David Miller: The trend has been to transliterate the words, so that instead of hell, we read "Sheol" in the OT and "Hades" in the NT. The result is that some modern translations do not have the word "hell" anywhere in the Bible at all! Isn't that strange. This is done under the guise of making the translation more understandable, but that is debateable. I think the common person understands "hell" better than they understand "Sheol" or "Hades" or "Gehenna."
Caroline:
But what did the OT writers and readers understand sheol to be? And what did the first century Jew understand Hades to be? Did Jesus spend some time explaining how it is different from say, Greek mythology which is where the word comes from, or did he just let people decide for themselves what it means?
Jesus gave us nearly all his teachings on hell in parable form and we have to be careful in making doctrinal statements based on his parables. The apostles wrote a lot of propositional statements.
Jesus said that we'll be judged by what we do (Matthew 25:31-46) but Paul says salvation is by grace through faith (Eph 2:8). Jesus said some people who called him Lord and did great things in his name won't be saved (Matt. 7:21-23) but Paul said anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved (Rom. 10:13) and he was quoting Joel 2:32 so the LORD is YHWH. Jesus denounced Capernaum and said the city will be sent to hell and judged more harshly than Sodom (Matt 11:23-24) but Paul says all of Israel will be saved (Rom 11:26). Jesus said we have to be alert and ready till the end because all the virgins were in the wedding party but only the wise ones made it (Matt. 25). John said no one can snatch a saved one out of the Father's hand (John 10:28)
We have to use Paul's & John's statements to interprete the parables AND we have to use the parables to flesh out their statements. It is only then we'll have the full picture of what Jesus meant when he talked about the kingdom, about judgment and about hell.
But just in case Paul is coming across as too bleeding heart liberal, he also listed a bunch of people that won't inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6: 9-10) although he did softened it with the next breath by saying that's what we all were but Jesus saved us anyway. Yeah, I guess the man's soft.
---------- "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man." (Colossians 4:6) http://www.InnGlory.org
If you do not want to receive posts from this list, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and you will be unsubscribed. If you have a friend who wants to join, tell him to send an e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and he will be subscribed.
