Is There A Hell?

In the same way the Church and Lucifer (click on highlighted words to view content) have been found not to be scriptural entities through the way they have been traditionally presented, so are “heaven” and “hell” nothing more than fabrications coming out of the tradition of men cobbled together from various scripture verses to support a theological agenda apart from the true meaning of those words – as we shall see.The phrase “He descended into hell” originated with the Roman Catholic Church and is found in the Apostles’ Creed – which has only been known since the fourth century. This phrase was evidently derived from an unusually-worded portion of 1Peter 3:18-20. However, the first thing to note in this passage from Peter is that the Greek word “Hades” (translated as “hell”) does not actually appear. “Hades” is the underworld god of Greek mythology and, even though it is mentioned as “hell” in the Creed (and elsewhere in both OT and NT Greek translations), it does not appear in the Original Hebrew Writings as such (translated from the Hebrew she’ol) and particularly not appearing as a holding place of permanent punishment of those utterly lost forever (as previously noted). Words mean things – but the absence of words in scripture does not call for assumptive speculation. So, if the concept of hell is not found in scripture – where did it come from? Our popular imagery of hell can be traced to Roman Catholic writers like the Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), author of Dante’s Inferno; and the English poet John Milton (1608-1674), author of Paradise Lost, who also set forth the same concepts in a fashion highly acceptable to the Roman Catholic faith. Yet none of these concepts of hell can be found in the Original Writings – or, for that matter, in the Messianic Writings. We get indignant at the mention of purgatory, knowing that it is not found in scripture. But, our popular concepts of hell come from the same place as does purgatory – a traditional Roman Catholic theology of an afterlife of immortality under girded by Greek mythology and philosophy. The King James Version of the bible indiscriminately translates three different words as “hell” – the Hebrew word, she’ol, plus the Greek words hades and gehenna. In the same regard as we have previously noted in the handling of the Hebrew word nephesh translated “soul”, the English word “hell” or “Hades” has also been used in translation for the Hebrew word she’ol – but, remember, Hades is a place of Greek mythology not found in Hebraic culture. She’ol is a word whose root meaning is “unseen”, as when one is in the grave they are unseen. In the Original Writings (OT), the King James Version translates she’ol as “hell” 31 times, “the grave” 31 times, and “the pit” three times. Yet in the Original Writings she’ol was not a place of punishment for faithful Jacob was there (Genesis 37:35), righteous Job also longed for it in Job 14:13 and David spoke of going to she’ol in Psalm 49:15. Scripture records Yeshua’s visit there in Psalm 16:10 and Acts 2:24-31. In all these cases, the scriptural description is “unseen” because they were dead – not in some ethereal holding place. Various arguments about she’ol being a temporary intermediate-state compartment in the underworld are simply not found in the words given to us in scripture but are a reflection of the influence of the Greek mythological “Hades” upon the translators. And, it is only with the Messianic Writings that additional “revelation” begins to appear under the guise of “Christian theology” which defines events that follow death for the non-believer and for the believer.