Why did Jesus say that you can pay money to get out of Hell?

[NathanH83]

“Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny.”
-Matthew 5:25-26

Bible Gateway passage: Matthew 5:25-26 - New King James Version

Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny.

www.biblegateway.com

If the gospel of Matthew is endorsing the idea that you can pay money to get out of Hell, then certainly Matthew’s gospel is an Apocryphal book.

We should take it out of the Bible.

 

[Lamb]

“Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny.”
-Matthew 5:25-26

Bible Gateway passage: Matthew 5:25-26 - New King James Version

Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny.

www.biblegateway.com

If the gospel of Matthew is endorsing the idea that you can pay money to get out of Hell, then certainly Matthew’s gospel is an Apocryphal book.

We should take it out of the Bible.

Could you site in Matthew 5 where Jesus is talking about hell?

Here is Matthew 5:21-26 for context (nowhere is hell mentioned):

Murder​

21 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder,[a] and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister[b][c] will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’[d] is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.


23 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.


25 “Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. 26 Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.

 

[NathanH83]

Could you site in Matthew 5 where Jesus is talking about hell?

Here is Matthew 5:21-26 for context (nowhere is hell mentioned):

Murder​

21 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder,[a] and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister[b][c] will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’[d] is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.


23 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.


25 “Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. 26 Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.

If not Hell then what? Purgatory?

 

[Josiah]

HELLO.....

NOWHERE in Matthew 5:26 is "hell" even mentioned. At all. For anything. About anything.

Where do you get this stuff?



.

 

[Bluezone777]

In those days, a person who went to jail could get out by paying their fine but the problem with that is the person doesn't have the money and cannot make money in prison. They would have to have someone on the outside who had the funds and was willing to part with them to set you free or otherwise stay in that prison for life.

Jesus in this section of his sermon on the mount is urging people to make right with God before they make their way to the judge or in an another way die. If they make right with their adversary(the guy with the charge against you) then they don't end up in court and don't have to face either prison time or the fine. If they don't then they will go to hell where there will be no escape as they will have to pay their fine in full and they will never be able to do it hence they will be stuck there forever. He's using the human legal system which his audience would be well aware of as an illustration to illustrate how God's legal system works.

 

[NathanH83]

HELLO.....

NOWHERE in Matthew 5:26 is "hell" even mentioned. At all. For anything. About anything.

Where do you get this stuff?



.

Hell is mentioned 3 times in Matthew chapter 5.

1 Peter says there are prisons in the lower parts of the Earth.

1 + 1 = 2.

Do the math.

 

[tango]

“Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny.”
-Matthew 5:25-26

Bible Gateway passage: Matthew 5:25-26 - New King James Version

Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny.

www.biblegateway.com

If the gospel of Matthew is endorsing the idea that you can pay money to get out of Hell, then certainly Matthew’s gospel is an Apocryphal book.

We should take it out of the Bible.

How did you get from "the judge hand you over to the officer and thrown into prison... until you have paid the last penny" to "cash for salvation"?

But hey, if you want to say that Jesus is teaching a false gospel why not just come right out and say it?

 

[Josiah]

Hell is mentioned 3 times in Matthew chapter 5.

And not once in the verse you reference, the verse you pin this WEIRD opinion of yours. The first requirement in exegesis is to READ the text. READ the words that are there rather than ignoring them and replacing them with other words. Try it. READ Matthew 5:26, Where does it say "hell?" It doesn't. You'd know that if you read it.




.




,

 

[Josiah]

Sorry, double -post


.




.

 

[NathanH83]

How did you get from "the judge hand you over to the officer and thrown into prison... until you have paid the last penny" to "cash for salvation"?

But hey, if you want to say that Jesus is teaching a false gospel why not just come right out and say it?

Either way, the book of Matthew ought to be taken out of the Bible, simply because I interpreted it that way.

 

[tango]

Either way, the book of Matthew ought to be taken out of the Bible, simply because I interpreted it that way.

So you getting something wrong is grounds for deleting it from a book that has been around for many centuries? That's a curious theology if ever there was one.

 

[NathanH83]

And not once in the verse you reference, the verse you pin this WEIRD opinion of yours. The first requirement in exegesis is to READ the text. READ the words that are there rather than ignoring them and replacing them with other words. Try it. READ Matthew 5:26, Where does it say "hell?" It doesn't. You'd know that if you read it.




.




,

So you’re asking me to ignore context of the chapter?

 

[Josiah]

Either way, the book of Matthew ought to be taken out of the Bible, simply because I interpreted it that way.

Maybe you should be ignored. It's YOUR "interpretation" of words Jesus never said. The problem is OBVIOUSLY not with Jesus or Matthew but you.




.

 

[NathanH83]

Maybe you should be ignored. It's YOUR "interpretation" of words Jesus never said. The problem is OBVIOUSLY not with Jesus or Matthew but you.




.

Yea, maybe I misinterpreted that. Maybe Jesus isn’t saying you can pay money to get out of Hell. Maybe we should keep Matthew.

Maybe we’re also misinterpreting 2 Maccabees too. Maybe it’s not saying that money pays for sin. Maybe we just misinterpreted it. Maybe we should keep it instead of ripping it out and throwing it away.

 

[tango]

Yea, maybe I misinterpreted that. Maybe Jesus isn’t saying you can pay money to get out of Hell. Maybe we should keep Matthew.

Maybe we’re also misinterpreting 2 Maccabees too. Maybe it’s not saying that money pays for sin. Maybe we just misinterpreted it. Maybe we should keep it instead of ripping it out and throwing it away.

Yeah, given the choice I think I'll listen to Jesus over some random dude on the internet. Sounds like a reasonably safe bet to me.

 

[NathanH83]

Yeah, given the choice I think I'll listen to Jesus over some random dude on the internet. Sounds like a reasonably safe bet to me.

Yea, you should. Should probably listen to the early church too.

 

[Faith]

Yea, you should. Should probably listen to the early church too.

Seriously, where have you been coming up with some of the claims you’ve made?

 

[tango]

Yea, you should. Should probably listen to the early church too.

Would that be the early church who shared their stuff rather than keeping a hold of it in case they needed it for an emergency, like buying their way out of an unexpectedly warm afterlife?

Perhaps that's what Ananias and Sapphira were up to, thinking they'd hold a bit of cash in reserve in case they needed it later. Remind me how that worked out for them?

 

[NathanH83]

Would that be the early church who shared their stuff rather than keeping a hold of it in case they needed it for an emergency, like buying their way out of an unexpectedly warm afterlife?

Perhaps that's what Ananias and Sapphira were up to, thinking they'd hold a bit of cash in reserve in case they needed it later. Remind me how that worked out for them?

I’m just saying that maybe we should have the books in our Bibles that the early church had in theirs. And when we find a scripture verse that seems to be promoting the idea of buying your way out of Hell, maybe we should be careful with interpreting it correctly before ripping it out.

 

[tango]

I’m just saying that maybe we should have the books in our Bibles that the early church had in theirs. And when we find a scripture verse that seems to be promoting the idea of buying your way out of Hell, maybe we should be careful with interpreting it correctly before ripping it out.

Or perhaps we could, you know, read the text and try to understand it rather than making wild assumptions based on nothing in particular.