Where it all began

From their early childhood, Christianity has instilled into those impressionable minds the story of Lucifer, his rebellion against God and banishment to hell, a place of eternal punishment for those who were naughty, forever tempting mankind into sin. Having more than once looked at vivid pictures in Dante’s Inferno, they left an indelible and powerful legacy that still lingers somewhere in the back of my mind, regardless how hard I tried to banish them. Through the centuries, Christian churches were very effective at using the fear of eternal punishment to keep congregations subservient to their temporal authority. For the most part, that strategy worked, until individuals started to think, question, and reason—an anathema to any religion. But it is all a myth!

I also started to question: Does the devil actually exist, and is there a hell? I always thought that an eternity of torture for something a person may have done in his very short lifespan was a bit stiff from a benevolent and loving God. Never mind, that’s another story.

In the Hebrew version of the Torah—the first five books of the Old Testament, written during the Babylonian captivity (c. 600 BCE), based on earlier written and oral traditions, and completed during the Achaemenid rule (c. 400 BCE)—the word ha-satan meant ‘the adversary’. It was a generic term used to describe enemies of God and the Israelites. There are no references to a ‘devil’. The New Testament established Satan/Lucifer as the devil, the fallen one, helped along by liberal interpretations of some Old Testament texts.

Ezekiel 28:12-13 describes Lucifer as the ‘Light-bringer’ or ‘Messenger’; “You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you.”

Ezekiel 28:14-15 adds; “You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you.”

Ezekiel 28:16-17 describes Lucifer’s slippery fall into damnation with his fellow angels; “Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth.”

Isaiah 14:12-13 completes the fall with; “How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.”

Lucifer becomes the Devil

The New Testament writers borrowed the Hebrew word ha-satan and created a real adversary, Satan, to be forever man’s antagonist in hell. The word ‘devil’ derives from Old English deofol ‘evil spirit, false god, diabolical person’, which originated from Late Latin diabolus. That was bad news for mankind, but Satan’s fall is not yet complete. According to Revelations 20:10; “And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”

Having created man’s tormentor, New Testament writers created Hell, a place where Satan’s minions would spend their time torturing the sinners. The concept of hell as a fiery pit, beloved by pulpit-pounding preachers, originated in Egyptian mythology depicted in temple wall paintings that showed punishment of sun god Atum’s enemies. Egyptian mythology never subscribed eternal punishment for wrongdoers, and viewed the afterlife as a trial for the dead person, conducted by evil spirits who could be vanquished with appropriate incantations.

A Canaanite myth refers to Helel, son of the god Shaher, who coveted his father’s throne, and was cast down into the abyss for his trouble. In northern Syria, an ancient poem refers to Shaher (dawn) and Shalim (dusk)—the divine offspring of the god El—but makes no mention of an angelic revolt against God. Lucifer is also associated with the Assyro-Babylonian god of lightning, Zu the Storm Bird, also known as the ‘fiery flying serpent’. He was condemned for seeking Zeus’ Tablets of Destiny, given to him by his mother, the goddess Tiamat. The first book of Enoch refers to falling angels as stars, giving rise to the story of the Watchers, angels who were overcome with lust for human women and fathered a race of giants.

Hell

The word Hell in the Old Testament is a translation of the Hebrew word Sheol, which occurs sixty-four times, and is rendered as ‘hell’ thirty-two times, ‘grave’ twenty-nine times, and ‘pit’ three times. Its primary meaning is, The place or state of the dead. There are no references to a place of endless torment after death. There is also a figurative sense to the word sheol, which is frequently used in parts of the Old Testament to represent a state of degradation or calamity, arising from any cause, whether misfortune, sin, or the judgment of God.

The word sheol came to be applied to any gloomy, or miserable state or condition, and was an easy transition to make by Old Testament writers. The following passages are examples.

“The sorrows of hell compassed me about; the snares of death prevented me.” Psalm 17:4-6.

Solomon, speaking of a child, says, “Thou shalt beat him, and deliver his soul from hell.” Proverbs: 23:14.

The Lord says to Israel, in reference to their idolatries, “Thou didst debase thyself even unto hell.” Isaiah 57:9.

In one of the first references that translates sheol to be a place of punishment after death, Jonah says, “Out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou hardest me.” Jonah 2:1

These passages illustrate the figurative usage of the word sheol employed by the Israelites as a symbol of extreme degradation or suffering, without reference to the cause. The word does not refer to the doctrine later developed to indicate future unending punishment as a part of the Law penalties.

The New Testament has three words that refer to ‘Hell’. Two are Greek, Hades and Tartarus, and Gehenna, which is a derivative of the Hebrew words Gee and Hinnom, meaning ‘the valley of Hinnom’, a place of desolation.

