Hell: Origins of an Idea
Richard Burky Jeannette B. Anderson
Many religious groups portray God as a being who tortures people eternally for their sins. But how can anyone worship a god who sets up fallible humans to be forever tormented in hell?
“The Greek word Hades is sometimes, but misleadingly, translated “hell” in English versions of the New Testament. It refers to the place of the dead but not necessarily to a place of torment of the wicked dead.”
Anchor Bible Dictionary, S.V. “Hades, Hell”
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Back to the Bible
Pagan cultures and philosophies have contributed greatly to modern concepts of hell. But what does the Bible itself say on the subject?
In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word often translated as “hell” is
sheol, though it actually means “the grave.” The Bible teaches that when we die, we simply go to the grave (see Psalm 49:10–11 and Ecclesiastes 3:19–20). The
Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible comments, “Nowhere in the Old Testament is the abode of the dead regarded as a place of punishment or torment. The concept of an infernal ‘hell’ developed in Israel only during the Hellenistic period” (beginning in the fourth century B.C.E.). Greek religious and philosophical ideas, including those of Aristotle and Plato, became influential throughout the region during that time.
Merriam-Webster’s Encyclopedia of World Religions points out that “many formal aspects of Hellenistic religion . . . persist in the Jewish and Christian traditions today.”
In the New Testament, we find that there are three Greek words translated as “hell.” The one most often used in the Gospels is
gehenna, referring to the Gehenna Valley, or the Valley of Hinnom. Just outside the walls of Jerusalem, in Jesus’ day it was where the local population dumped and burned trash.
“The New Testament does not describe the torment of Gehenna or portray Satan as the lord of Gehenna. These are later literary accoutrements.”
Anchor Bible Dictionary, S.V. “Hades, Gehenna”'
The valley is first mentioned in Joshua 15:8: “Then the boundary goes up by the Valley of the Son of Hinnom at the southern shoulder of the Jebusite (that is, Jerusalem).” At this time Jerusalem was in the hands of the Jebusites, and the valley marked the boundary between the lands inherited by two of the sons of Jacob—also known as Israel—namely, Judah and Benjamin.
The
Theological Dictionary of the New Testament says that the Gehenna Valley “acquired a bad reputation because sacrifices were offered in it to Moloch in the days of Ahaz and Manasseh [kings of Judah]. . . . The Valley of Hinnom came to be equated with the hell of the last judgment in apocalyptic literature”—extrabiblical Jewish writings—“from the second century B.C. . . . The name
gehinnom thus came to be used for the eschatological fire of hell. This is the stage of development reflected in the New Testament. In the first century A.D. the term was further extended to cover the place where the ungodly were punished in the intermediate state,
but this is not so in the New Testament” (emphasis added). It goes on to say, “In the New Testament there is no description of the torments of hell as in apocalyptic literature,” which later came to include Christian writings as well.
Again, to understand the source of the idea that people are tortured in an ever-burning hell, we have to go
outside the Scriptures. That should send up a red flag for anyone who regards the Bible as his or her source of belief.
As already noted, the Hinnom Valley had taken on negative connotations over the years. According to Jeremiah 7, the Israelite inhabitants of the region had erected idols in the temple of God, and in the adjacent valley they had set up altars to these false gods. They had even burned their children on these altars to appease the pagan gods.
In Jeremiah 19:4–7, the prophet offers this message from God: “‘Because the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known; and because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents, and have built high places to Baal to burn their sons in fire as burnt offerings to Baal, . . . therefore, behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when this place shall no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. And in this place I will make void the plans of Judah and Jerusalem, and will cause their people to fall by the sword before their enemies . . . ; I will give their dead bodies for food to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the earth.”
This is how Gehenna was known in Jeremiah’s day. In the New Testament, the word
gehenna is generally used in references to the final destruction of evildoers. Jesus said, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell”—
gehenna (Matthew 10:28). In other words, people can kill you, but they can kill only the body. Don’t fear them; fear the One who can put an end to you forever.
Jesus used the word in other situations as well, always alluding to that burning trash heap as a metaphor for the ultimate demise of the incorrigibly wicked.
The Keys of Death and Hades
Another New Testament Greek word translated as “hell” is
hades: the place of the departed, the grave, like
sheol in the Old Testament. For example, in Matthew 11:23 Jesus says: “And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades.” The city wasn’t going to be tormented forever; it was going to be put into the grave—destroyed
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