Hell

The hell in the Judaism

The hell and its demons are amply described in the texts of the Kabbale.

The hell in Greek mythology

Hadès (Greek Mythology)

The hell in the Christian religion

Biblical beliefs and quotations

According to the Apocalypse of Jean, the demons are rebellious angels, which were precipitated skies on the ground, following a revolt, then from there, in hell, which is the abyss of fire.

A third of “stars of the sky” would have been thus lost, under the direction of the Devil or Satan or the large Dragon red-fire.

And the men who follow “the Antéchrist”, i.e. those which refuse to recognize Jesus-Christ, would share the fate of Satan and its angels. It would be for them “the second dead one”.

What the Bible says on this subject:

The she' ôl or schéol

It is about the Hebrew term of the Old Testament indicating the stay of deaths, the hells. It represents a dark place and silencer where deaths are deadened, slept in dust.

In the book of the Ecclésiaste (or Qohélet), chap. 9 vv. 5-10 (version T.O.B, oecumenical), it is known as:

The alive ones know indeed that they will die, but deaths do not know anything the whole… because there is neither work, neither assessment, neither to know, nor wisdom in the stay of dead where you go.

According to the Psalm 146:4, “Their breath will leave, in this day they turn over to their dust, and this day, it is the ruin of their plans” (T.O.B) or “ruins their thoughts” (Bible of Jerusalem - catholic translation).

Although these passages indicate an inactivity, other passages show that the alive ones are able to make return deaths of the Au-delà to question them, to awake them. God in the Pentateuque interdict with its People to do it. First king d' Israël according to the Bible, Saül, makes question by a medium with En-Dor, the Samuel prophet, deceased recently, on the exit of a battle. (1 Samuel 1 Kings in certain versions, chapter 28)

This ambivalence between the sleep of died in the Hells and their capacity to awake and frighten the alive ones, is found in the Babylonian vision of dead by which biblical cosmogony was inspired. The hero of the Epopee of Gilgamesh declares after the death of his friend Enkidou:

“The friend that I liked is now like clay.
Me also, I will know the same fate, will not lie down,
And more never to raise me for eternity? ”

Gilgamesh also compares death with a sleep in another passage of this epopee, whereas in same time the accounts on the visit of the Hells populate these places of a whole heap of strange beings and that deaths take pleasure to come to disturb the alive ones.

The hadès

It is the Greek term are equivalent of the word schéol, used in New Testament. It indicates the Stay of deaths. In Luc 16 (vv. 19 to 31), a rich man remain there, tormented in the flames, though according to certain theologists, the stay of deaths mentioned in this passage makes in refers to the hell and not to the hells.

Jesus de Nazareth also is descended in the hadès, stay of died during 3 days, to preach with the spirits in prison (see T.O.B, footnote), the incrédules of the time of Noah (1Pierre 3:18 - 20), i.e. humanity pecheress died before Christ.

The géhenne

Comes from Gehinnon, or Hinnom, valley located at the south-west of the old city of Jerusalem (Jos. 15:8) where children were sacrificed to the god Moloch. (2Chronic 28:3; 33:6; Jeremy 7:31 - 32).

This place was transformed into refuse tip by king Josias (Yoshiya) to prevent this worship (2Rois 23:10). At the time of Jesus one threw there the refuses, but also the corpses of died animals, as well as the bodies of the criminals carried out, considering them unworthy of a decent burial. This to preserve the town of any stain compared to the worship returned to the Temple and for which the city was to remain pure.

To maintain this fire continuously in order to get rid of the rubbish and to avoid the epidemics, one regularly poured sulfur which made this fire perpetual.

The géhenne was thus associated with the fire which never dies out. “Better penguin applies to enter you the Life than of you to go from there with your two hands in the géhenne, in the fire which does not die out. ” (Marc 9:43).

Jesus made use of this place to explain to his contemporaries that the géhenne symbolized the final punishment.

The pond of fire

Place of fire eternal where, after the last Judgment, will be thrown the devil (also called Satan, i.e. “the Adversary” ) and its angels (Matthieu, chapter 25, verse 41). The book of the Apocalypse (chapter, 20 verses 10 to 15) explains:

“And the devil was thrown in the pond of fire and sulfur, where are and the animal and the false prophet; and they will be tormented, day and night, at the centuries of the centuries. And I live a large white throne. And I live deaths, the large ones and the small ones, being held in front of the throne; and of the books were open; and another book was open which is that of the life. And deaths were judged according to the things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea returned deaths which were in it; and death and the hadès returned deaths which were in them, and they were judged each one according to their works. And death and the hadès were thrown in the pond of fire: it second died here, the pond of fire. And if somebody were not found writes in the book of life, it was thrown in the pond of fire. ”

Medieval artistic representations

The iconographic representations of the Hell are present in the churches (tympanum S carved testifying to the Last, châpiteaux Jugement, Fresque S…), in the Handwritten S and on paintings. The hell seems a place of Torture, bubbling and hot, where are activated tens of demon S. It was a recurrent theme of the pious iconography of the Middle Ages, primarily in the Catholicisme.

