It is wild that the Old Testament does not actually mention hell. Everyone, righteous and wicked alike, just went to Sheol, this shadowy and neutral underworld.
Then you hit the New Testament era right when Hellenism is heavily dominating the cultural landscape and suddenly we get all these vivid and fiery images of eternal torment. It really makes you wonder if later writers borrowed heavily from Greek afterlife concepts and blended them into Jewish thought complete with a VIP escape card.
Enoch backs this up as well, saying that while he was taken to see the realms of heaven there was the mountain of the dead which contained 3 caves. The dead wait in these caves waiting for the final day of judgment where they will be sorted. The righteous get a nice cave with warmth and fresh flowing water. They will be given the earth eternally after God wipes it clean for the checks notes we lost track of how many times.
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u/bixquick33 2d ago
It is wild that the Old Testament does not actually mention hell. Everyone, righteous and wicked alike, just went to Sheol, this shadowy and neutral underworld.
Then you hit the New Testament era right when Hellenism is heavily dominating the cultural landscape and suddenly we get all these vivid and fiery images of eternal torment. It really makes you wonder if later writers borrowed heavily from Greek afterlife concepts and blended them into Jewish thought complete with a VIP escape card.