Do Jews have a Hell with burning fire and eternal torment? Where did Jesus get this idea?

Answer 1

Sorry to just copy and paste this, but I've typed this in already a few times on different questions, and I'm not going to re-create my work here.

First of all, the Torah doesn't mention "Hell", nor is that word in the the rest of the Christian bible's Old Testament.

Not in the original.

It's Gehenna or Sheol, not "Hell".

The word Gehenna traces to Greek, ultimately from Hebrew: גי(א)-הינום Gêhinnôm (also Guy ben-Hinnom (Hebrew: גיא בן הינום)) meaning the Valley of Hinnom. The valley forms the southern border of ancient Jerusalem and stretches from the foot of Mt. Zion, eastward, to the Kidron Valley. It 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.

Like Sheol, Gehenna is sometimes translated as "Hell", which is fine...but the IDEA of Gehenna, in the process of translation and interpretation took on an unintended meaning, a wrong meaning; the concept of "Hell" that so many Christians threaten non-Christians with.


Why would a garbage dump be considered a place of torment? Well, the only immortality that people have (in Jewish tradition) is in being remembered by others. The traditional Yahrzeit (the ceremony to mark the annual anniversary of the death of a person) is one way in which the memory of a deceased Jew is kept alive. The yahrzeit is observed by lighting a twenty-four hour candle the evening before the day of the yahrzeit, and most people recite the Kaddish and take a few moments of introspection and thought. Most congregations recite the name of the deceased whose yahrzeit is being observed during the Shabbat services closest to the date.

Naming one's children after a deceased relative is another way to keep alive the memory of the dead.

So....in summary, the whole idea of "Hell" as a place of eternal torment is a misinterpretation of the Jewish idea that being lost to memory is the worst thing that can happen to someone. Having one's body thrown onto the trash heap rather then being buried in sanctified ground with a commemorative headstone, and not being remembered through ritual, prayer, or having one's name passed along to future generations - THAT is the original horror that has been changed into the idea of the soul in eternal torment in the flames of "Hell".

This kind of misinterpretation, based in a lack of knowledge or understanding, is rampant.

Answer 2

Hell wasn't exactly literal to the Jews nor do they think that any non-Jew is 'going to Hell' just for following another religion. Almost all souls are 'purified' after death and become close to God, all at different degrees. Some may have it 'better' than others based on the life they lived on earth, but no one really has it 'bad'. The Jews do have 'Gehenna' which is hell or purgatory. The 'wicked' wait for 'judgment day' there while the 'good' people wait in a better place. BUT, Gehenna is only TEMPORARY, it's not eternal burning like in the Christian belief. Some people say it only lasts a year. Some people may be considered 'too wicked' to be purified but they may just be destroyed, not doomed to suffer in 'hell' eternally. As far as I know, the fire itself is supposedly 'eternal' but NOT the fact that you need to be there suffering for eternity. Even the Jewish people themselves have different views on this.

I thought Jesus taught the more Jewish idea of 'hell' but some of "today's" Christians decided to take it literally. It depends on which denomination you are referring to. If you believe in Jesus as the Messiah, you obviously are not going to be a Jew. Anything he said may not exactly fit with the original Jewish teachings of God or the 'afterlife'. Ideas that Jesus had either came from his head or else, if you are a Christian, they came straight from God through the words of Jesus- as if God decided to 'revise' the Jewish religion and change things around with Jesus.

Answer 3

The hell of burning torment is a mixture of Egyptian, Greek and even Zoroastrian influences. The "Lake of Fire" and burning branch of the river Styx are straight out of Hellenistic myth. The notions of resurrection, judgment and eternal punishment or reward the Jews picked up from the Persian religions like Zoroastrianism during the Babylonian captivity. Hell references start showing up in apocalyptic literature like Daniel and Enoch, written after the return from Babylon and after the conquests of Alexander have already taken place, so the Greek influence is unmistakable, but the concept is firmly entrenched in modern Judaism, though unknown in Pre-Hellenistic Judaism.

Answer 4

There is no hell in Judaism and no eternal torment. Both concepts go completely against the grain of Judaism.

Answer 5

@celeb - you're an quite spiteful female and as such, i'm very proud and humbled to call myself a Jew through fact i might on no account choose for to be something such as you. @selah - Jesus actually did no longer write the Torah! You absolutely everyone seems to be in basic terms spectacular! you're so arrogant approximately who you're and what you comprehend...right this is a few thing out of your hyperlink that belies what you reported approximately heaven and hell: the priority of dying is dealt with erratically contained in the Bible, although maximum oftentimes it skill that actual dying is the top of life. it is the case with such correct figures as Abraham, Moses, and Miriam. There are, even although, a number of biblical references to a place reported as Sheol (cf. Numbers 30, 33). it relatively is defined as a area "darkish and deep," "the Pit," and "the Land of Forgetfulness," the place human beings descend after dying. The suggestion is that contained in the netherworld of Sheol, the deceased, even although decrease off from God and humankind, proceed to exist in some shadowy state of life. whilst this imaginative and prescient of Sheol is somewhat bleak (placing precedents for later Jewish and Christian concepts of an underground hell) there is often no theory-approximately judgment or advantages and punishment linked to it. in certainty, the extra pessimistic books of the Bible, alongside with Ecclesiastes and pastime, insist that each and each physique the lifeless pass right down to Sheol, whether sturdy or evil, wealthy or unfavorable, slave or unfastened guy (pastime 3:11-19).

Answer 6

I'm not sure what the question is. If you are asking whether or not the Jews believe in Hell the answer is: YES!! Jesus is the son of God. All his Ideas come from the father.

Answer 7

I do not know the answer to the first question . . . as for the 'Jesus' question . . . I think he got the 'idea' from the talent of "all knowing"

Answer 8

Gee, could it be from His own writings in the Old Testament (The Torah)?
wachya think?

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