where did hell come from in the bible'

People who have not been living lives of complete unselfish love need to repent and return to the two greatest commandments of Jewish Scripture: deep love of God (Deuteronomy 6:4-6) and committed love of neighbor (Leviticus 19:18). And so the afterlife presents no bad choices, only good ones. EHRMAN: (Laughter) I know, exactly. And so I really believe that, and I'll probably always believe it. Indeed, God will breathe life back into the dead, restoring them to an earthly existence. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. Jesus spoke frequently about the coming judgment, warning about the consequences of rejecting the salvation He would give His life to provide. This new idea maintained that there are evil forces in the world aligned against God and determined to afflict his people. Purgatory represents the penitent Christian life, striving to repent of sin and be more holy. He converted several years after Jesus' death. And you have that group. Jesus saw this as permanent annihilation; Socrates as a pleasant deep sleep. And so he talked about living in the last days because he assumed that everybody else now was going to be raised to follow suit. I hope you stay safe, too. Tell us about what Paul wrote. You mean I've got to live in this thing forever? But why does it involve eternal fire? Jeremiah, David. The Bible does talk about this place Sheol, especially in poetry, especially in Psalms. You get it everywhere in the writings of the prophets in Amos and Isaiah, etc. It is a masterwork of literature, with vivid imagery, well-constructed verses, and even interesting mathematical and scientific themes. The people, in the Book of Revelation, human beings who aren't on the side of God, are actually destroyed. It just isn't going to happen. Yes, you're right up to a point; God is a . He - Paul was Jewish. It just stops. And that's exactly what I think. God would forget the person and the person could not even worship. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Amy Salit, Phyllis Myers, Sam Briger, Lauren Krenzel, Heidi Saman, Therese Madden, Mooj Zadie, Thea Chaloner and Seth Kelley. Critics pointed out that Hawley perhaps best known for saluting Jan. 6 protesters with a raised fist before running away from them missed the mark in several ways. Jesus spoke briefly about why hell was created, and its origins. I'll talk with David Nott, who's been a trauma surgeon in conflict zones, including Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen and Iraq, and trains doctors in conflict and natural disaster zones. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. So I wasn't always a pleasant person to be around because I was right and they were wrong, and since they were wrong, they were going to hell. This is FRESH AIR. And if you're thinking, but what about this passage in the Old Testament or what about that passage in the New Testament, let me just say we only had time to touch on a few of the points in Bart Ehrman's book, so if you want to know more about what he has to say about the history of the afterlife, I refer you to his book. All sin, no matter how minor it may seem by worldly standards, is an offense against God. I know you're on sabbatical right now. The terrifying images of hell are often influenced as much by church tradition and pop culture as it is by Biblical truth. GROSS: Thank you. The fear is as ancient as civilizations oldest surviving records. These dont burn forever. It is true that some poetic authors, for example in the Psalms, use the mysterious term Sheol to describe a persons new location. We're recording this on Thursday. Youll learn all about key Biblical characters with a heavenly link, such as Enoch, Elijah, and Melchizedek. Our punishment there would be proportionate to our sins just as our rewards in heaven would be . Jesus developed this view into a repugnant scenario: corpses of those excluded from the kingdom would be unceremoniously tossed into the most desecrated dumping ground on the planet. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Matthew 10:28). With The Origin of Heaven and Hell online video lecture, you get a detailed, illuminating, and engrossing look at heaven and hellhosted by Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR) Editor Robert R. Cargill, a recognized Biblical archaeologist and professor of religious studies at the University of Iowa. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Matthew 10:28). In popular usage, hell is somewhat of an amalgamation of the two biblical terms. