings to other gods.”
Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the courtyard of the LORD’S house and said to all the people, “This is what the LORD of armies, the God of Israel says: ‘Behold, I am going to bring on this city and all its towns the entire disaster that I have declared against it, because they have stiffened their necks so as not to listen to My words.’”
Jeremiah 32:35, again God speaking:
“They built the high places of Baal that are in the Valley of Ben-hinnom to make their sons and their daughters pass through the fire to Molech, which I had not commanded them, nor had it entered My mind that they should do this abomination, to mislead Judah to sin.
Jeremiah 22:19, while the name isn't expressly mentioned, any Hebrew would know that this was a reference to Hinnom/Gehenna:
"He will be buried with a donkey's burial, dragged off and thrown out beyond the gates of Jerusalem."
Isaiah 30:30-33; the imagery here is that Topheth is a place of terror, fire, brimstone, hailstones and a fiery funeral pyre. It is these passages that helped to create the dread the Israelites would associate with this valley for 100's of years. The reference to punishment coming along with the sound of music is pointing to the practice of playing loud music and beating on drums to drown out the sound of the screams of the children as they were being sacrificed, as seen in the image:
And the LORD will cause His voice of authority to be heard,
And the descending of His arm to be seen in fierce anger,
And in the flame of a consuming fire
In cloudburst, downpour, and hailstones.
For at the voice of the LORD Assyria will be terrified,
When He strikes with the rod.
And every blow of the rod of punishment,
Which the LORD will lay on him,
Will be with the music of tambourines and lyres;
And in battles, brandishing weapons, He will fight them.
For Topheth has long been ready,
Indeed, it has been prepared for the king.
He has made it deep and large,
A pyre of fire with plenty of wood;
The breath of the LORD, like a torrent of brimstone, sets it afire.
Ok - so there you have the OT references to the valley that in the NT is called Gehenna.
Now jump to the NT, where Jesus (and James once) speaks of the very same valley:
(These verse are from the NIV)
Matthew 5:22
"But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,' is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell (Gehenna)."
Matthew 5:29-30 (Repeated in Matthew 18:9 & Mark 9:43-47)
"If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell (Gehenna). And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell (Gehenna)."
Matthew 10:28
"Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Gehenna)."
Matthew 23:15
'Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell (Gehenna) as you are."
Matthew 23:33
"You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell (Gehenna)?"
Luke 12:5
"But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell (Gehenna). Yes, I tell you, fear him."
James 3:6
"The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one's life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell (Gehenna)."
So, the imagery for Gehenna that God created in the OT was full of death, fear, and fire. The Hebrew language and communication style is all about creating a picture to make a point - they taught in parables for this reason. Their temple services were full of discussion and debate, all the voices were heard, not just one man doing all the teaching and preaching. Western thinkers take things very literally, we like facts and bullet points. Eastern (Hebrew) thinkers like to bury their lessons in riddles and stories and imagery, they like discussion and digging for and debating the moral of the story. When Jesus called on this imagery by using Gehenna in his teaching, he was most certainly not being literal as much as we want that to be the case. That's just not how Jewish Rabbi's taught. How can we be sure? First of all, let's look at who his audience was. Most of these verses are pulled from the Sermon on the Mount. He was speaking to believers, not unbelievers. These were not instructions on how to be "saved," which is what we would expect when Jesus references Hell, right? Not the case here... If we are to take him at his word literally, then he's saying a believer could go to Hell for calling someone a fool? Or because their right eye did something offensive?? My right eye could send me to Hell?? No, of course not. These statements are meant to teach. There is a moral to the story, a point he was getting at and using imagery - imagery his Father established in the OT - to get there, as any good Jewish Rabbi would do.
Based on what you've been taught, how does one earn a spot in Hell? By rejecting Jesus, right? Do ANY of these verses say that? These are literally the only verses in the New Testament that our modern translations used the word "Hell" - each of them is actually the word "Hades" or "Gehenna." NONE of them say that you would be condemned for rejecting Jesus. Isn't that interesting? One would think that Jesus would be very clear about that fact...
If eternal torment in 'Hell' is actually a thing to God, it is not represented in these 4 words, or in the language His people spoke.
In fact, the word HELL as a place of torment and punishment, did not start showing up in writings until 100's of years after Christ!! 🤯 Prior to that, the word only existed in Norse mythology (Hel is the daughter of Loki, who ruled the underworld). I don't know about you, but to me, this means we need to seriously rethink what we've been taught about Hell.
The concept of a place of doom and punishment for souls can be traced back to ancient Egypt.
first known use of the word seen in it's various forms - Hell, Hel, Hellia - was in Norse ancient religious beliefs, now known as Norse Mythology. Hel was the name of Loki's daughter who rules over the [evil] dead in the lowest underground realm, of the same name. (Sorry folks, Marvel mislead us - "Hela" is not actually Thor & Loki's evil sister). Where Sheol & Hades simply refer to the realm of the unalive, the Norse Hel was reserved for the baddest bad guys. This is a significant difference. In the Hebrew, there was ONE place where ALL the dead went. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. They all went to Sheol. To Abraham's Bosom. (We talk about that in the Lazarus & the Rich Man parable). Hel is Norse Mythology was an afterlife prison for the worst offenders, but the Hebrews did not differentiate where their dead went. ALL went to Sheol to rest.
Let's get back to the history of the word... It wasn't until the 1200's that the Icelanders began to write their sagas, which had all been oral tradition and stories told generation after generation about their ancient gods, heros and villains. This is where the reading world learns of Hel - the person and the place. However, the first time period we see the word Hell in writings not related to Norse Mythology, is in 725AD.
Used figuratively for "state of misery, any bad experience" at least since late 14c. As an expression of disgust, etc., first recorded 1670s.
To have hell break loose is from c. 1600. Expression hell in a handbasket is attested by 1867, in a context implying use from a few years before, and the notion of going to Heaven in a handbasket is from 1853, implying "easy passage" to the destination. Hell or high water (1874) apparently is a variation of between the devil and the deep blue sea. To wish someone would go to hell is in Shakespeare ("Merchant of Venice"). Snowball's chance in hell "no chance" is from 1931; till hell freezes over "never" is from 1832.
To do something for the hell of it "just for fun" is from 1921.
There were 2 main factions in the Jewish 1st century culture. Pharisees and Sadducees. (You may have also heard of the Essenes, but this was a counter culture movement that withdrew itself out of frustration with the Pharisee & Sadducees.) According to the Jewish Virtual Library, these two factions had very different afterlife beliefs. The Sadducees did not believe in the eternal soul or the afterlife, because there is no mention of it in the Torah. If the Torah didn't say it, they didn't believe it. The Pharisees believed that an afterlife existed, and that there would be rewards and punishments based on your actions in this life. They believed that all souls would go to the 'resting place' (Sheol/Hades) to await resurrection and judgment. They did not believe that you went immediately to your eternal destination, as Christians today do. Ok so those were the 2 most common school of thought an the afterlife in 1st century Jewish culture - BUT throughout the
https://www.tentmaker.org/books/prevailing/upd3.html
See you on the next Quest!
~Tracy
Explore this topic some more!
hell in history.
