Misplaced Pages

#652347

97-425: There are numerous Old Testament passages which refer to the people of Israel as a vine ( Hebrew : גָּ֫פֶן gephen ): Psalm 80:8–16 , Isaiah 5:1–7 , Jeremiah 2:21 , Ezekiel 15:1–8 , 17:5–10 , and 19:10–14 , and Hosea 10:1 . The Old Testament passages which use this symbolism appear to regard Israel as faithful to God and/or the object of severe punishment. Ezek 17:5–10 contains vine imagery which refers to

194-647: A different order for the books in Nevi'im and Ketuvim . This order is also cited in Mishneh Torah Hilchot Sefer Torah 7:15. The order of the books of the Torah is universal through all denominations of Judaism and Christianity. The disputed books, included in most canons but not in others, are often called the Biblical apocrypha , a term that is sometimes used specifically to describe

291-866: A few historic Protestant versions; the German Luther Bible included such books, as did the English 1611 King James Version. Empty table cells indicate that a book is absent from that canon. Several of the books in the Eastern Orthodox canon are also found in the appendix to the Latin Vulgate , formerly the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church. Some of the stories of the Pentateuch may derive from older sources. Scholars such as Andrew R. George point out

388-646: A king of the house of David , Zedekiah , who was set up as king in Judah by Nebuchadnezzar . Christians link the theme to the Tree of life and the Tree of Jesse . The Tree of Jesse originates in a passage in the biblical Book of Isaiah. The book metaphorically describes the Tree of Jesse in a passage and references the descent of the Messiah and is accepted by Christians as referring to Jesus. The various figures depicted in

485-481: A man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do the things that I command you. I will not now call you servants: for the servant knoweth not what his lord doth. But I have called you friends: because all things whatsoever I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you. You have not chosen me: but I have chosen you; and have appointed you, that you should go, and should bring forth fruit; and your fruit should remain: that whatsoever you shall ask of

582-505: A merciful and loving entity, takes no pleasure in the death of the living, and does not will or predestine anyone to go there (the Catholic stance is that God does not will suffering, and that the only entities known to be in hell beyond a doubt are Satan and his evil angels, and that the only suffering in hell is not fire or torture, but the freely-chosen, irrevocable and inescapable eternal separation from God and his freely given love, and

679-402: A place where believers suffer as their " venial sins " are purged before gaining admittance to heaven. John Chrysostom pictured Hell as associated with "unquenchable" fire and "various kinds of torments and torrents of punishment". Icons based on The Ladder of Divine Ascent , by John Climacus , show monks ascending a thirty-rung ladder to Heaven represented by Christ, or succumbing to

776-459: A place, or at least as providing an alternative picture of Hell. Others have explicitly disagreed with the interpretation of what the Pope said as an actual denial that Hell can be considered a place and have said that the Pope was only directing attention away from what is secondary to the real essence of hell. Catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905–1988) said that "we must see that hell

873-501: A predator, condemning himself to a spiritual death (hell) more dreadful than the physical death that derives from it." Another writer declared: "The circumstances that rise before us, the problems we encounter, the relationships we form, the choices we make, all ultimately concern our eternal union with or separation from God." The Eastern Orthodox Church rejects what is presented as the Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory as

970-525: A professor of Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism at the University of Edinburgh , identifies the Old Testament as "a collection of authoritative texts of apparently divine origin that went through a human process of writing and editing." He states that it is not a magical book, nor was it literally written by God and passed to mankind. By about the 5th century BC, Jews saw the five books of

1067-471: A question that evidently exceeds human understanding." In his book, Inventing Hell , Catholic writer and historian Jon M. Sweeney is critical of the ways that Christians have appropriated Dante's vision and images of hell. In its review, Publishers Weekly called the book "persuasively argued." An article on the same subject by Sweeney that was published on the Huffington Post's religion page

SECTION 10

#1732766075653

1164-608: A school known as biblical minimalism rejected the historical value of the Hebrew Bible for the study of ancient Israel during the Iron Age, "but this extreme approach was rejected by mainstream scholarship." The first five books— Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , book of Numbers and Deuteronomy —reached their present form in the Persian period (538–332 BC) , and their authors were the elite of exilic returnees who controlled

1261-476: A set period and be followed by the other-worldly age or World to Come . Some thought the Messiah was already present, but unrecognised due to Israel's sins; some thought that the Messiah would be announced by a forerunner, probably Elijah (as promised by the prophet Malachi , whose book now ends the Old Testament and precedes Mark 's account of John the Baptist ). However, no view of the Messiah as based on

