Shalom, friends.
Sorry this is late in coming, but let's continue in the discussion of the 2nd Coming:
Some people think that this coming will be a final gathering for judgment and that will be the end of that. All they see after His Second Coming is the Judgment and either the good people going to heaven or the bad people going to hell, which some see as this "burnt out cinder of an earth."
That's an interesting theory, but it's not founded in the Scriptures. To the contrary, we have seen that the Bible is clear about there being a New Earth fashioned out of this Old Earth and a 1000-year period of conflict in which the Messiah puts His enemies under His feet.
Here are the words in the Greek that were translated "heaven" or "heavens" or "heavenly" or "heavenlies":
"ouranos," meaning "the sky," (284x)
"ouranoi," its plural,
"ouranios," meaning "belonging to or coming from the sky," (6x)
"ouranothen," meaning "from the sky," (2x)
"epouranios," meaning "belonging to or coming from above the sky," and (20x)
"mesouraneema," meaning "mid-sky" or "in the middle of the sky." (3x)
Here are the words in the Hebrew that were translated "heaven" or "heavens" or "heavenly" or "heavenlies":
"galgal," meaning "wheel(s)," "whirlwind," or "tornado," (11x, once as "heaven")
"`araavaah," meaning "plain(s)," "desert(s)," or the "Aravah desert" in particular, (61x, once as "heavens")
"`aariyf," meaning "dropping at the horizon," (once as "heavens")
"shachaq," meaning "powder" or "thin vapor" or "mist" or "fog," (21x, twice as "heaven," 7x as "sky")
"shaamayim" meaning "lofties" or "skies," and its Aramaic equivalent, (421x)
"shaamayin," also meaning "lofties" or "skies." (38x)
Particularly in the Hebrew, the word for "heaven" or "heavens" is "shaamayim" (Strong's OT:8064; "shaamayin," OT:8065, in Aramaic portions of the Bible, such as Ezra, Daniel, and portions of Jeremiah). The others are either atmospheric conditions or weather patterns or possibly mistranslations. There is a Hebrew PHRASE that can mean more than the atmosphere: "heaven of heavens," "shaameey shaamayim," literally "lofty of lofties." The phrase is used 5 times in the Tanakh: Deuteronomy 10:14; 1 Kings 8:27; 2 Chronicles 2:6; 6:18; and Nehemiah 9:6.
In the Greek, the word for "heaven" or "heavens" is "ouranos" (Strong's NT:3772). The others are forms of this one word, either through declension or by adding prepositional prefixes. The ONE word which refers to outside the atmosphere is "epouranios" (Strong's NT 2032), the adjective form of "ouranos" with the prepositional prefix "ep-" short for "epi" meaning "above." This word is only used 20 times in the B'rit Chadashah (the NT): Matthew 18:35; John 3:12; 1 Corinthians 15:40 (twice), 48 (twice), 49; Ephesians 1:3, 20; 2:6; 3:10; 6:12; Philippians 2:10; 2 Timothy 4:18; Hebrews 3:1; 6:4; 8:5; 9:23; 11:16; and 12:22.
Thus, what I conclude is that "heaven" almost always refers to the earth's "sky," particularly, its "atmosphere." We don't GO TO "heaven," although we may travel THROUGH the "heaven" to somewhere else.
Now, for "hell":
In Greek, there are three words translated as "hell" (23 times): "ge-enna" (NT:1067, 12 times), "hadees" (NT:86, 10 times), and "tartaroosas" (NT:5020, once).
"Ge-enna" (pronounced "gheh-EN-nah") is found translated as "hell" in Matthew 5:22, 29, 30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15, 33; Mark 9:43, 45, 47; Luke 12:5; and James 3:6.
"Hadees" (not pronounced "HAY-deez" but "HAH-dace") is found translated as "hell" in Matthew 11:23; 16:18; Luke 10:15; 16:23; Acts 2:27, 31; Revelation 1:18; 6:8; 20:13, and 14.
"Tartaroosas" (pronounced "tar-tar-O-sas") is only to be found once in 2 Peter 2:4.
"Ge-enna" is a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew phrase "Gei-Hinnom" or "Valley of Hinnom." It is the literal place just south and east of Jerusalem where Isra'el's kings would set up their judgment thrones and where sentences were passed on the guilty. It also has the distinction of being where inhabitants of Jerusalem would burn their trash and where some of the kings would make their children pass through the fire unto the pagan god, Molech. There's a lot of bad history associated with that particular valley, but the bottom line is that it was a place of JUDGMENT, and will be again under the new King, Yeshua` the Messiah of God!
"Tartaroosas" is a word that comes from the Greek culture. Wikipedia says this about Tartarus:
In Greek mythology, Tartarus is both a deity and a place in the underworld. In ancient Orphic sources and in the mystery schools, Tartarus is also the unbounded first-existing entity from which the Light and the cosmos are born.
In the Greek poet Hesiod's Theogony, c. 700 BC, the deity Tartarus was the third force to manifest in the yawning void of Chaos.
