1. The Greek (and maybe a little Hebrew). Where does Hell come from? In this part of the thread, I am going to show you where we get some of our interpretations that we now have in our English Bibles.
There is talk, though
little of it, of the places of Hades, Sheol, Tartarus and Gehenna. What are these places?
Note: Sheol is a Hebrew word, while Tartarus, Gehenna, and Hades are Greek.
Gods desire is that all men be saved. Does Hell imply that he will not get what he wants?
Sheol: The grave; the pit; the place of the dead. This is translated as Hell 31 times in the KJV, an abhorrent mistranslation.
Hades: (Direct equivalent to Sheol; Greek word for Sheol)
Tartarus: A place of spiritual darkness, where fallen angels are confined until the final judgement in the Lake of Fire.
Gehenna: Where the Israelites sacrificed their children to Molech, burning them. God
hated it. For this to become a place of eternal torment makes little sense, especially being that God said such a thing "never even entered his mind." Jeremiah 32:35. Even the Jews themselves did not see this as a place of everlasting torture. It's known more as a place of shame, disgust, and of a filthy past. A heap. It was actually commonplace to dump the dead bodies of executed criminals here to burn (so they would not stench during decay). Even today, Gehenna does not mean endless punishment to the Jewish people, so why should it be any different to us? Who are we to determine where the origin of a word comes from?
Seems a little creepy, doesn't it?
Now that we have those down, let's look at Hell. Where does the name Hell come from? What is Hell?
It surely cannot be all of these places at once. That would be a bit contradictory.
The word 'Hell' comes from the (Greek?) goddess of the underworld, Hele. It turns out, this word itself isn't entirely Biblical.
The only occurance of the Greek word Tartarus/Tartaroo.
2 Pet 2:4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to
hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
Is your great great grandfather a sinning angel?
I would think not.
What about torment? What does exactly is the Greek behind torment mentioned in the Bible?
Revelation 20:10
And the Devil that deceived them was cast into the Lake of Fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be
tormented (basanos, touchstone) day and night forever and ever.
Touchstone.. What is it? It is commonly used for testing the purity of gold. You scratch the gold against this stone, leaving a streak, and apply acid to it to reveal how valuable it is.
Why fire? What does fire do?
Fire has the uncanny ability to make things simple. It does not destroy and annihilate. It simplifies. Jesus said we must become as little children. Simple. It has the ability to purge impurities from our metals, and it brings pain to our flesh. God himself has manifested as fire on multiple occasions in front of people. Fire is beautiful, fire gives life, but fire can also take it away.
What are our stars?
They are fire.
What is our sun?
It is fire.
Fire purges our meat from disease and parasites and makes it taste better.
When we look at people through heat vision, what do we see?
Ourselves. Our warmth. We are slowly burning, boiling. Too much heat, we die. Too little, we die.
Our flesh is fearful to flame, one of the very things God represents himself as.
No, not every little smoldering coal is God, but God is more akin to fire than many of us have recognized. Beautiful, mesmerizing, powerful, life fueling and life taking. Pure with the given ability to purify. Fire fills us with awe; it is extremely fitting that our God has manifested himself as such.
(Note: I am not saying God is fire and fire is God. That is just absurd.)
So, so, SO many of our modern English translations are corrupt.
Let's learn more about torment and forever as the Bible mentions.
Firstly, let's learn about what the Bible says about forever.
The word "
ever" in this verse is
pantote which means
always.
1 Thesselonians 4:17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever
be with the Lord. 18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
Why do I bring this up? Well, people attempt to refute Universalism with eternal life being paralleled to Eternal damnation, being they are both described as eternal in the English Bible.
Let's elaborate.
Some of the words in the Greek are the same in relation to eternity- but let's look at how they are used.
"And this is eternal (
aionian) life (
zoen), that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." (John 17:3)
Aion
Aionian
Zoen
MORE TO COME!
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