1358-467: A share in their sins." Pope John Paul II stated on 28 July 1999, that, in speaking of Hell as a place, the Bible uses "a symbolic language", which "must be correctly interpreted […]. Rather than a place, hell indicates the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy." Some have interpreted these words as a denial that Hell can be considered to be

1455-489: Is γέεννα ( gehenna ), a direct loan of Hebrew גהנום/גהנם ( ge-hinnom ). Apart from one use in James 3:6 , this term is found exclusively in the synoptic gospels . Gehenna is most frequently described as a place of punishment (e.g., Matthew 5:22 , Matthew 18:8–9 ; Mark 9:43–49 ); other passages mention darkness and "weeping and gnashing of teeth" (e.g., Matthew 8:12 ; Matthew 22:13 ). The New Testament also uses

1552-480: Is a definite place; but where it is, we do not know." He cited the view of Augustine of Hippo that Hell is under the earth and that of Gregory the Great that hell is either on the earth or under it. The posthumous supplement to Aquinas' Summa theologiciae suppl. Q97 A4 flags discussion of the location of hell as speculation: As Augustine says (De Civ. Dei xv, 16), "I am of opinion that no one knows in what part of

1649-548: Is a place or state of eternal punishment inhabited by those rejected by God." It is agreed that Hell is a place of suffering. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: Jesus often speaks of "Gehenna" of "the unquenchable fire" reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be lost. Jesus solemnly proclaims that he "will send his angels, and they will gather. . . all evil doers, and throw them into

1746-695: Is based on the belief that the historical Jesus is also the Christ , as in the Confession of Peter . This belief is in turn based on Jewish understandings of the meaning of the Hebrew term Messiah , which, like the Greek "Christ", means "anointed". In the Hebrew Scriptures, it describes a king anointed with oil on his accession to the throne: he becomes "The L ORD 's anointed" or Yahweh's Anointed. By

1843-439: Is claimed that she told Jacinta Marto ; that more sinners go to Hell because of sins of impurity than any other. The biblical Book of Revelation mentions a lake of fire where the beast and all those marked with his number were placed. Columba of Iona is alleged to have on several occasions even been able to name particular individuals who he said were going to end life in hellfire for their sins and accurately predicted

1940-630: Is known as the eternal conscious torment (ECT) view. This view is the traditional position of Anabaptist (Mennonite, Hutterite, Bruderhof, Amish, Schwarzenau Brethren, River Brethren and Apostolic Christian churches), Anglican, Baptist, Charismatics, Lutheran, Methodist, Moravian, Pentecostals, Plymouth Brethren, Reformed (Congregationalist, Continental Reformed and Presbyterian churches), and Conservative Quaker denominations. Some recent writers such as Anglican layman C. S. Lewis and J.P. Moreland have cast hell in terms of "eternal separation" from God. Certain biblical texts have led some theologians to

2037-530: Is known, though there is plenty of speculation. For example, it is speculated that this may have provided motivation for canon lists and that Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus are examples of these Bibles. Together with the Peshitta and Codex Alexandrinus , these are the earliest extant Christian Bibles. There is no evidence among the canons of the First Council of Nicaea of any determination on

SECTION 20

#1732766075653

2134-547: Is my Father glorified; that you bring forth very much fruit, and become my disciples . As the Father hath loved me, I also have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love; as I also have kept my Father's commandments , and do abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be filled. This is my commandment , that you love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love than this no man hath, that

2231-610: Is neither read nor held among the Hebrews, but does not explicitly call it apocryphal or "not in the canon". The Synod of Hippo (in 393), followed by the Council of Carthage (397) and the Council of Carthage (419) , may be the first council that explicitly accepted the first canon which includes the books that did not appear in the Hebrew Bible ; the councils were under significant influence of Augustine of Hippo , who regarded

2328-482: Is no created place of divine absence, nor is hell an ontological separation from God. One expression of the Eastern teaching is that hell and heaven are dimensions of God's intensifying presence, as this presence is experienced either as torment or as paradise depending on the spiritual state of a person dwelling with God. For one who hates God and by extension hates himself as God's image-bearer, to be encompassed by

