Bible Mythbusters
What Hell is and is not.
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Hell.
There are four synonymous words for Hell, used in the King James Version of the Bible- Gehenna, Hades,Sheol, and Tartarus.
‘Hell” is the English rendering of two different Greek words in the N.T. The English word itself is from the Anglo-Saxon hel, Genitive case helle= a hidden place, from the Anglo-Saxon helan=to hide.
Gehenna, pronounced: geena, is the transliteration of the Hebrew Gai’Hinnom, i.e. The valley of hinnom or the valley of the sons of hinnom, where there were the fires through which the children of these pagans were passed through, in worship of the false god, Moloch. In the O.T. Tophet was the Hebrew word used because it was a place in this valley.
In our Lord’s day, the idolatry had ceased, but the fires were still continually burning there for the destruction of the refuse of Jerusalem. Hence, Gehenna was used for the fires of destruction associated with the judgment of God. Sometimes “Gehenna of fire”. See Kings:23.10 - Isaiah : 30:33 - Jeremiah 7:31,32 & 19:11-14.
Gehenna occurs 12 times, and is always rendered “hell”.
Hades (Greek) used by the Greeks for the “unseen world”. The meaning which the Greeks put upon it does not concern us: nor have we anything to do with the imaginations of the heathen or the traditions of the Jews or Romanists or the teachings of demons or evil spirits, or of any who still cling to them.
The Holy Spirit has used it as one of the “words pertaining to the earth” and in doing so has “purified” it, as “silver tried in a furnace” (Psalms. 12:6). From this we learn that His own words are “pure” but words belonging to this earth have to be “purified”. The Old Testament is the fountain-head of the Hebrew language. It has no literature behind it. But the case is entirely different with the Greek language. The Hebrew word Sheol is a word Divine in origin and usage. The Greek “Hades” is human in origin and comes down to us laden with centuries of development, in which it has acquired new senses, meanings and usages. Seeing that the Holy Spirit has used it in Acts.2:27,31 as His own equivalent of Sheol in Psalm 16:10, He has settled, once and for all, the sense in which we are to understand it. The meaning He has given to Sheol in Psalms.16:10, is the one meaning we are to give it wherever it occurs in the N.T., whether we transliterate it or translate it. We have no liberty to do otherwise, and must discard everything outside the Word of God.The word occurs eleven times (Matt.11:23 - 16:18 - Luke. 10:15 & 16:23 - Acts 2.27,31 - 1Cor. 15:55 - Rev.1:18, 6:8, 20:13&14) and is rendered “hell” in every passage except one, where it is rendered “grave” - 1 Cor. 15:55. In the revised version, the word is always transliterated “Hades” except in 1Cor.15:55, where “death” is substituted because of the reading, in all the texts, and in the American R.V. also.
As “Hades” is the Divine Scriptural equivalent of Sheol, further light may be gained by noting that while “Hades” is rendered “Hell” in the N.T. except once, where the rendering “the grave” could not be avoided. Sheol, its Hebrew equivalent, occurs 65 times, and is rendered “the grave” 31 times “ Hell” 31 times and the “Pit” 3 times. “The grave” , therefore is obviously the best rendering, meaning the state of death and not the act of dying, as an examination of both words in all occurrences will show.
The rendering of “Pit” so evidently means “the grave” that it may at once be substituted for it ( Num. 16;30&33 and Job.17:16).
The rendering “the grave” ( not “ a grave” which is Hebrew keber or bor) exactly expresses the meaning of both Sheol and Hades. For as to direction it is always down: as to place it in the earth: as to relation, it is always in contrast with the state of the living-(Deut.32:22-25 and Sam. 6-8) ; as to association, it is connected with mourning (Gen.37:34&35), sorrow (Gen.42:48 - Sam.22:6 -Ps. 18;5 and 116:3) fright and terror ( Num. 16:27 & 34 ) mourning ( Isa.38: 3,10,17,18) silence ( Ps.6:5 - 31:17 - Ecc. 9:10) no knowledge (Ecc.9:5,6,10) punishment (Num.16:29,34 - Kings. 2:6,9 - Job 24:19 - Ps. 9:17) corruption (Ps. 16:10 - Acts 2: 27,31) as to duration, resurrection is the only exit from it ( Ps. 16.11 - Acts. 2: 27,31 & 13;33-37 -1Cor. 15:55 - Rev. 1: 18 & 20: 5,13&14).
Tartaroo or Tartarus occurs only in 2 Pet. 2:4= to thrust down to tartarus. Tartarus being a Greek word, not used elsewhere, or at all in the Septuagint. The writer Homer, describes it as a subterranean prison , in which the Titans or Giants are kept as a result of rebellion against Zeus.
So , now you can easily see how we have arrived at “Hell” being a place underground, a prison of sorts , with fires continually burning, unseen by the living and those held there in an eternal torture.