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996. - Treason: Here, Judas, Brutus, and Cassius are in the jaws of Satan, frozen in a lake of ice. But other than that, no. Copyright 2020 NPR. Moevs, Christian. So, OK, suppose I'm just a regular old sinner, and I die when I'm 40, and so maybe I had about 25, maybe even 30 years of not being the most perfect person on Earth. GROSS: Are there things in the Hebrew Bible that still support the idea of heaven and hell as people came to understand it, things that you can extract from the Old Testament that might not literally mention heaven and hell but still support the vision that emerged of it? And they will live here on Earth, and this is where the paradise will be. What is the Armor of God and How Can We Put it On Daily? This narrative poem took twelve years to write. But Socrates was almost certainly right as well. He taught - his main teaching is that the kingdom of God is coming. As believers, the calling is to let everyone know that freedom in Christ, and eternity with God, is available. It would mean carrying on with life and all its pleasures but none of its pain. Your email address will not be published. It was also the view he himself embraced and proclaimed. Plenty, however, tremble before the possibility of eternal misery. And the graphic imagery in the book has really contributed to all of these interpretations of Revelation. But the main thing is that I think that, in fact, it imposes emotional damage. Since your neighbor is anyone you know, see, or hear about, as in the parable of the Good Samaritan, true love means helping everyone in need, not just those in your preferred social circles. When we originally scheduled the interview we're about to hear, we didn't realize how weirdly timely it would be. EHRMAN: That is fair to say (laughter). Let's face it - the pandemic has made death a presence on a scale most of us aren't used to. Or the kingdom is like a person who gathers up the plants that have grown in his field (Matthew 13:36-43). Four Views on Hell. So for them, there's no resurrection of the dead. Roberta Shorrock directs the show. But the problems with that thinking were palpable: Gods own people Israel continually, painfully, and frustratingly suffered, from natural disaster, political crises, and, most notably, military defeat. Nobody frets about it or gets upset by having it. Ehrman is a distinguished professor of religious studies at The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and is one of America's most widely read scholars of early Christianity and the New Testament. The body is not your friend, and God did not create the body. In the New Testament, the word gehennais translated as hell. If you're just joining us, my guest is religion scholar Bart Ehrman, who is the author of the new book "Heaven And Hell: A History Of The Afterlife." So their punishment is they would not get the kingdom of God. And in fact, it's not right. The prophet recounted, In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted hp; and the train of his robe filled the templeAnd the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. Neither Jesus, nor the Hebrew Bible he interpreted, endorsed the view that departed souls go to paradise or everlasting pain. Jesus taught that in this short life we have, we should devote ourselves to the welfare of others, the poor, the needy, the sick, the oppressed, the outcast, the alien. Walvoord, John, Zachary Hayes, and Clark H. Pinnock. Few people today may share Gilgameshs terror of consciously living forever in the dirt. The soul didn't exist separately. And so you get these demonic forces in the world that are creating misery for everyone. EHRMAN: Yeah, that would absolutely be good. He will raise the dead. Still, in one interesting and comforting way, Jesus own views of either eternal reward or complete annihilation do resemble Greek notions propagated over four centuries earlier. Jews had long believed that God was lord of the entire world and all people, both the living and the dead. Paul was not a follower of Jesus during his lifetime, during Jesus' lifetime. Contrary to what other Jewish leaders taught, Jesus preached that no one will inherit the glorious future kingdom by stringently observing all the Jewish laws in their most intimate details; or by meticulously following the rules of worship involving sacrifice, prayer, and observance of holy days; or by pursuing ones own purity through escaping the vile world and the tainting influence of sinful others. When Jesus was alive, he thought the end of days would be soon. Plato also has ideas about souls living on, either to be rewarded or punished forever. Do you honestly believe God will overlook the evils and injustices that ravage our world? These are sobering words. "It was a foul, dank, smelly place, so it became a word used for . EHRMAN: The various groups of Christians that people sometimes label gnostic would cover a wide range of views. The Book of Revelation speaks about it as the eternal destination of souls. On the other hand, it may involve a conscious existence. GROSS: I'm wondering what you think about when you think about how the number of people who are contracting COVID 19 and how the number of people who are dying keeps growing as we get closer to Passover and Easter, which are very holy times in Judaism and Christianity. Because it will never end. There are people who are terrified of dying because they're afraid - they are literally afraid that they will be tormented for trillions of years, just as the beginning. I have to deal with this in my book, where I try to show that, in fact, the Book of Revelation does not describe eternal torment for sinners in the lake of fire. There are lots of different religions that people have called gnostic. And these are more mystical texts. None of those deeds change the destiny of a soul that is not in the book of