I learned that Hell was invented by Christian translations

It really makes me want to go back in time and verbally assault my CCD teachers and the priests.

I knew it had been distorted, but I honestly never knew the concept of Hell as a burning place of eternal torment holds "literally" no water.

I realize this must have been posted a billion times on here by now so apologies. I'm just surprised. I'm agnostic anyway I look to religion as a source of insight into history, culture and stuff time forgot.

Anyway to sum up what I found. The word hell in which seems to be the KJ versions of the bible. Stems from mistranslations of the Hebrew word sheol which then was translated into grave, Hades or Gehenna. Grave being where your body goes when your buried, Hades being from when the Greeks translated based on there "pagan" concept of the underworld and Gehenna which was apparently a rubbish pit near Jerusalem where criminals and children were burned and sacrificed. Gehenna is where all of the fire and burning references are from. I'm not even going to touch the Satan Lucifer thing.

I'm I far off anyone?

reply to post by jellyfishbrains


I agree. Sheol, hades, and gehenna mean what you said.

The modern concepts of "hell" largely come from A. Dante's Divine Comedy, especially The Inferno; as well as John Milton's Paradise Lost.

The latter also gives us the modern conception of Satan.

Not sure I'm with you that the concept of hell was "invented by translations" though...
I'd say more by poets and fiction writers.

reply to post by jellyfishbrains

Not really ... hell was 'invented' by Homer and given a more positive spin by Plato.

The idea was introduced to Christianity as it became predominantly Hellenized/Gentile...
...and got a real boorst by Dante.

There are several words in the New Testament Greek that are translated as 'hell'...
...but none really mean what they have come to mean.

reply to post by jellyfishbrains
No, you're pretty much there. You'll get arguments from a few here, but pretty much any actual teaching in the bible is that only the 'saved' have eternal life. We aren't created immortal, everlasting life is the gift of god (the wages of sin being death, destruction, etc.).

Take care.

I know this may sound a little crazy but suddenly the other day I got fixated with Antarctica for some reason and suddenly I realized I felt like I was coming across ancient ruins hidden under the snow. If you look above the McMurdo Station you will see what looks like a flat plan but you look close enough and open your eyes you can see the Grim Reaper holding a staff with a skull on the tip of it standing over the Slain lamb with horns. If you really look you can see another figure in a cloak standing behind the Reaper and actually see a dominion behind them with other faces around. I wasn't really sure where to put this but saw that you were talking about Hell.

If you think about it, are the Seals actually just ice coverings that will allow us to see the book of life which is the Earth.

I am totally up for all discussion on this, I just didn't know where to post!

Well, first off, children have never been sacrificed in Judaism. Not unless the offender had gotten really twisted off in a pagan religion - but if you read the original bible, that happened all the time...

The more you study that Bible of yours, the more you'll find that the whole second half of it is a big hoax.

I'm sorry but I never told anyone to look at google satellite while looking for this. That's at least how I found it.

reply to post by jellyfishbrains


No, you are right on, but trying to tell a devout Christian that, and they will adamantly disagree. You may as well give up, some of us know these things, but of late we have been invaded with cult members attempting to garner our souls to their cause.

reply to post by jellyfishbrains

You are so off base on this.

Hell was invented by MARRIED men as a way to explain how things could be worse.

EDIT: I mean ... how things could be better!

reply to post by jellyfishbrains


Hell is not the only thing. They have invented an entire generation of Christians who believe the fairy tale.

I always figured hell was more or less just an invented place to put the fear of God in Christians heart, but I never knew it was based on a friggin' poem lol.

Why did Jesus die on the cross if hell doesn't exist?

also...

Luke 12:5-But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.

Luke 16:23-And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments…

Psalm 9:17-The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.

Matthew 13:42- And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth

The bible clearly talks about a place that people go to if they don't repent of their sins and put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Accept the free gift, its only through Him we can be made perfect and be worthy of the kingdom of heaven.

Originally posted by Schkeptick
...The more you study that Bible of yours, the more you'll find that the whole second half of it is a big hoax.

And don't forget the first half...

reply to post by YAHreigns


Hey thanks everyone for responding. I've been recently getting into how distorted religions have become over time and came across the hell mistranslation.

Oh and this guy YAHreigns apparently did not read my post or anyone else's.

If you havent seen it yet, "The Brick Testament" is a fun way to look at all the bs and contradictions of both testaments. Actual Bible passages plus legos sure put things in perspective. Im serious.
The Brick Testament

They do not read posts unless they are of a Christian nature, or if they wish to troll your thread with Bible quotes. I am sure if you have been around this board for long you have seen these. I wonder if this fellow knows what Yah weh really means, in Hebrew? Yahweh is described with "feathers", as depicted on most of the most ancient Dragon Wings and this idea lasted until medieval times, after which dragons became less commonly seen. Saphira in Eragon is reminesecent of these ancient dragon depictions, and probably inspired the design of this character. And, Christian Gnostics also state Yahweh is a dragon in their scriptures.
In other words, Yahweh is a Reptilian, or more likely a Draco.

reply to post by jellyfishbrains


Yep your right. Hell is a made up word. Even in the translation. Originally it was called HeL...or another name for sheol, the place between places. Or what we would now call the VOID. Its not a scarry place, I've been to the void many times, in fact its well its the void. You can't say its nothing cause words don't give it justice. But theres nothing in the void, its just well the void. And its not scarry.

