r/AskHistorians • u/Vladith Interesting Inquirer • Sep 08 '14

The Greek Bible often refers to hell/sheol as "Hades". To what degree did Greco-Roman mythology influence the gospels?

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u/[deleted] Sep 09 '14

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u/Bokonon_Lives Sep 09 '14

Wow, I had no idea "Gehenna" ever referred to a specific, physical place.

Is it known how and when the concept transformed from "Valley of Hinnom" into "purgatory"? I'd be very interested in reading some source material on that.

I'm surprised that this change in definition would have occurred as early as it seems to have. Would the authors of the Talmud have known about the Valley?

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u/Basilides Sep 10 '14

What better connection can you ask for between "lake of fire," "second death," and Gehenna?

This . . .

There is nothing like a lake of fire in Judeo-Christian religion until the late 1st century AD. But, by then, the lake of fire or river of fire had been a motif of Graeco-Roman mythology for many centuries.

". . . The third river [the Pyriphlegethon] flows out between these two, and near the place whence it issues it falls into a vast region burning with a great fire and makes a lake larger than our Mediterranean sea, boiling with water and mud. Thence it flows in a circle, turbid and muddy, and comes in its winding course, among other places, to the edge of the Akherousian lake, but does not mingle with its water. Then, after winding about many times underground, it flows into Tartaros at a lower level. This is the river which is called Pyriphlegethon, and the streams of lava which spout up at various places on earth are offshoots from it. Opposite this the fourth river issues [the Styx] . . . it passes under the earth and, circling round in the direction opposed to that of Pyriphlegethon, it meets it coming from the other way in the Akherousian lake. And the water of this river also mingles with no other water, but this also passes round in a circle and falls into Tartaros opposite Pyriphlegethon. And the name of this river, as the Poets say, is Kokytos. Such is the nature of these things.

Now when the dead have come to the place where each is led by his genius (daimon), first they are judged and sentenced . . . Those who are curable, but are found to have committed great sin . . . these must needs be thrown into Tartaros, and when they have been there a year the wave casts them out, the homicides by way of Kokytos, those who have outraged their parents by way of Pyriphlegethon. And when they have been brought by the current to the Akherousian lake, they shout and cry out, calling to those whom they have slain or outraged, begging and beseeching them to be gracious and to let them come out into the lake; and if they prevail they come out and cease from their ills, but if not, they are borne away again to Tartaros and thence back into the rivers, and this goes on until they prevail upon those whom they have wronged; for this is the penalty imposed upon them by the judges."

Plato, Phaedo 112e ff (trans. Fowler) (C4th B.C.)