Designs according to the Christian movements

The concept of a hell or one burns eternally is drawn from the interpretation of certain passages of New Testament. Nevertheless, certain Christian movements being said (like the Adventisme, a variation of the Protestantism, or Pilot of Jéhovah), generally resulting from the doctrines of William Miller (1782 - 1849), do not share this belief.

See also: Annihilationisme

The hell in the Catholic church

The Catechism of the Catholic church (1992) which makes authority for this one written: “The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of the hell and its eternity. ” (N° 1033). And he argues while referring to the Gospel. Jesus often speaks about the “géhenne”, of the “fire which does not die out” (MT 5:22 - 29; 13:42 - 50; Mc 9:43 - 48).

There is in it no fatalism: “God does not predestine anybody with the hell; one needs for that a voluntary aversion of God. ” (N° 1037).

Finally the catholic , at the same time as a large majority of other Christian confessions, distinguish the hell from the hells. The hell is the place of the damnation, the eternal place without God. On the contrary the hells are the stay of deaths, where those which died before Christ awaited her arrival. Thus according to the Eastern and Roman Creed, Christ is descended to the hells, which one calls also the Limbes, to release those which awaited it. Christ never went in hell.

The hell at the Adventist of the Seventh Day

The Adventistes of the Seventh Day do not believe that the bad ones suffer for eternity in the hell, but accept in the place the doctrines of the sleep of the heart of Martin Luther King, in addition to one final punishment by fire for the bad ones. By accepting the death of Jesus Christ, the individuals are reconnectés with God and will have the eternal life. Those which choose not to be reconciled with God, regarded as the source of life, chose death by defect. The Adventistes of the Seventh Day believe that descriptions in the Bible speaking about a punishment for the malicious ones by fire describe in fact the final destiny of the sinners after the advent of Christ.

At the time of the advent, the Christ will ressuscitera the right ones which died and will take them along to the sky. God will destroy the bad ones, leaving only Satan and his angels fallen on ground. After millénium, Christ will still return on ground. Then, God will destroy in a permanent way Satan, his angels, and the human ones which do not repent by fire. The point of view of the Adventists on the hell is often indicated under the term of Annihilationisme.

The hell at the Witnesses of Jéhovah

Just like the adventist movements from which they result, the Témoins of Jéhovah reject the idea of a hell of fire which would be a place of eternal suffering after death.

For the Témoins of Jéhovah, the Bible sign which deaths are unconscious and which the human heart is not immortal; they often quote in this respect the passages of Ecclésiaste 9:5, 10 and of Ézékiel 18:4. Thus, in their doctrines, the malicious ones like the goods go in the shéol. They will be in the shéol until the day of the divine judgment (of Jéhovah).

The hell in Islam

Of very many passages of Coran describes the Hell; example: Sourate 78

, verses 21 to 26: “ the Hell remains with the aguets, refuge for the transgressors. They will remain there during successive centuries. They will taste neither freshness there nor beverage, except an ebullient water and a pus like equitable remuneration . ”

Sourate 15, verses 43 to 44: “Géhenne will surely be for them all their go. It has seven doors: a group of them will meet in front of each door. ”

Names of the various degrees of the Residence of perdition all are quoted in Noble Coran but are dispersed in several sourates and of tens of verses according to their contents. Their order would be perhaps as follows:

the Fire of Géhenne,
the Blazing inferno,
Houtama,
Saqar,
burning Fire,
the Furnace,
the Abyss.

Sourate 39, verse 71: “And those which had mécru will be led by groups to the Hell. Then when they reach that point, its doors will open and its guards will say to them: " Messengers among you did not come to you. reciting you the verses of your Lord and informing themselves of the meeting of your day that here? " They will say: if, but the decree of the punishment proved just against the non-believers. ”

The Buddhist hell

Yanluowang 閻羅王 (king Yanluo) is a Chinese god of origin Bouddhiste, guard and judge of the hell. It is a secondary divinity present at Japan also under the name of Yemma.

Some literary opinions

“Christian Hell, of fire. Pagan hell, of fire. Hell mahométan, of fire. Hindu hell, of the flames. With believing the religions of them, God was born grill-room owner. ” (Victor Hugo, Things seen , 1887)

Notes and comments

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