Introduction

The mere thought of spending a conscious eternity in hell strikes fear into even the most bold. So much so that many refuse to accept the reality of it. The question remains, what is hell? Is it real, is it figurative or is it some imaginary place dreamed up by religious leaders to keep people in line? Is it a place for the torment of the wicked of all generations to include the fallen angels or is it like the common perception one will find in the media that portrays hapless souls tormented by devils and demons who rule over hell? This begs to question, what saith the Scriptures?

Definitions

In the Old and New Testament there are three words (two Greek and one Jewish) rendered in translation as "hell".

The Jewish word Sheol is rendered as hell but really means "the place of the dead, the unseen world" and is derived from it's etymological roots meaning "to ask" or "to be hollow". The translators rendered it as hell without deciding whether it be a place or misery or happiness and over time it's taken on the context of being a place of torment. In many passages of the Old Testament Sheol should be understood only as "the grave" and is rendered as such in many cases:

Gen 37:35 And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him.

Gen 42:38 And he said, My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he is left alone: if mischief befall him by the way in the which ye go, then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.

1Sa 2:6 The LORD killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up.

Job 14:13 O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!

In other passages it seems to involve a notion of punishment

Eze 32:27 And they shall not lie with the mighty that are fallen of the uncircumcised, which are gone down to hell with their weapons of war: and they have laid their swords under their heads, but their iniquities shall be upon their bones, though they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.

Isa 33:14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?

Pro 30:16 The grave; and the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that saith not, It is enough.
Pro 30:17 The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.

It is also seen as a

place of darkness (Job_10:21, Job_10:22; Psa_143:3), of silence (Psa_94:17; Psa_115:17), of forgetfulness (Psa_88:12; Ecc_9:5, Ecc_9:6, Ecc_9:10). It is without remembrance or praise of God (Psa_6:5), or knowledge of what transpires on earth (Job_14:21) (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia)

In the New Testament the word "hell" is used for two different words, "Hades" and "Gehenna". By looking at all the passages using these three words and a bit of history we can discover what is hell, who it is for, and what is it like.

First is the Greek word "Hades". To some degree the word "Hades" in the New Testament has the same scope of specificity as the Jewish word "Sheol". Like the word "Sheol", Hades infers a meaning of "the unseen world or all receiving world", it too has an all encompassing use denoting both a place of torment:

Luk 16:22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;
Luk 16:23 And in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
Luk 16:24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.

and a place of happiness:

Luk 16:25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.

Luk 23:43 And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.

and that there is a clear division between the two:

Luk 16:26 And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.

The rabbis divided the state after death (Sheol in Jewish, Hades in Greek) into a place for the righteous and a place for the wicked.

Next is the Greek word Gehenna. Like many other things God provides us a physical and literal example with which we can begin to fathom a spiritual concept and along with most other concepts it begins in the Old Testament. The parallel is drawn between "hell" and a real place:

Gehenna is strictly "the valley of Hinnom" (Jos_15:8; Neh_11:30); "the valley of the children of Hinnom" (2Ki_23:10); "the valley of the son of Hinnom" (2Ch_28:3); "the valley of dead bodies," or Tophet, where malefactors' dead bodies were cast, S. of the city (Jer_31:40). A deep narrow glen S. of Jerusalem, where, after Ahaz introduced the worship of the fire gods, the sun, Baal, Moloch, the Jews under Manasseh made their children to pass through the fire (2Ch_33:6), and offered them as burntofferings (Jer_7:31; Jer_19:2-6). So the godly Josiah defiled the valley, making it a receptacle of carcass and criminals' corpses, in which worms were continually gendering.

A perpetual fire was kept to consume this putrefying matter; hence it became the image of that awful place where all that are unfit for the holy city are cast out a prey to the ever gnawing "worm" of conscience from within and the "unquenchable fire" of torments from without. Mar_9:42-50, "their worm dieth not." implies that not only the worm but they also on whom it preys die not; the language is figurative, but it represents corresponding realities never yet experienced, and therefore capable of being conveyed to us only by figures. (Fausset's Bible Dictionary)

Of significance is the parallels between the description in Mark 9:42-50 and the description in the OT passages. Gehenna became the Jewish synonym for the place of torment in the future life and further is clarified in the New Testament. In the New Testament Gehenna occurs in many passages, here are but a few:

Mat 5:22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.

