What Does "Hell" Mean in the Bible?

The Hebrew Concept of Sheol

In the Hebrew Bible, Sheol is the word used to describe the place where people go after they die. Unlike the modern idea of hell as a place of fire and punishment, Sheol was seen as a quiet, shadowy place where everyone—good or bad—ended up (Lewis, 2020). Some English versions of the Old Testament translate Sheol as "hell," but many scholars argue that this isn't an accurate reflection of what the original Hebrew text meant (Frohmader, 1980). Instead of being a place of torment, Sheol was more like a resting place for the dead, without rewards or punishments.

In fact, the Old Testament doesn’t really talk about what happens after death in terms of rewards or punishments. Passages like Ecclesiastes 9:5 say, the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even their name is forgotten. This suggests that ancient Hebrew beliefs were focused on life here and now, rather than worrying about what happens after death.

No Heaven or Hell in the Old Testament

A close look at the Old Testament shows that it doesn't teach the idea that people are rewarded or punished after they die. Instead, the focus is on how actions affect life on earth. If you do good things, you might expect good things to happen to you while you're alive—and vice versa. But there's no mention of heaven or hell waiting on the other side (Chopelas, 2001).

Books like Job and Ecclesiastes point out that life isn't always fair and that death comes for everyone, regardless of their choices. Ecclesiastes 3:19 says, man’s fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both. This shows that ancient Hebrew thought saw death as something inevitable and equal for everyone, without divine judgment after life.

The Intertestamental Period: Big Changes and New Ideas

The intertestamental period (around the 4th century BCE to the 1st century CE) is the time between the Old and New Testaments. It was a time of major changes, with different cultures mixing and influencing Jewish beliefs. This period began when Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire in 332 BCE, bringing Greek culture, language, and ideas to the Jewish people (Repas, 2015).

After Alexander's death, his empire was split, and Judea eventually came under the control of the Seleucid Empire (from about 312 to 63 BCE). During this time, rulers like Antiochus IV Epiphanes tried to force Greek customs onto the Jewish people, even desecrating the Jewish temple, which led to the Maccabean Revolt (167–160 BCE). These events created a feeling that divine justice was needed, leading to the rise of apocalypticism—the belief that God would soon step in and make things right.

During this period, ideas about the afterlife started to change. Inspired by Greek and Persian beliefs, Jewish thinkers started talking about a final judgment, resurrection, and the idea that good people would be rewarded while bad people would be punished (Chopelas, 2001). Books like 1 Enoch and Daniel introduced the idea that some people would rise to eternal life, while others would face punishment, replacing the earlier view of Sheol as just a quiet place for everyone.

Two Greek Words for Hell: Hades and Gehenna

When parts of the Bible were later written in Greek—especially the New Testament—the single English word "hell" actually came from two different Greek terms: Hades and Gehenna, which have different meanings. Hades is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew Sheol—a place where all the dead go, good or bad, without much happening (Marlowe, 2003). It functions more like a waiting room for souls than a fiery pit of suffering.

Gehenna, on the other hand, first appears in the New Testament as a term for divine punishment. It does not appear in the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament) as a word for hell or punishment. The term is based on the Valley of Hinnom, a real place outside Jerusalem associated in the Hebrew Bible with child sacrifice and idol worship (Davis, 1988). While the valley itself is mentioned in the Old Testament, the word Gehenna is a later development in Jewish and Christian thought. In the Gospels, Jesus uses Gehenna to warn of severe judgment (e.g., Matthew 5:22), and it becomes a symbolic way to speak of postmortem consequences. The widespread idea that Gehenna was a constantly burning garbage dump, however, has no solid historical basis (Kosior, 2014). Its frightening connotation likely came from its violent and sacrilegious past rather than from literal trash fires.

The Lake of Fire: The Final Ending

The lake of fire, mentioned in the book of Revelation, is described as the place where even death and Hades are thrown in and destroyed (Revelation 20:14). This symbol represents the complete end of evil and suffering (Hanson, 1888). It's not necessarily a literal fiery place, but more of a way to show that everything bad will eventually come to an end.

Unlike Hades, which is just a temporary place for souls, the lake of fire represents the final outcome, tying into the idea of ultimate justice that developed during the intertestamental period.

Conclusion

The idea of hell has changed a lot over time. The Old Testament’s concept of Sheol was very different from the later ideas of punishment and reward in the afterlife. During the intertestamental period, cultural influences brought new ways of thinking about divine justice, leading to the ideas of heaven and hell that are more familiar today. The Greek words Hades and Gehenna also added new dimensions to the concept, making it more complex than just a simple place of punishment.

In the end, the idea of hell as a fiery place of eternal suffering is the result of centuries of cultural changes and evolving beliefs rather than a single, consistent idea from the beginning.

Works Cited

Chopelas, P. (2001). Heaven & Hell in the Afterlife, According to the Bible. Retrieved from unleavenedbread.co.za
Davis, R. M. (1988). Heaven, Sheol, and Gehenna: What Happened to Heaven and Hell? Retrieved from newmatthewbible.org
Frohmader, R. E. (1980). A Definitive Study of Gehenna, Sheol, and Hades. Retrieved from wisluthsem.org
Hanson, J. W. (1888). The Bible Hell. Retrieved from billbert.co
Kosior, W. (2014). The Underworld or its Ruler? Some Remarks on the Concept of Sheol in the Hebrew Bible. Retrieved from uj.edu.pl
Lewis, T. M. (2020). Translating Sheol as “Hell”: A Clear Case of Cultural Imposition? Retrieved from academia.edu
Marlowe, W. C. (2003). Hell as a Translation in the Hebrew Bible: De-Hellenizing the KJV and NKJV Old Testaments. Retrieved from Asbury Theological Seminary
Repas, M. A. (2015). From Gehinnom to Hell: An Etymological and Conceptual History. Retrieved from wordpress.com