Does hell exist? The short answer is: no. But in Christianity, the existence of hell is hardly ever questioned. Many other religions also talk about hell. Hell is the concept of a place where God sends unbelievers as punishment and where they will be tormented in fire and flames forever. A place of never-ending physical and mental suffering.
more hell
From time to time we see reports in the Christian media from preachers and theologians who believe that more should be preached about hell. Hell is proclaimed as a serious warning and as a call to repentance. The ‘faith’ that this evokes is a faith that is largely based on fear and not on an awareness of God’s unconditional love (1 John 4:18).
God so loved the world
God loves this world, so much that He gave His only begotten Son to save that world (John 3:16-17). God is almighty, He can do anything He wants and He wants all people to be saved (1 Tim. 2:4). Imagine that God does not succeed in achieving this. Then the majority of His creatures will be tortured forever in hellfire. Wouldn’t God Himself suffer the most from that? The majority of the work of His hands will then be lost forever and in pain and suffering.
translations
The doctrine of hell is maintained, among other things, by the fact that various words from Hebrew and Greek are rendered as ‘hell’ in the current Bible translations. All of these translations are incorrect. For example, it is said that no one has spoken more about hell than Jesus. But that is not true, Jesus never spoke about hell. And that is easy to demonstrate and we will do so in the coming blogs.
various translations
The word ‘hell’ is found 57 times in the Statenvertaling: hel (44), helle (9) and helse (4). In the NBG translation this is a lot less: 12 times, and in the NBV translation only 1 time. How is that possible?
In the Statenvertaling, various words are translated as ‘hell’. In the Old Testament, it is sometimes the translation of the Hebrew word sheol. But sheol is also translated as grave, something completely different. In the New Testament, the Greek words Gehenna, hades and tartarus are translated as hell.
In the NBG translation, we do not find a word in the Old Testament that is rendered as hell. Not even sheol, because in the NBG translation it is consistently translated as realm of the dead. In the New Testament, only the word Gehenna is rendered as ‘hell’ twelve times.
In the NBV translation (2004), we only encounter it in Matth.23:15: ‘hellekind’ (literally: son of Gehenna). In the revision of the NBV translation (2021), this has been corrected to Gehenna and the word ‘hell’ no longer appears at all
differences
These major differences in translations should give food for thought. Why does the Statenvertaling translate no fewer than four different words as ‘hell’? Are these synonymous terms in the original languages? Or did the translators perhaps project their theological convictions into the translation?
And are the NBG and NBV translations completely wrong if they have chosen different translation words? Or are they right and the Statenvertaling not? Or is it still different?
In the coming blogs we want to look at all of this. Every Bible reader who uses a translation will come into contact with the concept. Then it is essential to know what is really written.