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Thread: Hellfire

  1. #1
    Senior Member Colonel's Avatar
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    Hellfire

    Mark 9:47 NKJV And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire

    Based on the above KJV translation, the concept of "hellfire" has taken on a life of its own. People imagine that it's some kind of literal fire that Satan throws around in Hades and which burns people like here just it never consumes them but just keeps burning them.

    In reality it's a mistranslation. The Greek word used is Geenna, which refers to a garbage dump outside Jerusalem where dead animals and other garbage was dumped and burned. Everyone in Capernaum knew what he was referring to as yearly pilgrimages from Galilee to Jerusalem were common.

    The fires of Geenna were started by people who were purifying the area of the filth. The next verse says :

    48 where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.'

    The worms would devour the dead animals and the fire would burn them until they were consumed, then it would end. But the depravity of people sent to what Geenna represented and the fire found there was unending.

    But what does Geenna represent ? It doesn't represent Hades. The "unquenchable fire" was an established concept at that time as can be seen in the writings of the contemporary Jewish scholar Josephus. According to him, noone has so far been cast into it so it was a thing of the future. It corresponds to the lake of fire in Revelation 20. Like the fires of Geenna, they are meant to purify the world of the filthy. That's why all such things are cast into that fire. Not only devils and sinners but also Hades and death itself (Rev 20:10-15). It's God's fire and it represents his holy wrath since God himself is a holy, all consuming fire (Heb 12:29)

  2. #2
    Quote Originally Posted by Colonel View Post
    People imagine that it's some kind of literal fire that Satan throws around in Hades and which burns people like here just it never consumes them but just keeps burning them.
    As if Satan gets to punish people!!!

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by FunFromOz View Post
    As if Satan gets to punish people!!!
    In Revelation 9 he does. That doesn't mean that he has anything to do with what the KJV translates as "hell fire".

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Colonel View Post
    In Revelation 9 he does.
    Oops! so he does.

    Quote Originally Posted by Colonel View Post
    That doesn't mean that he has anything to do with what the KJV translates as "hell fire".
    I agree.

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