Word: sheol
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Gradually, the idea of flames became associated with the life of the wicked in their part of Sheol. Jesus, says Life and Death, used this as a figure of speech in the parable of Dives and Lazarus, and he was not threatening his hearers with fearful torment so much as reminding them that life is set within a divine order in which man reaps the harvest of his deeds. "We have no right," says the committee, "on the basis of this parable, to go further than this and interpret Hell as the place of everlasting fiery torment...
...popular language Hell is the place of dreadful punishment . . . Is this how we should think of Hell?" Not at all, says Life and Death. The Bible uses the word Hell to translate the Hebrew Sheol and the Greek Hades, which were underworld places where all the dead lived shadowy, unsubstantial, joyless lives; at least at first, Sheol or Hades was not considered a place of punishment or torment. Gradually, the idea developed that there was a difference between the life of the righteous and the life of the wicked in Sheol. The part where the wicked dwelt was called Gehenna...