The Academics Collection

Heaven, Hell, and the Human Soul (Cont’d)

Questions Concerning the Nature of Eternal Things (Cont’d)

STRANGE AS IT MAY SEEM to those who cherish The Bible, the concept of Hell, as we’ve come to envision it today, doesn’t appear once in The Old Testament.

Far from describing the afterlife as a land of glistening pitchforks and fiery torture, The Old Testament envisioned it as a colorless place of darkness, gloom, and silence. This, in the Hebrew language, was Sheol—the land where the souls of both the righteous and the unrighteous resided. And although the two groups were said to be separated by a vast gulf, both endured a similar existence cut off from the direct presence of God.

As such, Sheol was seen more as an equivalent to the grave than a place of retribution. According to the writer of The Book of Ecclesiastes, Sheol was the ultimate end of all God’s creatures, stripped entirely of moral implications:

For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of the beasts is the same. As one dies so dies the other. Indeed, they all have the same breath and there is no advantage for man over beast, for all is vanity. All go to the same place; all came from the dust, and all return to the dust…

Based on passages like this, a truly Bible-inspired doctrine of Hell can scarcely be seen strictly in terms of divine retribution, let alone that of eternal retribution.

Of course, in pointing out the previous verse, I do insist I’m not trying to undermine the idea that the afterlife, according to the vast majority of scriptural evidence, is a state of existence where God, as the Ultimate Judge, will winnow out the good and bad among the souls of all humans. I introduce it here simply to demonstrate that The Bible, as usual, has much more to say on this subject than tradition has thus far handed down to us.

So, if the scriptural record leading up to The New Testament era never espoused a picture of Hell as we know it today, what could possibly account for such a huge shift in biblical theology?

Actually, the seeds of this shift were sown as a result of several distinct ingredients, each of which exerted immeasurable influence upon the concept of Hell that Christianity ultimately embraced. For the seedbed into which these seeds were sown, we look to a time around two and a half centuries before the Birth of Christ, when The Old Testament was translated from Hebrew into the language that then dominated the ancient world: Greek. Theologians call this text The Septuagint Bible.

Now, this doesn’t mean the text itself was the source for this shift in theology—far from it, in fact. The source is the association between the language of the Greeks and the Grecian culture from which it sprang, which was well known to contain certain concepts foreign to Scripture.

But before this association with the Grecian culture was to sow its seeds of confusion, its language was to play a critical role in the development of The Bible as we know it today. Accordingly, many theologians believe that part of the meaning of the Scripture that states, “In the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son,” (Galatians 4:4) was the fact that it occurred at a moment in history when the prevailing language frame was Greek.

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Heaven, Hell, and the Human Soul: Questions Concerning the Nature of Eternal Things

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As it turns out, the Grecian language is so specific that it far exceeds the communicative ability of Hebrew, with its lack of vowels and scarcity of word meanings. In other words, compared to the ambiguity of Hebrew, Greek is a language of precision.

The Greeks don’t just have a word to describe a “roof” that’s stationary; they also have a word for a “roof” that’s falling. Thus, a degree of textual ambiguity is avoided, which even English contains, because as you know our word for “roof” doesn’t change when the actions involving it change. Only the verbs we use in relation to the word “roof” change. But not so in the Greek. And to that degree, it’s common knowledge that translating The Old Testament into the Greek language was clearly a boon to mankind.

Even more fortuitous, when The New Testament was written, it was written in Koiné Greek, which is to say, the vernacular of that language, which, unlike the scholarly tone of The Septuagint, provided an even greater accessibility to the text. However, as important as this was in refining the language of The Bible itself, the unexpected downside was the way in which the early Church Fathers equated the importance of the language of the Greeks with their philosophical notions, particularly as they pertained to their view of the afterlife.

All this, then, provided the fertile seedbed into which the seeds were sown that eventually blossomed into the theological shift we’re investigating.

As we’ve already seen, in The Hebrew Bible, the word used for the underworld is Sheol, but in The Septuagint, this word Sheol was translated as Hades. It was this choice in translation that provided the transition point we’re looking for, because already in the Grecian culture, this word Hades had a long and storied tradition. This must have loomed large in the minds of the translators who were undoubtedly seeking a common ground of understanding in choosing the word Hades, as there were certain similarities in the worldviews of both Greeks and Jews.

According to Greek mythology, Hades was also the abode of the dead. However, there was one important distinction between the two views. Whereas Hades designated the whole of the underworld, the deepest level of Hades contained a horrific zone known as Tartarus, the lowest of the low, reserved as a dungeon of torment and suffering, particularly for those superhuman beings the Greeks called the Titans. It just so happens that these Titans bore an uncanny similarity to the giants, or Nephilim, that The Book of Genesis says wreaked such havoc on the antediluvian world that God had to destroy them with the Great Flood. (Genesis 6:4-7)

In Greek mythology, the Titans were born of Uranus, the God of Heaven, and Gaea, the Goddess of the Earth. What better way to describe the origin of the giants of Genesis 6, which declares they were born of the union of the sons of God and the daughters of men?

