Quote Originally Posted by total relism View Post
? Hell has been part of the bible since the old testament long before Jesus was born in Bethlehem. It is contained in the writings of the fathers and early manuscripts long before your claimed "hundreds of years after jesus's death." If your referring to the actual word as translated from the original than that is fine. Thus we could also say the word Jesus [not original Hebrew/greek/semtic languages was co opted many hundred of years long after the death of yeshua by those christian english speaking peoples.
No it didn't. Concept of the Underworld has existed before Jesus, such as Hades from the Greek and Duat from the Eygptians, Sheol from Hebrew which means the unseen place (and many others). In the new testament, there was talk of Salvation and joining the Kingdom of Heaven, but those who did not enter the Kingdom were simply outside of it like how Earth is not in the Kingdom of Heaven (and not in a place called Hell; ie: a place of torment everlasting). It was the Church was started to invent these alternative afterlives such as purgatory and even different levels of Infernus (still not Hell). The idea of eternal punishment came 150 years after Jesus. The word Hell comes from Hel, which was the punishment in the Norse religion of Bad People opposed to entering Valhalla and it is the Christianising influences which co-opted and changed it. It was Dante's The Divine Comedy which really defined and structured Hell in 1320.