The disembodied soul. The immediate flight upward. The body left behind like a husk, discarded, unimportant. The endless existence somewhere above the clouds. Ask most Christians where the dead are at this very moment, and some version of that map is what they will sketch for you.
Then ask them where they got it and watch the room go quiet.
Here is the uncomfortable claim this whole series rests on. That map is not the Bible’s map. A great deal of it was drawn by hands that never read Moses or the prophets.
Some of it is Greek. Some of it is medieval. Some of it, as we will see in a few weeks, was lifted straight from pagan poetry and handed back to us with a Christian label glued on the front.
Dropping the word is the right call, and there is a number that makes the case for you.
The King James renders sheol as grave thirty one times, hell thirty one times and pit three times. Sixty five occurrences, one Hebrew word, three English ones. Translators were deciding verse by verse who they thought was down there and picking a word to match it, and four centuries of readers inherited the decision without ever seeing the reasoning behind any of it.
When you reach the post about where the picture came from, that count earns its place, because it puts the sorting inside the translation instead of in the text.
When you wrote: “After thinking long and hard about it, I’ve decided to do this to be provocative, but because that single English word has been made to carry the weight of at least four completely distinct things in Scripture and it’s vital that we keep them straight.”
Did you mean “… I’ve decided to to this to be provocative …” or “… I’ve decided not to do this to be provocative …”. The reason I ask is because the following “but” suggests a contrast but without the “not”, it doesn’t feel like there is a contrast. Just wondering.
I'm interested in finding out more about terms such as spirit and soul. In some sense, they sound analogous, but they seem not to be the same. Hopefully, I can learn something from your writings.
I absolutely understand that instinct. Culture teaches us that spirit and soul mean the same thing, but biblically they are radically different things.
I'll definitely be exploring that in depth later in this series. I'd suggest subscribing if you haven't already to make sure you don't miss it.
Dropping the word is the right call, and there is a number that makes the case for you.
The King James renders sheol as grave thirty one times, hell thirty one times and pit three times. Sixty five occurrences, one Hebrew word, three English ones. Translators were deciding verse by verse who they thought was down there and picking a word to match it, and four centuries of readers inherited the decision without ever seeing the reasoning behind any of it.
When you reach the post about where the picture came from, that count earns its place, because it puts the sorting inside the translation instead of in the text.
When you wrote: “After thinking long and hard about it, I’ve decided to do this to be provocative, but because that single English word has been made to carry the weight of at least four completely distinct things in Scripture and it’s vital that we keep them straight.”
Did you mean “… I’ve decided to to this to be provocative …” or “… I’ve decided not to do this to be provocative …”. The reason I ask is because the following “but” suggests a contrast but without the “not”, it doesn’t feel like there is a contrast. Just wondering.
You're absolutely right to catch this. I try very hard to keep my writing free is typos, but, alas, mistakes happen.
Thank you for catching it.
Not a problem. Just wanted to be sure I was following. :)
I'm interested in finding out more about terms such as spirit and soul. In some sense, they sound analogous, but they seem not to be the same. Hopefully, I can learn something from your writings.
I absolutely understand that instinct. Culture teaches us that spirit and soul mean the same thing, but biblically they are radically different things.
I'll definitely be exploring that in depth later in this series. I'd suggest subscribing if you haven't already to make sure you don't miss it.
God bless.