Raising Hell | Ep 6: Wait! Hell isn't in the Bible?! @RaisingHell | Uploaded May 2020 | Updated October 2024, 1 hour ago.
Find out why the word and concept of hell is a mistranslation!
Find this info helpful? Want to make this knowledge available for countless others? Buy me “a cup of coffee” (or help change the world for just $3/month!): patreon.com/RaisingHell
Share & Free:
Youtube Channel: youtube.com/raisinghell
The book: Raising Hell: Christianity's Most Controversial Doctrine Put Under Fire
Free PDFs of all versions at: raisinghellbook.com
Purchase or Review:
Full length version Amazon: amzn.to/2y4jCsc
Abridged version Amazon: amzn.to/2x58bBp
Spanish version (Controversia infernal) Amazon: amzn.to/2JlNwA4
Video Content:
Why don’t literal Bible translations ever use the word hell in any verses? And why does every modern translation have a different number of occurrences for the word hell?
Answer: Because neither the word nor the concept of hell is actually in Scriptures!
If hell was actually in the Greek and Hebrew text from which our modern Bibles have been translated, then EVERY Bible version would account for the exact same number of times the word hell is used throughout the Bible, yet check this out.
Number of times the word “hell” appears in different Bible versions:
The Message=56
King James Version=54
New King James Bible=32
New Living Translation=19
New Century Version=15
English Standard Version=14
New International Version=14
Amplified Bible=13
New American Standard Bible=13
LXX Greek Septuagint=0
Young’s Literal=0
Concordant Literal=0
Complete Jewish Bible=0
World English Bible=0
Notice that none of the literal versions (e.g. Young’s Literal, Concordant Literal) contain the word hell. When you do a word study of the word hell in the versions that it does appear, you find that there are a combination of FOUR DIFFERENT WORDS that have been translated as hell, each with a definition that never means hell.
* Sheol (Hebrew)-place of the dead where both good and bad people go in transition to their next experience.
* Gehenna (Greek translation of OT Valley of Ben Hinnom just outside of Jerusalem)
* Hades (Greek word and concept equivalent of sheol)
* Tartaroo (a verb, not a noun or place)
In my book, Raising Hell, we explore all of these glaring mistranslations of hell, and find closer definitions to what the four words above actually meant to a first century Jew.
What is the “hell" Jesus referred to? It’s important to note that Jesus only referred to “Gehenna” (translated “hell”) on four unique occasions that we have recorded in the Bible. The word Gehenna is a carryover from the Old Testament Valley of Ben Hinnom, a literal valley outside Jerusalem. In those days it is said that Gehenna was a garbage dump where they burned trash and dead bodies, and where criminals were banished to live among the rubble. Gehenna is still there to this day. It was turned into a park. Yep, you can go have a picnic with your family in Gehenna, or Jesus’s “hell."
It is believed that in those days, Gehenna metaphorically represented a place of national judgment for Israelites, a time of isolation and reflection on acts of evil and injustice committed toward others. A lot of evil acts occurred in this Valley, including burning their children to death in fire to the god Baal (Jer. 19:4-5; 32:35). God said that it never entered his mind to command them to do such a detestable thing, yet we casually declare and somehow believe that God is going to burn God’s children in eternal fire! How hypocritical that would be!
It is important to note that Jesus did not warn the crowds or “unbelievers" about Gehenna. He warned the religious Pharisees and his disciples. If hell was the default destiny for mankind, Jesus would have been very uncaring and irresponsible not to be warning all the crowds and individuals he encountered about hell!
Nobody in the OT ever mentions hell. We learned that Jesus never mentioned hell. Guess what? Paul, the apostle to the “Gentiles” (non Jews) and the early Church, never mentions hell! If hell were true, being that it is the worst possible outcome for this existence, and Paul was commissioned with teaching the most important truths of the Jews to the new Christian converts, it is unconscionable that he did not once mention hell in any of his writings in the New Testament. And Paul likely wrote more of the NT than anyone else, yet failed to warn anyone of hell or eternal damnation.
