Why was "Gehenna" changed to "Hell"?

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Gehenna is an actual place in or by Jerusalem, right? So why was the proper name abandoned and replaced with "Hell"? Or am I misunderstanding - again? View attachment 32094

Why is gehenna, literally a reference to the Jerusalem city dump, replaced with or understood as HELL?

The entire explanation can be rather lengthy and as convoluted as the reason for the mistranslation in the first place.

Why gehenna = hell?

In a word - FEARMONGERING.

There is no such thing as hell and no such thing as an eternal spirit in man - according to the Bible. The early church thought it a good idea to adopt pagan myths so as to make FEAR the major motivation to acquire and keep members. It's still considered to be a good idea to this day.

Again, there's no such thing as an eternal spirit in man. If there's no eternal spirit, then it's impossible to inflict eternal torment. Nobody can torture a dead guy, not even God.

Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. (Ecclesiastes 3:19)

But there are clues that this mistranslation isn't a simple mistake. The root of the word hell is a derivation of the norse goddess of the underworld, "Hel". Our Lady of the Nether Regions guarded the gate between the living and the dead. Hell is thus a mythical Person, not a place.

Likewise the word Hades is a reference to the Greek god of the underworld. His job is the same as that of the northern witch, Hel. Hades was a male figure who also guarded the crossing of the Styx river - the mythical passage between Earth and the nether regions of the dead. It was a one way trip, boys and girls and Hades guarded the way to prevent people from returning. Hades was a person, not a place.

According to the Bible, there is NO quality of a human that survives physical death. Humans die the same death as any cockroach or sick dog or extinct dinosaur. Dead is dead no matter the species. But the church is a bit more clever than simply adding pagan philosophy to its liturgical presentations. In order to "sell" the idea of eternal torment two simple words must be perverted into meanings that everyone except church types understand. Those two words are; fire and death.

According to church myth the word fire doesn't refer to utter and total destruction, it refers to some sort of everlasting barbecue. According to church myth the word death doesn't mean the absolute cessation of life, it refers to non-corporeal substance that doesn't exist in scripture at all.

Death means death whether one is reading the Bible or the evening newspaper.
Fire means destruction whether a wounded spacecraft reenters atmosphere without a working heat shield or whether a Nazi loads a dead Jews into the ovens of their crematoriums.

Again, in order to "sell" the idea of eternal torment the church has to (a) adopt pagan myths and (b) pervert the meaning of simple words. It's been a successful con job for several thousand years, but lately people are beginning to wise up to the bogus logic of the myths they are expected to swallow.

Finally you'll no doubt hear some uninformed person declare that humanity was endowed with the Image of God when we were created. Well, that's true but true provisionally.

Genesis 1:26 tells us God made Eve & Adam "in His own Image". The next verse, 27, verifies its name as the Image of God.
In the second chapter and verse 17 God warned Adam NOT to eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. "You'll die if you do," God said.
In chapter three we read that Eve decided that satan's words were to be obeyed rather than those of God. She ate the forbidden fruit and then seduced her husband Adam into following her into SIN. As a result both died - both LOST the Image of God. As a consequence we do not read of it again in scripture until the New Testament. In Colossians 1:15 we are informed that Jesus IS the Image of God.

We also learn a few things about women. They forever have claimed the right to change their mind about things - INCLUDING the Word of God. They hold their OPINION (the actual name of the forbidden fruit) to be of higher status than even that of their husbands. They generally prefer to embrace satan itself rather than God for their mother was EVE.

To review, we read that the eternal component God, the Image of God, was originally granted to Eve & Adam but was lost and removed from them due to SIN. The Image of God isn't mentioned again in scripture until the advent of the Son of Man. We are also told that the gift of the Image of God to those who repent of their SIN (the reason we lost it in the first place) is granted in the person of Jesus Christ.

Not for nothing is this blessing called the Second Birth for it is the birth of the eternal spirit, the lost Image of God, within those who have it not - within those who are doomed to death without it.

that's me, hollering from the choir loft...

 

[MatthewG]

The reason why, because of Augustine hated his flesh, and had a vision of hell that in the 1500 was believed, and the King at the time told them to write as it is believed now today, with ghenna as seen a final resting place for people on fire, which would last forever and John Calvin also believed in this version of an interpretation of hell, and it is still believed now today in Modern Time.