Hades means ‘is put for the grave, or the state of the dead.’ There is no connection between death and a place of endless punishment, as all men die, good or bad, but there is a connection between death and the grave, or the state of the dead.

“And death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them.” Revelations 20:13.

This is contrary to what is usually taught and believed of hell, that it will not give up those who are in it. Revelations does not speak of endless torments, as the next passage confirms: “death and hell were cast into the lake of fire,” that is utterly destroyed.

The word Tartarus occurs only once in Peter ii 4. “If God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell.” ie: Tartarosas.

The word Gehenna occurs twelve times in the New Testament, and is always translated as ‘hell’. Reading these passages, they are mostly repetitions, but the word is used to prove the existence of a place of endless torment.

Isaiah says, “They shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me; for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.” 66:23-24.

The unquenchable fire and the undying worm of Gehenna, or hell, are used as figures of judgment that happen on the earth, where there are carcasses, new moons, Sabbaths, etc. Gehenna was an object of utmost loathing to a Jew, and came to be employed as a symbol of any great judgment or woe.

In Matthew 5:29-30, there is mention of the “whole body cast into hell.” No one supposes the body is literally cast into a hell in the future state. The severity of the judgments falling on those who would not give up their sins is represented by Gehenna, which was simply a word in common use to describe any severe punishment, especially an infamous kind of death.

The first time Christ uses the word Gehenna is in Matthew 5:22, 29, 30.

The Jews said, “Whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment.” In reply, Christ says, “Whosoever is angry with his brother without cause, is in danger of a punishment equal to that of the judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca (a term of contempt, shallow-brain or blockhead), shall be in danger of a punishment equal to that inflicted by the council; but whosoever shall say, “Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell-fire,” or of a punishment equal in severity to the fire of Gehenna.

Jesus and James are the only persons in the New Testament who use the word. John the Baptist, who preached to the most wicked of men, did not use it at all. Paul wrote fourteen epistles and never mentions it. Peter does not use the word, nor Jude. John, who wrote the gospel, three epistles, and the Book of Revelations, never employs it in a single instance. If Gehenna or hell really represents endless woe, it is strange that those writers did not use it. If the apostles knew its meaning and believed it was part of Jesus’ teaching, they should have used the word often.

The Book of Acts contains the record of apostolic preaching, the history of the first planting of the Church among the Jews and Gentiles, and embraces a period of thirty years from the ascension of Christ. During this time, there is no mention of Gehenna/hell, and the apostles never threatened anyone with the torments of Gehenna, or alluded to it in any way.

Conclusion

The hell myths were adopted from pagan mythology. But even the ancient historians knew the myth was a fabrication created to keep the people in line. Polybius called the myth ‘contrived’:

Since the multitude is ever fickle, full of lawless desires, irrational passions and violence, there is no other way to keep them in order but by the fear and terror of the invisible world; on which account our ancestors seem to me to have acted judiciously, when they contrived to bring into the popular belief these notions of the gods, and of the infernal regions.

Polybius’ statements reflect the rationale the Christian churches adopted to keep parishioners obedient to their commandments. The famous ancient historian Seneca termed the hell myths a ‘fable’:

Those things which make the infernal regions terrible, the darkness, the prison, the river of flaming fire, the judgment seat, etc., are all a fable, with which the poets amuse themselves, and by them agitate us with vain terrors.

Sextus Empiricus called them ‘poetic fables of hell’. Cicero spoke of them as ‘silly absurdities and fables’ (ineptiis ac fabulis). Strabo, the ancient geographer, described the same justification for ‘the punishments the gods are said to inflict on offenders’, calling the creations ‘superstitions’.

The concept of hell described by writers in the second and third-century Christian churches continued to be embellished through the millennium until the Middle Ages, where Roman Catholic thinkers developed a series of levels in hell with no Biblical basis. The primary images of hell today came from the poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). In The Divine Comedy, Dante journeys through three realms of the dead: Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. The poet developed places for every type of person, editorializing about people’s actions in his day. In the process, he created vivid scenes of Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, which largely became the basis for virtually all the artistic depictions of hell in the Middle Ages, and our modern conception of a hell with demons, torment, and fire. None of Dante’s poetry has any foundation in the Bible.

Since the eighteenth century, hell has been a tool evangelists and preachers used to convert sinners and frighten church members into what they deemed righteousness behavior. Yeshua taught that the Kingdom of God is based on love, but the Christian churches developed a theology based on fear. Hell and Satan became the preoccupation of the church and the principal mechanism to enforce its earthly authority over the followers.

Where has that left me? With faith, but not in the hollow sermons of a church. Readers will have to make their own determination.