Recap from last session …
In Part 3 of Hell’s Illusion, Don continued challenging the traditional doctrine of eternal conscious torment by focusing on translation, context, and the character of God as Father. He argued that many believers inherited their understanding of hell through long-standing theological systems, especially Calvinistic and Arminian frameworks, where eternal torment became central to how judgment, salvation, and God’s nature were explained.
A major emphasis of the message is the Greek word aion and its adjective form aionios. The speaker explains that these words are often translated as “eternal” or “everlasting,” but more accurately refer to an age, an age-abiding period, or an indeterminate span of time. This distinction is used to reinterpret passages such as Matthew 25:46, Hebrews 6:2, Matthew 25:41, and 2 Thessalonians 1:9, where phrases like “everlasting punishment,” “eternal judgment,” “everlasting fire,” and “everlasting destruction” are presented as mistranslations that have shaped fear-based theology.
Don also highlighted the word kolasis, translated as “punishment” in Matthew 25:46, and presents it as corrective discipline rather than endless torment. From this perspective, God’s judgment is not portrayed as eternal torture but as purposeful correction consistent with the heart of a loving Father. Don contrasted this with inherited interpretations influenced by the Latin Vulgate, the King James Version, and church traditions that reinforced fear, control, and the doctrine of eternal conscious torment.
Jeremiah 19:5 is used to emphasize that burning people in fire was never something God commanded or desired, and Don applied this to question whether eternal fiery torment truly reflects God’s nature. The broader conclusion is that the gospel reveals the Father’s unfailing love, the finished work of Jesus, and the message of reconciliation rather than a message rooted in fear of endless punishment.
Overall, the last part of the series invited listeners to reconsider the doctrine of hell by examining original-language meanings, historical translation choices, and the character of God revealed in Jesus. The central takeaway is that God corrects and restores, but does not eternally torture His creation, and that understanding this truth can free believers from fear and help them see the good news more clearly.
- Aionios (αἰώνιος): This is the feminine/masculine form of the adjective. It most commonly translates to “pertaining to an age” or “age-enduring”. In biblical translations, it is heavily used to describe realities belonging to a specific period in God’s unfolding plan, though it is frequently rendered as “eternal”.
- Aionion (αἰώνιον): This is the neuter form of the exact same adjective. It describes a noun that is neuter in Greek. For example, when referring to “life” (zoe, which is feminine), you would use aionios. When referring to a neuter concept (like “salvation” or “redemption”), you use aionion.
On to the FEATURED VIDEO for tonight’s session …
Does the word “hell” appear in the Latin Vulgate?
- No, the English word “hell” does not appear in the Latin Vulgate because the Vulgate is written entirely in Latin.
- However, its Latin equivalent, “infernus” (or infernum), appears over 100 times.
- The original Hebrew and Greek scriptures use four different words for the afterlife:
- Sheol (Hebrew) and Hades (Greek): Refers to the grave or the general abode of the dead.
- Gehenna (Greek): Refers to a literal place of fire (the Valley of Hinnom) used as a metaphor for ultimate destruction.
- Tartarus (Greek): A place of confinement for fallen angels.
- When St. Jerome translated these into Latin, he translated them almost exclusively as infernus.
- Later, early English translators (such as John Wycliffe and the King James committees) translated all of these Latin instances into the single English word “hell“.
=====
- No, the exact English word “hell” is not in the Latin Vulgate because it is an English word.
- However, Jerome’s Latin text frequently uses the Latin equivalents “infernus” (or infernum) and “gehenna”, which are commonly translated into English as “hell”.
- When St. Jerome translated the Bible into Latin in the 4th century, he translated several different Hebrew and Greek concepts into specific Latin terms:
- Infernus / Infernum: This is the most common translation. It translates the Hebrew word Sheol (the grave or the abode of the dead) and the Greek word Hades. In the Vulgate, this word appears well over 100 times.
- Gehenna: Jerome transliterated this Greek word directly from the original New Testament Greek. It refers to the Valley of Hinnom, a literal burning trash pit outside Jerusalem that Jesus used as a metaphor for final judgment and destruction.
