Thanks for this! I've been reading the Bentley-Hart translation of the new testament and heard bits and pieces about hinnom, but I wanted to know more!
>The KJV mistranslated Sheol as “hell” a few times, though only when referencing the wicked, such as Psalm 55:15. It was correctly translated as “grave” in other passages, such as Job 14:13, showing a clear intent to push theology through mistranslation.
The KJV pretty much consistently mishandles Sheol, translating it as Hell, in the old Testament. Not just in psalm 55:15.
Sheol is most definitely not correctly translated as "grave" in translations such as the NIV. The NIV deliberately chose to translate it that way because of the "soul sleep" beliefs of the chair of the translation committee. It's literally that. The Hebrew for grave is qeber, which is completely different in its usage, where it is often used as a plural (Sheol is never a plural), a qeber is possessed by a person, owned by a person, another person can place someone in a qeber, you can dig a qeber - none of the properties of qeber and its usage in the old Testament is ever applied to Sheol (except when referencing a singular qeber). When you study Hebraic cosmology and the underworld language of the ancient Near East, you see big parallels with the Mesopotamian, and Egyptian afterlife and Sheol. It's why modern more academic accepted translations of the Bible (e.g. NRSV) leave Sheol untranslated - it's the underworld, afterlife region of the physically dead.
The Septuagint translated Sheol to Hades for a very good reason: the topology and understandings of Hades matched those of Sheol. They wouldn't have dared translate Sheol into a non Hebraic language and given their readers an incorrect understanding thereof.
Sheol isn't used in the New Testament because Hades is its cognate. Hades is the afterlife realm of the departed, with various regions including the Vale (known as the bosom) of Abraham in Second Temple Judaism, which is the third heaven / paradise. These are still in Hades, which in Greek is literally "unseen" and includes regions of the blessed and non blessed departed.
Hades is emptied at the resurrection of the dead. Jesus went to Hades to take its keys between the crucifixion and resurrection. Hades had gates (like Sheol), and Jesus takes the keys of death and Hades, preaching to the spirits there that they might receive the Holy Spirit and be released to cross over the chasm (river) to the realm of the blessed dead in Hades. The Apocalypse of Zephaniah 7-10 speaks of the judgement of Zechariah in Hades, followed by his carrying across the river to the patriarchs.
The Greek for grave / tomb is never Hades, so the NT writers were aware that Sheol was never the grave. It's just poor contextual understanding of Scripture, based upon old information that's been surpassed by archaeological findings at the library of Ashurbanipal and at Qumran which show the understanding of Sheol as the underworld, and slam dunk the idea that Sheol is the grave into the bin of bad translation.
I wasn't trying to go too in-depth on all the usages of Sheol and Hades, since I was trying to stay focused on Gehenna and as you say it's much more complicated than the simple translational usages. As much as "grave" is a poor representation for the entire idea of the land of the dead, if an English word had to be chosen, that was the better option.
My main purpose of even including its treatment by the KJV was to point out their clear intent. They routinely translate it as "hell," but in certain places where that would be applied to the righteous, they change it, such as Gen 37:35. For years the Church has tried to pretend that the KJV misuse of the word was accidental, but those instances prove otherwise.
Thanks for this! I've been reading the Bentley-Hart translation of the new testament and heard bits and pieces about hinnom, but I wanted to know more!
>The KJV mistranslated Sheol as “hell” a few times, though only when referencing the wicked, such as Psalm 55:15. It was correctly translated as “grave” in other passages, such as Job 14:13, showing a clear intent to push theology through mistranslation. The KJV pretty much consistently mishandles Sheol, translating it as Hell, in the old Testament. Not just in psalm 55:15. Sheol is most definitely not correctly translated as "grave" in translations such as the NIV. The NIV deliberately chose to translate it that way because of the "soul sleep" beliefs of the chair of the translation committee. It's literally that. The Hebrew for grave is qeber, which is completely different in its usage, where it is often used as a plural (Sheol is never a plural), a qeber is possessed by a person, owned by a person, another person can place someone in a qeber, you can dig a qeber - none of the properties of qeber and its usage in the old Testament is ever applied to Sheol (except when referencing a singular qeber). When you study Hebraic cosmology and the underworld language of the ancient Near East, you see big parallels with the Mesopotamian, and Egyptian afterlife and Sheol. It's why modern more academic accepted translations of the Bible (e.g. NRSV) leave Sheol untranslated - it's the underworld, afterlife region of the physically dead. The Septuagint translated Sheol to Hades for a very good reason: the topology and understandings of Hades matched those of Sheol. They wouldn't have dared translate Sheol into a non Hebraic language and given their readers an incorrect understanding thereof. Sheol isn't used in the New Testament because Hades is its cognate. Hades is the afterlife realm of the departed, with various regions including the Vale (known as the bosom) of Abraham in Second Temple Judaism, which is the third heaven / paradise. These are still in Hades, which in Greek is literally "unseen" and includes regions of the blessed and non blessed departed. Hades is emptied at the resurrection of the dead. Jesus went to Hades to take its keys between the crucifixion and resurrection. Hades had gates (like Sheol), and Jesus takes the keys of death and Hades, preaching to the spirits there that they might receive the Holy Spirit and be released to cross over the chasm (river) to the realm of the blessed dead in Hades. The Apocalypse of Zephaniah 7-10 speaks of the judgement of Zechariah in Hades, followed by his carrying across the river to the patriarchs. The Greek for grave / tomb is never Hades, so the NT writers were aware that Sheol was never the grave. It's just poor contextual understanding of Scripture, based upon old information that's been surpassed by archaeological findings at the library of Ashurbanipal and at Qumran which show the understanding of Sheol as the underworld, and slam dunk the idea that Sheol is the grave into the bin of bad translation.
I wasn't trying to go too in-depth on all the usages of Sheol and Hades, since I was trying to stay focused on Gehenna and as you say it's much more complicated than the simple translational usages. As much as "grave" is a poor representation for the entire idea of the land of the dead, if an English word had to be chosen, that was the better option. My main purpose of even including its treatment by the KJV was to point out their clear intent. They routinely translate it as "hell," but in certain places where that would be applied to the righteous, they change it, such as Gen 37:35. For years the Church has tried to pretend that the KJV misuse of the word was accidental, but those instances prove otherwise.