If anyone does a study on hell; they will realize by looking at the Old Testament scriptures and asking God to help you understand you will become more accustom to being able to actually see the Parable of Rich man and Lazarus and the differences between “the good place of the covering of the dead, and the bad place of separation from the good place but still have the ability to roam. They were souls in this realm of the dead until the coming of Christ. Yes also those angels in prison which was said to be even further away.

When it does come to the Lake of Fire? If the lake of fire is from God and it purged those are seeing to want more of the light; I have no problem with what God allows. All I understand though is hell is done away with, it was not a fun place to be; but in the heavenly everyone has a spiritual body, either condemned (outside the kingdom), or of life and able to go (inside of the kingdom).

But many suspect that it being spiritual it’s probably heresy because many people want to be. Resurrecting with their physical bodies, like Jesus (but he had to come back like that).

You can’t see spirits; but there are spiritual forces that affect the soul of people even today turning their hearts more to darkness.

But now today i believe God can be seen in the fullness of Christ on the throne in heaven. The Lord God ALMIGHTY who had victory over all things.

 

[[email protected]]

The reason why, because of Augustine hated his flesh, and had a vision of hell that in the 1500 was believed, and the King at the time told them to write as it is believed now today, with ghenna as seen a final resting place for people on fire, which would last forever and John Calvin also believed in this version of an interpretation of hell, and it is still believed now today in Modern Time.


If anyone does a study on hell; they will realize by looking at the Old Testament scriptures and asking God to help you understand you will become more accustom to being able to actually see the Parable of Rich man and Lazarus and the differences between “the good place of the covering of the dead, and the bad place of separation from the good place but still have the ability to roam. They were souls in this realm of the dead until the coming of Christ. Yes also those angels in prison which was said to be even further away.

When it does come to the Lake of Fire? If the lake of fire is from God and it purged those are seeing to want more of the light; I have no problem with what God allows. All I understand though is hell is done away with, it was not a fun place to be; but in the heavenly everyone has a spiritual body, either condemned (outside the kingdom), or of life and able to go (inside of the kingdom).

But many suspect that it being spiritual it’s probably heresy because many people want to be. Resurrecting with their physical bodies, like Jesus (but he had to come back like that).

You can’t see spirits; but there are spiritual forces that affect the soul of people even today turning their hearts more to darkness.

But now today i believe God can be seen in the fullness of Christ on the throne in heaven. The Lord God ALMIGHTY who had victory over all things.

The parable of the rich man and Lazarus was a GREEK ALLEGORY. Don't over spiritualize it and PLEASE stop using religious buzz words to validate your assertions. I consider such references to be insulting and erroneous. Please stop.

Jesus often quoted fictitious characters or hypothetical situations to illustrate a point. This was the accepted method of teaching that rabbis used with their students. Jesus was no exception in doing so except that He also employed physical and spiritual healing to authorize His precepts. In the case of the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, Jesus was specifically addressing His teaching on RESURRECTION. (Luke 16 - READ IT) To underline and embolden His words He later returned to life an ACTUAL MAN named Lazarus who had been dead for several days. This was NOT coincidence. It was deliberate on Jesus' part. Unfortunately the church has MISSED THE POINT.

Again, the parable of Lazarus and the rich man was about resurrection not the myth of eternal torment.

Prior to the Maccabean revolt, Greek culture influenced the people of Palestine (Israel) greatly. By the time of Jesus' arrival everyone knew and understood a bit of Greek culture, which included myths such as Hades and the River Styx. Jesus used this familiarity to make a point - point being resurrection, not pagan Greek culture.

Unfortunately the church, which has become a pagan religious franchise and which has betrayed the gospel at several points, now chooses to promote pagan philosophy and myth rather than that which God intended.

that's me, hollering from the choir loft...

 

[Grailhunter]

Back in the day I called this Essay “The fate of the Hebrew scriptures”

At the close of the Hebrew texts the Jews find themselves under, more or less the friendly rule of the Persians after they had conquered the Babylonians.

At this point the Hebrew texts are in the process of being modified by the Jews. (500 BC +-) So the changes in the Hebrew texts in their journey to become the Christian Old Testament is not entirely under the influence of Christianity.

Now nailing down to who it was that decided to modify the Hebrew texts is impossible and that goes for all of the changes to the Hebrew texts. So the phrase, “For various, really unknown reasons, someone decided to make massive changes to the Hebrew texts.”….that is about the most accurate way of putting it.

The removal of God’s name from the scriptures
To start with the Israelites / Jews had several names for Yahweh….the one proper name for God that was written in the Hebrew texts was the Tetragrammaton YHWH which probably was the phonic spelling of how His name sounded. There were other names for Yahweh but this was considered the proper name for God.

Supposedly the Jews eventually came to believe that the commandment to not use the Lord's name in vain, meant that God did not want His name ever uttered on earth. Even today when the Jews write God it is G-d. I do not buy this explanation but that is what happened. By the time the Hebrew scriptures are translated into Greek (the Septuagint) God’s proper name had been entirely removed from the scriptures. Which means they had to remove YHWH 6807 times and replace it with either word LORD or God or both. This constituted a massive modification to the Hebrew texts.

The process of the Septuagint
Of course the Septuagint was the translation from Hebrew to Greek. How many errors that were made in this translational process is a matter of debate, but it is well covered in college and there are books written on it. The Septuagint gives us a hint to Jewish beliefs that had formed while the Jews were under Persian rule. The Jews of the Hebrew texts did not believe in Hell or a devil, but the Jews in the New Testament knew what Christ was talking about when He referenced a fiery eternal punishment and Satan as the Devil and also as a serpent or dragon. So those beliefs were reflected in the translation of the Hebrew scriptures into the Greek.

What caused these Jewish beliefs….some say that it was because of Zoroastrianism, which the Jews were exposed to in Persia, which included beliefs of a place of fiery punishment and a Devil as well as angels and resurrections. And so words that could be translated to serpent or dragon were translated that way in the Septuagint. Since the Jews of the Hebrew Bible did not believe in a devil there was no scriptural connection between the serpent in Eden and Satan. In fact the word Satan as an individual does not appear very often in the Hebrew texts….mostly in Job.

So in the Septuagint the word Satan appears 15 times and the word devil appears 4 times. But by the time of the New Testament this belief is fully in play. Satan and Hell and Satan as a serpent or dragon was believed by most Jews, including the Apostles. So this is not due to a Christian influence it was already a belief in the Gospel era. But either way after the biblical era the Jews rejected the beliefs concerning Hell and the Devil.

The Hebrew texts become the Christian Old Testament
The Hebrew texts remain the same through the New Testament period and any time the New Testament mentions scriptures they are referring to the Hebrew texts. There seems to be little changes made to the Hebrew texts until the Middle Ages. Then after the Hebrew texts are translated to English the J slam hits and massive changes occur in the Old and New Testaments. The names of any person, place, or thing that started with a Y are changed to a J. You can look this up yourself and you will find that Job is actually Yob and etc etc Jacob is actually Yacob…etc. If you ever travel to Jerusalem ask them to pronounce the name of their city in Hebrew. At this point the transformation of the Hebrew texts to the Christian Old Testament is complete. But there are still questions.

The Apostles used the Greek word Iēsous Ἰησοῦς as the name for Christ. This is a Greek word…not a name….it means healer or noble. Greeks are not named this because it is a word. Christ’s name is known to be a common name in the Hebrew texts…. It is Yeshua or then Jeshua or Joshua in the Christianized Old Testament. There is nothing that is translated to the name Jesus or can be translated to Jesus. No one knows where the name Jesus came from. The Tyndale and Geneva Bibles used the word Iēsous and the first print of the KJV used the word Iēsous. The big picture, the names of God the Father and God the Son are not in our Bibles. Who would want that? There is an effort to put their names back in the scriptures …These Bibles are called Sacred Name Bibles.

 

[MatthewG]

The parable of the rich man and Lazarus was a GREEK ALLEGORY. Don't over spiritualize it and PLEASE stop using religious buzz words to validate your assertions. I consider such references to be insulting and erroneous. Please stop.

Jesus often quoted fictitious characters or hypothetical situations to illustrate a point. This was the accepted method of teaching that rabbis used with their students. Jesus was no exception in doing so except that He also employed physical and spiritual healing to authorize His precepts. In the case of the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, Jesus was specifically addressing His teaching on RESURRECTION. (Luke 16 - READ IT) To underline and embolden His words He later returned to life an ACTUAL MAN named Lazarus who had been dead for several days. This was NOT coincidence. It was deliberate on Jesus' part. Unfortunately the church has MISSED THE POINT.

Again, the parable of Lazarus and the rich man was about resurrection not the myth of eternal torment.

Prior to the Maccabean revolt, Greek culture influenced the people of Palestine (Israel) greatly. By the time of Jesus' arrival everyone knew and understood a bit of Greek culture, which included myths such as Hades and the River Styx. Jesus used this familiarity to make a point - point being resurrection, not pagan Greek culture.

