Origins of Hell

By the time of Alexander the Great the Greeks' idea of Hades had evolved into a picture featuring two distinct compartments: the Elysian Fields (Paradise), an eternal picnic for the blessed, and Tartarus, a place of torment for evil persons. From the Greeks the idea entered Judaism.Yeshua's story of the rich man and Lazarus adopts the Greek model completely. The only difference is that the name of one locale gets a Jewish makeover: the poor man is said to find peace 'at Abraham's side' rather than in the Elysian Fields.__

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ArcherAll species are transitional.

My post took no issue with anyone's metaphysics. I was addressing the question raised in the OP from a historical and cultural perspective.What are the origins of hell as an idea? In Western culture the diea comes mainly from Greek myths about Paradise and Tartarus. The idea passed into Judaism in the Maccabean period and into Christianity after that.Hence the fact that we have a thread on this subject at all. Why
are we discussing it? Because the empirical evidence for an afterlife is so everwhelming? No. Because the idea of eternal reward and punishment handed out by a personal deity is a longstanding feature of Western culture.__

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ArcherAll species are transitional.