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An eternal hell fire is Greek/Roman mythology, it was only merged with Christianity because of the Roman Catholic Church. The bible never says anywhere people b

An eternal hell fire is Greek/Roman mythology, it was only merged with Christianity because of the Roman Catholic Church. The bible never says anywhere people burn forever. There are numerous statements about death being like sleep, and a second death being permanent and you are just gone, no torture. One metaphorical story sort of implies one person was burning, so I think that is why people think it's from the bible.

svat 8y ago
Where in Greek/Roman mythology do you find an eternal hell fire? That sounds very surprising to me...
- RobertRoberts 8y ago
  Dante's Inferno is a good place to start, but I am looking up the Catholic teachings I have read about in the past... (edit: refer to comment above, no need for me to copy/paste it twice) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferno_(Dante) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferno_(Dante)
  - svat 8y ago
    How does Dante, who placed all the Greeks and Romans in the first circle of hell (for being non-Christian) lend any plausibility to this idea being present in Greek/Roman mythology? And in fact the article you linked makes no such claim.
dragonwriter 8y ago
> An eternal hell fire is Greek/Roman mythology, it was only merged with Christianity because of the Roman Catholic Church. No, it's actually (a version of) the Jewish myth of Gehenna [0], and it's incorporated into Christianity because it is referenced directly in the Bible, both the general named myth as a place people are cast for punishment (many times, in all three synoptic Gospels plus James) and the specific equation with it being a place of unquenchable fire (Mark 9:43). [0] which may at some point and in some details have been influenced by Greco-Roman mythology, but had quite a long history within pre-Christian Judaism, arising out of references to it as a specific physical place where child sacrifice by fire occurred in the Hebrew Bible.
- RobertRoberts 8y ago
  Judaism has no hell, ask any religious Jew. (I know a few and have had this very discussion with them.) Ghenna was a burning trash heap, not a place of torment. Death is a silencing end, not a torturous punishment in the bible, including the teachings used by the Jews. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell Also, christian Churches don't teach Jewish theology, they teach a version of Catholisim, and eternal burning hell fire of punishment is found in the Vatican's own Catechism of the Catholic Church. "1035 The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, "eternal fire."615 The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs." http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P2O.HTM http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P2O.HTM This is a purely Catholic teaching, and other branches of Christianity, derive many of their myths from the Greeks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell#Greek https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell#Greek https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_views_on_Hell#Roman_Catholicism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_views_on_Hell#Roman_... The bible is clear that when you die, you are either asleep, like King David was (Jesus referenced his bones) or burned up and gone forever, the lake of fire from Revelations.
  - dragonwriter 8y ago
    > Judaism has no hell, ask any religious Jew. Not all historical variations of Jewish religious beliefs that existed near the time of the birth of Christianity still exist as Jewish beliefs, but, AFAICT, the Jewish belief of at a minimum something like a Purgatory is still active; the concept of hell/Gehenna explicit in the Gospels as a place of punishment reflected (possibly an evolution from) a then-current (but not at all universal) Jewish religious belief related to the one that remains current in some branches of Judaism. > Ghenna was a burning trash heap, not a place of torment. This idea appears to be a medieval Jewish invention. It was, again, specifically in the Hebrew scriptures, a place where children were sacrificed by fire by non-Jews. > Also, christian Churches don't teach Jewish theology No, they teach Christian theology, but Christian theology didn't, as whole, arise ex nihilo with the formation of Christianity as a distinct religious community, it evolved, in many specifics, from Jewish theology that existed where and when Christianity emerged. > they teach a version of Catholisim, Well, no. It's true that most (but not all) now-existing branches of Christianity diverged at some point from the Church that was institutionalized in Rome in the same way that Christianity itself diverged from Judaism; to claim, then, that they teach “a version of Catholicism” is true only in the exact same way as saying that they teach a version of Judaism is. > and eternal burning hell fire of punishment is found in the Vatican's own Catechism of the Catholic Church. It's found in the Gospel of Mark (9:43); from the KJV: “And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched” And also in Revelation (20:10): “And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” I'm pretty sure the authors of the Gospel and the Revelation weren't inspired by theological developments that would occur after the institutionalization of Roman Catholicism. > The bible is clear that when you die, you are either asleep, like King David was (Jesus referenced his bones) or burned up and gone forever, the lake of fire from Revelations This is phenomenally wrong: the Bible uses lots of different and superficially conflicting images of afterlife states, and the lake of fire of Revelation is explicitly one of eternal torment at least for some.

svat 8y ago

Where in Greek/Roman mythology do you find an eternal hell fire? That sounds very surprising to me...