It’s also interesting that the Apostle Peter referred to these angels—these sons of God—and their gigantic offspring, in speaking of the angels who’d sinned and were cast into Hell. How do we know Peter was referring to those angels who sired the giants of Genesis 6? It becomes apparent when we take the time to notice that Peter said the hellish place of their divine retribution was—in the Greek—Tartarus. (Second Peter 2:4)

Then, add to our soil the next seed: It just so happens that well known to the second-century Church Fathers was an influential text that spoke of the special judgment reserved for these angels who’d sired the Nephilim. It’s called The First Book of Enoch; and in it is a detailed account of God’s judgment of these angels whom Enoch called the Watchers. Apparently, because of the uniquely heinous nature of their crime against humanity, God deigned to imprison them in the lowest depths of Hades, the very place that in the Grecian mind was synonymous with Tartarus. (The First Book of Enoch 10:15-17) No doubt as a result of reading this popular book, which only fell out over favor some four centuries later, that Church Fathers like Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, and Clement of Alexandria began to see Tartarus—this special place of judgment reserved for the Watchers—as being synonymous with what Scripture described as Hades.

Within just two hundred years after the Birth of Christ, then, the concept of Hades as simply the abode of the dead was already being seen as a place of eternal torment, eternal suffering, and eternal pain.

Eternal fire is prepared for sinners. The Lord has plainly declared this and the rest of the Scriptures demonstrate it…

We believe that every man will suffer punishment in eternal fire according to the merits of his deeds. Sensation remains to all who have ever lived, and eternal punishment is laid up…

All souls are immortal, even those of the wicked. Yet, it would be better for them if they were not deathless. For they are punished with the endless vengeance of quenchless fire. Since they don’t die, it’s impossible for them to have an end put to their misery…

So, along with the Grecian language, which helped to disseminate the message of The Old and New Testament, came the unexpected consequence of mixing truths that actually had their origin in Grecian culture, and not The Bible.

Of course, this didn’t always have a negative effect. More often than not, the philosophy of the Greeks was quite compatible with the wisdom of The Bible.

Philosophy has been given to the Greeks as their own kind of covenant, their foundation for the philosophy of Christ. This philosophy of the Greeks contains the basic elements of that genuine and perfect knowledge which is higher than human … even upon those spiritual objects…

Of course, Grecian philosophy isn’t compatible in every way, which could be said about any worldview not inspired by The Bible. My intention, though, isn’t to pass judgment concerning the inadequacies of Grecian thought. What I’m trying to do is figure out: How did Hades, as it was originally described in Scripture, come to be associated with all that the word Hell now brings to mind?

To determine that, we’ll need to examine one last seed of thought that seems to have, more than any other, “tipped the scales,” as it were; and that seed is the perceived notion of the immortality of the human soul.

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To hear Kent and Zen Garcia talk about correcting biblical misconceptions, from September 9th, 2021, CLICK BELOW.

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AS WE SAW EARLIER, the assumption that Heaven is an eternal place could never flourish as it has without being supported by the notion that the human soul is immortal. In the same way, then, we must understand how this belief in the immortality of the soul, which has its roots in Grecian philosophy, plays an essential part in our belief that Hell is also an eternal place.

Accordingly, Hell isn’t a place that presupposes eternity, in and of itself. It’s eternal, say those who maintain this view, because the human souls that reside there are eternal and, therefore, must endure the conditions of Hell for all eternity. How else might we go about explaining how such a place could be eternal in nature, if not by way of convoluted logic like this?

“But wait just a darn minute,” you might say. “All this is perfectly fine, based on looking at Scripture in light of Grecian philosophy. But you still haven’t mentioned the most important factor in the theology of Hell. What about the words of Jesus Christ Himself? Jesus spoke repeatedly of Hell as being a place of eternal punishment and torment. What about the weeping and gnashing of teeth? What about the tares and the goats? What about them being tossed into the eternal fires of Hell?”

Well, the first thing I’d say is: “How, exactly, are we to interpret this word ‘eternal’ in relation to this place Jesus calls Hell?”

As we’ve just pointed out, our preconceived notion of Heaven as being an eternal place was completely undermined when we took the time to see how this word “eternal” was understood, or, to be more precise, misunderstood. When we did that, our conclusion brought about a radically new view of the matter, based on the premise that neither Heaven nor human souls are “eternal” apart from the direct presence of God Who alone is eternal.

