Hell Know
it doesn't last forever!
by
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This book is about the theological meaning of the two words, Hades and hell, and how each wormed its way into the KJV Bible and other English translations as well. As research for writing this book progressed, it became clear that the word, Hades, originated in ancient Greek history, which, around 800 BC, had been recorded and preserved in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. Alexander the Great conquered Palestine and Egypt about 330 BC. Then around 250 BC, the entire Hebrew Old Testament was translated into Greek, done by 70 Hebrew scholars at a library down in Egypt. This literary work is known as the Septuagint. Hades was introduced into the Septuagint, sixty times as a mistranslation of Sheol, the Hebrew word for grave. For more than 300 years, Greeks influence on the Jews, living in Palestine at the time, had been tremendous. Many Jews became fluent in both reading and writing Greek. The Septuagint became their Old Testament study Bible. Later, this became true of the New Testament characters who wrote that document in Greek. Peter and Paul both quoted Old Testament texts from the Septuagint that contained the word Hades, which were recorded in the New Testament documents. This is one way that shows how Hades moved into the Greek New Testament from the Old Testament Septuagint. In 1611 AD, as the KJV scholars were translating the whole Bible into English, every time except once, when the word Hades appeared in the Greek New Testament, they translated it into the English word, hell. Then from there they transported hell back into the Old Testament, as they were translating the Hebrew word, Sheol, in the Masoretic Text into English. About half of the 64 times that Sheol, was encountered, they mistranslated it into hell, but the other half, they translated. Sheol, into grave or pit. This is how the word hell wormed its way into the KJV English translation of the Old Testament. Gehenna is the name of Jerusalem’s city dump, where at the time of Christ, fire burned garbage almost continuously. This word was used twelve times in the Greek New Testament, by its writers. Eleven of the 12 are included as quotations of Jesus. It seems the ever burning fire reminded the KJV scholars of their concept of Hell, and so they translated it into hell every one of the 12 times Gehenna appeared in the Greek New Testament.
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About the Book
Having practiced medicine for more than 55 years, Dr. Johnstone has witnessed more than one of his patients take their last breath. But sometimes, in his mind, questions popped up. Is the person’s soul in the presence of its maker? Or is the soul now suffering in the flames of hell? Or did it simply die with the body and with it will soon be encrypted, buried, or cremated? What is the soul anyway? Is it conscious? Can it feel all of the stimuli coming to it from light, sound, heat, taste, smell, and touch? If so then a soul in heaven would be able to appreciate all of the blessings of that place, but if in hell; it would be suffering in the torment of eternal flames that never consume or destroy. However, if the soul dies with the body, then it would experience nothing. The above questions are not so meaningful if the person who has just died in your presence is not a loved one. However, a loved one’s death makes these questions come alive, sometimes with strong emotions not the least of which is sorrow. Dr. Johnstone experienced these feelings one summer afternoon, when he was called by his mother, who was at the bedside of his dying sister, to come to the hospital and pronounced her dead. Recently retired, Dr. Johnstone decided to research Scripture for himself to find answers in it, as to what happens to a person after death. In an effort to prevent bias from forming in his mind, he decided not to consult with any commentaries, but confine his studies mainly, but not exclusively, to The New International and King James versions of the Bible along with an English translation of the Septuagint. He also decided to obtain help from the Interlinear Bible, written in Hebrew, Greek, and English, in conjunction with The New Strong’s Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. From these sources, he performed a metaphoric autopsy to ferret out the answers to the soul’s postmortem existence. The pathology report, portrayed in Hell Know, came as a complete surprise.
About the Author
Born in 1932, then at age 17, I was challenged by the sudden death of my father, which left me with the responsibility of running the family dairy farm, and getting an education at the same time. In succession, I graduated from high school in 1951, college in 1955, and medical school in 1959, having paid for 90% of my education with money earned from running the farm. I have had no formal Biblical training in a seminary, nor have I had any education in Hebrew or Greek languages. The information I needed for writing the book, derived from careful study of the Interlinear Bible and The New Strong’s Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible Red-Letter Edition. Anyone with a high school education and dedication, will find that these two books can give one the needed grasp of Hebrew and Greek to write a book similar to mine. In addition to the aforementioned books, I bought a Greek-English translation of the Septuagint, which helped tremendously. However, I must admit that I would have had a lot of trouble writing Hell Know without considerable prior knowledge of the KJV Bible. I can thank my mom and Grandmother for teaching me this.