We look into these words and address oh so many more questions in my book Raising Hell. Download a free copy today!
Find out why the word and concept of hell is a mistranslation!
Find this info helpful? Want to make this knowledge available for countless others? Buy me “a cup of coffee” (or help change the world for just $3/month!): patreon.com/RaisingHell
Share & Free:
Youtube Channel: youtube.com/raisinghell
The book: Raising Hell: Christianity's Most Controversial Doctrine Put Under Fire
Free PDFs of all versions at: raisinghellbook.com
Purchase or Review:
Full length version Amazon: amzn.to/2y4jCsc
Abridged version Amazon: amzn.to/2x58bBp
Spanish version (Controversia infernal) Amazon: amzn.to/2JlNwA4
Video Content:
Why don’t literal Bible translations ever use the word hell in any verses? And why does every modern translation have a different number of occurrences for the word hell?
Answer: Because neither the word nor the concept of hell is actually in Scriptures!
If hell was actually in the Greek and Hebrew text from which our modern Bibles have been translated, then EVERY Bible version would account for the exact same number of times the word hell is used throughout the Bible, yet check this out.
Number of times the word “hell” appears in different Bible versions:
The Message=56
King James Version=54
New King James Bible=32
New Living Translation=19
New Century Version=15
English Standard Version=14
New International Version=14
Amplified Bible=13
New American Standard Bible=13
LXX Greek Septuagint=0
Young’s Literal=0
Concordant Literal=0
Complete Jewish Bible=0
World English Bible=0
Notice that none of the literal versions (e.g. Young’s Literal, Concordant Literal) contain the word hell. When you do a word study of the word hell in the versions that it does appear, you find that there are a combination of FOUR DIFFERENT WORDS that have been translated as hell, each with a definition that never means hell.
* Sheol (Hebrew)-place of the dead where both good and bad people go in transition to their next experience.
* Gehenna (Greek translation of OT Valley of Ben Hinnom just outside of Jerusalem)
* Hades (Greek word and concept equivalent of sheol)
* Tartaroo (a verb, not a noun or place)
In my book, Raising Hell, we explore all of these glaring mistranslations of hell, and find closer definitions to what the four words above actually meant to a first century Jew.
What is the “hell" Jesus referred to? It’s important to note that Jesus only referred to “Gehenna” (translated “hell”) on four unique occasions that we have recorded in the Bible. The word Gehenna is a carryover from the Old Testament Valley of Ben Hinnom, a literal valley outside Jerusalem. In those days it is said that Gehenna was a garbage dump where they burned trash and dead bodies, and where criminals were banished to live among the rubble. Gehenna is still there to this day. It was turned into a park. Yep, you can go have a picnic with your family in Gehenna, or Jesus’s “hell."
It is believed that in those days, Gehenna metaphorically represented a place of national judgment for Israelites, a time of isolation and reflection on acts of evil and injustice committed toward others. A lot of evil acts occurred in this Valley, including burning their children to death in fire to the god Baal (Jer. 19:4-5; 32:35). God said that it never entered his mind to command them to do such a detestable thing, yet we casually declare and somehow believe that God is going to burn God’s children in eternal fire! How hypocritical that would be!
It is important to note that Jesus did not warn the crowds or “unbelievers" about Gehenna. He warned the religious Pharisees and his disciples. If hell was the default destiny for mankind, Jesus would have been very uncaring and irresponsible not to be warning all the crowds and individuals he encountered about hell!
Nobody in the OT ever mentions hell. We learned that Jesus never mentioned hell. Guess what? Paul, the apostle to the “Gentiles” (non Jews) and the early Church, never mentions hell! If hell were true, being that it is the worst possible outcome for this existence, and Paul was commissioned with teaching the most important truths of the Jews to the new Christian converts, it is unconscionable that he did not once mention hell in any of his writings in the New Testament. And Paul likely wrote more of the NT than anyone else, yet failed to warn anyone of hell or eternal damnation.
We look into these words and address oh so many more questions in my book Raising Hell. Download a free copy today!
