Atheist Bible Study 1: Genesis

[tackattack]

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A. I never stated Sodom and the story of Lot was about sexual deviance.
B. The Hebrew word for any kind of sin is avera, meaning transgression (God, man, self). There is Pesha, Avon and Cheit corresponding to intentional, knowing but not against God, and unintentional. There are 3 types of sin but they are all transgressions and apply to all people and only one can be atoned for.
B1. I guess I wasn't specific enough, so I'll admit I gave a wrong impression. I am talking about Sins against God, or Pesha, that Jews seek atonement for on Yom Kippur and through sacrifice.
C. Hebrews did believe in varying punishments (In this life and the next) so I suppose you were right if you want to call that levels. To the Jew though there was one word for sin. When we get to Deuteronomy we can discuss the Talmud talking about ALL people sinning many times.
C1. Sheol is different than Ghenna, but in Jewish understanding you either repent/suffer for all your mistakes and join the righteous in Heaven, or end up in Ghenna. That is no different from the Christian concept of Heaven and Hell. They just believed in an intermediary place of the dead called Sheol where you can still work off your debt, or enjoy a party.

D. It doesn't prove that it didn't inform the culture. Greek culture was pretty ok with same-sex relations, but when translated and preached by Greeks it was still a sin. That seems like a derailment and would require things outside Genesis.

E. Jews don't believe in original sin as a doctrine. The soul we are given is pure and we contaminate it with misdeeds. If they can't knowingly do any deeds than they remain pure.

You posted no references. You need references for anything you assert. Citations. Without them, anything you claim is dismissed.
Hebrews did not believe in "souls" ... that's a Christian/Greek dualistic (unwarranted) overlay. Hebrews were not dualists. (For dust thou art, and unto dust thou shall return")
Anyone who has studied Hebrew culture knows that.

Unfortunately, obviously, you know nothing about Hebrew culture. The name "Gehenna" came from the valley outside Jerusalem where trash was burned .. a constant fire. 
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6558-gehenna

Hebrews (during the tribal era) did not believe in immortality. ALL the dead, ("shades") went to Sheol. They are NOTHING like "heaven" and "hell". 
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/...tradition/
The divine beings live in heaven. The dead do not go there. 
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article...existence/
Apparently someone told you the Fundy Christian version of Hebrew thought, and you bought it. 

The rise of the concept of individualism, and individual immortality in Hebrew thought is a complex LONG and detailed study.
The study of the CHANGE from tribal values in which (for a Jew) "immortality" consisted in the continuation of the family in the male line, (pre-Exile) to what it became after the Exile,
is part if the huge study of the rise of Individualism in the West.

Even Paul did not believe in immortality for everyone. Only the saved are immortal.
1 Corinthians 15:53-55
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

Paul was an Apocalyptic Jew ... and as such, being "exalted" (as the Jewish heroes were said to be) was the reward. (See Ehrman's latest book "How Jesus Became a God" the EXALTATION of a Jewish Preacher etc".)
This is part of the case Dr. B B Scott, (CHRISTIAN seminary Professor of NT) makes for the fact that the resurrection has been misunderstood, and mistranslated. He says the Greek word translated as "risen" (which is the same word used in Luke by Simeon in the temple "This child shall be responsible for the "RISE" and fall  of many in Israel" refers to a status change, (which would be totally consistent with Jewish culture, and since dead shades were not recognizable, the reason they don't recognize Jesus' shade), and not because they thought he physically rose from the dead.


Psalm 39 :
"Turn your gaze away from me, that I may smile again,
before I depart, and am no more"

Psalm 115 :
The dead do not praise the Lord,
nor do any that go down into silence".

Psalm 6 :
"For in death there is no remembrance of you, in Sheol, who can give you praise ?"

Gehenna is also where Israel practiced child sacrifice. 