So, if you’re willing to appreciate that fact, then, by all means, let’s take some time to see how the words of Jesus Himself confirm or deny the so-called “eternal” nature of Hell.

Although it’s well known that in The New Testament the word used to describe the afterlife is “eternal,” not so well known is how much disagreement there is over the true meaning of this word as it’s derived from the original languages in which it was written. But in light of our new understanding of Heaven and the human soul, we should be that much closer to freeing ourselves from the traditions that have shanghaied this word and erroneously applied it to that last bastion of puritanical Christianity—the eternal Hell of men like Jonathan Edwards, the eighteenth-century Congregational minister of New England.

With that in mind, let’s examine the words in the original languages and see where that leads us.

In The Old Testament, we find that the Hebrew word olem is used to describe such conditions as “eternal” or “everlasting” before The Septuagint Bible began to employ the Greek word aionios. From there, The New Testament incorporated this word aionios to express the ideas of both “eternal” life and “eternal” punishment. Said Jesus:

Then these will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life…

Oddly enough, though, when we look for a definitive answer as to the specific meaning of this word aionios, we’re presented with a conflict of meanings.

First, according to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, aionios is said to be derived from the Greek root word aion, from which we get our English word “eon,” meaning an “age” or, more specifically, a “cycle of time,” especially of the present age, as contrasted with the future age. As such, says Strong’s, because aionios is an adjective that modifies whatever it’s associated with, it’s said that “it doesn’t focus on the future per se but, rather, on the quality of the age to which it relates.” Then, according to Strong’s, aionios is also said to describe a period which is simultaneously “outside” of time, “inside” of time, and “beyond” time. It’s in this latter sense that aionios is said to mean “eternal,” in that “this is what gives time its everlasting meaning for the believer through faith, yet is also time-dependent.”

It’s this difference in potential meaning, then, that lies at the heart of our present misconception. It’s here that we’re faced with a linguistic fork in the road that leads to two separate points of view. But, as always, when faced with an apparent contradiction in Scripture, I don’t see a contradiction; I see a paradox.

According to this view, it seems likely that God intended that this word “eternity” act as a kind of cosmic Rorschach test, where the “eye of the beholder,” as it were, is the determining factor. If this possibility holds any truth, then a brand-new way to ferret out the meaning of texts like this becomes available to us. And if so, then quite possibly we no longer need concern ourselves with those who insist on seeing the glass as half empty.

Of course, this isn’t the first time a “dilemma of choice” like this has faced the student of Scripture. The same thing happens when reading the peculiar story of Jephthah and his daughter.

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Heaven, Hell, and the Human Soul: Questions Concerning the Nature of Eternal Things

“An impressive job of plumbing the depths of biblical texts… A historical detective adventure… Shifts paradigms for believers seeking spiritual clarity…”

To hear Price’s essay review of Heaven, Hell, and the Human Soul, CLICK HERE.

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According to The Book of Judges, Jephthah vowed to God that if He helped him win a victory over his enemies, he’d sacrifice as a burnt offering the first thing that walked out his front door upon returning home after the battle. After a tremendous victory over the Ammonites, Jephthah triumphantly returned home to have his only daughter come running out to greet him.

Devastated, Jephthah and his daughter were said to acknowledge the binding nature of his vow to God, and although she was as heartbroken as her father, Jephthah’s daughter consented to go along with him, saying:

My father, you’ve given your word to the Lord, so do with me as you’ve promised…

The reason I bring this up is because The Bible never actually states that Jephthah offered his daughter as a burnt offering. It only implies that he did. Yet centuries of debate still rage over whether he actually killed her in the way that Israelite law stipulates concerning the burnt offering.

Just think: God could’ve revealed the end of the story, but He didn’t. Why?

Because by leaving the story open-ended like this, we’re forced to interpret these seemingly impenetrable mysteries in a way that actually says a great deal to both God and the world at large.

Are you the kind of person who sees God as loving and merciful? If so, then you’d probably see nothing wrong with God allowing Jephthah to follow through with his vow so that she could devote herself to a religious life in service to God alone.

Or, are you the kind of person who sees God as angry and vengeful? If so, then you’d probably insist that God could never be satisfied apart from the death of this devoted daughter in her being sacrificed as a burnt offering in the strictest sense of Jephthah’s vow.

Based on the foregoing, then, one way of looking at what’s taking place in the translation of aionios is to think of it in the following terms. The key to interpreting this word is remembering that aionios is an adjective, which means, “it modifies whatever it’s associated with”—in this instance, either life or punishment.

So on one hand, when aionios is used in conjunction with the word “life,” as in, life eternal, it’s being correctly translated. How do we know this? We know because we’re speaking of life in the context of the Eternal God Who bestows this life.