2425-419: Is not an object that is 'full' or 'empty' of human individuals, but a possibility that is not 'created' by God but in any case by the free individuals who choose it". The Catholic Faith Handbook for Youth , with imprimatur of 2007, also says that "more accurately" heaven and hell are not places but states. Capuchin theologian Berard A. Marthaler also says that "hell is not 'a place'". Traditionally in

2522-515: Is often associated with the Protestant reformer John Calvin . In historic Protestant traditions, hell is the place created by God for the punishment of the devil and fallen angels (cf. Matthew 25:41 ), and those whose names are not written in the book of life (cf. Revelation 20:15 ). It is the final destiny of every person who does not receive salvation , where they will be punished for their sins. People will be consigned to hell after

2619-557: Is predestined to Hell, and that the church's teaching on Hell is not meant to frighten but is a call for people to use their freedom wisely. It is first and foremost a call to conversion, and to show that Humanity's true destiny lies with God in heaven. The Catholic Church, and the Catechism, repudiates the view commonly known as " double predestination " which claims that God not only chooses who will be saved, but that he also creates some people who will be doomed to damnation. This view

2716-486: Is predestined to commit sin or to go to hell. Catholic doctrine holds that after death, repentance is impossible. The Baltimore Catechism defined Hell by using the word "state" alone: "Hell is a state to which the wicked are condemned, and in which they are deprived of the sight of God for all eternity, and are in dreadful torments." However, suffering is characterized as both mental and physical: "The damned will suffer in both mind and body, because both mind and body had

2813-450: Is said in our time, exists and is eternal for those who close their hearts to his love." Journalist Richard Owen's interpretation of this remark as declaring that hell is an actual place was reported in many media. Writing in the 1910 Catholic Encyclopedia , Joseph Hontheim said that "theologians generally accept the opinion that hell is really within the earth. The Catholic Church has decided nothing on this subject; hence we may say hell

2910-462: Is stark, with no explicit provision made for fine gradations of merit or guilt: Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me. ...whatever you did not do for one of

3007-733: Is the New Testament , written in Koine Greek . The Old Testament consists of many distinct books by various authors produced over a period of centuries. Christians traditionally divide the Old Testament into four sections: the first five books or Pentateuch (which corresponds to the Jewish Torah ); the history books telling the history of the Israelites, from their conquest of Canaan to their defeat and exile in Babylon ;

True Vine - Misplaced Pages Continue

3104-423: Is to worship , or the one "true God", that only Yahweh (or YHWH ) is Almighty. The Old Testament stresses the special relationship between God and his chosen people , Israel, but includes instructions for proselytes as well. This relationship is expressed in the biblical covenant (contract) between the two, received by Moses . The law codes in books such as Exodus and especially Deuteronomy are

3201-605: The Septuagint (Latin for 'Seventy') from the supposed number of translators involved (hence its abbreviation " LXX "). This Septuagint remains the basis of the Old Testament in the Eastern Orthodox Church . It varies in many places from the Masoretic Text and includes numerous books no longer considered canonical in some traditions: 1 Esdras , Judith , Tobit , the books of Maccabees ,

3298-482: The Babylonian exile ) upon his people. The theme is played out, with many variations, in books as different as the histories of Kings and Chronicles, the prophets like Ezekiel and Jeremiah , and in the wisdom books like Job and Ecclesiastes. The process by which scriptures became canons and Bibles was a long one, and its complexities account for the many different Old Testaments which exist today. Timothy H. Lim,

3395-576: The Book of Wisdom , Sirach , and Baruch . Early modern biblical criticism typically explained these variations as intentional or ignorant corruptions by the Alexandrian scholars, but most recent scholarship holds it is simply based on early source texts differing from those later used by the Masoretes in their work. The Septuagint was originally used by Hellenized Jews whose knowledge of Greek

3492-582: The Catholic canon comprises 46 books; and the most common of the Protestant canons comprises 39 books. There are 39 books common to essentially all Christian canons. They correspond to the 24 books of the Tanakh , with some differences of order, and there are some differences in text. The greater count of books reflects the splitting of several texts ( Samuel , Kings , Chronicles , Ezra–Nehemiah , and

3589-487: The Dead Sea Scrolls . In general, Catholic and Orthodox churches include the deuterocanonical books in the Old Testament. Most Protestant Bibles do not include them in their canon, but some versions of Anglican and Lutheran Bibles place such books in a separate section called Apocrypha . The Old Testament contains 39 (Protestant), 46 (Catholic), or more (Orthodox and other) books, divided, very broadly, into