"The most extensive accounts of child sacrifice in the Hebrew Bible refer to those carried out in Gehenna by two kings of Judah, Ahaz and Manasseh.
In the Book of Judges, the figure of Jephthah makes a vow to God, saying, "If you give the Ammonites into my hands, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering" (as worded in the New International Version). Jephthah succeeds in winning a victory, but when he returns to his home in Mizpah he sees his daughter, dancing to the sound of timbrels, outside. After allowing her two months preparation, Judges 11:39 states that Jephthah kept his vow. According to the commentators of the rabbinic Jewish tradition, Jepthah's daughter was not sacrificed, but was forbidden to marry and remained a spinster her entire life, fulfilling the vow that she would be devoted to the Lord.[16] The 1st-century CE Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, however, understood this to mean that Jephthah burned his daughter on Yahweh's altar,[17] whilst , late first century CE, wrote that Jephthah offered his daughter as a burnt offering because he could find no sage in Israel who would cancel his vow. In other words, this story of human sacrifice is not an order or requirement by God, but the punishment for those who vowed to sacrifice humans." 

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Ok bucky, I though we were sticking to Genesis, or at least old testament, but I'll try and stick with the OT at least.

1. Hebrews did believe in what is commonly referred to as a soul. It is the Spirit and is breath of God called nefesh, it is the breath and what animates us. I didn't say that Hebrews were substance dualists, because they weren't. They believed in a spirit and a body and that the 2 were inseparable. The breath of God (nefesh) was breathed into us by God and animates our flesh.

2. I did answer the baby killer question with item E. You can read https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article...f-a-fetus/ from your site for more info on that.

3. From your own cited definition "and "Gehenna" therefore soon became a figurative equivalent for "hell." Hell, like paradise, was created by God (Soṭah 22a); according to Gen. R. ix. 9, the words "very good" in Gen. i. 31 refer to hell; hence the latter must have been created on the sixth day. " and "The "fiery furnace" that Abraham saw (Gen. xv. 17, Hebr.) was Gehenna (Mek. xx. 18b, 71b; comp. Enoch, xcviii. 3, ciii. 8; Matt. xiii. 42, 50; 'Er. 19a, where the "fiery furnace" is also identified with the gate of Gehenna)."

So nothing like hell hunh...

4. Just so I cite your same source http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/7440-heaven When I talked about the high place I was referring to shamayim.
"It is the dwelling-place of God, from which He looks down upon all the inhabitants of the earth (Ps. xi. 4; xxxiii. 13, 14), though the heavens and heaven's heaven do not contain Him (Isa. lxvi. 1; I Kings viii. 27). It is the dwelling-place also of the angels (Gen. xxi. 17, xxii. 11, xxviii. 12). From heaven comes the rain, the hail, and the lightning (Gen. viii. 2, xix. 24; Ex. ix. 23; Deut. xi. 11; Job xxxviii. 37). Yhwh, the God of Israel, is eminently the God of heaven " Do I need to look up Gan Eden and Gehinnom as well for you?

So nothing like heaven hunh....
4.1 The confusion was for my part though, I implied that sheol and ghenna were like heaven and hell in item C1, so my aplogies.

5. They did believe all of the dead, good and bad go to sheol, but I believe your google search, cherry picking definition missed the concept of why they were there.
Allow me to show you using your own source even though there's plenty more

"After death, the soul separates from the body and either goes straight to heaven (Gan Eden) or makes a stop in hell (Gehinnom) to purge itself of sins. In the End of Days, the Messiah will gather the Jewish exiles to Israel and the Temple will be rebuilt. Some time later, the dead will be resurrected and reunited with their souls. This new, perfected universe is known as the World to Come.This is a common–yet too simplistic–presentation of Jewish eschatology " - https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article...ssiah-101/

While they may not really concern themselves with eschatology because they believe in both punishment and reward in both this world, and the world to come, it's clearly a thing.
You should check out some kosher kabbalah if you're interested in jewish eschatology - https://www.chabad.org/kabbalah/article_...us-221.htm