Does anyone actually know when the miss use of the term Hell happened?

Question

The original meaning of the word hell was a place where people stored food for the winter. The word was translated from Hebrew to the closest meaning of the word in English. So hell is like a grave. It is never said that you would go to heaven right after you die, but all will go to hell (the grave), where one day; the day of Judgment you will be resurrected. There is no thought or experience in the grave so being in hell would not be suffering; it would just be nothing at all. The Bible never says that people have an immortal soul. It says that we must be resurrected first to go to heaven. The only one believed to have an immortal soul was Jesus, and as we all know from the text he was resurrected. It actually means that on Judgment day; those who are judged to be not worthy of heaven will return to hell, the grave back to dust cease to exist, not suffer for all eternity, just cease to exist. Where did all the brimstone and fire come from, who started that whole fantasy and when?

Answer 1

The word Sheol in hebrew means grave, it's true, but God's punishment past death for sin has been very clear since Old Testament times. We were created in the image of God, and in that nature we have a soul. There is actually even one event in Scripture that mentions a soul that had no body, when Saul called Samuel up from the grave (and boy did he ever get busted because that's now how things were intended). There are other locations, but that should be sufficient for now. In the New Testament, we find particularly in Revelation that believers will be given a new body. It also says that those who reject Christ will be suffering eternally in the lake of fire(Revelation 20). So it's clear that the human soul will continue on through judgment. It just not might be a pleasant thing for everyone. Hell, however, is defined in different words.

I will take your word for it that "hell" meant a storage place. However, words that we see used for hell in the New Testament are different. We have Ghehennah, which means "the dump". This word comes from Ginnom. Hinnom was a valley outside of Jerusalem where everyone threw their trash to be burned.

We also have Tophet, used back in Isaiah to refer to the a valley where the pagan children were sacrificed to pagan gods. It was actually in the same place as Hinnom.

Jesus also tells the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, who went to hades for punishment. He wasn't obliterated.

I still find Revelation 20 as the most clear location discussing how sinners are taken and cast into the lake of fire for eternity along with Satan and his demons. Can't be eternally tormented if you don't continue to exist for eternity, so it's a pretty safe logical jump.

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

There are so many translations of the bible that are being considered incorrect now. It is very hard to correctly translate the type of Hebrew in which the Bible was written.
It is also now believed that Jesus was born around Josephs family... just not in the same part of the house. Back in those days they had dome shaped houses with upper and lower rooms. The family would stay in the upper room (Hebrew translation of "Inn"), but it was so crowded when Mary and Joseph arrived that the baby had to born in the lower room where the animals were kept (Hebrew translation for "lower room")... so it was the same house as his family. This isn't fact, just deeper study on translation of the Bible. I'm curious how many stories in the Bible (like your story about the correct interpretation of the word "hell") would be completely different if we could see them how they were meant to be seen... You're right about the immortal soul thing. Thanks for the insight.

Answer 3

So, do you believe in the Bible or not? Your last answer stated that you agree that Christians don't have a brain, because "that's what happens when you buy into a 2000 year old book". Which, by the way, you don't know anything about. That was not the original meaning of the word hell. Where you got that I don't know. The King James version is the only version that actually uses the word hell incorrectly. The rest of the versions(most of which don't use the word hell at all) use hell to describe the eternity away from God. There were actually 4 original meanings which have not changed. They were:

1. She·ol [sh l, shee ṓl]
n
ancient Hebrew dwelling place of dead: in ancient Hebrew theology, the dwelling place of the dead

2. Ha·des [háy dz]
n
1. or ha·des or Ha·deshell: hell (informal)
2. Greek underworld: in Greek mythology, the underworld
kingdom inhabited by the souls of the dead. Roman equivalent
Dis
3. Greek god of the underworld: in Greek mythology, the god of
the underworld and husband of Persephone.

3. Gehenna

Genhenna is a word tracing to Greek, ultimately from Hebrew: גי(א)-הינום Gêhinnôm (also Gei ben-Hinnom (Hebrew: גיא בן הינום) meaning the Valley of Hinnom. The valley, which forms the southern border of ancient Jerusalem, is first mentioned in Joshua 15:8. Originally it referred to a garbage dump in a deep narrow valley right outside the walls of Jerusalem (in modern-day Israel) where fires were kept burning to consume the refuse and keep down the stench. It is also the location where bodies of executed criminals, or individuals denied a proper burial, would be dumped. Today, "Gehenna" is often used as a synonym for Hell.

4. Tartaroo or Tartarus

In Greek mythology, Tartarus is a place in the underworld — even lower than Hades. In Roman mythology, Tartarus is the place where sinners are sent. Virgil describes it in the Aeneid as a gigantic place, surrounded by the flaming river Phlegethon and triple walls to avoid sinners escaping from it.

There is the answer to your question "Who started this fantasy and when?" There is no misconception, other than the one made by the King James Translators. Just as fitting, it's the King James Only people that are most obsessed with hell.