3686-513: The Hellenistic time (332–198 BC), though containing much older material as well; Job was completed by the 6th century BC; Ecclesiastes by the 3rd century BC. Throughout the Old Testament, God is consistently depicted as the one who created the world. Although the God of the Old Testament is not consistently presented as the only god who exists , he is always depicted as the only God whom Israel

3783-750: The Pentateuch (Torah) , the historical books , the "wisdom" books and the prophets. The table below uses the spellings and names present in modern editions of the Christian Bible, such as the Catholic New American Bible Revised Edition and the Protestant Revised Standard Version and English Standard Version . The spelling and names in both the 1609–F10 Douay Old Testament (and in the 1582 Rheims New Testament ) and

3880-682: The Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition ) use the same "standardized" (King James Version) spellings and names as Protestant Bibles (e.g. 1 Chronicles as opposed to the Douaic 1 Paralipomenon, 1–2 Samuel and 1–2 Kings instead of 1–4 Kings) in those books which are universally considered canonical: the protocanonicals . The Talmud (the Jewish commentary on the scriptures) in Bava Batra 14b gives

3977-578: The Temple at that time. The books of Joshua , Judges , Samuel and Kings follow, forming a history of Israel from the Conquest of Canaan to the Siege of Jerusalem c.  587 BC . There is a broad consensus among scholars that these originated as a single work (the so-called " Deuteronomistic History ") during the Babylonian exile of the 6th century BC. The two Books of Chronicles cover much

True Vine - Misplaced Pages Continue

4074-760: The Torah (the Old Testament Pentateuch) as having authoritative status; by the 2nd century BC, the Prophets had a similar status, although without quite the same level of respect as the Torah; beyond that, the Jewish scriptures were fluid, with different groups seeing authority in different books. Hebrew texts began to be translated into Greek in Alexandria in about 280 BC and continued until about 130 BC. These early Greek translations – supposedly commissioned by Ptolemy II Philadelphus – were called

4171-617: The Twelve Minor Prophets ) into separate books in Christian Bibles. The books that are part of the Christian Old Testament but that are not part of the Hebrew canon are sometimes described as deuterocanonical books . These books are ultimately derived from the earlier Septuagint , the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, and are also Jewish in origin. Some are also contained in

4268-671: The conditional immortality . For example, John Calvin , who believed in conscious existence after death, had a very different concept of hell (Hades and Gehenna) to Martin Luther who held that death was sleep . The historic Protestant view of hell is expressed in the Westminster Confession (1646), a Reformed confession of faith: The Book of Discipline of the Evangelical Methodist Church Conference similarly teaches: While

4365-524: The general judgment , or, as some Christians believe, immediately after death ( particular judgment ). Its character is inferred from teaching in the biblical texts, some of which, interpreted literally, have given rise to the popular idea of Hell. Theologians today generally see Hell as the logical consequence of rejecting union with God and with God's justice and mercy. Different Hebrew and Greek words are translated as "Hell" in most English-language Bibles. These words include: In ancient Jewish belief,

4462-405: The last judgment . The nuances in the views of "hell" held by different Protestant denominations, both in relation to Hades (i.e., the abode of the dead) and Gehenna (i.e., the destination of the wicked), are largely a function of the varying Protestant views on the intermediate state between death and resurrection ; and different views on the immortality of the soul or the alternative,

4559-651: The 1749 revision by Bishop Challoner (the edition currently in print used by many Catholics, and the source of traditional Catholic spellings in English) and in the Septuagint differ from those spellings and names used in modern editions which are derived from the Hebrew Masoretic Text . For the Orthodox canon, Septuagint titles are provided in parentheses when these differ from those editions. For

4656-649: The Catholic canon, the Douaic titles are provided in parentheses when these differ from those editions. Likewise, the King James Version references some of these books by the traditional spelling when referring to them in the New Testament, such as "Esaias" (for Isaiah ). In the spirit of ecumenism , more recent Catholic translations (e.g. the New American Bible , Jerusalem Bible , and ecumenical translations used by Catholics, such as

4753-538: The Father in my name, he may give it you. These things I command you, that you love one another. Old Testament The Old Testament ( OT ) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon , which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible , or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Israelites . The second division of Christian Bibles