But the Pr folks in earily christians couldn't use the word sheol, or the word HeL, or the greek word hades, so they simply added an extra "L" to the word and made up a huge list of scarry things that would befall individuals that didn't tow there party line after they died. And the common folks believed them cause they were holy men. And the world still believes them after a few thosand years, but its always been a big lie. A way to keep the slaves in line under the doctrine of the church, and to keep there coffers full of the people money..

The void is nothing to fear, its just the void.

Modern believers in Christianity are very simpleminded sometimes (this is coming from a Christian herself, so don't take this the wrong way.) Everything to them is black and white: Heaven and Hell, God and Satan, straights and gays, good and bad... but the cultural fascination with binaries simply did not exist in the time of the original writing of the Bible. The worst thing to happen to Christianity was the have Augustine and Aquinas come along and inject Plato and Aristotle (Greek Philosophy) into Scripture that did not belong there, philosophy that praised binaries and injected the concept of "soul vs. body" into Scripture that didn't exist. In Hebrew traditions, people were "spirit, soul, and flesh" - they were so much more than a binary with a good half (soul) and a bad half (the body) that tempted the soul. Life is so much more rich than "If you're not good you're bad" and if Christians realized this, they would realize that their religion and their God is a lot richer too, not just a scary guy who punishes you if you're bad and rewards you if you're good.

So yeah, the mistranslation of Hell is definitely because people who were Christians believed in either eternal punishment or eternal reward based on the binary philosophy Augustine and Aquinas injected into Scripture. It is silly and the world has really suffered for it, based on the heinous acts people have done to save themselves from eternal damnation and secure eternal glory.

reply to post by Schkeptick

Tanakh (Hebrew Bible)

References in the Tanakh point to an awareness of human sacrifice in the history of ancient Near Eastern practice.

The king of Moab gives his firstborn son and heir as a whole burnt offering (olah, as used of the Temple sacrifice). It is apparently effective, as his enemy is promptly repelled by a 'great wrath' (2 Kings 3:27).

In the book of the prophet Micah, one asks, 'Shall I give my firstborn for my sin, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?' (Micah 6:7), and receives a response, 'He has shown all you people what is good.
And what does Yahweh require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.' (Micah 6:8)

The Tanakh also implies that the Ammonites offered child sacrifices to Moloch. In Leviticus 18:21, 20:3 and Deuteronomy 12:30-31, 18:10, the Torah contains a number of imprecations against and laws forbidding child sacrifice.

James Kugel argues that the Torah's specifically forbidding child sacrifice indicates that it happened in Israel as well.

Mark S. Smith argues that the mention of "Topeth" in Isaiah 30:27–33 indicates an acceptance of child sacrifice in the early Jerusalem practices, to which the law in Leviticus 20:2–5 forbidding child sacrifice is a response.

Genesis 22 relates the binding of Isaac, in which God tests Abraham by asking him to present his son, Isaac, as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah. No reason is given within the text. Abraham agrees to this command without arguing.
According to the text, God does not want Abraham to actually sacrifice his son; it states from the beginning that this is only a test of obedience. The story ends with an angel stopping Abraham at the last minute and making Isaac's sacrifice unnecessary by providing a ram, caught in some nearby bushes, to be sacrificed instead.

Francesca Stavrakopoulou has speculated that it is possible that the story "contains traces of a tradition in which Abraham does sacrifice Isaac.

Richard Elliott Friedman has argued that the story may have originally had Abraham carrying out the sacrifice of Isaac, but that later repugnance at the idea of a human sacrifice led a redactor to add the lines in which a ram is substituted for Isaac.

Another instance of human sacrifice mentioned in the Tanakh is the sacrifice of Jephthah's daughter in Judges 11. Jephthah is victorious in battle against the children of Ammon and vows to sacrifice to God whatsoever comes to greet him at the door when he returns home. The vow is stated in Judges 11:31 as "Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering." When he returns from battle, his virgin daughter runs out to greet him.
That he actually does sacrifice her is shown in verse 11:39 "And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed".

This example seems to be the exception rather than the rule, however, as the verse continues "And she was a virgin. From this comes the Israelite custom that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.".

Child_sacrifice

How can an all loving God, burn and torment people alive, for all of eternity?
Thank God that He does not!

The video, "Hellfire Conspiracy Exposed" - presented by Doug Batchelor, explains this subject quite clearly.