We never could have arrived at this silly conclusion if the original words and meanings thereof were left intact in the Word of God, for one cannot possibly take the original words and meanings and combine them to invent such a place unless those words and meanings were substituted for the word “Hell” and its definition arrived at by scribes who would wish us to believe other than the truth. In no way can one arrive at the definition of a “Hell” by using the individual words and proper usage in the context and placement as they were originally given in the Hebrew Massorah, the Greek Septuagint or even the Latin Vulgate for that matter. For whatever reasons, we are taught that the consequences of not minding our P’s and Q’s is an eternal torture that awaits us all. One cannot prove this by using the original words in their original placement in the context which they were used.
So, what are we to think about the fate of those who have not and do not accept the Lord Jesus Christ? Would a God of love cavalierly cast one of his own into a fiery pit for an eternity? Is that the fate of the mentally ill....the untaught.....the ignorant? The only glimpse of what could possibly pass for what a hell might be, is in the story of the Rich man and Lazarus, where the Rich man did not overcome and found himself in a place that he could not escape from, and could see Lazarus from afar, across a gulf. There we find much symbolism used as the things the rich man was experiencing were not literal but figurative, and were not being dispensed by a devil . These were things he was feeling brought on by his own disappointment and heartache, finding himself in a place with definate boundaries, yet very near to paradise - in a holding pen of sorts and knowing he would have to wait until Christ returns to earth with all those who did not overcome in this flesh life for the thousand year reign, where they will be taught and made ready for when Satan is loosed from the pit to once again tempt and persuade as many as he can to join in his efforts. But as prophecy tells us , he will fail in this and he and those who join him will find themselves wading into the lake of fire and it is there that they will meet their permanent destruction, which is the second and final death.....the death of the soul itself and it is that that is eternal. One of Satan’s’ names is the Son of Perdition. Perdition means “to perish from within and from without” - a permanent, final death. If the lake of fire is thought to be hell, then it does not yet exist, for it is created only after judgment day, and judgment day occurs only after the thousand year reign of Christ, and that has not yet even begun , for Christ does not return until Satan is cast to earth by the archangel Michael, and masquerades as Christ and therein lies the danger, for we are told that the great majority of people will accept him as Christ, not knowing any better of course , for they have neither studied , nor have been taught......just like they have not been taught about “Hell” and other pertinent topics. Our Father has a plan and it is perfect and it will be done just as He stated it would , in His word.
There are four synonymous words for Hell, used in the King James Version of the Bible- Gehenna, Hades,Sheol, and Tartarus.
‘Hell” is the English rendering of two different Greek words in the N.T. The English word itself is from the Anglo-Saxon hel, Genitive case helle= a hidden place, from the Anglo-Saxon helan=to hide.
Gehenna, pronounced: geena, is the transliteration of the Hebrew Gai’Hinnom, i.e. The valley of hinnom or the valley of the sons of hinnom, where there were the fires through which the children of these pagans were passed through, in worship of the false god, Moloch. In the O.T. Tophet was the Hebrew word used because it was a place in this valley.
In our Lord’s day, the idolatry had ceased, but the fires were still continually burning there for the destruction of the refuse of Jerusalem. Hence, Gehenna was used for the fires of destruction associated with the judgment of God. Sometimes “Gehenna of fire”. See Kings:23.10 - Isaiah : 30:33 - Jeremiah 7:31,32 & 19:11-14.
Gehenna occurs 12 times, and is always rendered “hell”.
Hades (Greek) used by the Greeks for the “unseen world”. The meaning which the Greeks put upon it does not concern us: nor have we anything to do with the imaginations of the heathen or the traditions of the Jews or Romanists or the teachings of demons or evil spirits, or of any who still cling to them.
The Holy Spirit has used it as one of the “words pertaining to the earth” and in doing so has “purified” it, as “silver tried in a furnace” (Psalms. 12:6). From this we learn that His own words are “pure” but words belonging to this earth have to be “purified”. The Old Testament is the fountain-head of the Hebrew language. It has no literature behind it. But the case is entirely different with the Greek language. The Hebrew word Sheol is a word Divine in origin and usage. The Greek “Hades” is human in origin and comes down to us laden with centuries of development, in which it has acquired new senses, meanings and usages. Seeing that the Holy Spirit has used it in Acts.2:27,31 as His own equivalent of Sheol in Psalm 16:10, He has settled, once and for all, the sense in which we are to understand it. The meaning He has given to Sheol in Psalms.16:10, is the one meaning we are to give it wherever it occurs in the N.T., whether we transliterate it or translate it. We have no liberty to do otherwise, and must discard everything outside the Word of God.The word occurs eleven times (Matt.11:23 - 16:18 - Luke. 10:15 & 16:23 - Acts 2.27,31 - 1Cor. 15:55 - Rev.1:18, 6:8, 20:13&14) and is rendered “hell” in every passage except one, where it is rendered “grave” - 1 Cor. 15:55. In the revised version, the word is always transliterated “Hades” except in 1Cor.15:55, where “death” is substituted because of the reading, in all the texts, and in the American R.V. also.