Mat 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Luk 12:5 But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.

Jam 3:6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity; so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.

In all of those mentioned and several that are not the use of the word Gehenna designates the place of eternal punishment of the wicked and generally it is used in connection with the final judgment.

There is one other term of note referring to hell. In 2 Peter 2:4 we find the Greek word Tartaroo for hell, properly rendered "to send into Tartarus". According to 2 Peter 2:4 and confirmed by parallel mentions in Jude 1:6 and Matt 25:41 we see another reference to hell and this is apparently a selected section reserved for the angels that sinned (most likely those found in Genesis 6:1-4 and those who followed Satan (Revelation 12:4)

Putting It All Together

So what does this all mean? By reviewing the various passages I believe we begin to get a clearer picture of the concept of hell. Sheol or Hades (and by extension Hell) is the all encompassing term for the realm of the dead or what happens after death. Upon the death of a righteous person prior to Christ their physical body is put into the grave and their spirit descended to "Abraham's Bosom". As a note, the term sheol has a certain duality to it in it's connotation...in a physical sense it's the hole in which the body is placed upon death...in a spiritual sense it's the "holding area" for the spirit until a future time.

Prior to Christ a soul had one of two destinations upon death, the righteous would descend to Abraham's Bosom or Paradise and the soul of the wicked would descend to the "firey" side of Hades for lack of a better term. The Bible gives no clear technical term for that side of Hades (or Hell) the passages in Luke further make no mention of the name. Between these two side of Hades (or Hell) is a great gulf which may be the abyss that satan is bound in during the millennial reign of Christ (Revelation 20:1-2).

With the resurrection of Christ we see a different destination for the righteous in Christ. First upon His resurrection those who died prior to Him were escorted out of Abraham's Bosom into the presence of the Father (Ephesians 4:8). Secondly we know from 2 Corinthians 5:8 that following the resurrection the spirit of a believer will immediately go to the presence of the Lord. Basically, at this point and for the last 2000 years Abraham's Bosom has been empty. The concept here is simple regarding the OT saints. Prior to Christ, a righteous person's sins were only atoned for or covered by the blood sacrifice dictated by the Law. Having their sin atoned for still left them unworthy to stand in the presence of the Lord. However, with the resurrection of Christ and His work on the cross, all who believe and are faithful are now redeemed and their sins have been washed away by His blood...with that the righteous are now worthy. Thus the concept of Christ defeating death, but the death that is defeated is that as it applies to those who accept Him and the work He did on the cross and those righteous that went before Him who remained faithful to God.

That being said, the souls of the wicked remain in the "firey" side of Hades (or Hell), in a state of conscious torment (Luke 16:24) and there they will remain until the final judgement at which time they will be resurrected, judged, found guilty and cast into the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:15).

Now this "Lake of Fire" is apparently a completely different state altogether for in the end death and hell (Hades) will be cast into the lake of fire along with the wicked at the final judgment, satan, the antichrist and the false prophet (and the fallen angels as well). With the advent of this event there will be no more death among the people of God for His plan will be complete and all who remain will move into eternity so there is no longer a need for Sheol/Hades/Hell.

The technical term of Gehenna and all the passages related to it describes this lake of fire...a conscious living eternity in torment. It's a hard concept to accept and not one anyone wants to see any unsaved person in but that is what Scripture shows. Further Scripture also shows it's not a place ruled by satan and his minions tormenting the lost souls as they too are bound in it as well. Also, much like Gehenna, scripture gives no credence to the idea that satan lords over the "firey" side of hell either as he is the ruler of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4) as the prince of power of the air (Eph 2:2) and is roaming about like a lion looking for souls to devour (1 Peter 5:8). Satan has no dominion over hell, only God does.

Conclusion

My hope would be that this study reinforces one's understanding of the outcome of a life lived without the Lord and further press the reader with the understanding of the necessity of and the desire to continue to share the Gospel with all they meet. There are but two destinations upon death, an blissful eternity in the presence of the Lord, or a conscious enternity in torment in the lake of fire. Every individual has the ability to choose in which direction they will travel and the Lord willing, they will make the right choice.