4850-749: The Gospel of John". According to the Catholic Encyclopedia , "There are no parables in St. John's Gospel"; and according to the Encyclopædia Britannica , "Here Jesus' teaching contains no parables and but three allegories, the Synoptists present it as parabolic through and through." These sources all suggest that the passage is better described as a metaphor than a parable. Some writers, however, notably John Calvin , referred to

4947-399: The Greek word hades , usually to refer to the abode of the dead (e.g., Acts 2:31 ; Revelation 20:13 ). Only one passage describes hades as a place of torment, the parable of Lazarus and Dives ( Luke 16:19–31 ). Jesus here depicts a wicked man suffering fiery torment in hades , which is contrasted with the bosom of Abraham , and explains that it is impossible to cross over from one to

SECTION 50

#1732766075653

5044-667: The Hebrew, Greek and Latin versions of the Hebrew Bible are the best known Old Testaments, there were others. At much the same time as the Septuagint was being produced, translations were being made into Aramaic, the language of Jews living in Palestine and the Near East and likely the language of Jesus : these are called the Aramaic Targums , from a word meaning "translation", and were used to help Jewish congregations understand their scriptures. For Aramaic Christians, there

5141-405: The Old Testament predicted a Messiah who would suffer and die for the sins of all people. The story of Jesus' death, therefore, involved a profound shift in meaning from the Old Testament tradition. The name "Old Testament" reflects Christianity's understanding of itself as the fulfillment of Jeremiah's prophecy of a New Covenant (which is similar to "testament" and often conflated) to replace

5238-400: The Old Testament. Of the remainder, the books of the various prophets— Isaiah , Jeremiah , Ezekiel , and the twelve " minor prophets "—were written between the 8th and 6th centuries BC, with the exceptions of Jonah and Daniel , which were written much later. The "wisdom" books— Job , Proverbs , Ecclesiastes , Psalms , Song of Songs —have various dates: Proverbs possibly was completed by

5335-574: The Septuagint ( 3 Ezra and 3 and 4 Maccabees are excluded); the Anglicans after the English Civil War adopted a compromise position, restoring the 39 Articles and keeping the extra books that were excluded by the Westminster Confession of Faith , both for private study and for reading in churches but not for establishing any doctrine, while Lutherans kept them for private study, gathered in an appendix as biblical apocrypha . While

5432-459: The Septuagint's, and Theodotion's. The so-called "fifth" and "sixth editions" were two other Greek translations supposedly miraculously discovered by students outside the towns of Jericho and Nicopolis : these were added to Origen's Octapla. In 331, Constantine I commissioned Eusebius to deliver fifty Bibles for the Church of Constantinople . Athanasius recorded Alexandrian scribes around 340 preparing Bibles for Constans . Little else

5529-458: The True Vine theme is also part of the New Testament. It is a parable or allegory found in John 15:1–17. It describes Jesus's disciples as branches of himself. Leos Moskos completed his version of the work between 1650-1690 and it is entitled Christ the Vine . Victor completed his version of the Christ the Vine in 1674. Several authors such as Barbara Reid, Arland Hultgren or Donald Griggs comment that "parables are noticeably absent from

5626-414: The Vine is located at the Monastery of the Virgin Hodegetria, Heraklion, Crete. The theme was copied by many artists and Christ the Vine or Christos o Ambelos is a depiction of the nine original apostles with Paul the Evangelist sometimes referred to as the thirteenth Apostle, Luke the Evangelist and Mark the Evangelist on a tree. The theme is linked to the Tree of Jesse which is the original use of

5723-419: The Western Church, specifically as the Sixto-Clementine Vulgate , while the Churches in the East continued, and continue, to use the Septuagint. Jerome, however, in the Vulgate's prologues , describes some portions of books in the Septuagint not found in the Hebrew Bible as being non- canonical (he called them apocrypha ); for Baruch , he mentions by name in his Prologue to Jeremiah and notes that it

5820-404: The arrows of demons and falling from the ladder into Hell, sometimes represented by an open-jawed dragon. The Council of Trent taught, in the 5th canon of its 14th session, that damnation is eternal: "...the loss of eternal blessedness, and the eternal damnation which he has incurred..." This teaching is based on Jesus' parable of the sheep and the goats : "Depart from me, you accursed, into

5917-407: The books in the Catholic and Orthodox canons that are absent from the Jewish Masoretic Text and most modern Protestant Bibles. Catholics, following the Canon of Trent (1546), describe these books as deuterocanonical, while Greek Orthodox Christians, following the Synod of Jerusalem (1672) , use the traditional name of anagignoskomena , meaning "that which is to be read." They are present in

