Hell, Oh Hell….wherfore art thou?

Make no mistake, the so called concept of ‘hell’ is indeed a complex issue to decipher.

It has become over centuries of religious tradition and human speculation very much like  a neglected plot of land that has, over time, become an overgrown jungle of confusion.

The weeds of superstition, the thistles of ignorance and the thorns of religious mythology have gone to seed, and completely taken over, obscuring the truth!

Also totally distorting the original meaning of the words and concept that they contained, and  were conveyed, and the context in which they were used, and what they meant in the ear of the hearers.

The historical fact is that the four original words, Gehenna, Tartarus, Sheol, and Hades were summarily, incorrectly, and arbitrarily translated into the medieval English word ‘hell’ by the early Catholic translators of the Bible.

To blindly assume that the original use of those words as applied in their context imply the prevailing Christian doctrinal construct, understanding and meaning attached to ‘hell’, requires an enormous amount of intellectual dishonesty from us in the Church world today.