On the other hand, when aionios is used in conjunction with the word “punishment,” as in, Hell eternal, then it’s being incorrectly translated. Again, how do we know this? We know because now we’re speaking of something that exists apart from the sustaining force that only God is capable of bestowing. So, instead of speaking of “eternal” punishment, this passage should read “time-dependent” punishment.

What’s more, the idea that God’s punishments are always time-dependent is nothing new to the student of Scripture. Throughout the history of God’s dealings with humanity, the Lord of Hosts has revealed Himself as a God of Set Times. Whereas God’s blessings are said to be boundless, His punishments are of limited duration.

Wrote the psalmist:

For His anger lasts for just a moment, but His favor lasts a lifetime. Weeping may last for the night, but joy comes in the morning…

When God spoke of blessing Abraham, He said:

Lift up now your eyes and look at the land that you see, because I’ll give it to you and your descendants forever…

And speaking of God’s punishment, the psalmist wrote:

My days are like the evening shadow; I wither away like grass. But You, Lord, sit enthroned forever. Your renown endures through all generations. You’ll arise and have compassion on Zion, because it’s time to show her favor; the appointed time has come…

So, having been reminded of the preceding tendencies of God, just imagine how different our present-day theology of Hell would be if only those biblical translators had allowed the context of The Bible as a whole to provide them with the meaning of such passages. Imagine if only they saw the consistency of God’s ways, which clearly depict His blessings as enduring forever but His punishments as lasting for but a determined set time. And imagine, if they’d stopped to consider the implications of John the Revelator, when he described, in vision, of that future day when:

The sea gave up its dead; and death and Hell gave up their dead, and each of them was judged according to their deeds. Then death and Hell were thrown into the Lake of Fire, which is the second death… Then I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth, because the first Heaven and the first Earth had passed away, and there was no more sea…

Imagine, too, our view of such things had we taken the time to nurture three final seeds of thought—but this time, not seeds that sow disinformation but those that grow into the kind of truth that restores our view of what The Bible has always been telling us about our God-ordained Universe.

The first is that, in contrast to the otherworldly nature of Heaven, Hell is said to be a terrestrial place, located underground, either under the Earth itself, or at the bottom of the ocean. An idea handed down in the writings of Enoch, long before the Greeks ever contemplated such things, this earthbound Hell was called the Abyss, otherwise known as the Bottomless Pit. (The Secrets of Enoch 28:2; Luke 8:31; Revelation 9:1-2, 11; 17:8; 20:1, 3)

Second, it’s said the primordial ocean was still so pure that a person could see into the very depths of the Earth, and if anyone washed in it, they became as clean as it was. (The First Book of Adam and Eve 1:2) According to this way of thinking, the ocean isn’t just a body of water but is a kind of repository for the sins of humanity.

And third, not only does Hebraic tradition see the oceans as a repository of human sin, the ancient Greeks held this same view. In this, we detect another way that the Greek and Hebrew cultures run in parallel, theologically speaking. In Homer’s Iliad, it tells the story of how men made themselves ceremonially pure by casting their defilement into the sea, thereby ridding themselves of their guilt and being made right again. (The Iliad 1:312-317).

Who is a God like You, Who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He doesn’t remain angry forever, because He delights in unchanging love. He’ll have compassion on us; He’ll tread our iniquities underfoot. Yes, He’ll cast all our sins into the depths of the sea…

How marvelous is the poetry of God’s word—poetry that isn’t just poetry, but poetry laden with truth. In this case, what do we see in the mirror of truth, however darkly?

What we see is that God intends to judge the dead according to their deeds—no more and no less—which shows that His mercies are everlasting and His judgments are time-specific.

We see that humans aren’t immortal by nature, so that anyone separated from the divine presence in the coming judgment will inevitably fade like twilight shadows, like seedlings without sunlight, like flames without oxygen. We see that both death and Hell are destined to one day come to a glorious end by being thrown into the Lake of Fire, thereby nullifying the possibility of eternal retribution.

And we see that once the new Earth comes into being, it’ll have no more need for an ocean, because finally:

There’ll be no more death, or mourning, or crying, or pain, because the former things will have passed away, and God will have made all things new…

So ends this Essay of THE ACADEMICS COLLECTION. To read more, please click on one of the following links:

To continue with this series, read the Next Essay to learn that, from its first descriptions in Genesis, the Spirit of God has been equated with the feminine aspect of the Godhead.

The preceding work is the by-product of a previously published book, entitled Fish Tales (From the Belly of the Whale): Fifty of the Greatest Misconceptions Ever Blamed on The Bible.

It’s available here on this website, as well as Amazon Books, Barnes and Noble Books, and Sacred Word Publishing. It’s available as a complete work and as a three-part series, as a paperback and an e-book; and Reel One is available as an audiobook.

To get a copy of Fish Tales (From the Belly of the Whale), CLICK HERE.