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Within the Abrahamic context I think it is either an abstract concept or a finite punishment. Abstract in the guise of it being a place or state of being removed from God. According to some people that come back from NDE's they are changed and want to go back to that state of bliss as being on Earth in its absence is literally Hell after experiencing the state and or presence of God. So for them, Earth literally is Hell as it is so far separated from God.
The second idea is that it is a real place where there is punishment but the punishment fits the crime. This can be seen in the Quran and the concept of purgatory.
In the Bible the translation of the word Hell is translated from Gehenna, Sheol, Hades and Tartaroo. But the first two, used in the old testament, Gehenna was a landfill outside of Jerusalem where they burned their trash. Thus the association with fire. Sheol was more equivalent to the grave from what I remember. A place removed from God and thus the reason it was Hell.
Hades should be more translated as the afterlife as that is the way the Greeks used the word. Hades was simply the God of the underworld where both good and evil people went after they died. The underworld was then split into Tartarus and Elysium. Hell and Heaven respectively. Only where the word Tartaroo is used in the Greek should it be translated as the popular idea of hell. And in the context it is used it refers to the fathers of the Nephilim being the only ones in Hell. Not people.
The idea of it being eternal seems to be a particularly Christian thing and depends on the use of the Greek word aiōnios. The same root of the English word Eon or Aeon, referring to a length of time having a beginning and an end. But this gets translated to eternal from the latin aeternus, meaning forever.
In the Quran it is said all people will pass through Hell but only the wicked would stay. The way it is written the good will be able to take a bridge that passes over or through hell and be able to see it. But they will not go to hell or suffer it's troments. This bridge and passing through doesn't translate well to English and people think it means everyone will go to hell. But it even says that some Allah will save from hell after a period of being purified by the fires there and that at some future time Hell will be destroyed.
All of this points me to the ideas that at worst Hell is a place of finite punishment and at best an abstract concept referring to a state of being separate from God.
The second idea is that it is a real place where there is punishment but the punishment fits the crime. This can be seen in the Quran and the concept of purgatory.
In the Bible the translation of the word Hell is translated from Gehenna, Sheol, Hades and Tartaroo. But the first two, used in the old testament, Gehenna was a landfill outside of Jerusalem where they burned their trash. Thus the association with fire. Sheol was more equivalent to the grave from what I remember. A place removed from God and thus the reason it was Hell.
Hades should be more translated as the afterlife as that is the way the Greeks used the word. Hades was simply the God of the underworld where both good and evil people went after they died. The underworld was then split into Tartarus and Elysium. Hell and Heaven respectively. Only where the word Tartaroo is used in the Greek should it be translated as the popular idea of hell. And in the context it is used it refers to the fathers of the Nephilim being the only ones in Hell. Not people.
The idea of it being eternal seems to be a particularly Christian thing and depends on the use of the Greek word aiōnios. The same root of the English word Eon or Aeon, referring to a length of time having a beginning and an end. But this gets translated to eternal from the latin aeternus, meaning forever.
In the Quran it is said all people will pass through Hell but only the wicked would stay. The way it is written the good will be able to take a bridge that passes over or through hell and be able to see it. But they will not go to hell or suffer it's troments. This bridge and passing through doesn't translate well to English and people think it means everyone will go to hell. But it even says that some Allah will save from hell after a period of being purified by the fires there and that at some future time Hell will be destroyed.
All of this points me to the ideas that at worst Hell is a place of finite punishment and at best an abstract concept referring to a state of being separate from God.
@canusernamebemyusername
Could well be. There are after all some passages that sure sound like eternal furnace type things.
Could well be. There are after all some passages that sure sound like eternal furnace type things.
LukeTheDuke · M
SarahAndSamantha · 46-50, F
CopperCicada · M
IMHO it's an ontological state. A state of being where one has isolated oneself from the ultimate source of good, grace, forgiveness, redemption. Where one has cut oneself off from one's innate capacity for love, faith, devotion, giving, selflessness.
You cast this in an ecumenical context, so that ultimate source would be different according to different faith traditions, and the cause of isolation from that would also be different.
According to the contemplative traditions it is largely similar.
You cast this in an ecumenical context, so that ultimate source would be different according to different faith traditions, and the cause of isolation from that would also be different.
According to the contemplative traditions it is largely similar.
riseofthemachine · 41-45, M
Hell is for people on earth that's going to heaven . Usually Satan sets out attacks usually people that are afraid of him and looks for people to make scapegoats out of .