RobertRoberts 8y ago
Dante's Inferno is a good place to start, but I am looking up the Catholic teachings I have read about in the past... (edit: refer to comment above, no need for me to copy/paste it twice) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferno_(Dante) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferno_(Dante)
- svat 8y ago
  How does Dante, who placed all the Greeks and Romans in the first circle of hell (for being non-Christian) lend any plausibility to this idea being present in Greek/Roman mythology? And in fact the article you linked makes no such claim.

dragonwriter 8y ago

> An eternal hell fire is Greek/Roman mythology, it was only merged with Christianity because of the Roman Catholic Church. No, it's actually (a version of) the Jewish myth of Gehenna [0], and it's incorporated into Christianity because it is referenced directly in the Bible, both the general named myth as a place people are cast for punishment (many times, in all three synoptic Gospels plus James) and the specific equation with it being a place of unquenchable fire (Mark 9:43). [0] which may at some point and in some details have been influenced by Greco-Roman mythology, but had quite a long history within pre-Christian Judaism, arising out of references to it as a specific physical place where child sacrifice by fire occurred in the Hebrew Bible.

RobertRoberts 8y ago
Judaism has no hell, ask any religious Jew. (I know a few and have had this very discussion with them.) Ghenna was a burning trash heap, not a place of torment. Death is a silencing end, not a torturous punishment in the bible, including the teachings used by the Jews. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell Also, christian Churches don't teach Jewish theology, they teach a version of Catholisim, and eternal burning hell fire of punishment is found in the Vatican's own Catechism of the Catholic Church. "1035 The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, "eternal fire."615 The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs." http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P2O.HTM http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P2O.HTM This is a purely Catholic teaching, and other branches of Christianity, derive many of their myths from the Greeks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell#Greek https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell#Greek https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_views_on_Hell#Roman_Catholicism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_views_on_Hell#Roman_... The bible is clear that when you die, you are either asleep, like King David was (Jesus referenced his bones) or burned up and gone forever, the lake of fire from Revelations.
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  > Judaism has no hell, ask any religious Jew. Not all historical variations of Jewish religious beliefs that existed near the time of the birth of Christianity still exist as Jewish beliefs, but, AFAICT, the Jewish belief of at a minimum something like a Purgatory is still active; the concept of hell/Gehenna explicit in the Gospels as a place of punishment reflected (possibly an evolution from) a then-current (but not at all universal) Jewish religious belief related to the one that remains current in some branches of Judaism. > Ghenna was a burning trash heap, not a place of torment. This idea appears to be a medieval Jewish invention. It was, again, specifically in the Hebrew scriptures, a place where children were sacrificed by fire by non-Jews. > Also, christian Churches don't teach Jewish theology No, they teach Christian theology, but Christian theology didn't, as whole, arise ex nihilo with the formation of Christianity as a distinct religious community, it evolved, in many specifics, from Jewish theology that existed where and when Christianity emerged. > they teach a version of Catholisim, Well, no. It's true that most (but not all) now-existing branches of Christianity diverged at some point from the Church that was institutionalized in Rome in the same way that Christianity itself diverged from Judaism; to claim, then, that they teach “a version of Catholicism” is true only in the exact same way as saying that they teach a version of Judaism is. > and eternal burning hell fire of punishment is found in the Vatican's own Catechism of the Catholic Church. It's found in the Gospel of Mark (9:43); from the KJV: “And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched” And also in Revelation (20:10): “And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” I'm pretty sure the authors of the Gospel and the Revelation weren't inspired by theological developments that would occur after the institutionalization of Roman Catholicism. > The bible is clear that when you die, you are either asleep, like King David was (Jesus referenced his bones) or burned up and gone forever, the lake of fire from Revelations This is phenomenally wrong: the Bible uses lots of different and superficially conflicting images of afterlife states, and the lake of fire of Revelation is explicitly one of eternal torment at least for some.