Why is hell two completely different concepts in the OT and the NT?

Question

OT, she'ole
NT, Hades/Hell

Also why would they call it Hades since this is obviously a carbon copy of the Greek afterlife?

Answer 1

There is currently no Hell…

According to the following line in Revelations they are both currently in Heaven…

“Satan is not in hell, the place created especially for him and his angels and he will certainly be cast into the lake of fire, but he is now heaven where he has access to God's presence and accuses the saints before Him, day and night”. His rejection from heaven, described in Revelation, is yet future.”

Sounds like he is scheduled to be tossed in to that lake of fire at the end of days.

Also... Hades, Hell. Satan, Devil. God, Yahweh. Agua, Water. Various cultures have different names for the same thing.

Answer 2

In the OT, the word is Sheol, which means "hidden". It usually refers to the grave although Jonah said that he was in Sheol (Jonah 2.2)

In the NT there are three words translated "hell" in the KJV. They are (1) Hades, (2) Gehenna, and (3) Tartarus.

(1) Hades. This answers to the Hebrew Sheol. In fact, in the Septuagint, the old Greek translation of the OT, Sheol is translated as "Hades".

(2) Gehenna. Literally, "valley of Hinnom". This is generally thought of as the Hell that sinners burn in for all eternity. However, no all think that way. See my reference below for an interesting viewpoint from a retired Church of Christ minister.

(3) Tartarus. Used once in the Bible, it is the place that the angels who sinned are imprisoned to wait for judgment. There is no indication in scripture that humans will go there. Just an interesting observation. Tartarus is not used as a noun but as a verb. The angels who sinned were "Tartarus-ed".

Answer 3

Different authors, different political climates, different agendas, different cultures, different times.

Even within the OT and the NT by themselves you can see variations such as this... though not as drastic as the disconnect between the OT and the NT... The works that the Bible is made of were never meant to be read together as a single volume, they just happened to be the ones that were collected and selected for cannon around the 4th century CE.

As for Hades, we all know that the early Christians hijacked aspects of pagan culture. Take a look at Christmas for example. It's even quite clear that much of what is claimed about Jesus himself was taken from pagan myth.

Answer 4

Actually sheol and hades both mean gravedom and refer to the state of being dead.

There is only really one other usage of hell in the bible and this refers to tartarus which is a prison for evil spirits.

But 'hell' is actually gravedom or death. It is a hold in the ground.

The greek idea of the afterlife being called hades is actually taken from the meaning of hades as gravedom. The greek word came first, then the myth.

Answer 5

Jews do have self assurance able of punishment after dying, referred to as Gehinnom, in spite of the undeniable fact that it is totally distinctive than the Christian concept of hell. regrettably to your question, education on the international-to-come is oftentimes got here across interior the Oral Torah, which wasn't written down until Roman circumstances. yet believe me, it is been a factor of Jewish custom because of the fact the time we've been given the Written Torah. Describing something relating to the afterlife is slightly difficult, of direction. here on the earth, actual sensations are extra genuine than emotional sensations- consequently the will for metaphors like "burning in Hell". interior the international-to-come, certainty is made up of thoughts and non secular concepts, and physicality is irrelevant. So as quickly as I say that Gehinnom is relatively a attitude, i'm no longer belittling what is going on there. That having been stated, Gehinnom is the place the newly arrived soul A) realizes each and every thing it ever did incorrect, and B) heavily regrets it. I propose the overpowering, oh-my-God-what-have-I-completed kind of be apologetic approximately. fortunately, it is not everlasting. Gehinnom lasts a optimum of 365 days (except we are speaking some relatively, relatively evil person). it is why the Kaddish prayer is asserted for a 365 days after somebody dies- it helps them get out of Gehinnom speedier.

Answer 6

This has to do with the Greek invasion of Jerusalem in the time between the "testaments". The Greeks invaded, took over, forced their beliefs on the Jewish people, and even went so far as to translate their texts into Greek, adding their concept of good versus evil to it (btw, there is, to this day, a Jewish day of mourning because of the Greek's mistranslation of their holy writ)
That's why you will also see a disparity in demonic activity between them.
The Jews don't hold to a concept of hell and torment. They never have. The Greeks had very strong concepts of good and evil and they imposed them on the people of that time. This is why the New testament is rife with demonic possession.

Answer 7

There is no hell in the OT, and the greek Hades is completely different from the Christian version of hell. Still all religions 'borrow' ideas from each other.

Answer 8

In order to examine this question one has to first have an understanding of the composition of the document we refer to as the bible.

The bible most christians reference is divided into two sections: the OT and NT as you you have noted but they are not books unto themselves. They are a collection of writtings that were gathered and assembled as a book for ease of reference. Each of the individual books within each division were written at various points in history by individuals with different ways of expressing the concepts or thoughts that they were trying to relate.

As modern day readers we are reading text that has been translated several times and in some cases, depending on the version of the bible, completely changed from the orriginal intent or meaning of the authors. While the King James version is generally accepted as the most accurate of the english translations there are significant recognized errors, ommisions variations from the orriginal texts and even from earlier translations.

We are human and as such our ability to accuratly and flawlessly interprate any document while keeping the same message and intent of the orriginal is limited to our knowledge of the author his/her expressed intent and our skill with the language arts. Many words are not directly translateable from one language to another and therefor we reliy on the translators ability to convey an idea. This was a difficult challenge in the case of biblical documents to say the least.

As the bible was translated by various individuals and from various sources, some of which were not pure even at early readings, there are bound to be variations in the way concepts are presented.

That is why, although the bible is one of the most widely published and read documents, it is also one of the most widely misinterpreted and misunderstood of all documents.

Hell is a singular concept presented in many different forms throughout the various documents which comprise the bible as we know it. There are potentially many answers to your question as to these two references, most valid will be related to liguistics and the culture of the original author at the time of the writing of the original manuscript.

Answer 9

The Scriptural concept of hell originates from the valley of hinnom which then translates, in the Greek, to gehenna. This valley was an actual valley outside the city walls of ancient Jerulsalem. The Israelites would throw their garbage over the city wall into this valley, & it would burn down there. As time progressed & the Israelites fell into idolatry, they placed an image of the pagan god molech in this valley. He had an open stomach in which they would place a fire to heat up this giant metal diety. It's arms were held out & the Israelites would place their child sacrifices into it's red-hot arms & offer their children to this god molech.
The shrieks & cries of the burning babies moved the Mother's to compassion, so they began playing drums down there to drown out the baby's cries.
As a result of all this burning filth & rotten flesh, worms naturally gravitated to this area.
NT references say "where the worm does not die", in reference to hell.
Does this help bring some clarity?
If you go to my 360 page & look at my last picture, it is an actual picture of the Valley of Hinnom.

Answer 10

OK, the hell as in sheole and hades are pretty much the same thing. A subterranean place, grave, or pit.
The place that we have to worry about is the "limne-poor" or lake of fire as in the following:

And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
(Revelation 20:15)