1st. Was the Tartarus in the heathen Hades real, or was it fictitious? This question ought to be fully examined; for if it was fictitious, the mere fancy of the poets, Mr. Stuart’s hell is built on the sand. But he is so confident it was a reality, he says, “That in the heathen, Hades was a Tartarus, a place of punishment and suffering, is too well known to need illustration and proof on the present occasion.” We are surprised that he should take this bold ground, for we shall show from his own statements that the heathen Tartarus was a mere fiction. Sorry are we to think he should allege our Lord in this passage [Luke 16:19-29] sanctioned a heathen fable for truth. That Tartarus was a mere heathen fable, and had its origin in heathenism, we shall now show.
Cicero, one of the wisest men among the heathen, in his seventh oration, says, “For it was on this account that the ancients invented their infernal punishments of the dead, to keep the wicked under some awe in this life, who, without them, would have no dread of death itself.” Intelligent heathen had no more faith in infernal punishments, than people now have in the Salem witchcraft. See my letters to Mr. Hudson, pp. 266, 267, where I have quoted Mosheim, who says, “Such punishments were invented for state and military purposes“...
But, as Mr. Stuart will not dispute his own testimony, let us see what he has said elsewhere about Tartarus. After describing Cimmeria as an imaginary place, and Erebus as no better, though contiguous to Hades, he thus describes it. “Last and lowest of all was Hades, which is subdivided into the upper and lower. In the upper part are the Elysian fields, the abode of the good; and beneath these, that is, in the deepest dungeon in the bowels of the earth, is Tartarus, the place of punishment for the wicked, answering in some respects to the Gehenna of the Hebrews.
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Author: Walter Balfour
Keywords: Elysian fields, After death, After life, Afterlife, Cast to hell, Cast down to hell, Chains of darkness, Damned go to hell, Death, Death state, Departing soul, Departing spirit, Destroyed in hell, Dieing, Dominion of the grave, Do the wicked go to hell, Eternal fire, Eternal judgment, Eternal judgement, Eternal punishment, Eternal torment, Eternal hell, Eternal pit, Everlasting fire, Everlasting judgment, Everlasting judgement, Everlasting hell, Everlasting hellfire, Everlasting hell fire, Everlasting pit, Everlasting punishment, Everlasting torment, Everlasting torture, Ever lasting fire, Ever lasting judgment, Ever lasting judgement, Ever lasting hell, Ever lasting hellfire, Ever lasting hell fire, Ever lasting pit, Ever lasting punishment, Ever lasting torment, Ever lasting torture, Eternal hellfire, Eternal hell fire, Eternal torture, Eternal soul, Fable hell, Fabled hell, Fiery hell, Fire not quenched, Fire unquenched, Gehenna, Gehena, Gehenna fire, Gehena fire, Go to hell, Going to heaven, Grave, Gravedom, Hell, Hele, Hellfire, Hell fire, Hell forever, Hell invention of the church, Hell real, Hades, Hinnom, Immortal spirit, Immortal soul, Immortality of the soul, Immortality of the spirit, Kill the soul, Lake of fire, Life in hell, Lost souls in hell, Never ending fire, Never ending hell, Placed in hell, Punished in hell, Punished for eternity, Punished in hell for eternity, Reserved in hell, Rich man Lazarus, Rich man Lazaras, Roasting in hell, Send to hell, Sent to hell, Sheol, Sleeping in hell, Soul's immortality, Soul in hell, Soul punished in hell, Soul sleep, Soulsleep, Spirit in hell, Tartarus, There is no hell, Torment in hell, Tormented in hell, Underworld, Under world, Undieing worm, Undying worm, Unquenchable, Unquenchable fire, Waiting in hell, Wicked punished in hell, What happens when I die, What happens when we die, When the roll is called up yonder, Where is hell, Where do the lost go when they die, Where do the wicked go when they die, Where do we go when we die, Wicked hell, Worm does not die, Worm won't die, Worm will not die, Worm dieth not, Worm do not die, eternal reward, reward in heaven, heavenly reward
Bible reference(s): 2 Peter 2:4, Jude 1:6
Source: An Inquiry into the Scriptural Import of the words Sheol, Hades, Tartarus and Gehenna, translated Hell in the Common English Version. Revised, with essays and notes, by Otis A. Skinner (Boston: A. Tompkins, 1854).
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