Part 3 – The Greek Word
Hades
If you have not read Part 1, A Brief Backdrop of My Journey or Part 2, The Hebrew Word Sheol, please do
so before reading this Part 3.
Once
again, I’ll repeat myself and say that mankind’s present is enormously
influenced by the past and by other cultures. Christianity’s modern ideas
of hell have mostly come from Greek and Roman mythology, the poetic (and
fictional) writing of Dante Alighieri’s (1265-1321) Inferno, and
from ancient church leaders of Roman Catholicism and so called “church fathers”
who had the wrong perception of God’s character, held an unhealthy fear of God,
and/or wanted to have power and control over people.
In Part 2, I explained the
Hebrew word Sheol which is used in the Old Testament. In this Part 3, I will explain the Greek word
Hades, which is the equivalent to Sheol.
What is Hades?
The Greek word “Hades”
([h]ades) is constructed out of two root words:
