The Myth of Hell, Part 3

Monday’s post prompted quite a few of you to message me. The consensus was "Why do our translations have this mistranslation?" It's a great question. The answer isn't comforting, but it's a great question. The answer is - tradition and the fear of going against tradition.

There are some who will not want to deal with the glaring issue. They will try to deflect from the issue at hand with statements like “I guess we just can’t trust the Bible then.” Statements like this are meant to sway a person from really working through the issues. I empathize. There was a time when I did/said the same things. Unfortunately for them, deflection only comforts those who believe that ignorance is bliss.

Yesterday I showed how the word "Hell" is not in any translation but is a mistranslation of an actual word. That mistranslation is then regurgitated in every other translation based upon tradition.

1. γέεννα geenna gheh’-en-nah Of Hebrew origin ([H1516] and [H2011]); valley of (the son of) Hinnom; gehenna (or Ge-Hinnom), a valley of Jerusalem.

Ge-Hinnom, gheh-en-nah, Gehenna. This is a literal, geographical place. It has history with the Israelites and their Scriptures. The fact that this actual word is mistranslated and replaced with a completely different word should cause a person to be concerned and to reevaluate things. So, where did the word "hell" come from?

2. It will most likely surprise, and it should concern you, that the word “hell” didn’t appear until the 7th-8th century AD. Yes, you read that correctly. Not BC, but AD. It’s Old English and Germanic in its etymology, mythological in concept, and manipulative in its philosophy. The Hebrews had absolutely no concept of a soul torture chamber where God eternally and consciously tormented human beings’ souls for a lack of belief in a particular thought process or belief. That’s precisely why you do not see it in the Old Testament Scriptures. The root hel meant to “conceal or save.” That’s it. As the word evolved, which all words do, it took on some Greek mythology and eventually morphed into the word “hell.”

In the 14th century Dante Alighieri released “Inferno.” Much like Tim LaHaye’s fictional series “Left Behind,” (which is not at all Biblically based in any way, shape, or form) Dante’s “Inferno” did a lot to popularize a purgatorial view of an afterlife. This was not Dante’s intention at all, but religion seems to adopt and take over just about anything it wants to. At any rate, it wasn’t long after that, that King James VI decided to work on a translation of the Bible.

Up to this point there were very few English versions of the Bible. Which really didn’t matter since the population wasn’t encouraged to read for themselves. Only the Priests and leadership could read and interpret the Bible, according to Catholicism. What’s noteworthy about James VI is that he was obsessed with his idea/interpretation of “demons” and angels.” Anything sensationalistic piqued his interest. 

What is also noteworthy is that James VI gave additional instructions to the translators to conform to the existing English ideas of ecclesiology. So rather than these translators approaching the text objectively with the intent of “accurately dividing the word of truth” (as the Bible says), they translated on a bias – point in fact, the bias of King James. This explains why the King James version, also called the Authorized Version, has the mistranslation “hell” in it more times than any other translation. After a few proceeding translations regurgitated the erred KJV, the word “hell” began to lessen as translators realized the egregious errors. In fact, take a look:

King James Version – 54 uses of “hell” Youngs Literal – 0 uses of “hell” American Standard – 13 uses of “hell” New KJV – 32 uses of “hell”

English Standard Version – 8 uses of “hell”

If the word means what the word means, why is there such a distinct variance in the way it’s translated? Really stop and think about that for a second. If the original word from which the word “hell” comes from does in fact mean “hell,” why is it translated so differently in the various translations in extant? That’s an alarming question that no one seems to care about. Yet an entire doctrinal construct about human souls being tortured by a God who created “hell” before anything ever was, is built off of a word that isn’t ever in the Bible – the supposed final arbiter of truth for “the Church.” But I digress.

3. “But, Dustin, the word ‘hell’ is used multiple times in the Bible.”

I’ve already shown that this just isn’t true. The word Gehenna is used. Gehenna the geographical location with audience, doctrinal, and covenantal relevance is in the Bible. The place God created of eternal conscious torment for deceased human beings's souls is not in the Bible. “But, Dustin, what about the ‘Lake of Fire,’ Tartarus, and Hades?” We will get to that.

To address the original question, let’s look at something that dismantles the sophistry behind the question.

The word “hell” is mentioned 7 times in Matthew. We now know that the word “hell” is Gehenna. That aside, what people normally do is add up the mentions of “hell” in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and then say, “It’s mentioned X times.” See the error yet? Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (what’s also called “the Gospels”) are the same story told from a different perspective. This means that it’s not actually a total combination of all 4 Gospels that should be tallied, but only the usages in one. Because the others are repetition. Matthew has the most uses of the word Gehenna...oh, I mean “hell.” There are only 7. That’s it.

Tomorrow I will deal with the words Hades/Sheol and Tartarus. People will equivocate the terms and try to posit their equivocation as Biblical fact. It’s not. But ask yourself this, if God created a place of fiery, weeping, gnashing of teeth, and torture for departed human beings (his creation) who did not have “belief” right enough, why are there only 7 mentions of it?

I hope you will keep messaging me your thoughts and questions. So far they have all been positive and mature. Again, I'm always willing to meet with anyone for a cup of coffee (my treat) if you want to talk about any of this.

The Myth of Hell, part 4