onewithhim wrote: ↑Sun Dec 06, 2020 1:39 pmIf you did a bit of research you would find that the Greek word "Hades" is equivalent to "hell," and Christians understand it to mean
the grave. There is no consciousness in the grave (Ecclesiastes 9:5).
If you did a bit more research (within this very thread, in fact), you would find that not all Christians believe that, because some correctly note that some New Testament references to Hades include conscious torment (Luke 16:23 is explicit). Jehovah's Witnesses do indeed handwave this particular verse away:
The remaining text in which Hades is used is found at Luke 16:22-26 in the account of “the rich man” and “Lazarus.” The language throughout the account is plainly parabolic and cannot be construed literally in view of all the preceding texts. Note, however, that “the rich man” of the parable is spoken of as being “buried” in Hades, giving further evidence that Hades means the common grave of mankind.
—Insight on the Scriptures, "Hades"
That's hardly evidence, though, that
all Christians harmonize it that way (assuming that you didn't mean it in the less-than-ecumenical sense of
real Christians).
Whether Hades and Gehenna are intended as different places, pretending that Luke didn't actually mean Hades to be a place of torment is only one way to harmonize his Gospel with the other Synoptics (John mentions neither Hades nor Gehenna). To dismiss all other potential harmonizations out of hand smacks of hubris.
onewithhim wrote: ↑Sun Dec 06, 2020 1:39 pmTranslators got people all confused when they equated "Hades" with "Gehenna," and translated BOTH as "hell." "Gehenna" was the term used by Jesus to refer to the
total annihilation of wicked people, just like trash was totally consumed in the garbage dump called "Gehenna," or, "the valley of Hinnom."
It's not just the translators that are getting people confused. While the reference (at least as Mark uses it) is to physical corpses, it refers to their lack of being consumed so that they may be a perpetual monument to what happens to those that defy God. The description of Gehenna in Mark 9:48 is a direct reference to Isaiah 66:24 (as a nearly word-for-word quotation of the Septuagint). Isaiah 66:15-16 describe how Yahweh will slay His enemies with divine fire. Verses 23-24 then say that those remaining shall, "from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another," worship Yahweh and gaze upon the dead flesh of his enemies, eternally burning and eternally corrupted by maggots.