Meaning of terms relating to the afterlife

[Mikhail R.]

Can someone please explain the meaning of the following terms, including the differences between them and how they relate to each other?



Hades
Gehenna
Tartarus
Paradise
Heaven
Hell
Bosom of Abraham
Particular Judgment

Thank you in advance! :)

[Paul Cowan]

Have you had a chance to search the archives? I am headed out to work so time is short, but we have discussed these several times as a group and individually on the forum. Give it a shot and if you can't find anything, I will try when I get home tonight.

Paul

[Mikhail R.]

Have you had a chance to search the archives? I am headed out to work so time is short, but we have discussed these several times as a group and individually on the forum. Give it a shot and if you can't find anything, I will try when I get home tonight.

Paul

I searched the archives and I did find some information, but I couldn't find any thread that really straightforwardly highlighted their meaning, particularly as to how they relate to each other. Though it's very much possible that I could have failed notice something.

-Mikhail

[Mikhail R.]

Another thing that's confused me who goes where*?

For example, sometimes when I listen to what people say about the afterlife, I feel like get three separate views on the destination of souls:


ALL souls go to Hades initially, then Heaven/Hell afterward.
MOST souls go to Hades initially, then Heaven/Hell afterward. The exception is the Saints who immediately go to Heaven.
Souls deemed righteous go immediately to Heaven, while those deemed who have rejected God go to Hades.

The fact that I see different views is part of why I am confused. It wouldn't be so bad if they were just differing opinions on where each person goes, but sometimes I get the sense that the differences may also be partly due to disagreements about the definitions of Hades, Hell, Heaven, etc.




*I understand these aren't necessarily to be taken as literal cordoned-off realm.

[Herman Blaydoe]

Can someone please explain the meaning of the following terms, including the differences between them and how they relate to each other?



Hades
Gehenna
Tartarus
Paradise
Heaven
Hell
Bosom of Abraham
Particular Judgment

Thank you in advance! :)

Metropolitan Hierotheos (Vlachos) uses the terms hades and hell interchangeably in his book Life After Death. He says there are only two places, Paradise and Hell. "Therefore only Paradise and Hell exist and nothing between them. The foretaste of them begins at the departure of the soul from the body." (Life After Death pg. 166) He goes on to say that "Hades is an intelligible place, because souls do not have form. The souls of the righteous are kept in hades until the coming of the Savior only because of the ancestral sin, 'not as in fire and torment at any rate, but as in bondage and prison'." (ibid)

This view is also supported by Nikolaos Vassiliadis in The Mystery of Death. He references Eugenios Voulgaris who wrote: "Many seek to find out and they ask us things about the dead. Before the end of the world comes, what will be the condition of the souls of those who lived righteously and of those who lived sinfully? As our Orthodox Church teaches the former are not yet introduced into the perfect blessedness, nor are the latter relegated to the fearful and horrible gehenna of hell. And I suggest that the condition of the chief butler and chief baker, whose dreams Joseph interpreted in prison, is an image which symbolizes satisfactorily the condition in which the souls exist, both of the righteous and the sinners, before the final day of judgement comes! Let us suppose that both of these prisoners believed unhesitatingly and without the least doubt that exactly what Joseph foretold will indeed take place, How do you suppose that they passed those three days until the day to celebrate the king's birthday came? What was their spiritual disposition? It is natural that the one, the chief butler, should believe that he is already in the palace, even though he was still in prison. But the other, however, the chief baker, saw prison as the place of his condemnation and of his future execution. The resolute and certain hope of a future enjoyment and expected good things is a blessedness in itself. While the undoubted expectation of most bitter sufferings and fearful punishments, which await us, is a real hell." (The Mystery of Death pgs 401-402)

All these words get used different ways by different people as attempts to explain that which is really beyond our mortal comprehension. You are simply not going to get a "hard and fast" "official" definition. Each of these words are used to illustrate or emphasize a different piece of the puzzle, all of which fit together to get the "whole picture". "For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known." (1 Corinthians 13:12)

As this bear of little brain understands it, we will all stand in God's unadulterated presence in God's appointed time. Some will revel in it and be in Paradise/Heaven/Bosom of Abraham, and some will revile it and be in hell/hades/gehenna/tartarus. From the time we die until that appointed time we wait in anticipation/foretaste of our ultimate state, knowing at that point there is nothing we can do to change it.

If I have expressed myself or the teachings of the Church poorly I look forward to correction.

Herman the Pooh

[Jack R.]

Can someone please explain the meaning of the following terms, including the differences between them and how they relate to each other?


Hades
Gehenna
Tartarus
Paradise
Heaven
Hell
Bosom of Abraham
Particular Judgment
Thank you in advance! :)
Hades was the waiting place of all the dead, since Adam, Eve and Abel's time. Those who were rightous also went to Hades but in an area therein where Abraham and the other righteous were but in Abraham's Bosom. Christ descended into Hades through the Cross conquered it, took out Adam and Eve and opened the gates of Paradise, taking Adam and Even and his descendants to Paradise. St. Peter explains that Christ descended to preach to the spirits in prison [Hades] to those who were disobedient in the days of Noah.

Anyone who goes to Hades now, after the death of Christ, is waiting there in order to go to hell after they are reunited with their bodies at the Resurrection. Hades and Hell are sometimes used interchangeably. Anyone who enters Hades now is basically getting a foretaste of hell.

Paradise is the waiting place of the rightous souls saved by Christ. It is where the theif on the cross went when he died, to whom the Lord stated, "Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise" Everyone who reposes in Christ and enters Paradise is enjoying a conscious life of bliss awaiting the resurrection of the body. When they enter their resurrected bodies, they will receive their full reward in Heaven. Paradise and Heaven are sometimes used interchangeably. Anyone who enters Paradise now is basically gettinga foretaste of Heaven.

