So, the Greeks, the "pagans", they had this concept called Hades. Is that true,?

Question

Now, is there any chance, when the authors wrote that New Testement, they didn't just incorporate that pagan concept in there and attribute it to a Jewish Rabbi is there?

Answer 1

Good thing they aren't similar. It's particularly fortuitous that the Christian image of the Devil isn't anything like a few pagan gods/spirits. That might have made some ancient people convert out of fear.

Answer 2

A lot of the bible is based on pagan religions. When the Greeks were polytheistic. Hades was considered the Underworld - not hell. that was saved for Tartarus, which was located under Hades.

The inclusion of pagan gods (changed to saints), pagan religious days etc. was to ensure that both religions were happy. The bible was written in the very early 5th Century in Rome by Emperor Constantine. The pagans and the christians were constantly fighting (much like Ireland today with the Protestants and Catholics - but worse). The bible was a medium for them both to agree on.

Answer 3

The New Testament authors with the exception of Matthew wrote in Greek so Hell would naturally be Hades for that is the Greek word for Hell.That doesn't mean they believed in the river Styxx etc. The Apostle Peter even uses the word Tarturus to envision the deepest part of Hell.He is speaking of the Biblical Hell.

Answer 4

Yes. I think the Jews, when they were in Egypt for 400 years, took some of the Ancient Egyptian religion that surrounded them. I would bet that the 10 Commandments had a strong Egyptian influence. But there is no way that Judaism or Christianity wants to give the Egyptians any credit. Ahkenaton may have given the Jews the idea of a single God.

Answer 5

The Hell from Judeo-Christian religions and Hades from Greek Pagan religion are completely and totally different. Hell is where nonbelievers go in the Judeo-Christian faiths. However, in the Pagan Greek mythology, Hades was the afterlife. Everyone, and I mean everyone, went to Hades.

Answer 6

The Greeks and the Jews both had a concept of a "place of the dead". The Jews called it Sheol and the Greeks called it Hades. When Jesus came He gave us greater insight into what the afterlife consisted of and into the places where dead would find themselves than the Jewish people had in the Old Testament times.

Luke 16:22-26
"The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.

And he called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.'

But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.'

Before Jesus paid our sin debt by dying on a cross there were apparently two compartments of Sheol or Hades. One was for the people who await the resurrection of the damned and the other was for the people who were looking ahead to the Savior whom God would provide. While Jesus was dead in body, by the Spirit He went and preached to the spirits in the place of the dead and the ones who trusted in Him for salvation rose to Heaven where believers go to now when they die.

Matthew 27:50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. 51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. 52 The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, 53 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.

1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison,

2 Corinthians 5:8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

Philippians 1:23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.

Answer 7

Well theres a thought. They must have also fabricated the whole religion of Judaism as well considering the Christian movement developed from 1st century Jews. Not to mention they forged countless documents that actually proved Jesus was a real individual at the same time of the events. Truly epic work there...

Answer 8

if you read in revalations it refers to hades also "and behold i saw a pale horse an the rider was death and hades followed after him" but hades is not a christian word it was used by several religions much older that christianity an judism, such as the greeks who belived in many deites

Answer 9

well, they changed the values upon which the dead were judged, and the torments that the "bad people" would face, and replaced a God (hades) with a Saint (peter) Other than that it's pretty close

Answer 10

Absolutely NOT.

No culture has ever taken its religious tradition from a preceding culture.

Except the Romans. And the Babylonians. And the Sumerians. And the Egyptians. And...

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