Hell

"Hell" Translates Four Different Words

The English word "hell" is a single bucket into which translators have poured four distinct words from the original languages — two Hebrew and two Greek. Each word has its own meaning, context, and range. Reading them together under the single English label collapses important distinctions the biblical writers themselves maintained.

The four words:

• Hebrew — sheol (שְׁאוֹל)
• Greek — hadēs (ᾅδης)
• Greek — gehenna (γέεννα)
• Greek — tartaroō (ταρταρόω, a verb form)

The KJV translates all four as "hell" in many places. Most modern translations distinguish at least sheol and gehenna. This page treats each separately.

Hebrew: Sheol

Sheol (שְׁאוֹל, Strong's H7585) appears 65 times in the Hebrew Bible. It is the realm of the dead — where all the dead go, righteous and wicked alike, in the Old Testament framework. Sheol is not the later Christian concept of hell as a place of punishment.

Characteristics of sheol in the Hebrew Bible:

• All the dead go there. Jacob in grief: "I will go down into the grave (sheolah) unto my son mourning" (Genesis 37:35).
• It is a place of darkness and silence. "The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence" (Psalm 115:17).
• It is not out of God's reach. "If I ascend up into heaven, thou [art] there: if I make my bed in hell (sheol), behold, thou [art there]" (Psalm 139:8).
• The righteous are not excluded from it. Job, Jacob, Samuel — all speak of going to sheol.

Modern English translations typically render sheol as "grave," "pit," "the place of the dead," or "Sheol" transliterated. "Hell" as a translation is largely archaic and misleading by modern English standards.

Greek: Hadēs

Hadēs (ᾅδης, Strong's G86) appears 11 times in the New Testament. The Septuagint uses it to translate sheol, and the New Testament continues that usage — hadēs is the general realm of the dead, the Greek equivalent of Hebrew sheol.

Notable appearances:

• Matthew 16:18 — "the gates of hell (hadou) shall not prevail against it." The gates of the realm of the dead.
• Acts 2:27, 31 — Peter at Pentecost: Christ's soul was not left in hadēs. Jesus passed through the realm of the dead and out the other side.
• Luke 16:23 — the rich man in the Lazarus parable is "in hell (en tō hadē)" and in torment. Here hadēs does have a punitive aspect, distinct from the Paradise where Lazarus is. This is the clearest NT text where hadēs carries suffering, though whether this is meant as topographical description or as parable is debated.
• Revelation 20:13–14 — "death and hell (hadēs) delivered up the dead which were in them... And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire." At the final judgment, hadēs itself is destroyed. Whatever it is, it is not the final state.

Greek: Gehenna

Gehenna (γέεννα, Strong's G1067) appears 12 times in the New Testament — and this is the word most closely matching the modern Christian conception of "hell" as a place of punitive fire. The Greek is a transliteration of Hebrew Ge Hinnom — "Valley of Hinnom" — a literal geographical location south of Jerusalem.

The Valley of Hinnom has a disturbing history:

• 2 Kings 23:10 — Josiah defiled the valley to prevent child sacrifices to Moloch.
• Jeremiah 7:31–32 and Jeremiah 19:2–6 — God declares judgment on the valley's practices; it would become known as "the valley of slaughter."
• By the 1st century AD, the valley was used as a refuse dump. Fires burned continuously to consume garbage, and carcasses were thrown there. The imagery of fire, worms, and decay made the valley an obvious metaphor for judgment.

Jesus uses Gehenna as a warning of divine judgment. All but one NT occurrence are spoken by Jesus:

• Matthew 5:22, 29, 30 — the Sermon on the Mount warnings.
• Matthew 10:28 — "fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell (gehenna)."
• Matthew 23:33 — to the Pharisees: "how can ye escape the damnation of hell (gehenna)?"
• Mark 9:43–48 — "their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched," echoing Isaiah 66:24.
• James 3:6 — the one non-Jesus occurrence, describing the destructive tongue.

Because Gehenna was a known, visible place with fires burning, Jesus's hearers would have understood the referent immediately. Whether Jesus's descriptions of Gehenna are metaphorical, literal, or both has been debated in Christian theology since the earliest centuries.

Greek: Tartaroō

Tartaroō (ταρταρόω, Strong's G5020) appears only once in the New Testament:

2 Peter 2:4 — "For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast [them] down to hell (tartarōsas), and delivered [them] into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;"

The verb is a hapax legomenon — used only here in the NT. Tartarus in Greek mythology was the deepest pit below Hades where the Titans were imprisoned. Peter borrows the term to describe the holding place of the fallen angels awaiting judgment. The use is unique and does not refer to a destination for human souls.

The Lake of Fire

A fifth term, appearing in Revelation, is the lake of fire — Greek limnē tou pyros. It is described as:

Revelation 20:14–15 — "And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."

The lake of fire is the final state, after hadēs itself has been destroyed. It is the "second death." Whether the biblical language of final judgment is to be read as eternal conscious torment (the traditional majority view), conditional immortality / annihilation (a minority view with significant modern defenders), or universal reconciliation (a small minority view) has been debated within Christian theology across history. Scripture's language supports each reading with some difficulty on at least some texts.

What Scripture Does Not Say

Several common popular conceptions have little textual basis:

• Satan rules hell. Scripture does not make Satan the ruler of hell. Revelation 20:10 says Satan is cast into the lake of fire and tormented there — he is a prisoner, not a warden.
• Detailed architecture of levels, circles, or temperature gradations. These derive from medieval and literary sources (most famously Dante), not from biblical text.
• Physical torture by demons. The biblical imagery is fire, darkness, worms, separation — but not detailed demonic torture.
• Purgatory. Not a concept present in the Protestant biblical canon; drawn from deuterocanonical texts (2 Maccabees) and later tradition.

What Scripture Does Say

With honest linguistic caution, here is what the biblical texts actually claim:

• All humans face judgment. "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27).
• The wicked face real consequences. Scripture consistently distinguishes the fate of the righteous from the fate of those who reject God.
• Jesus is the judge. "For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son" (John 5:22).
• Imagery is severe. Fire, outer darkness, weeping, gnashing of teeth, worms that die not. The imagery warrants sobriety, whatever one's interpretation of its literal/metaphorical weight.
• The offer of salvation is the central proclamation. Whatever the final judgment's details, Scripture's primary posture is evangelistic: "God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9).

Summary

• "Hell" in English translates four distinct words: Hebrew sheol, Greek hadēs, gehenna, and tartaroō.
• Sheol / Hadēs — the general realm of the dead in the OT and in most NT uses; destroyed at the final judgment (Revelation 20:14).
• Gehenna — the word closest to modern "hell" as punitive place; named after the Valley of Hinnom, used almost exclusively by Jesus.
• Tartaroō — used once, of imprisoned fallen angels (2 Peter 2:4).
• Lake of fire — the final state of judgment (Revelation 20:14–15).
• Theological interpretation of final judgment's duration and nature has varied across Christian history; Scripture's imagery is severe, and Christian traditions differ on how to read it.