SECTION 60

#1732766075653

6014-523: The branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine: you the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing. If any one abide not in me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire , and he burneth. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask whatever you will, and it shall be done unto you. In this

6111-417: The canon as already closed. In the 16th century, the Protestant reformers sided with Jerome; yet although most Protestant Bibles now have only those books that appear in the Hebrew Bible, the order is that of the Greek Bible. Rome then officially adopted a canon, the Canon of Trent , which is seen as following Augustine's Carthaginian Councils or the Council of Rome , and includes most, but not all, of

6208-417: The canon. However, Jerome (347–420), in his Prologue to Judith , claims that the Book of Judith was "found by the Nicene Council to have been counted among the number of the Sacred Scriptures". In Western Christianity or Christianity in the Western half of the Roman Empire , Latin had displaced Greek as the common language of the early Christians, and in 382 AD Pope Damasus I commissioned Jerome ,

6305-409: The dead were consigned to Sheol , a place to which all were sent indiscriminately (cf. Genesis 37:35 ; Numbers 16:30–33 ; Psalm 86:13 ; Ecclesiastes 9:10 ). Sheol was thought of as a place situated below the ground (cf. Ezek. 31:15 ), a place of darkness, silence and forgetfulness (cf. Job 10:21). By the third to second century BC, the idea had grown to encompass separate divisions in sheol for

6402-509: The divine presence could only result in unspeakable anguish. Aristotle Papanikolaou and Elizabeth H. Prodromou write in their book Thinking Through Faith: New Perspectives from Orthodox Christian Scholars that for the Eastern Orthodox: "Those theological symbols, heaven and hell, are not crudely understood as spatial destinations but rather refer to the experience of God's presence according to two different modes." Several Eastern Orthodox theologians do describe hell as separation from God, in

6499-450: The eternal fire...And these will go off to eternal punishment,..." The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines hell as self-exclusion from Heaven, a freely chosen consequence of final impenitence, i.e., deliberately and willingly refusing to repent of mortal sin at death and accept divine mercy : The prisoners of hell are the impenitent, such as Satan; Satan's fall from Heaven is irrevocable because he chooses not to repent. No one

6596-452: The existing covenant between God and Israel ( Jeremiah 31:31 ). The emphasis, however, has shifted from Judaism's understanding of the covenant as a racially or tribally based pledge between God and the Jewish people, to one between God and any person of faith who is "in Christ". Christian views on hell In Christian theology , Hell is the place or state into which, by God's definitive judgment, unrepentant sinners pass in

6693-464: The family tree as a schematic representation of a genealogy. The theme originated in a passage from the biblical Book of Isaiah and describes the descent of the Messiah. The tree is the depiction in art of the ancestors of Jesus Christ and Christ is shown in a branching tree. The tree typically rises from Jesse of Bethlehem, Jesse was the father of King David . The Tree of Jesse (Ρίζα του Ιεσσαί) has appeared numerous times in Greek Italian Byzantine art and

6790-439: The furnace of fire", and that he will pronounce the condemnation: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire!" The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, "eternal fire". The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess

6887-414: The leading scholar of the day, to produce an updated Latin Bible to replace the Vetus Latina , which was a Latin translation of the Septuagint. Jerome's work, called the Vulgate , was a direct translation from Hebrew, since he argued for the superiority of the Hebrew texts in correcting the Septuagint on both philological and theological grounds. His Vulgate Old Testament became the standard Bible used in

6984-554: The least of these, you did not do for me. The Book of Revelation mentions a lake of fire and brimstone in which unrighteous people are thrown. According to the Book of Revelation , the abyss is the place in which the Seven-Headed Dragon is imprisoned during the Millennium . Some Eastern Orthodox Christians believe that Heaven and Hell are relations to or experiences of God's just and loving presence. There

7081-422: The life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs. Although the Catechism explicitly speaks of the punishments of hell in the plural, calling them "eternal fire", and speaks of eternal separation from God as the "chief" of those punishments, one commentator claims that it is non-committal on the existence of forms of punishment other than that of separation of God: after all, God, being above all

7178-537: The lineage of Jesus are drawn from those names listed in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke. Sometimes the Virgin Mary is also depicted in a vine. The True Vine was a popular theme painted by Cretan artists. One of the earliest painters of the theme was Angelos Akotantos . Angelos painted several versions of the work during the 15th century. One of Angelo's paintings of the True Vine entitled Christ