As for the place, Hesiod asserts that a bronze anvil falling from heaven would fall 9 days before it reached the Earth. The anvil would take nine more days to fall from Earth to Tartarus. In The Iliad (c. 700), Zeus asserts that Tartarus is "as far beneath Hades as heaven is high above the earth." It is one of the primordial objects that sprung from Chaos, along with Gaia (Earth) and Eros (desire).
While, according to Greek mythology, The Realm of Hades is the place of the dead, Tartarus also has a number of inhabitants. When Cronus, the ruling Titan, came to power he imprisoned the Cyclopes in Tartarus and set the monster Campe as guard. Some myths also say he imprisoned the three Hecatonchires (giants with fifty heads and one hundred arms). Zeus killed Campe and released the Cyclopes and the Hecatonchires to aid in his conflict with the Titan giants. The gods of Olympus eventually defeated the Titans. Many, but not all of the Titans, were cast into Tartarus. Epimetheus, Metis, and Prometheus are some Titans who were not banished to Tartarus. Cronus was imprisoned in Tartarus. Other gods could be sentenced to Tartarus, as well. Apollo is a prime example, although Zeus freed him. In Tartarus, the Hecatonchires guarded prisoners. Later, when Zeus overcame the monster Typhon, the offspring of Tartarus and Gaia, he threw the monster into the same pit.
Originally, Tartarus was used only to confine dangers to the gods of Olympus. In later mythologies, Tartarus became the place where the punishment fits the crime."
(More may be read at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tartarus.) In this case, Peter uses the concept as a place of confinement for the "angels" or "messengers" who didn't keep their "first estate," not for anyone else:
2 Peter 2:4-10
4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
6 And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;
7 And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:
8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)
9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:
10 But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.
KJV
"Hadees" is a Greek word meaning the "UNSEEN," much as we would use the word, the "unknown." This word has to do with the old saying, "out of sight, out of mind." It represents the "forgotten"; those who have passed away and are no longer truly missed. After all, "life must go on." Some say that it means "the grave," but that's not its primary meaning, although when one is in the grave, one will become "unseen" and "forgotten." The word WAS translated as "grave" once in 1 Corinthians 15:55. It is also not the "place of the condemned." That is NOT what Yeshua` was saying when He was quoted in Luke 16:23:
Luke 16:19-31
19 There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:
20 And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores,
21 And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;
23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.
25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.
26 And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.
27 Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house:
28 For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.
29 Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.
30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.
31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.
KJV
I used to be taught that this meant that one who was in hell had all of his senses to experience the pain he would have to suffer there even though he was a disembodied soul (or rather "spirit"), but I no longer believe that this is a scene of the afterlife before the judgment. Instead, I now believe that the words "lifted up his eyes" and "cool my tongue" et cetera are proof that the resurrection has happened by the time of this scene. He has his body and its parts back and THEN his senses experience the pain. In Yeshua`s words, this is a scene from the FUTURE, AFTER the judgment and consignment to the Lake of Fire and Sulphur!
This brings up another phrase often used for "hell" although it is not translated that way: The Lake of Fire or the Lake of Fire and Sulphur (brimstone): This is the Greek phrase "teen limneen tou puros kai theiou" or just simply "teen limneen tou puros." These phrases are found in Revelation 19:20; 20:10, 14, and 15 five times and most of the time have to do with the sentencing after the Great White Throne Judgment. Thus, even though the other words do not carry the concept of the typical view of what "hell" is, this phrase does: a place of consignment for torture in flames as punishment for evil done in one's life.
The Tanakh carries merely the Hebrew word "she'owl" (OT:7585), which is closest in concept to the Greek word "hadees." Strong's Dictionary says:
OT:7585 she'owl (sheh-ole'); or she'ol (sheh-ole'); from OT:7592; Hades or the world of the dead (as if a subterranean retreat), including its accessories and inmates:
KJV - grave, hell, pit.
OT:7592 shaa'al (shaw-al'); or shaa'eel (shaw-ale'); a primitive root; to inquire; by implication, to request; by extension, to demand:
KJV - ask (counsel, on), beg, borrow, lay to charge, consult, demand, desire, earnestly, enquire, greet, obtain leave, lend, pray, request, require, salute, straitly, surely, wish.
(Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003, 2006 Biblesoft, Inc. and International Bible Translators, Inc.)
So, the word's primary meaning is "to ask," either in the sense of "to inquire," "to request," or "to demand." It may be as simple as a child asking, "Where did grandma go?" or as serious as God demanding an answer for things done in one's life at the Judgment in the future.
The word was used 66 times in the Tanakh (the OT), mentioned first in Genesis 37:35. It was translated as "grave" 31 times, as "pit" 3 times, and as "hell" 31 times. The other instance was in Isaiah 7:11 and was translated in its primary meaning as "ask it." If the word was used because of a person's inquiry as to where someone went after death, there was no answer. They were buried and forgotten. They entered the realm of the "unknown," and were "unseen" ever after.
More later.
In the Messiah's love,
Retrobyter
No comments:
Post a Comment