life, according to this passage. His earlier books include "Misquoting Jesus" and "How Jesus Became God.". Magazines, 72% believe in a literal heaven, 58% in a literal hell, Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, What Jesus Really Said About Heaven and Hell. GROSS: You've talked about how belief in the end times led in a circuitous way to belief in heaven and hell. And so they came up with the idea of an afterlife with rewards and punishments. The - there are several beings that go into the lake of fire, but they are not human beings; they are the antichrist, the beast and the devil, and they are supernatural forces that are tormented forever. There is a small valley called the Valley of Hinnom, or Gehenna, thought to be cursed because some of the kings of Judah offendedGod by burning their children as sacrifices to false gods in that place. When you join as a BAS All-Access member, you'll get 22 online video lectures, including "The Origin of Heaven and Hell" by Robert R. Cargillthe popular University of Iowa religion professor who is a probing and entertaining presenter as well as a Biblical archaeologist.. If I'm brought into the presence of Christ at the resurrection, and, you know, there's a gap between the time I die and - what happens to me during that gap? And it's probably not a place that people go to, per se. And he fully expected to be alive when it happened. It is hard to conceive of, but Isaiah gives a glimpse into what it is like for a sinner to stand before the Lord of Hosts in all His glory, in a state of sinful uncleanliness. Or it's because of, you know, one social ill or another that God is punishing. Professor Cargill walks you through, with specific examples, how all of this evolved. Dig into more than 7,000 articles in the Biblical Archaeology Societys vast archive with a Library Explorer pass. It tells the story of the writer, Dante, searching for his dead lover Beatrice while exploring the three realms, Inferno, Purgatorio,and Paradiso. For Gnostics, the idea of being raised in your body was repulsive. And in thinking this, as it turns out, the Christians are simply picking up on views that had been around among the Greeks since way back in the time of Plato. God is love. He examines the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, as well as writings from the Greek and Roman era. He repeatedly warned us not to take it lightly: Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Even though God is the ultimate ruler over all, he has temporarily relinquished control of this world for some mysterious reason. I don't try to trash anybody's views. EHRMAN: Well, I think those views - I mean, I respect believers. In the Old Testament, there are several references to a place called sheol. Most people today would be surprised to learn that Jesus believed in a bodily eternal life here on earth, instead of eternal bliss for souls, but even more that he did not believe in hell as a place of eternal torment. You die and your soul goes either to everlasting bliss or torment (or purgatory en route). How are you and your family? And of course, belief in heaven and hell has done a lot of good; it's also done a lot of harm. Sin, according to him, is the byproduct of giving into ones greatest weakness their Achilles heel. Well, if we're being rewarded, they're going to be punished. 2023 BGEA Presumably it would not have been needed until the first unrighteous person died. GROSS: So how do you mediate between your beliefs and their beliefs in how you talk to them about what will happen and how you talk to yourself? They developed the idea, then, that the soul lived forever with God when it's rewarded. First is every generation from the time of Jesus till today has had Christians who insisted that the prophecies were coming true in their own day. As you said, this is going to be what my next book is on, is about how people have misinterpreted Revelation as a prediction of about what's going to happen in our future. Revealing. Our view is that we - you've got two things going on in the human parts. EHRMAN: Well, thank you for having me. The name of this valley became a word used in the New Testament, including by the Lord Jesus, to refer to a place of torment and fire. It would be the resurrection of the nation. Adam remained alive until he stopped breathing. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) And so when you read the Gnostic Gospels, you find Jesus denouncing the idea that there's a resurrection of the body or that life will be lived eternally in the body; it's strictly a matter of the soul. At one point he says there are two gates that people pass through (Matthew 7:13-14). EHRMAN: Well, yeah. Youll learn how heaven and hell came to exist so prominently in Jewish and Christian literature in the first place. When he was on trial, on capital charges - so it was a death sentence awaiting him - he was talking with his companions about what death would be, and his view is that it's one of two things. The virus spreads, hospitals fill, and systems become overwhelmed. And so I think that hell is something we need to fight against; heaven, I'm all for. Photo credit:Getty Images/SIphotography. But then time dragged on, and a couple of decades