Rontow: I just want to correct you on one thing, as a Jew who read the entirety of the Tanach, Gehenna is not hell, it is a physical location called "guy Ben hinom" ("guy" meaning "valley", the "valley of the son of hinom") where Canaanite pagans (and heretic Jews at times) sacrificed their first born. There's no hell in the old testament (and Judaism), Gehenna is a physical location you can visit, though it is believed to be cursed (from the whole sacrificing thing)?

John Baugh: It was used by Jesus as a metaphor for Hell. And the Old Testament is full of the reality of Hell. With all due respect, Rabbinical Judaism of today is descended largely from the teaching of the Pharisees, and is a far cry from the sacrificial system under Abraham, and then Moses, instituted by God. Many (most?) Jews today do not acknowledgement an actual Hell, nor an actual Satan, and most I've spoken with don't acknowledge an actual Heaven or afterlife either. This is entirely contradictory of the teaching in the Tanakh (which I've also read many times.)?

?skylander king: I'm Jewish and the way I heard of Hell is as just a midpoint between being reincarnated if you didn't make it into Heaven the first few times. A boiling swamp where your soul would be tortured 6 days a week and only let out on Shabbat. I'm not sure how long this torture lasts for, only that it's not eternity.?

John Baugh: Well, the interpretation involving reincarnation is not consistent with the teachings in what we Christians refer to as the Old Testament (The Hebrew Bible, Tanakh.) Reincarnation is more of a pagan/far eastern/new age philosophy (probably introduced into Judaism by some sort of Kabbalah tradition.) Some of the confusion is because the New Testament uses terms that would have been more familiar to the Greek world (e.g., Hades, Tartarus), and then when English translations came about, the Nordic influence into English was clear, since the word "Hell" is from Germanic/Nordic tradition. But this doesn't mean the CONCEPTS were "borrowed" from the pagans. It's that that terms they could at least have some concept of could be used and clarified when needed. It is true that our knowledge of Hell is limited, but the souls definitely went to Sheol, sometimes also called "Mot" (although that is also a term borrowed from neighboring/conquered civilizations like the Canaanites for clarification.) I'd say that it's quite clear God says He was have vengeance and judgment upon sinners, and that this is a permanent state, if one makes a careful reading of Scripture a priority. (Isaiah 2:12; 13:6, 9; Ezekiel 13:5, 30:3; Joel 1:15, 2:1,11,31; 3:14; Amos 5:18,20; Obadiah 15; Zephaniah 1:7,14; Zechariah 14:1; Malachi. 4:5 are all decent references) Also, throughout history, God revealed Himself and how the universe works over time, so the earliest Jews didn't have all the information - there was a lot of mystery. For example, Jews then (and even still don't) didn't understand exactly who the Messiah would be. They assumed it would be a political figure that would save them from tyranny. This is why the Jews (Pharisees primarily) during the time of Jesus were assuming the Messiah would be someone to throw off the Roman conquerors, but in the same respect, they didn't want to rock the boat because Rome gave them quite a bit of autonomy. But, the prophecies about the Messiah throughout the OT says that He would be "bruised for our transgressions" and the "punishment that brought us peace was upon Him" (Isaiah 53 - which is CLEARLY NOT about anyone other than someone whose punishment can pay for your sins.) Furthermore, an enormous portion of the Old Testament/Tanakh points to Jesus as Messiah. And although this group gets a lot of hate from orthodox and non-Messianic Jews, I'd recommend they are a group to at least consider, as far as the points they have to make: