What did we learn?
Three Burning Questions about the History of Hell
After researching the historical aspects of how ancient societies viewed “hell,” it left me with a few questions to ponder regarding the modern Christian doctrine of hell and how Christians interpret the NT Biblical teaching of Hades, Tartarus, and especially, Gehenna. I want to share those “burning” questions about hell here to generate a bit of debate and see what others think about it or how they would answer these questions. Keep in mind, these are just questions that I would love to see how people address them.
*After each blog series, I will have a post called “3 Burning Questions about…” which relates directly to the series we just finished. That way, we take a bird’s eye view of the series and ask, “What does this mean for the doctrine of hell?”
1. If hell is a literal, real place that people go to, how did all those ancient societies realize that hell exists, or that it is real?
Essentially, if Jesus is the sole revealer of the Gospel message, how did the ancient Greeks for example, know that there is indeed a reality of eternal punishment after death? This is a question I have pondered for quite some time and do not feel there is a sufficient answer. Ancient Mesopotamia, Persia, Egypt, and Greece all had a form of punishment in the afterlife that predated the Biblical account. The way I see it, there are two possibilities as to how they knew of the reality of hell.
First, they were inspired by God. Most Christians would deny that outright (and rightfully so). Second, they simply guessed correctly. In this scenario, hell is a construct that ancient societies came up with and later affirmed by Jesus that they were indeed correct. Regardless, it does beg the question, “How did the other ancient religions figure it out first, before Christianity, if indeed hell is real?”
The final possibility is that “hell” is not real and many over the centuries have read into the biblical text, and taken out of context the words suggesting the idea of eternal punishment for non-Christians.
2. Since the standard Christian viewpoint of hell is similar in several ways to ancient societies beliefs in hell (especially Greek), how do we explain the numerous similarities if the Biblical teaching was hundreds, if not thousands, of years later?
Very similar to the previous question about hell, but did the NT Biblical authors copy the concept of hell from surrounding cultures since those cultures view of hell predate Christianity? Is the “traditional” concept even within the Bible to begin with? If it is, and some feel the traditional concept is Biblical, then they must explain not only the countless similarities between the Christian “hell” with other religions hell, but also where the Christian version came from, because it would not be originally from Jesus.
3. Did Jesus bring the Gospel of hell with him?
This may seem absurd at first but is nonetheless a legitimate question. There is no hell in the OT. Virtually all agree upon that, as I wrote about in the blog post on Sheol. Therefore, when Jesus brought the Gospel of eternal life, he must have brought the gospel of hell with him because that idea was not present in Scripture. This concept leads to a long rabbit trail and I hope to leave you with something to think about.
Essentially, Jesus came to save people from something they were not aware of? And he called it “Gehenna,” which literally means the Valley of Hinnom? How were the Jews supposed to understand the doctrine of hell if they have never heard of it and how could they appreciate what Jesus did for them, if they never knew what it was? How did the Jews view the Valley of Hinnom and why did Jesus use that terminology?
(Bonus Question) Did hell originate in the intertestamental time?
There are many who appeal to the intertestamental time (ca. 400BC-70AD) as to where Jews received the doctrine of hell from, with apocalyptic writings such as 1 Enoch, for example. But now we are appealing to apocryphal writings to glean our modern understanding of Christian doctrine? Are we to just assume it is a “given” that Jews in the intertestamental time believed in hell, even though it was never called “Gehenna?” There is a lot here to unpack and I would ask that you take the time to think through it and maybe just dwell on the concept for a bit and see what you come up with.
I know this may seem like a lot and I may be rambling a bit but these are legitimate questions about hell that most Christians just assume is the “clear and plain teaching of the Bible” without understanding where it originated from and what the implications of a pagan beginning may mean to the believer. This doctrine if far from clear and requires an abundant amount of work to begin to comprehend what “Gehenna,” and the other words of hell might mean.
Conclusion
Hopefully, these questions have left you with a little bit to think about regarding the history of the doctrine of hell and what the implications of it are. I do not raise these questions with the purpose of trying to sow doubt or disbelief into anything regarding Scripture. I believe in Scripture, and I am a Christian. However, I do want to be able to understand if the modern Christian doctrine of hell is truly biblical. Similarly, I also believe that God is perfectly fine with critical thinking being applied to Scripture with the overall intent of attempting to understand it in a more profound way. Questioning what the Bible says is not equivalent to questioning its authority. It only means we are doing our best to attempt to see what it really means without just relying on what tradition says.
Previous blog post on Sheol is found HERE
Next blog post (in a new series) is found HERE