7275-535: The other. Some scholars believe that this parable reflects the intertestamental Jewish view of hades (or sheol ) as containing separate divisions for the wicked and righteous. In the eschatological discourse of Matthew 25:31–46 , Jesus says that, when the Son of Man comes in his glory, he will separate people from one another as a shepherd separates sheep from goats, and will consign to everlasting fire those who failed to aid "the least of his brothers". This separation

7372-504: The passage by a Latin term that is typically translated into English as a "parable". John 15:1–17 reads in the Douay–Rheims Bible : I am the true vine; and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me, that beareth not fruit, he will take away: and every one that beareth fruit, he will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now you are clean by reason of the word, which I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As

7469-468: The past Hell has been spoken of or considered as a place. Some have rejected metaphorical interpretations of the biblical descriptions of hell, and have attributed to Hell a location within the earth, while others who uphold the opinion that hell is a definite place, say instead that its location is unknown. In a homily given on 25 March 2007, Pope Benedict XVI stated: "Jesus came to tell us that he wants us all in heaven and that hell, of which so little

7566-465: The patriarchs" and "the unified conquest of the land" were widely accepted in the United States until about the 1970s. Contrarily, Grabbe says that those in his field now "are all minimalists – at least, when it comes to the patriarchal period and the settlement. ... [V]ery few are willing to operate [as maximalists]." In 2022, archaeologist Avraham Faust wrote that in the 1990s

7663-485: The poetic and " Wisdom books " dealing, in various forms, with questions of good and evil in the world; and the books of the biblical prophets, warning of the consequences of turning away from God. The books that compose the Old Testament canon and their order and names differ between various branches of Christianity . The canons of the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches comprise up to 49 books;

7760-554: The righteous and wicked (cf. the Book of Enoch ). By at least the late or saboraic rabbinical period (500–640 AD), Gehinnom was viewed as the place of ultimate punishment, exemplified by the rabbinical statement "the best of physicians are destined to Gehinnom." (M. Kiddushin 4:14); also described in Assumption of Moses and 2 Esdras . Three different New Testament words appear in most English translations as "Hell": The most common New Testament term translated as "Hell"

7857-453: The righteous, who are in heaven; thus the church and the popes have placed emphasis on the potential irreversibility of a mortally sinful life that goes un-absolved before one's death, and the dogma and reality of the place or state of hell). Another interpretation is that the Catechism by no means denies other forms of suffering, but stresses that the pain of loss is central to the Catholic understanding of hell. Augustine of Hippo said that

7954-437: The saint goes from the judgment to enjoy eternal bliss, the impenitent sinner is turned away into everlasting condemnation, punishment and misery. As heaven is described in the Bible as a place of everlasting happiness, so hell is described as a place of endless torment, where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. Matt. 25:41, 46; Mark 9:44-48; Luke 13:3; John 8:21, 23 —Evangelical Methodist Church Discipline (¶25) This

8051-470: The same material as the Pentateuch and Deuteronomistic history and probably date from the 4th century BC. Chronicles, and Ezra–Nehemiah , was probably finished during the 3rd century BC. Catholic and Orthodox Old Testaments contain two (Catholic Old Testament) to four (Orthodox) Books of the Maccabees , written in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. These history books make up around half the total content of

8148-439: The sense of being out of fellowship or loving communion. Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov) spoke of "the hell of separation from God". Paul Evdokimov stated: "Hell is nothing else but separation of man from God, his autonomy excluding him from the place where God is present." According to Theodore Stylianopoulos, "Hell is a spiritual state of separation from God and inability to experience the love of God, while being conscious of

8245-518: The similarity of the Genesis flood narrative and the Gilgamesh flood myth . Similarities between the origin story of Moses and that of Sargon of Akkad were noted by psychoanalyst Otto Rank in 1909 and popularized by 20th-century writers, such as H. G. Wells and Joseph Campbell . Jacob Bronowski writes that, "the Bible is ... part folklore and part record. History is ... written by

8342-423: The suffering of hell is compounded because God continues to love the sinner who is not able to return the love. According to the church, whatever is the nature of the sufferings, "they are not imposed by a vindictive judge" "Concerning the detailed specific nature of hell ... the Catholic Church has defined nothing. ... It is useless to speculate about its true nature, and more sensible to confess our ignorance in