passed, and it didn't arrive, and Paul started realizing that, in fact, he might die before it happens. - Avarice and Prodigality: The place for the greedy and the ungenerous; they must smash heavy weights together again and again. According to Jewish tradition, Gehenna was a valley outside of the city walls of Jerusalem that doubled as a trash dump, where garbage was continually burned. That also is the view of Paul, that people would be destroyed if - when Jesus returns. Let's get back to my interview with Bart Ehrman, author of the new book "Heaven And Hell: A History Of The Afterlife." Possibly this is a good time to help people realize that it simply will not be that way. This is FRESH AIR. GROSS: Bart Ehrman is the author of the new book "Heaven And Hell: A History Of The Afterlife.". When you join as a BAS All-Access member, youll get 22 online video lectures, including The Origin of Heaven and Hell by Robert R. Cargillthe popular University of Iowa religion professor who is a probing and entertaining presenter as well as a Biblical archaeologist. And more questionswith answers from Professor Cargill! EHRMAN: I would say not so much. And so, traditional Israelites did not believe in life after death, only death after death. It is because of this wish and this love that God sent Jesus Christ to die, to pay the price for the sins of mankind. Riveting. He called those who received the blessing of salvation to go out and share this good news to the whole world. God is soon to intervene in earthly affairs to destroy everything and everyone that opposes him and to bring in a new realm for his true followers, a Kingdom of God, a paradise on earth. Jesus had a completely different understanding that people today don't have. Surely, if there are gods in the world or God in the world, there has to be justice. A few verses later, the Apostle John wrote about the final judgment of the dead. Ancient Jews thought that was true of us all. Everybody loves a deep, dreamless sleep. I think that sometimes those very highly religious views can be socially extremely dangerous because if you think that the cause is supernatural, then you don't have much motivation to find a natural solution. When God creates Adam, he creates him out of earth, and then he breathes life into him. Speaking to those He is sending away from His presence, Jesus acknowledges they will go to an eternal life, referred to in prophetic texts as the lake of fire. The end of time is coming soon. People have gone against his will, and so he is - so he's bringing this disaster of epidemic upon them. And we all just hope that it doesn't lead to even further disaster. Where did hell come from in the Bible? If you're just joining us, my guest is Bart Ehrman. EHRMAN: That's a really good question. Dante grouped people by a defining sin in his portrayal, and their punishment was appropriate to their great fault. About 200 before Jesus was born, there was a shift in thinking in ancient Israel that became - it became a form of ideology, a kind of religious thought that scholars today call apocalypticism. His books such as "Misquoting Jesus" and "How Jesus Became God" challenge a lot of beliefs and common wisdom. And so that's the alternative. Toll Free: 1-877-247-2426. EHRMAN: Just to go out in my yard. He wasn't one of the disciples. We need to read Scripture to understand the truth. People do not live forever. And the other interesting thing is that what the Gnostics did, by reading their ideas into Jesus, is also what the Orthodox Christians did, by putting words in Jesus' lips that supported their ideas of heaven and hell. In the New Testament, Jesus and his disciples introduce a new term for hell, the Hebrew word Gehenna. This is FRESH AIR. What were the explanations in the Hebrew Bible for plagues? Jesus Christ came to destroy sin and death and hell and when we put our faith and trust in Him, havens door opens before us. And so in the Old Testament, there's no idea that your soul goes one place or another because the soul doesn't exist apart from the body. I mean, when you die, you stop breathing. Those who enter this kingdom will enjoy a utopian existence for all time. People aren't talking about nuclear weapons anymore, but they probably should be because that's another way this whole thing might end. In this online video lecture, follow along with Professor Cargill as he tackles some initial questions about heaven and hell, including: This online video lecture will keep you captivated all the way to the endso you can learn all about the origin of heaven and hell. And as I say in my book, as we'll probably get to, it may be true that we will live after we die. Today we will tackle the question: does hell have levels of different punishment? So you have your body, your physical being, and you have your soul, this invisible part of you that lives on after death, that you can separate the two and they can exist - the soul can exist outside of the body. And all about apocalyptic literature with descriptions of heaven and hell. And that was the ancient understanding, the ancient Hebrew understanding of the soul, is that it didn't go anywhere because it was simply the thing that made the body alive. Salem Media Group. Photo