The Language of Hell

Before the nature of hell can be examined, it is important to investigate the original language used to describe the afterlife, either the intermediate state or the final state.

Gehenna  – The word gehenna occurs twelve times in the New Testament (Matt. 5:22, 29, 30, 10:28, 18:9, 23:15, 23:33; Mark 9:43, 45, 47; Luke 12:5; James 3:6), and is each time translated as “hell” in the NASB.  Gehenna refers to the formerly pleasant Valley of Hinnom south of Jerusalem.  A small brook ran through the valley and partly surrounded the city.  The Israelites used this the valley in order to worship Moloch (2 Kings 16:3; 2 Chr. 28:3).  The idol of Moloch was solid brass, with a head of a calf wearing a crown and its arms extended in embrace.  The Israelites heated the statue from the inside with fire, and sacrificed their children on its arms. Later, when the Israelites returned from captivity, they began throwing all the dead carcasses and trash from the city into this valley (2 Kings 23:10).²⁵  Barnes comments on this dreadful place:

It became, therefore, extremely offensive; the sight was terrific; the air was polluted and pestilential; and to preserve it in any manner pure, it was necessary to keep fires continually burning there. The extreme loathsomeness of the place; the filth and putrefaction; the corruption of the atmosphere, and the lurid fires blazing by day and night, made it one of the most appalling and terrific objects with which a Jew was acquainted. It was called the gehenna of fire, and was the image which our Saviour often employed to denote the future punishment of the wicked.²⁶

Tartaroo – This word occurs only one time in the New Testament, 2 Peter 2:4, and is translated as “hell” in the NASB.  According to Thayer’s Greek Definitions, tartaroo is “the name of the subterranean region, doleful and dark, regarded by the ancient Greeks as the abode of the wicked dead, where they suffer punishment for their evil deeds; it answers to Gehenna of the Jews.”  The usage of a Greek term would be consistent with the epistle’s likely destination, a church mixed with Jews and Gentiles.²⁷

Hades – The word Hades occurs ten times in the New Testament (Matt. 11:23, 16:18; Luke 10:15, 16:23; Acts 2:27, 2:31; Rev. 1:18, 6:8, 20:13, 14).  Hades is the abode of the wicked in the intermediate state, that is the time from which they die until the judgment at the Great White Throne (Rev. 20:11-15).

Sheol  - The word Sheol occurs 65 times in the Old Testament (Genesis (4), Numbers (2), Deuteronomy, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings (2), Job (9), The Psalms (15), Proverbs (9), Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Isaiah (10), Ezekiel (5), Hosea, Amos, Jonah, Habbakuk).  The KJV renders sheol as “hell” 31 times, “grave” 31 times, and “pit” 3 times.²⁸  Thus Sheol can refer either specifically to the abode of the wicked (cf. Ps. 9:17, 55:15), or generally to the grave or death (cf. Isaiah 38:10, Hosea 13:14).  It is even used of the belly of the fish in Jonah 2:2, or of a deep pit in Numbers 16:30, 33. Scholars generally have a difficult time deciding when to interpret as “hell,” which is why the newer translations either transliterate the word (NASB ’95, NRSV), or translate it as “grave,”  “death,” “depths,” “destruction” or “pit” (NIV).