8439-544: The term to refer to a pledge. Further themes in the Old Testament include salvation , redemption , divine judgment , obedience and disobedience, faith and faithfulness, among others. Throughout there is a strong emphasis on ethics and ritual purity , both of which God demands, although some of the prophets and wisdom writers seem to question this, arguing that God demands social justice above purity, and perhaps does not even care about purity at all. The Old Testament's moral code enjoins fairness, intervention on behalf of

8536-495: The terms of the contract: Israel swears faithfulness to God, and God swears to be Israel's special protector and supporter. However, The Jewish Study Bible denies that the word covenant ( brit in Hebrew) means "contract"; in the ancient Near East, a covenant would have been sworn before the gods, who would be its enforcers. As God is part of the agreement, and not merely witnessing it, The Jewish Study Bible instead interprets

8633-543: The time of Jesus, some Jews expected that a flesh-and-blood descendant of David (the " Son of David ") would come to establish a real Jewish kingdom in Jerusalem, instead of the Roman province of Judaea. Others stressed the Son of Man , a distinctly other-worldly figure who would appear as a judge at the end of time . Some expounded a synthesised view of both positions, where a messianic kingdom of this world would last for

8730-501: The ultimate deprivation of it as punishment." Michel Quenot stated: "Hell is none other than the state of separation from God, a condition into which humanity was plunged for having preferred the creature to the Creator. It is the human creature, therefore, and not God, who engenders hell. Created free for the sake of love, man possesses the incredible power to reject this love, to say 'no' to God. By refusing communion with God, he becomes

8827-484: The victors, and the Israelis , when they burst through [ Jericho ( c.  1400 BC )], became the carriers of history." In 2007, a historian of ancient Judaism Lester L. Grabbe explained that earlier biblical scholars such as Julius Wellhausen (1844–1918) could be described as 'maximalist', accepting biblical text unless it has been disproven. Continuing in this tradition, both "the 'substantial historicity' of

8924-457: The vulnerable, and the duty of those in power to administer justice righteously. It forbids murder, bribery and corruption, deceitful trading, and many sexual misdemeanours . All morality is traced back to God, who is the source of all goodness. The problem of evil plays a large part in the Old Testament. The problem the Old Testament authors faced was that a good God must have had just reason for bringing disaster (meaning notably, but not only,

9021-467: The way they would die before the event had even happened. A story recorded by Cluniac monks in the Middle Ages claimed that Benedict of Nursia appeared to a monk on one occasion and told the monk that there had just been (at that point in time) a monk who had fled the monastic life to go back into the world, and the ex-monk then died and he went to hell. The Catholic Church teaches that no one

9118-660: The world hell is situated, unless the Spirit of God has revealed this to some one." Other Catholics neither affirm nor deny that Hell is a place, and speak of it as "a place or state". Ludwig Ott's work "The Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma" said: "Hell is a place or state of eternal punishment inhabited by those rejected by God". Robert J. Fox wrote: "Hell is a place or state of eternal punishment inhabited by those rejected by God because such souls have rejected God's saving grace." Evangelicals Norman L. Geisler and Ralph E. MacKenzie interpret official Roman Catholic teaching as: "Hell

9215-510: Was a Syriac translation of the Hebrew Bible called the Peshitta , as well as versions in Coptic (the everyday language of Egypt in the first Christian centuries, descended from ancient Egyptian ), Ethiopic (for use in the Ethiopian church , one of the oldest Christian churches), Armenian (Armenia was the first to adopt Christianity as its official religion), and Arabic . Christianity

9312-538: Was better than Hebrew. However, the texts came to be used predominantly by gentile converts to Christianity and by the early Church as its scripture, Greek being the lingua franca of the early Church. The three most acclaimed early interpreters were Aquila of Sinope , Symmachus the Ebionite , and Theodotion ; in his Hexapla , Origen placed his edition of the Hebrew text beside its transcription in Greek letters and four parallel translations: Aquila's, Symmachus's,

9409-549: Was liked by more than 19,000 people, including Anne Rice . A number of Catholic mystics and saints have claimed to have received visions of Hell or other revelations concerning Hell. During various Marian apparitions , such as those at Fatima or at Kibeho , the visionaries claimed that the Virgin Mary during the course of the visions showed them a view of Hell where sinners were suffering. At Fátima in Portugal , it

#652347