Do people know that hell started out as just the land of the dead?

Question

In early writings, before hell evolved to how we know it today, everyone went to "hell" because it was just a place where every dead person went.

Reference: The History of Hell by Alice K. Turner

If you're giving me bible references you're talking about a later era, after christianity had already evolved hell to fiery place, to scare people into submission.

Answer 1

yes they know!

Answer 2

Sorry honey. You are incorrect.

There are two Hebrew words.

Sheol - which is essentially where Hebrews went to "sleep." Catholics called it the Limbo of the Fathers. Those who died before Christ came.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheol

and

Gehenna - the firey hell.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gehenna

(Notice how the Hebrew interpretation also calls it purgatory.)

You might try picking up a Hebrew Study Tanakh. You'll be very enlightened!

It's always funny to me when people say Christians "invented" this or that. Like the book "Origins of Satan" that claims Christians invented satan. But satan was all over the Old Testament. So if anyone "invented" him it would be the Jews. 5000 years before us.

By and large that's the big problem with bibles that are "interpreted." Rather than taking the exact meaning they white wash it. There are many names for God in the Hebrew and Aramaic. But our bibles all go with Lord or God. With the exception of the Jerusalem Bible. Which also makes the distinction between Sheol and Gehenna.

PS: It seems Today's Prophet doesn't know what the Tanak is. So I'll share the info. Torah is the first 5 books of the Old Testament. Tanakh the entire Old Testament. See the link below. If you pick up a copy the "study" version has better footnotes.

Answer 3

Well, there's more to it than that....

Hebrew writings indeed referred to "sheol" - or, the grave...

The Greeks used Hades, to refer to the place of departed spirits...

But - do not forget that the term "gehenna" is also used....and in the O.T. (mainly in Chronicles and Kings, it's more of a place of purgation for sins...not just a "land of the dead". It is mentioned in the Tanakh several places, notably 2 Chronicles 28:3; 33:6; 2 Kings 23:10; the southwestern gate of Jerusalem, overlooking the valley, came to be known as "The Gate of the Valley" (Hebrew: שער הגיא). Jeremiah 7:31; 19:2-6; 32:35; the Book of Jeremiah (2:23) speaks of Jerusalemites worshipping Moloch and committing abominations, foreshadowing the destruction of Jerusalem.

Answer 4

That's what the Bible teaches, but most "Christians" reject it.

"The dead are conscious of nothing at all" -Ecclesiastes 9:5

To the lady that called "Gehenna" a Hebrew word, it looks as if SHE is the one that needs Hebrew lessons. Since "Gehenna" is a GREEK word and not a Hebrew word.

Gehenna is not a literal place of fiery torment either. She'ol (Hebrew word for the grave) and Hades (Greek word for the grave) will be emptied. Those in the grave will be resurrected. "Death and Hades gave up those dead in them" says Revelation 20:13. Gehenna, with Ecclesiastes 9:5 still holding true, is a symobl of everlasting DESTRUCTION, not evelasting pain. Gehenna, in Jesus' day, was the city trash heap where the dead bodies of criminal who were not worthy of a decent burial and animals, as well as trash was thrown. Hence 2 Thessalonians 1:8, 9 says concerning ungodly men:

"as he brings vengeance upon those who do not know God and those who do not obey the good news about our Lord Jesus. These very ones will undergo the judicial punishment of EVERLASTING DESTRUCTION..."

The wages sin pays is simply death (Romans 6:23). Once a person has died, he has paid the wage for his sin. He no longer is held accountable for what he did when he was alive and thus is not in danger of further punishment, other than never having life again .(Romans 6:7)

Answer 5

Actually, Hell started out as Hel.
In Norse mythology, the realm Hel shares a name with its ruler, Hel. As described in Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda it is a place thronged with the shivering and shadowy spectres of those who have died ingloriously of disease or in old age. Hel is also home to dishonourable people who have broken oaths. Hel is cold and low in the overall order of the universe. It lies beneath Yggdrasil's third root, near Hvergelmir and Náströnd.
Hel is said to be a hall with a roof woven from the spines of serpents which drip poison down onto those who wade in the rivers of blood below. The people who dwell in the halls are given nothing but goat's urine to quench their thirst. The doors of the hall are said to be set in the south, away from Asgard which lies to the north. The Poetic Edda describes the doors as facing north.
The hall is surrounded by a river called Gjoll, which is freezing cold and has knives flowing in it.
The only way across the river is over a bridge guarded by the giantess Móðguð (Modgud). If a living person steps on the bridge, it rings out as if a thousand men walk across it, yet the dead pass without a sound.
It is similar to Hades and the River Styx from Greek mythology.
The name Hel comes from the same Proto-Germanic source as the English word hell.

Answer 6

You're right. Hell in the Old Testament was Sheol. No one went to heaven until Jesus, according to the Bible.

Answer 7

yup, in the original hebrew faith heaven was just where God lived with the angels and only a select few. the fire and brimstone hell was inspired by the jerusalem dump and incinerator. read elaine pagels.

Answer 8

Ah but then they struck oil and someone lit a match and now we have a flaming inferno. You didn't give any references to your statement so how is anyone to believe you?
Kisses Betty B.

Answer 9

hell was created by christians - so shall they go there, to burn in their own hell;


Have UnConditional Love and Peace by accomplishing this:

Create Your Relationship with Our Creator.

Answer 10

One of the reasons I reject religion was from understanding how they began and how they evolved.

Answer 11

Some people think Jesus went to hell.

http://www.av1611.org/hell.html

But if you look closely, that's not what happened:

http://www.gotquestions.org/did-Jesus-go-to-hell.html
http://www.allaboutjesuschrist.org/jesus-in-hell-faq.htm