Any mentions of “hell” are mistranslations of something that actually meant “the grave”.
For example, some texts claiming Jesus talking about “Gehenna” got translated into “Hades”, and that into “Hell” sometimes, but that Jesus was actually talking about the Valley of Hinnom, the garbage dump of Jerusalem. Where they sometimes burned trash (although some exaggerate, saying it was a constant fire, which it wasn’t). So basically, “your corpse doesn’t go into the cemetery to wait for resurrection, it gets sent to the garbage dump and burns there”.
If your argument is that the word isn’t never used then sure, I’ll concede that, but the relevant concepts of eternal punishment and burning are very much there as I pointed out.
But hell isn’t “concepts of burning and punishment”. It’s a very specific place, pretty much like Tartarus or Jahannam, where one’s soul goes. There is no such thing in the Bible. It’s all a metaphor for one’s corpse being thrown in a burning dumpster. There aren’t even souls. Those who died are considered to be “sleep”, and to be resurrected later, much like in Judaism.
The difference is what happens in practice.
They just thought you were ‘resting’ while dead, and you felt what happened to your body.
The stuff with souls and hell made up later made up a way for your mind to be conscious outside of your body.
Any mentions of “hell” are mistranslations of something that actually meant “the grave”.
For example, some texts claiming Jesus talking about “Gehenna” got translated into “Hades”, and that into “Hell” sometimes, but that Jesus was actually talking about the Valley of Hinnom, the garbage dump of Jerusalem. Where they sometimes burned trash (although some exaggerate, saying it was a constant fire, which it wasn’t). So basically, “your corpse doesn’t go into the cemetery to wait for resurrection, it gets sent to the garbage dump and burns there”.
If your argument is that the word isn’t never used then sure, I’ll concede that, but the relevant concepts of eternal punishment and burning are very much there as I pointed out.
But hell isn’t “concepts of burning and punishment”. It’s a very specific place, pretty much like Tartarus or Jahannam, where one’s soul goes. There is no such thing in the Bible. It’s all a metaphor for one’s corpse being thrown in a burning dumpster. There aren’t even souls. Those who died are considered to be “sleep”, and to be resurrected later, much like in Judaism.
If there is burning and eternal punishment it’s a pretty small step from there to “that happens in a place” and “we should name that place”
The difference is what happens in practice.
They just thought you were ‘resting’ while dead, and you felt what happened to your body.
The stuff with souls and hell made up later made up a way for your mind to be conscious outside of your body.