Hell

Derived from the Saxon helan, to cover; hence the covered or the invisible place. In Scripture there are three words so rendered: (1.) Sheol, occurring in the Old Testament sixty-five times. This word sheol is derived from a root-word meaning "to ask," "demand;" hence insatiableness (Prov. 30:15, 16). It is rendered "grave" thirty-one times (Gen. 37:35; 42:38; 44:29, 31; 1 Sam. 2:6, etc.). The Revisers have retained this rendering in the historical books with the original word in the margin, while in the poetical books they have reversed this rule. In thirty-one cases in the Authorized Version this word is rendered "hell," the place of disembodied spirits. The inhabitants of sheol are "the congregation of the dead" (Prov. 21:16). It is (a) the abode of the wicked (Num. 16:33; Job 24:19; Ps. 9:17; 31:17, etc.); (b) of the good (Ps. 16:10; 30:3; 49:15; 86:13, etc.). Sheol is described as deep (Job 11:8), dark (10:21, 22), with bars (17:16). The dead "go down" to it (Num. 16:30, 33; Ezek. 31:15, 16, 17). (2.) The Greek word hades of the New Testament has the same scope of signification as sheol of the Old Testament. It is a prison (1 Pet. 3:19), with gates and bars and locks (Matt. 16:18; Rev. 1:18), and it is downward (Matt. 11:23; Luke 10:15). The righteous and the wicked are separated. The blessed dead are in that part of hades called paradise (Luke 23:43). They are also said to be in Abraham's bosom (Luke 16:22). (3.) Gehenna, in most of its occurrences in the Greek New Testament, designates the place of the lost (Matt. 23:33). The fearful nature of their condition there is described in various figurative expressions (Matt. 8:12; 13:42; 22:13; 25:30; Luke 16:24, etc.). (See [269]HINNOM.)

This is a Saxon word, which is derived from a verb which signifies _to hide_ or _conceal_. A late eminent Biblical critic, Dr. Campbell, has investigated this subject with his usual accuracy; and the following is the substance of his remarks. In the Hebrew Scriptures the word _sheol_ frequently occurs, and uniformly, he thinks, denotes the state of the dead in general, without regard to the virtuous or vicious characters of the persons, their happiness or misery. In translating that word, the LXX have almost invariably used the Greek term ἅιδης, _hades_, which means the receptacle of the dead, and ought rarely to have been translated _hell_, in the sense in which we now use it, namely, as the place of torment. To denote this latter object, the New Testament writers always make use of the Greek word γέεννα, which is compounded of two Hebrew words, _Ge Hinnom_, that is, “The Valley of Hinnom,” a place near Jerusalem, in which children were cruelly sacrificed by fire to Moloch, the idol of the Ammonites, 2 Chron. xxxiii, 6. This place was also called _Tophet_, 2 Kings xxiii, 10, alluding, as is supposed, to the noise of drums, (_toph_ signifying a drum,) there raised to drown the cries of helpless infants. As in process of time this place came to be considered an emblem of hell, or the place of torment reserved for the punishment of the wicked in a future state, the name _Tophet_ came gradually to be used in this sense, and at length to be confined to it. In this sense, also, the word _gehenna_, a synonymous term, is always to be understood in the New Testament, where it occurs about a dozen times. The confusion that has arisen on this subject has been occasioned not only by our English translators having rendered the Hebrew word _sheol_ and the Greek word _gehenna_ frequently by the term _hell_; but the Greek word _hades_, which occurs eleven times in the New Testament, is, in every instance, except one, translated by the same English word, which it ought never to have been. In the following passages of the Old Testament it seems, however, that a future world of wo is expressed by _sheol_: “They,” the wicked, “spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to _sheol_,” Job xxi, 13. “The wicked shall be turned into _sheol_, and all the nations that forget God,” Psalm ix, 17, 18. “Her feet go down to death, her steps take hold on _sheol_,” Prov. v, 5. “But he knoweth not that the ghosts are there, and that her guests are in the depths of sheol,” Prov. ix, 18. “Thou shalt beat him with a rod, and shalt deliver his soul from _sheol_,” Prov. xxiii, 14. Thus, as Stuart observes, in his “Essay on Future Punishment,” while the Old Testament employs _sheol_, in most cases to designate the grave, the region of the dead, the place of departed spirits, it employs it also, in some cases, to designate along with this idea the adjunct one of the place of misery, place of punishment, region of wo]. In this respect it accords fully with the New Testament use of _hades_. For though _hades_ signifies the grave, and often the invisible region of separate spirits, without reference to their condition, yet, in Luke xvi, 23, “In hades ἐν τῷ ᾅδη, he lifted up his eyes, being in torments,” it is clearly used for a place and condition of misery. The word _hell_ is also used by our translators for _gehenna_, which means the world of future punishment, “How shall ye escape the damnation of hell, κρίσεως τῆς γεέννης?“