leftrightleftrightleft
Well-Known Member
No, but I think they are the major qualities that should be emphasized (and are emphasized in the Bible).
Not knowing something is an admission of my limited human capabilities, but I am still able to argue what I think is the best understanding.
I would argue there are none...more on this later in my post.
Because the language and context do not tell you its literal.
If you don't go by the historical, linguistic and internal evidence then you don't know much about what Jesus intended.
That's not what I'm basing it on. It is not mentioned in the Old Testament because hell was not even a theological idea. The main basis of my argument that Hell is metaphorical is that the word "hell" actually refers, metaphorically, to a garbage dump southwest of Jerusalem. I'm not basing my argument on much else.
Because it must be interpreted. And interpretations can be wrong. Even if you think you're just reading "what the Bible says" you're unfortunately not quite that objective. You're viewing it through a cultural lens and every word has the potential to be misconstrued. This is why racism and slavery were able to be justified. This is why pedophilia (by our standards) was justified. This is why various different doctrines of hell can be justified.
Do you have any proof of this? As far as I know, 2000 years ago the church was full of hundreds of different sects with competing theologies towards the nature of God and Jesus. It did not become more codified until about 1600 years ago under the Roman Empire. Similarly, even today, there are many different sects that have different understandings of the doctrine of Hell. Christianity is not that homogeneous.
The only reason I repeated it is because you didn't seem to understand and in this post you still don't seem to understand:
Because the word itself in Greek is referring to a garbage dump. The Gospels were written in Greek, so when Jesus spoke of "hell" he never said the word "hell". He said the word "geenan" (or, since it was likely Aramaic, "gehenna"). Gehenna was a valley where garbage was dumped southwest of Jerusalem. So when he spoke of hell, he was, by definition, referring to a garbage dump because the word "geenan" is the word he used in place of the word "hell".
"met·a·phor/ˈmetəˌfôr/Noun
1. A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.
2. A thing regarded as representative or symbolic of something else, esp. something abstract."
Hades is again a Greek idea which doesn't have negative connotations of pain or suffering. Its just a place you go after you die. Some places of Hades are nice, some aren't. Its just another world.
Hades in Christianity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"In English usage the word "Hades" first appears around 1600, as a term used to explain the article in the Apostles' Creed, "He descended into hell", where the place of waiting (the place of "the spirits in prison" 1 Peter 3:19) into which Jesus is there affirmed to have gone after the Crucifixion needed to be distinguished from what had come to be more usually called "hell", i.e. the place or state of those finally damned."
He speaks many parables as if they're historical events. The prodigal son is an example (Matt 21:28-32), as is the wedding banquet (Matt 22:1-14) and the parable of the tenants (Matt 21:33-46) and the parable of the workers in the vineyard (Matt 20:1-16).
"par·a·ble/ˈparəbəl/
Noun: A simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson, as told by Jesus in the Gospels"
There is a literature out there that says the Rich Man story is a literal event relayed to Jesus' followers by Jesus. Its an interesting theory:
Rich man and Lazarus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
But I'm more of the opinion of the this essayist:
Commentary - The Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man
Metaphor.
The word "hell" is metaphorical.
One of the most extreme verses that Jesus ever speaks. The word hell is metaphorical in this passage. This passage could be the product of a whole other thread.
Matt 25:31-46 is a whole exercise in reinforcing the Golden Rule. It says that those who do good deeds will be rewarded and those that do bad deeds will be punished. We can keep doing the same thing: eternal does not necessarily mean eternal; fire can be metaphorical.
There is a great commentary on this here:
Kolasin aionion « Ben Irwin
The direct meaning of kolasin is "correction", not "punishment". Correcting someone is very different from punishing them.
The whole Book of Revelation is an exercise in metaphor which follows from most apocalyptic Jewish writing.
I specifically said that heaven could also mean age-long and I would be fine with that because the idea of a literally eternal heaven seems just as daunting. Neither has to be literally eternal. As you say, the same word is used for both heaven and hell.
True. But he doesn't have to punish them eternally, nor does he have to punish them by putting them into a literal lake of fire. Punishment could be temporary and it could be some sort of spiritual suffering or deprivation of God's life-giving Spirit (metaphorically imaged as fire and pain).
Last edited:
Upvote
0