Unfortunately the church, which has become a pagan religious franchise and which has betrayed the gospel at several points, now chooses to promote pagan philosophy and myth rather than that which God intended.

that's me, hollering from the choir loft...

Why do I have to stop? Jesus, described what it was like to be in Sheol/hell, died on the cross and went there, as the Word of God, visiting those in paradise and those in prison. Just like Jonah, in the belly of a giant fish, being in there three days and three nights. There is nothing wrong with my understanding it would just be hard to believe I guess if people are taught differently, according to the traditions of man, if so be the case.

Just like the teaching of Augustine, whom I mentioned prior who had a belief in a literal flaming tormenting hell where people were burned alive. Also Jon Calvin? And hell once I believed it too. Until truth came in and broke my freedom from bondage.

 

[Robert Gwin]

My understanding is that Gehenna was a place outside of Jerusalem that was used to burn garbage and that Jesus was symbolically using Gehenna as a metaphor for the Lake of Fire.

I share the view that Bible translators changed Gehenna to Hell for their own nefarious, purposes.

You are exactly correct Patrick. So then what does the lake of fire symbolize?

 

[Robert Gwin]

Bingo.

Your avatar brings back memories Lambo. I remember drawing Kilroy on tubs at work frequently. I giggle thinking back about it sir. Thanks for the smile you put on my face today.

 

[Robert Gwin]

Or was it to raise money by selling "Get out of Hell" blessings?

I believe initially they sincerely wanted people to serve God, but no doubt it did evolve into that. I didn't even consider that, but fully agree that is a major factor among some faiths.

 

[Robert Gwin]

Uh, what was Jesus trying to do:

“And do not fear those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. But rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28)

Did you pick up on what Jesus was saying Michiah? What happens to those in Gehenna?

 

[Michiah-Imla]

What happens to those in Gehenna?

You don’t want to go there for a first hand experience…

 

[DoctrineOfGabriel]

From גֵּיא בֶן הִנֹּם‎ (gēʔ ḇen hinnōm, “valley of the son of Hinnom”), a valley near the old city of Jerusalem. The "son of Hinnom" was, according to the Bible, a Canaanite culture hero.

As some people mentioned, the vally used to get very hot, and from experience, the mountain areas of Jerusalem can get very rocky and dry.
I guess it was a cultural thing that created the idea of gehenom being a place where you dont want to go.
Maybe they even used to send some people there as punishment.

 

[QuantumBit]

The word 'Tophet' is synonymous with the Lake of Fire. But where did the word Tophet come from? Why is that another name for the Lake of Fire?

Let us examine these verses…

Isaiah 30:33 (KJV)
“For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.”

Here is another translation…

Isaiah 30:33 (JPS Tanakh 1917)
“For a hearth is ordered of old; Yea, for the king it is prepared, Deep and large; The pile thereof is fire and much wood; The breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.”

Notice the word ‘Hearth’? That is our first clue. ‘Tophet’ is synonymous with the word ‘Hearth’.

The word Tophet has its origins from the Old Testament and the ‘Everlasting Fire’ of God that was to always be burning in the Brazen Altar…

Leviticus 6:13
“The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out.”

Esh means Fire…

Strong's Hebrew: 784. אֵשׁ (esh) -- a fire

Jah means Jehovah…

Strong's Hebrew: 3050. יָהּ (Yah) -- the name of the God of Israel

Together they form ‘Esh-Jah’, the Fire of the LORD. Why is this important? According to the Scholars, the word Tophet is another name for a Goddess called ‘Vesta’…

“…it is well known that the Romans had their goddess Vesta, whom Velleius Paterculus calls the keeper of the perpetual fires; and there were certain virgins, called the "vestal" virgins, whose business it was to take care that the fire never went out; and is by Virgil called the eternal fire”

“…and Vesta itself is thought by some learned men to be the same with (hy-va) "Esh-jah", the fire of Jehovah…”

Leviticus 6:13 - Bible Verse Meaning and Commentary

What does Leviticus 6:13 mean? Read commentary on this popular Bible verse and understand the real meaning behind God's Word using John Gill's Exposition of the Bible.

www.biblestudytools.com

Vesta is the Roman equivalent to the Greek Hestia. Note that Hestia is the Sister of Hades. The word ‘Hades’ is used in the Bible several times. Thus, it is no surprise that Hesta/Vesta would be in the Bible as well.

