It was clearly the pop-cultural obsession of Jesus's time, but there was no clear religious unified position on it.
So the pop-cultural obsession of Jesus' time was the existence and/or nature of an afterlife. Whereas the pop-cultural obsession of our time is Charlie Sheen.
Well thank god(s) for public schools, the printing press, the internet and 21st century enlightenment. Obviously with all of that education, we have made considerable progress in 2,000 years.
Sheol actually means "grave" - not an afterlife condition, just the burial place. And Gehenna is an even more literal location: a specific valley used as a garbage dump on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Dead bodies were dumped there if nobody claimed them; it was a terrible thing to have that happen to you. That is what going to hell meant.
All the stuff about fire and brimstone is literally a description of decaying flesh in the garbage dump. There is nothing metaphysical about it.
That is a really interesting idea, and makes perfect sense. I tend to interpret things that way, too. I don't mean this particular thing, I mean mythical things in general. I think they are often based on very real circumstances that get blown into myth in the retelling.
