History of Hell
By: Rob Sharples
Purgatory – the Unravelling of the Truth.
To fully understand or comprehend the whimsical, you must first look
beyond what you already know, and explore the origins of the fantasy.
Hell, for centuries, has been ingrained into society's psyche. Everyone,
religious or otherwise, has at least some brief knowledge of the fiery pit –
the place of eternal damnation – but what do we really know about its
history? One thing is certain: its existence is a relatively new concept in
terms of Biblical acknowledgement. In fact, a simple study of the Old
Testament denies its very existence entirely. The only references to an
afterlife in the original Hebrew scriptures are of Sheol, a place of darkness
where all the dead, both righteous and unrighteous, dwell, but certainly not
the vilified underworld and demonic purgatory of the post Judaic texts.
So, where did the Hell Myth Begin?
Hell, as we know it today, has evolved from alternate and outdated belief
systems – an extension of otherwise dead religions (yes, you read that right;
I really did say evolved). Let's not forget that the New Testament was, by
and large, a Greek construct, so it was only natural that Hades, or more
accurately, Tartarus, would find its way into the more modern scriptures.
During early Christianity, Hellenistic influence had a big part to play in the
evolution of the Abrahamic faiths, so it really was only inevitable that, at
some stage, similarities would emerge between the different myths.
Survival of the Fittest?
P a g e | 52