The particular judgement is the Judgement by God, which determines if one will receive a foretaste of Heaven by waiting in Paradise or a foretaste of hell by waiting in Hades.

Tartarus is sometimes used interchangeably with Hades. Gehenna is another word for hell. In Arabic, "hell" is "Gohannam"

God willing, for faithful Christians, the path is Paradise, then Heaven.

[Jan Sunqvist]

Christ descended into Hades through the Cross conquered it, took out Adam and Eve and opened the gates of Paradise, taking Adam and Even and his descendants to Paradise.

If Adam and Eve never fell then no human would have a chance of going to Hell. How can they be in Paradise, if its possible for some of their offspring to go to hell? Do they not always carry some responsibility? And if not why?

[Kosta]

Hey Mikhail,

In order to understand Hades its best to piece together what the ancient greeks believed about it. Hades was all a single place divided into three main regions:
1. The darkest part called Tartarus,
2.the gloomy lukewarm region called the Asphodel meadows
3. The blissful abode of of the heroic and virtues called the Elysium fields.


Gehena (fire) and hell are the same place and will exist after the second coming. In english language bibles Hades has been mistranslated several times as 'hell'.

[Herman Blaydoe]

If Adam and Eve never fell then no human would have a chance of going to Hell. How can they be in Paradise, if its possible for some of their offspring to go to hell? Do they not always carry some responsibility? And if not why?

It's called "forgiveness". Look it up.

Herman

[Jan Sunqvist]

It's called "forgiveness". Look it up.

Herman

Then why should all not be forgiven? If our predisposition to sin grew from generation to generation to the point that some of us don't realise we even need forgiveness, to what extent is this then our fault, when it can be traced all the way back?

[Herman Blaydoe]

You see, this is where there is a fundamental misunderstanding. Adam's sin is NOT "our fault" in the Orthodox understanding. Yes, we suffer the consequences, but we are not to "blame" for what Adam did. The baby born to the heroin addict is not "guilty" for using drugs, but still suffers the consequences of its mother's addiction and the mother can still be healed IF she is ready and willing to ACCEPT it. But the baby still has to be healed as well.

We need forgiveness for our OWN sins, not Adam's. See?

Herman the Pooh

[Anna Stickles]

Then why should all not be forgiven? If our predisposition to sin grew from generation to generation to the point that some of us don't realise we even need forgiveness, to what extent is this then our fault, when it can be traced all the way back?

At some point God gives all of us the opportunity to realize our need for forgiveness. In fact not just one point, but all the time we are confronted with the fact that we are sinners. It is our fault if we continually justify ourselves and refuse to admit that we are sinners. Death itself is the ultimate confrontation with reality. But we still have free will and it is possible even then for us to hold onto self-justification rather then admitting our need for God's forgiveness and healing.

[Jan Sunqvist]

At some point God gives all of us the opportunity to realize our need for forgiveness. In fact not just one point, but all the time we are confronted with the fact that we are sinners. It is our fault if we continually justify ourselves and refuse to admit that we are sinners. Death itself is the ultimate confrontation with reality. But we still have free will and it is possible even then for us to hold onto self-justification rather then admitting our need for God's forgiveness and healing.

Yes, it is clear that we ask to be forgiven OUR OWN sins.

But there are Orthodox on this forum who say that repentance is possible only in this life. Yet it seems like despite some deathbed conversions, vast numbers of non-religious pass away in whatever state of religious belief they spent their life in. So, If Adam and Eve transgressed they were able to see their need for forgiveness because they originally communed with God. Now, they are in Paradise, while all those who have been 'opened' to corruption by the original sin, and who spend their whole life in such a spiritual state without even feeling the need for forgiveness from a 'divine authority' are said to be risking eternal damnation? Now if I were Adam or Eve, I am not sure how I'd be enjoying Paradise watching all those suffer torment down there in Hell, knowing that if I hadn't been the first to sin...

Well, I am being simplistic and literal, because, like I mentioned in other threads, I find many of the teachings on afterlife somewhat confusing and bewildering... I'd prefer not not hold any beliefs on afterlife, other then just Hope, but then can one be Orthodox...

[Herman Blaydoe]

Yes, it is clear that we ask to be forgiven OUR OWN sins.

But there are Orthodox on this forum who say that repentance is possible only in this life. Yet it seems like despite some deathbed conversions, vast numbers of non-religious pass away in whatever state of religious belief they spent their life in.

Yes. This is why our Lord said: "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it." (Matthew 7:13-14)


So, If Adam and Eve transgressed they were able to see their need for forgiveness because they originally communed with God. Now, they are in Paradise, while all those who have been 'opened' to corruption by the original sin, and who spend their whole life in such a spiritual state without even feeling the need for forgiveness from a 'divine authority' are said to be risking eternal damnation? Now if I were Adam or Eve, I am not sure how I'd be enjoying Paradise watching all those suffer torment down there in Hell, knowing that if I hadn't been the first to sin…

Well, if you meet them (look for the couple without belly buttons), when you pass on, you can ask them on the other side of that "glass, darkly" when all things are made clear.


Well, I am being simplistic and literal, because, like I mentioned in other threads, I find many of the teachings on afterlife somewhat confusing and bewildering... I'd prefer not not hold any beliefs on afterlife, other then just Hope, but then can one be Orthodox...

I don't know why not, but it might be best to ask the priest who would be baptizing you rather than the collective opinions of a bunch of online theologians. At any rate, hope is certainly never a bad thing.

Herman the hopeful Pooh

[Jan Sunqvist]

Well, if you meet them (look for the couple without belly buttons)





ha, interesting, never thought of that little detail...