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Greek philosophy had influence on

concepts of heaven and hell
Rabbi Marc Gellman
Feb. 13, 2010Updated: July 28, 2017 8:08 a.m.

Q: Recently, someone raised an unusual question at Bible study: When was

hell created? The majority of the flock could not locate a time. When the
apostle of the house took a turn, he said the answer was in Genesis 1:6-9.
However, as he explained the passage, I didn't see where he was coming from.
Can you answer the question? -- D., via godsquadquestion@aol.com

A: Thanks for your hellishly difficult question. In fact, Genesis 1:6-9 is not
about the creation of hell (it never mentions hell), nor is it the story of the
creation of heaven, which is the incorrect English translation of the Hebrew
word for sky (Hebrew: raqia), which was conceived of as a transparent dome
holding back the waters that fall as rain. I, too, don't see where your apostle is
coming from, but if he brings the doughnuts for Bible study, I'd leave him
alone.

I get many questions regarding hell, usually as the anticipated destination for
my soul. Since your question is not accusatory, let me try to help you
understand hell. First, there's no reference to hell in the Hebrew Bible (Old
Testament). That's because there's also no reference to a soul, as opposed to a
body, in the Hebrew Bible, and since hell is the destination of evil souls, it
requires a belief in souls. (The Hebrew word in the Bible most often translated
as "soul" is not "soul" at all. The word in Hebrew is nefesh, which is best
translated as "life.")
The idea of the soul as distinct from the body first emerged after the Pharisees
(later called rabbis) encountered Greek philosophy following the conquests of
Alexander the Great in 331 BCE. Alexander's tutor, Aristotle, believed that
everything was composed of matter and form. Matter was the principle of
potentiality, and form was the principle of actuality. Simply put, matter was
formless stuff and form was what made matter into, well, stuff. Form was an
idea. God, of course, was pure form (immaterial.) For Aristotle, God's purity as
form was so great that God could have nothing to do with the material world.
For him, God was just the unmoved mover of the universe, or thought thinking
itself.

The Jewish thinkers who were completely enraptured by Greek thought could
not endorse Aristotle's idea of a God who had nothing to do with the world.
After all, they still had the biblical text of God walking through the Garden of
Eden during the breezy time of day (Genesis 3:8). But the idea of matter and
form was very appealing to them. So what they did was to equate matter with
the human body, guf, and form with the human soul, neshama. That is how the
idea of the duality of body and soul replaced the old biblical idea of nefesh as
our life, which ends when we die. It kept God both distant, but also in touch.

The idea of body and soul was the most important idea taken into Judaism,
and later Christianity and Islam, from Greek philosophy. It was the major
revolution in Judaism that separated and distinguished biblical Judaism from
rabbinic Judaism. The heart of this theological revolution was that it paved the
way for belief in the existence of the soul after death. This was easy, since the
soul was, like God, immaterial and thus could not die.

Now, if the soul is real, the natural question is, "Where does the soul go after
death?" This question produced the belief in The World To Come (Olam
Ha'bah), which in Christianity is called heaven.
Heaven gives people hope that they won't be separated forever from their
loved ones. Heaven also gave God a chance to reward those who'd been
shortchanged in life. Heaven was the reward for righteous people who'd
suffered unjustly during their lives. Now, obviously, if heaven was the reward
for righteous souls, there had to be someplace for evil souls.

Enter hell. Hell became the place of punishment for the souls of evil people
who'd somehow managed to escape punishment for their sins on earth.
Heaven and hell thus rebalanced the scales of justice that life on earth had
skewed. Thank you, Aristotle!
Jewish, Christian and Muslim concepts of heaven and hell are similar but not
identical. Both Judaism and Islam teach that the souls of all righteous people
of every faith (and no faith) will go to heaven. Christianity is more conflicted.
It does have strains of belief that echo Jewish and Muslim universalism, but it
also has within it a theological exclusivism (John 14:6 and elsewhere), which
teaches that the only way into heaven is through belief in Jesus as the Christ.
Judaism and Christianity also have a belief in purgatory, essentially a gateway
to heaven where the souls of the imperfectly righteous are punished for their
sins as an act of spiritual cleansing prior to their entry into heaven. In Judaism,
purgatory is called gehenom.

To answer your question directly, the creation of hell is not included in the
Hebrew Bible because the Hebrew Bible does not embrace a belief in life after
death. The closest the text comes to any speculation about this concept are
references to a place of the dead called Sheol (Hades in Greek). The Book of
Daniel also vaguely refers to some kind of hell and resurrection of the dead in
12:2: "And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some
to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt."

The origins of many other things mentioned in the Bible are also not
described. In the creation account in Genesis, the text is intended to describe
the origins of everything, but not the origins of every thing.

Send questions only to The God Squad, c/o Tribune Media Services, 2225
Kenmore Ave., Suite 114, Buffalo, N.Y. 14207, or e-mail them
to godsquadquestion@aol.com.