The thing is, and my fellow Christians gasp when they hear this: Jews don’t believe in Hell. Jesus was a Jew. A rabbi even. Jesus Christ did not have a concept of hell and you will not find a verse where he talks about people suffering for eternity.
Jesus did have a concept of hell. His ideas like other Jewish teachers developed post-Hellenism and merged ideas from Greco-Roman ideas of afterlife with Jewish theories of sheol. His parable on Lazarus and the rich man shows some intersection there.
But yes, the theory of eternal conscious torment,at least how moderns understand it, was not a thing as I understand it.
Ehh… I’m sure Bible scholars could say this has been mistranslated or something but here is what I was taught by Southern Baptists while growing up:
Mark 9:42-48, Jesus is speaking "42 “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea. 43 If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. [44] [b] 45 And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. [46] [c] 47 And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48 where
“‘the worms that eat them do not die,
and the fire is not quenched.’[d]"
It’s mostly just an afterlife that isn’t heaven. And heaven sounds pretty crap if you go by the Bible. We’re talking being a servant to, and glorifying god in name and deed, forever. In exchange for permanent satisfaction of any material need. Pretty good if you’re an Iron Age farmer that’s already subservient to some feudal lord regardless.
The thing is, and my fellow Christians gasp when they hear this: Jews don’t believe in Hell. Jesus was a Jew. A rabbi even. Jesus Christ did not have a concept of hell and you will not find a verse where he talks about people suffering for eternity.
The earlier Hebrews did not have a concept of hell, but an idea of hell had developed in certain Jewish groups before Jesus’s time.
Jesus did have a concept of hell. His ideas like other Jewish teachers developed post-Hellenism and merged ideas from Greco-Roman ideas of afterlife with Jewish theories of sheol. His parable on Lazarus and the rich man shows some intersection there.
But yes, the theory of eternal conscious torment,at least how moderns understand it, was not a thing as I understand it.
Ehh… I’m sure Bible scholars could say this has been mistranslated or something but here is what I was taught by Southern Baptists while growing up:
Mark 9:42-48, Jesus is speaking "42 “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea. 43 If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. [44] [b] 45 And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. [46] [c] 47 And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48 where
“‘the worms that eat them do not die, and the fire is not quenched.’[d]"
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It’s mostly just an afterlife that isn’t heaven. And heaven sounds pretty crap if you go by the Bible. We’re talking being a servant to, and glorifying god in name and deed, forever. In exchange for permanent satisfaction of any material need. Pretty good if you’re an Iron Age farmer that’s already subservient to some feudal lord regardless.
I know what you mean, but the iron age was very specifically not a feudal society