Vesta/Hestia is the Goddess of the Hearth…

Isaiah 30:33 (JPS Tanakh 1917)
“For a hearth is ordered of old; Yea, for the king it is prepared, Deep and large; The pile thereof is fire and much wood; The breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.”

And now that we have established that the Biblical 'Tophet' is the same as the Goddess 'Vesta', we can study who Vesta was to gain insight as to what the Lake of Fire is really all about.

What we discover is that Vesta’s (Tophet’s) image was almost never depicted in art. Why?

“The myths depicting Vesta and her priestesses were few; the most notable of them were tales of miraculous impregnation of a virgin priestess by a phallus appearing in the flames of the sacred hearth — the manifestation of the goddess combined with a male supernatural being.”

Vesta (mythology) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Now isn't that something? According to the Bible and other reputable sources, the Lake of Fire is none other than the Moment of Conception. Talk about Baptism of Fire!

Here is another source...

​

An Hebrew and English lexicon, without points ... To this work are prefixed an Hebrew and a Chaldie grammar, without points : Parkhurst, John, 1728-1797 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

26

archive.org

 

[Enoch111]

Gehenna is an actual place in or by Jerusalem, right? So why was the proper name abandoned and replaced with "Hell"? Or am I misunderstanding - again?

Yes you are misunderstanding again. It was not a change but a symbolism. Please note:

Strong's Concordance
geenna: Gehenna, a valley W. and South of Jer., also a symbolic name for the final place of punishment of the ungodly
Original Word: γέεννα, ης, ἡ
Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine
Transliteration: geenna
Phonetic Spelling: (gheh'-en-nah)
Definition: Gehenna, a valley west and South of Jerusalem, also a symbolic name for the final place of punishment of the ungodly
Usage: Gehenna, and originally the name of a valley or cavity near Jerusalem, a place underneath the earth, a place of punishment for evil. [Note: It is NOT underneath the earth, since it is the Lake of Fire]

Christ called the Lake of Fire "Hell", and the word "Gehenna" was used in the Greek. See Mark chapter 9:42-48.

 

[Enoch111]

"Gehinnon" is current understood by the Jewish people as a Purgatory like place with a maximum sentence of 1 year. (Source: Rabbi Marc Friedman)

Both Purgatory and the Jewish concept are false. Christians should ignore this.

Gehenna = the Lake of Fire = eternal torment and eternal damnation. The Lake of Fire was created for the devil and his angels , and it is in "outer darkness". On the other hand Sheol/Hades (mistranslated as "hell" or "the grave") is in the "heart of the earth" or "the lower parts of the earth". That is where the unrighteous dead go to await their final judgment. These are two distinct and separate regions.

 

[MatthewG]

Mark chapter 9:42-48.

That is no true, he is talking about the valley. And that people would literally be thrown in there; people who died were taken down into hell. This has nothing to do with the lake of fire. He is talking about the physical doing of people throwing them into the fire of ghenna. And those fires did not stop raging. It’s funny today they are not.

But maybe I am wrong.



Either way I still see the fire as a refiners fire that purges darkness away despite if people believe God couldn’t do that for people in heaven.

 

[QuantumBit]

If the Lake of Fire is synonymous with Gehenna, then why is no one talking about PASSING THROUGH it?

Leviticus 18:21
"And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD."

Christians are baffled.

 

[Enoch111]

That is no true, he is talking about the valley.

It is absolutely true. Christ was NOT talking about the valley of Hinnom. Read that passage again and see what it means. In fact it speaks of "hell fire" (v 47) also called "the fire that NEVER SHALL BE QUENCHED". John the Baptist called it "unquenchable fire".

Yes you are totally wrong and need to carefully study this subject. People are constantly trying to pervert the doctrine of eternal damnation.

 

[MatthewG]

That is okay. One of us for sure is wrong. Either way, done explained the lake of fire on another study, thread. Love you anyway Enoch.

 

[MatthewG]

I believe people are gonn be resurrect condemned spiritually, personally @Enoch111.

 

[Enoch111]

I believe people are gonna be resurrect condemned spiritually, personally

Matthew, the last thing anyone should be doing is cooking up their own theology. Which you have been attempting to do all along. What does the "resurrection of damnation" mean (John 5:29)? Does it not mean that all the souls and spirits which were in Hades will be resurrected, judged, and then cast into the Lake of Fire? So what is this "spiritually" you have cooked up? Resurrection means they literally have bodies.