By the way, the Bible isn't 2000 years old either. It was only put together a few centuries ago. Even then, 60 percent of the texyts are actually 3-10 thousand years old. Since you think it's stupid to "buy into a 2000 year old dusty book", then maybe we should throw away all the 10,000 year old ancient egyptian medicine manuscripts that are proving to be more useful than our current greek manuscripts. Also, I guess we should trash all the philosophical writings that date back to shortly before and after Jesus' time, huh? That would make for alot of empty libraries, that's for sure. Then maybe we could build special schools in their places for all the retarded Christians to get a specialized education, since the Athiests are so arrogant to assume they already know more about the universe, which makes it ok to presume that there are no possibilities of there being a God.

Learn a little before you make an a$$ of yourself.

Since you have not confirmed your email with answers I cannot answer you through email, so I will answer you here.

RE: WHEN YOU POINT ONE FINGER, YOU'RE POINTING 3 AT YOURSELF:

Look, don't get me wrong. I don't go around insulting people who are asking honest questions about the Bible. And maybe your question was an honest one. But the way you word it makes it sound (especially since you insult Christians in your answer to another question) like you're just another guy who asks questions on here for the purpose of stating how stupid believers are. And, by the way, I did answer your question. It was the Greeks who start the "misconception" with the use of the words Hades and Tartarus. Jesus used those exact words, but he also used Gehenna and Sheol. Anyway, don't sit there and toss insults out there and expect those you are trying to offend not to come back at you. What that tells me is that you can dish it but you can't take it. If your questions are truly honest, I appologize, and maybe you should try rewording them so as not to seem like you are purposefully trying to offend people. After cutting through all the bull$hit, your question actually made me think, maybe the Christians were wrong... But I was already angry at the way you insulted their intelligence, thereby insulting mine, since I am studying the Bible and possibly thinking of believing in it. Anyway, have a nice day.

P.S. That was a real mature subject line for a message, let me tell ya.

Answer 4

When did professed Christians adopt the belief in Hell?

Certainly not during the time of Jesus and his apostles. The French Encyclopædia Universalis states: “The [apocryphal] Apocalypse of Peter (2nd century C.E.) was the first Christian work to describe the punishment and tortures of sinners in hell.”

In fact, it appears that among the early church fathers, there was much disagreement over hell. Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, and Cyprian were for a fiery hell. Origen tried to give hell a remedial twist, claiming that sinners in hell would eventually be saved. He was followed to a greater or lesser degree by Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa. But Augustine put an end to such soft views of hell. In his book Early Christian Doctrines, Oxford professor J. N. D. Kelly writes: “By the fifth century the stern doctrine that sinners will have no second chance after this life and that the fire which will devour them will never be extinguished was everywhere paramount.”

Answer 5

Wait I actually know this one, or at least one source. They stole it from Norse mythology. The goddess type thing named Hel was a half beutiful halg decayed daughter of Loki and she was given dominion over the underworld which was terrible in Norse mythology and people who didn't die gloriously in battle were sent there to suffer for being sissies while the rest went to Valhalla. The underworld came to be named after its keeper Hel. Then the followers of God stole it.

Look it up at wikipedia. Type Hel. I read it in a book before that but wikipedia has some detail about it too. I'm not sure when they took the name though, or who decided it.

"She has great possessions there; her walls are exceeding high and her gates great. Her hall is called Sleet-Cold; her dish, Hunger; Famine is her knife; Idler, her thrall; Sloven, her maidservant; Pit of Stumbling, her threshold, by which one enters; Disease, her bed; Gleaming Bale, her bed-hangings. She is half blue-black and half flesh-color (by which she is easily recognized), and very lowering and fierce.
Her name is the source of the English word hell."

Answer 6

Actually it is translated first to Greek.Hell -the grave also hades,the underworld of the dead also pit.derived from Sheol.
Deu 32:22 For3588 a fire784 is kindled6919 in mine anger,639 and shall burn3344 unto5704 the lowest8482 hell,7585 and shall consume398 the earth776 with her increase,2981 and set on fire3857 the foundations4146 of the mountains.2022
These are Strong's concordance numbers.If you have access to one you can check.
http://www.heaven.net.nz/writings/thebookofenoch.htm
This is the book of Enoch you will find references in it also.

Answer 7

It changed in translation, though I heard that hell just meant 'ground'. Lots of words are mistranslated- like the word love. In Hebrew there are several different words that represent different forms of love, but in English we only have the one version-love.

The Hebrews used to believe that when you die your soul sleeps, and when the Messiah was to come he would awaken the people. So people do have eternal souls, they are just sleeping when you die.

Answer 8

Very good question. You told me something that I didn't know. When you go to heaven your soul rises and go to heaven, but when you die you are just there in your grave, since the devil is supposedly below the ground, they referred it as hell. That's the only correlation that I could get out of it.

Answer 9

You are confusing Greek mythology with Christianity. If Heaven and Hell didn't exist then Christianity wouldn't make any sense and I would be doing whatever I wanted.

Answer 10

Apparently it happened along about the time Paul decided Christianity didn't have enough Greek mythology (e.g. fiery Hades, a miraculous virginal birth of a half-god creature, etc.). And besides, the mythological slant made it more popular among Greeks and Romans.