As “Hades” is the Divine Scriptural equivalent of Sheol, further light may be gained by noting that while “Hades” is rendered “Hell” in the N.T. except once, where the rendering “the grave” could not be avoided. Sheol, its Hebrew equivalent, occurs 65 times, and is rendered “the grave” 31 times “ Hell” 31 times and the “Pit” 3 times. “The grave” , therefore is obviously the best rendering, meaning the state of death and not the act of dying, as an examination of both words in all occurrences will show.
The rendering of “Pit” so evidently means “the grave” that it may at once be substituted for it ( Num. 16;30&33 and Job.17:16).
The rendering “the grave” ( not “ a grave” which is Hebrew keber or bor) exactly expresses the meaning of both Sheol and Hades. For as to direction it is always down: as to place it in the earth: as to relation, it is always in contrast with the state of the living-(Deut.32:22-25 and Sam. 6-8) ; as to association, it is connected with mourning (Gen.37:34&35), sorrow (Gen.42:48 - Sam.22:6 -Ps. 18;5 and 116:3) fright and terror ( Num. 16:27 & 34 ) mourning ( Isa.38: 3,10,17,18) silence ( Ps.6:5 - 31:17 - Ecc. 9:10) no knowledge (Ecc.9:5,6,10) punishment (Num.16:29,34 - Kings. 2:6,9 - Job 24:19 - Ps. 9:17) corruption (Ps. 16:10 - Acts 2: 27,31) as to duration, resurrection is the only exit from it ( Ps. 16.11 - Acts. 2: 27,31 & 13;33-37 -1Cor. 15:55 - Rev. 1: 18 & 20: 5,13&14).
Tartaroo or Tartarus occurs only in 2 Pet. 2:4= to thrust down to tartarus. Tartarus being a Greek word, not used elsewhere, or at all in the Septuagint. The writer Homer, describes it as a subterranean prison , in which the Titans or Giants are kept as a result of rebellion against Zeus.
So , now you can easily see how we have arrived at “Hell” being a place underground, a prison of sorts , with fires continually burning, unseen by the living and those held there in an eternal torture.
We never could have arrived at this silly conclusion if the original words and meanings thereof were left intact in the Word of God, for one cannot possibly take the original words and meanings and combine them to invent such a place unless those words and meanings were substituted for the word “Hell” and its definition arrived at by scribes who would wish us to believe other than the truth. In no way can one arrive at the definition of a “Hell” by using the individual words and proper usage in the context and placement as they were originally given in the Hebrew Massorah, the Greek Septuagint or even the Latin Vulgate for that matter. For whatever reasons, we are taught that the consequences of not minding our P’s and Q’s is an eternal torture that awaits us all. One cannot prove this by using the original words in their original placement in the context which they were used.
So, what are we to think about the fate of those who have not and do not accept the Lord Jesus Christ? Would a God of love cavalierly cast one of his own into a fiery pit for an eternity? Is that the fate of the mentally ill....the untaught.....the ignorant? The only glimpse of what could possibly pass for what a hell might be, is in the story of the Rich man and Lazarus, where the Rich man did not overcome and found himself in a place that he could not escape from, and could see Lazarus from afar, across a gulf. There we find much symbolism used as the things the rich man was experiencing were not literal but figurative, and were not being dispensed by a devil . These were things he was feeling brought on by his own disappointment and heartache, finding himself in a place with definate boundaries, yet very near to paradise - in a holding pen of sorts and knowing he would have to wait until Christ returns to earth with all those who did not overcome in this flesh life for the thousand year reign, where they will be taught and made ready for when Satan is loosed from the pit to once again tempt and persuade as many as he can to join in his efforts. But as prophecy tells us , he will fail in this and he and those who join him will find themselves wading into the lake of fire and it is there that they will meet their permanent destruction, which is the second and final death.....the death of the soul itself and it is that that is eternal. One of Satan’s’ names is the Son of Perdition. Perdition means “to perish from within and from without” - a permanent, final death. If the lake of fire is thought to be hell, then it does not yet exist, for it is created only after judgment day, and judgment day occurs only after the thousand year reign of Christ, and that has not yet even begun , for Christ does not return until Satan is cast to earth by the archangel Michael, and masquerades as Christ and therein lies the danger, for we are told that the great majority of people will accept him as Christ, not knowing any better of course , for they have neither studied , nor have been taught......just like they have not been taught about “Hell” and other pertinent topics. Our Father has a plan and it is perfect and it will be done just as He stated it would , in His word.
