A BRIEF HISTORY OF HELL

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A BRIEF HISTORY OF HELL
2b Models in Science and Religion
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Models of Hell

• Many cultures and religions believe in Hell. What
  they believe varies, but the common theme uniting
  all models of Hell is that it is not a desirable
  place or state to be in!
• This presentation explores the various ways that
  Hell has been understood in the language and
  thought world of Christianity. It will become
  clear that more than one model of Hell has been
  used.

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Models aid understanding

• It is perhaps inevitable that in pre-literate
  cultures concepts such as hell were explored
  using stories and images. Indeed it is necessary
  in to try to find ways to imagine the unseen in
  religion, just as it is in science in those
  situations where no direct apprehension of the
  object of study is possible.
• Such models have difficulties however. They can
  easily dominate our vision and blind us to other
  models which may be better. A problem with all
  models is that they can too easily become the
  object that they are meant to represent. Think of
  the way we imagine an atom because of the model
  we have been taught in school.

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What images spring to mind when you think of
Hell? Which sources influence your
thinking?Art? Preachers? Milton? Dante?Jesus?
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The image on this slide is part of the fresco
covering the entire outer western wall of the
Voronet monastery in Romania. It was painted in
1547 and depicts the Last Judgement. St. Peter
leads the righteous into heaven while the
sinners, chained by the devils, are dragged into
Hell.
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This is part of the (in)famous triptych, an
altarpiece entitled The Garden of Earthly
Delights (1504) by Hieronymus Bosch. The torments
of hell, a dark, icy, yet fiery nightmarish
vision awaits those whose sinful pleasures lead
inexorably to their eternal separation from God.
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Gehenna - 1

• If you were tracking down the most widely used
  term for hell in the New Testament this would be
  it. The other common one is Hades, the Greek word
  for the Hebrew idea of Sheol, the place of the
  dead.
• Much of the teaching of Jesus was in parables and
  he made frequent use of simile and metaphor.
  Typically his teaching about the Kingdom of God
  was in the form of comparisons The Kingdom of
  God is like . Gehenna as a model for hell is an
  interesting choice. Models generally result from
  extending a comparison making it fruitful,
  suggesting new ways of thinking about an idea.

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Gehenna - 2

• So why would Jesus use Gehenna as his preferred
  term for Hell?
• Its origin is in the valley of Gehinnom (in
  Hebrew) which lay to the south of Jerusalem. It
  was a place where in the time of the Book of
  Kings children were sacrificed. According to
  Jeremiah it would be the place of Gods
  judgement. Jewish apocalyptic literature assumed
  it would become the hell of fire at the end of
  time.
• In Jesus teaching the emphasis seems to be on
  Gehenna as a place of judgement for body and soul
  with eternal consequences.

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Gehenna - 3

• Does this mean that people will be tormented for
  ever in Gehenna, in what seems to be an
  excessively disproportionate punishment for a
  finite lifetime of sinning!?
• This seems to have been the commonest
  interpretation of Gehenna in history. But is it
  the correct way to understand the model? What was
  Jesus getting at?
• Recently many scholars have pointed out that the
  traditional understanding of Gehenna as a model
  of eternal punishment is mistaken. Their
  reasoning is as follows

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Gehenna - 4

• Consider these typical texts about Gehenna
• Fear Him who can destroy both body and soul in
  hell (Matthew 1028)
• If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out it
  is better for you to enter the kingdom of God
  with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into
  hell, where the worm does not die, and the fire
  is not quenched. (Mark 947,48)
• In the time of Jesus the valley of Gehenna was
  used as a rubbish tip where material was burned
  continually and where organic matter was
  biodegraded by worms and the like. Along with the
  background of its use as a place of child
  sacrifice and as an image of hell after judgement
  it was a powerful model to use.

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Gehenna - 5

• But what does the model intend to teach about the
  fate of those who are judged and found wanting by
  God? We have to interpret the model.
• Consider these two alternative views of the soul
• 1 Once created by God your soul is immortal.
  This is a typically Greek philosophical view.
  This would mean that the action of the fire and
  the worms would be an eternally enduring reality.
  Presumably you would be conscious of your never
  ending punishment. Tortured for eternity.
• 2 The soul has conditional immortality. God can
  choose for you to live on for ever or to be
  destroyed. The image of Gehenna is best
  understood as one of final destruction. Rubbish
  on the tip returns to dust. Jesus is speaking of
  the final fate of the enemies of God as one of
  destruction, of annihilation.

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Gehenna - 6

• All models have positive, negative and neutral
  features. They are like the reality they try to
  depict in some ways but not in others.
• Perhaps by latching on to the (wrong?)
  understanding of souls as being necessarily
  eternal, interpreters of Jesus model have
  misunderstood him. A consequence has been to
  sharpen the problem of how God can justly punish
  people for eternity in response to finite
  sinning.
• Other theologians have suggested that to
  understand the model, you need to see it as a
  temporary punishment and purging to prepare
  everyone for heaven. Is this what Mark 949 is
  about? Everyone will be salted with fire.

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Gehenna - 7
ETERNAL CONSCIOUSLY ENDURED PUNISHMENT
Gehenna Fire Worms
ANNIHILATION
TEMPORARY PURGING PRIOR TO HEAVEN FOR ALL

• One model Gehenna. Three interpretations
  depending on what you believe about other matters
  such as the nature of the soul. Models and
  theories form a complex nexus of beliefs and it
  is almost impossible in theology and in science
  for one idea to be understood in isolation from
  the rest of the content of the discipline.

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FIN