Hell - Part 1

If you were to go up to random people and ask them what hell was like, you would get varied answers, but probably most of the responses would revolve around images of eternal fire and punishment. Or, many people might cite an appropriate punishment based on the sins committed in this world. This understanding of hell comes from Dante’s book, The Inferno, in which Dante laid out the 7 levels of hell that correspond to how bad someone was while living on earth. Indeed our culture’s view of hell has been shaped by such books and proliferated by popular media. Over and over again I see depictions of hell with this red Satan figure with a pitchfork laughing menacingly as people are burned with fire. I remember a Seinfeld episode in which Elaine describes hell as being very hot and having people with “raggedy clothing.”

Though such scenes make for a good story and may even scare some people straight, they are not biblical. Thus, my goal is to convey the Biblical images associated with hell in an effort to restore a better understanding of how the Biblical writers understood it. In next week’s post I will discuss other images of hell, and the third post will tackle the nature and existence of hell.

Old Testament
To begin with, there is not an actual word “hell” in the Hebrew language. This word is a modern appropriation. The Jews of the Old Testament believed that people went to “Sheol” when they died. Sheol should not be equated with heaven; nor is it hell. Sheol was simply the grave – a place of nothingness.

You can search the Old Testament and you will not find a clear distinction between a “heaven” and a “hell” until Daniel 12:3. The rest of the Old Testament is devoid of any discussion regarding the afterlife. The Daniel passage reads:
“Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” (NRSV)

Many scholars (including myself) date Daniel very late making it heavily influenced by apocalypticism. The concept of separate places of reward (heaven) and punishment (hell) came about in the Intertestamental period (about 400 BCE to 50 CE) with the rise of apocalyptic thought which focuses on dualistic thoughts such as good and evil, right and wrong, light and dark. These images are utilized to tell the story of end of this evil age, culminating in a final restoration and new age. As you read the rest of the Old Testament, these sorts of ideas are not overly prevalent and at best implicit. So the Old Testament contains very little helpful references toward our effort of discerning a full doctrine of hell.

New Testament
These apocalyptic ideas of the Intertestamental Period meshed with the Greek understanding of the afterlife and influenced the development of the doctrine of hell which we find in the New Testament. Again, there is no word for “hell” though many words are translated as such in your Bibles. There are 2 main words that are associated with hell.

The first word comes from Greek mythology. The term “Hades” was the place or abode of the dead, including both the righteous and the unrighteous. Basically, Hades may be best rendered as “where the dead are” or “where the dead remain.” In most contexts Hades is equivalent to the Hebrew term Sheol. The following references make this usage quite clear and when it is not transliterated into English translators often use the equivalent of “grave” to render Hades.

“And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths (Hades). If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day.” Matthew 11:23

“Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave (Hades), nor did his body see decay.” Acts 2:31

“I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.
were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.” Revelation 1:18

“The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done.” Revelation 20:13

The second word is “Gehenna”. This Greek term is a transliteration of a Hebrew phrase meaning “Valley of Hinnom,” referring to a ravine running along the south side of Jerusalem. Leading up to the time of the New Testament this was a place where the rubbish from the city was constantly being burned. It reminds me of the burning tire pile from “The Simpsons.” It was a disgusting, unclean place full of burning trash. It was not a place you would choose to dwell. It is not surprising then, according to late Jewish popular belief, the last judgment was to take place in this valley. Eventually the writers and translators transferred the figurative extension of meaning from “Valley of Hinnom” to “hell” and included imagery of fire. A few examples of this usage are:

“But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell (gehenna).” Matthew 5:22

“If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell (gehenna).” Matthew 5:29

“You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell (gehenna)?” Matthew 23:33

“But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell (gehenna). Yes, I tell you, fear him.” Luke 12:5

“The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell (gehenna).” James 3:6

A third word, used only once in 2 Peter 2:4, is the verb form of tartaros. It reads as follows:

“For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell (tartarow), putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment;” 2 Peter 2:4

This word also came from the Greek and was a place of torture or torment. In many cases it is confusing to add still another term for a designation of hell by transliterating the word, so most translators have preferred to render this word as either ‘to cast into hell’ or ‘to keep in hell.’

Finally a word that is transliterated “the Abyss” comes into the hell lexicon, especially in Revelation. This word that literally means “a very deep hole” and again seems to line up with the Jewish concept of “Sheol” though perhaps with a more sinister connotation. The Abyss is the location of the dead and a place where the Devil is kept (Re 20.3), the abode of the beast as the antichrist (Re 11.7), and of Abaddon, as the angel of the underworld (Re 9.11). Romans 10:7 says, “Who can go down to the abyss? (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).”

These four words constitute the main words that are translated as the proper place of “hell,” though many other images of an afterlife of punishment are utilized in the New Testament. These will be covered in the next installment.