You seem to not want to discuss in your book the fact that the word hell appears all over the place in the Old Testament. Why is that? Would it undermine the thesis of your book?
Few things here. First, for anyone posting on my site, let’s please respect one another and speak honestly rather than innuendo or subtext. You imply that I am deliberately avoiding saying something in my book. What you bring up in your question was not a thought in my head. My book is called What Did Jesus Say About Hell? It is not called What Does The Bible Say About Hell? Can you please tell me what the thesis of my book is?
As for your question in general:
Our English word “hell” is not found in the Old Testament. Granted, you might still see it there depending on what Bible you use. That was due to a mistranslation of the Hebrew word Sheol into our English hell, but it has been corrected for some time now. In most of the modern English Bibles we widely use today, you will not see the English word hell in the Old Testament, including the NIV, NRSV, ASV, ESV, HCSB, ISV, NASB. The only major Bible that has not updated their translation is the NKJV (New King James Version), who kept it there for theological reasons, and there are a few other Bibles that follow their lead. Everyone is entitled to believe what they will, and use what Bible they like, and obviously you use a Bible that has not updated their translation.
I would only suggest that you research the matter for yourself. I am not a scholar, or an authority on the Old Testament, but there is plenty of information out there to find by people who are both. The NIV and NRSV translations, however, for example, had teams of scholars—most of them religious Christians—who were involved in giving the most accurate translations and understandings of the Hebrew Bible (the NIV is the best selling Bible in America).
In my understanding, in the Hebrew Bible there is a word Sheol that got translated as “hell.” Sheol is not the same as our hell. It is not a place where souls go for all eternity after the body dies (which is what our “hell” is understood to be). Nor is it a place of punishment. It is used as a synonym for “grave,” “pit,” and “death.” It is sometimes understood as an abode for the dead until the day of judgment (again, not a place where souls are tormented for all eternity). When ascertaining the meaning of Hebrew terms in the Hebrew Bible we have to look into the meaning of those terms in Judaism. It’s easy for any of us to open up a Bible and see the word hell in the Old Testament—I remember doing it myself several decades ago when I first started seriously reading the Bible. My first Bible was the King James Bible, which was the only Bible I even knew of until I got to college. The King James Bible was first written in 1611. We have had tremendous advances in biblical scholarship since then.
Thank you for the inquiry!
Kevin
