Hell Doesn’t Exist in the Bible
How the myth of hell evolved over time
As I’ve mentioned in other articles I grew up in the southern United States and attended many different denominations of churches.
It wasn’t until I grew up and drifted away from the church that I began to study into the book that I was told was the “perfect word of god” myself. I also began to study other religions and what they believe. During this study I’ve found numerous commonalities between them, that are easily missed if you are blinded by the dogma you’ve been programmed with, but I’ve also found many contradictions and plot holes in the Bible.
There are certain stories we have repeated to us in church, one is about the war in heaven, the betrayal and subsequent fall of the devil, and his temptations and trying to lure humans to hell. This entire narrative doesn’t really exist in the Bible, even leaving mistranslations aside, but I covered all of that in a previous article.
A larger farce though is the story of hell that we have been taught. Nearly every Sunday the pastors, in the south at least, they love to batter their congregations with the threats of hell, likely so they’ll give more in the offering plates… This definitely holds true of televangelists, alternating between scaring their TV audiences with the threat of hell, or promising them more wealth if they just mail the last bit of their social security check to these conmen.
You may respond to me with multiple verses that use the word “hell” in the English Bible, but hopefully you know that Jesus was not an American, and did not write the Bible? Also, you hopefully know that none of the original works that make up the Bible were in English.
So what were the words that the Bible used? Well the old testament was written in ancient Hebrew, and the words used were Sheol (שְׁאוֹל) and Gehinnom (גהנום). Well why do we have two words for “hell”? This is because they were referring to two different places, and because latter parts of the old testament were written at a later date, when Judaism had evolved it’s idea of an afterlife a bit due to having spent many years in close proximity to other religions.
Sheol (שְׁאוֹל) is basically an abode of the dead, a place of darkness and stillness where all the dead go, regardless of their moral conduct in life. It is a place of neither punishment nor reward, but rather a sort of shadowy existence. You see early Jews didn’t believe in any real existence when you died, you just sort of “slept” until the end of times. Then were resurrected and judged, if you were good then you get to go to the new Jerusalem and live with god, but if you were evil then you get cast into a lake of fire and your soul is destroyed, thus permanently ending your existence. You’ll likely recognize some of these tropes if you’ve attended Christian churches, after all Christianity got it’s start in Judaism.
Topheth” (תֹּפֶת) is another term that is used in the Hebrew Bible. It is primarily used in the context of the Valley of Hinnom (Gehinnom) near Jerusalem. This location was historically notorious for abominable practices, including child sacrifices.
Gehinnom (גהנום) is the next word used. This word is used in some later books of the Old Testament, but more so in the New Testament as the Greek version Gehenna (γέεννα). It is derived from the Valley of Hinnom, a physical location near Jerusalem, a location outside of Jerusalem historically associated with the burning of refuse and, according to some sources, ancient sacrifices, including child sacrifices.
Tartarus (Τάρταρος) This term is used only once in the New Testament (in 2 Peter 2:4) and refers to a deep abyss in ancient Greek mythology, used as a dungeon of torment and suffering for the wicked and as the prison for the Titans. We know that Jesus spoke Aramaic, but the New Testament was all written in Greek. To me this is clear evidence of the Greek Mythologies being added into Christianity. They took concepts that had already been shifted by the Jewish exile and enslavement in Babylon, and shifted the concept even further.
During the Jew’s time being enslaved by the Babylonian empire they were exposed to Zoroastrianism, and it shows in the later books of the Old Testament, and into the New Testament, and Quran. Three huge concepts were adopted. One being that the devil evolved from being a henchman of god to being almost on par with god in many regards since Zoroastrianism is a dualistic religion believing in an all good god, and an all evil god. The next concept is of heaven and hell, the Jews didn’t believe in a spiritual realm of torment or pleasure, they believed as I mentioned that you just sort of slept until the end of days, then were either rewarded with a new body and living with god, or complete destruction. The last is that of a messiah born of a virgin, who would defeat evil. If you’d like to read more about that topic I’ve linked that article below.