- Tartarus: Used only once in 2 Peter 2:4 to describe a place of punishment for rebellious angels. Jerome kept this as the Greek loanword Tartarus in the Vulgate.
- Because “infernus” and “gehenna” were both rendered into the single English word “hell” in older English translations (like the King James Version), the concept of “hell” is often directly associated with the Latin text.
- However, modern translations — and scholars of biblical languages — frequently differentiate between these terms to clarify whether the text is referring to the general grave (Sheol/Hades) or a place of fiery destruction (Gehenna).
- 382–383 AD: Jerome was commissioned to revise the existing Vetus Latina (Old Latin) Gospels and Psalms to ensure better accuracy against authoritative Greek manuscripts.
- 390–405 AD: He undertook the massive project of translating the Old Testament directly from the original Hebrew rather than relying solely on earlier Greek translations.
- 405 AD: Jerome finished his translation work, though the compilation and final canonization of all the texts into the standard collection continued into the following centuries.
The Root of The Problem
- Original languages >> Latin >> English
- In the Original languages to Latin phase … sheol, hades, gehenna, tartarus were all translated to infernum.
- In the Latin to English phase … infernum was translated to hell.
When did the word “hell’ first appear in the English Bible?
- The English word “hell” does not exist in the original Hebrew or Greek Bible manuscripts. It is an Old English/Germanic word (hel or helle) that first appeared in Old English translations around 725 AD to describe a concealed or covered place (like a grave).
- The concept and translation history evolved in distinct stages:
-
- Old English (c. 725 AD): Translators of early Anglo-Saxon texts used the Germanic word “helle” to describe the underworld. This concept heavily borrowed from pagan mythology (referencing the Norse underworld ruler, Hel).
- Wycliffe’s Bible (1382): John Wycliffe’s English translation popularized using “hell” to translate the Latin equivalent of the Hebrew Sheol and Greek Hades.
- The King James Version (1611): This translation cemented “hell” into modern English. It used the word indiscriminately 54 times to translate four very different original words (Sheol, Hades, Gehenna, and Tartarus).
- Modern Scholarship: Most modern Bible translations acknowledge that “hell” is an imprecise translation of these original terms.
-
- Translators of modern editions, such as the New International Version (NIV) or New American Standard Bible (NASB), have largely removed the word “hell” from the Old Testament entirely, opting to leave the original words (like Sheol) untranslated to reflect the true historical and cultural context of the text.
When did the Western Church become known as the Roman church?
- The Western Church officially became known as the Roman Catholic Church in 1054 CE during the East-West Schism.
- This monumental split divided Christendom into two distinct branches:
-
- Roman Catholic Church: The Western Church, which remained centered in Rome under the papal authority of the Pope.
- Eastern Orthodox Church: The Eastern Church, which rejected papal supremacy and became centered in Constantinople.
-
- While the term “Catholic” (meaning universal) had been in use since the 2nd century to describe the whole Christian body, it became necessary to distinguish the Western branch as “Roman” after institutional ties with the Eastern Byzantine Church were permanently severed.
- Prior to this split, the global Christian church was generally referred to simply as the Catholic or Orthodox Church.
- The institutional separation divided Christianity into two distinct branches: the Eastern Orthodox Church (centered in Constantinople) and the Roman Catholic Church (centered in Rome).
- Key drivers of the change:
-
- Papal Authority: The Western church emphasized the supreme, universal jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome (the Pope), which the Eastern churches rejected in favor of a council-led structure.
- Cultural and Political Division: The split was rooted in centuries of growing tension caused by language barriers (Latin in the West, Greek in the East) and the political separation of the Eastern and Western Roman Empires.
- The Formal Break: The designation became solidified when Pope Leo IX and Patriarch Michael Cerularius of Constantinople officially excommunicated each other in 1054 CE.
-
-
- 1382 (Wycliffe Bible): The first full translation, hand-copied from Latin.
- 1526 (Tyndale New Testament): The first printed English scripture, translated directly from the original Greek.
- 1535 (Coverdale Bible): The first complete printed Bible in English.
- 1560 (Geneva Bible): The first English Bible translated entirely from the original languages, featuring verse divisions and notes.