credit: Getty Images/m-imagephotography. His new book is Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife. And so I don't - it's not that I think that I believe only rational things and everybody else is irrational. It's not going to be something awful. But in Greek circles, going way back to Plato and before him, that was absolutely the belief. Jeremiah 31:3 even says, "Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with loving kindness I have drawn you.". In traditional English versions, he does occasionally seem to speak of Hell for example, in his warnings in the Sermon on the Mount: anyone who calls another a fool, or who allows their right eye or hand to sin, will be cast into hell (Matthew 5:22, 29-30). It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. Do you honestly believe God will overlook the horrors committed by a Hitler or Stalin? Then it was dust to dust, ashes to ashes. And those 30 trillion years is just the beginning? We're not going out. It's because of, you know, those LGBTQ folk, you know, who are allowing promiscuous activity. They'll be physical. Eventually, he left the faith altogether. Bart Ehrman, thank you again. I'm Terry Gross. One is they based their predictions on the Book of Revelation. Our word helmet is derived from this same etymology, root, and meaning. Some thinkers came up with a solution that explained how God would bring about justice, but again one that didnt involve perpetual bliss in a heaven above or perpetual torment in a hell below. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our, Digital This version of hell is more influenced by Aristotle than by the Bible, with the punishment fitting the specific crime, as well as by implying that people are only guilty of one specific sin over all others. You get both of those explanations. Most people just say, well, look - you know, it's a pandemic, and we better pay attention to our scientists, which is, obviously, the more socially satisfying answer to the question. I'm Terry Gross, back with Bart Ehrman, author of the new book "Heaven And Hell: A History Of The Afterlife." If you're just joining us, my guest is Bart Ehrman, who is the author of the new book "Heaven And Hell: A History Of The Afterlife." And so I don't try to talk people out of their view of heaven, but I think, actually, it's better off, you know, not living for what's going to happen after you die; it's better off living for what you can do now. " Hell " is the place where those who reject the Lordship of Jesus Christ will experience the wrath and justice of God for all of eternity. I will make void the plans of Judah and Jerusalem (Jeremiah 19:4-5, 7a). But he was also, like Jesus, an apocalypticist who thought that at the end of the age, there would be a resurrection of the dead. Jesus spoke briefly about why hell was created, and its origins. You could, I suppose, use the word plague, and the word, you know, plague is in the Hebrew Bible. We'll be right back. EHRMAN: Well, I - you know, I've read about death and thought about death and the afterlife for many, many years now and what - you know, what philosophers say and theologians say and biblical scholars say and, you know, what people generally say. We would like to show you a description here but the site won't allow us. But one thing that most of them have in common is the idea that the body is not what matters. The BAS Library is full of other online videos about Biblical archaeology and historyworld-renowned master . And so these people who converted to Christianity were principally Greek thinkers, they thought there was a soul that live forever. July 16, 2010 Where did hell come from in the Bible? [1] ". It is a pleasure to have you back. This is true even in the land of increasing nones: Americans continue to anticipate a version of the alternatives portrayed in The Good Place: regardless of religious persuasion, 72% believe in a literal heaven, 58% in a literal hell. God will destroy the forces of evil. And so Sheol is sometimes portrayed like that. But his two options are still the most viable. And who doesnt enjoy a good sleep? Have you ever heard of the Apocalypse of Peter, the first Christian writing to describe a journey through heaven and hell? GROSS: Why don't we take a short break here? And why is the punishment called eternal? Ancient Greece and Rome. Understanding the misconceptions about hell and why it exists can be motivating for many to share the Gospel and tell others of a better eternity. GROSS: In a time like this, do you wish you could still believe in a heaven that offers eternal life, in a place where you would be united with loved ones? Jesus, speaking about the day of judgment, will say to the unsaved, Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41). On the contrary, for them, the soul was more like the breath. The first human God created, Adam, began as a lump of clay; then God breathed life into him (Genesis 2: 7). Is there really a God who's going to allow that, let alone cause it? Dark pits going deeper and deeper into the bowels of the earth to the lowest spot reserved for the vilest and most hated figures in history often dominate the discussion.

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