In the Hebrew Bible, Sheol is the common grave of the righteous and the wicked alike, with no fire, no devil and no sorting of souls.
Imported citation, not independently checked: Genesis 37:35; Psalm 88:3-12; Ecclesiastes 9:10, bedrock
religion · Shared topic · Revision 0
What is the difference between Gehenna, Sheol and Hades?
Gehenna vs Sheol vs Hades: What the Bible's 'Hell' Words Really Mean
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The current answer
One English word hides a grave, a Greek borrowing, and a burning valley outside Jerusalem.
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Hades in the Bible began as the Septuagint's Greek translation of the Hebrew Sheol, a neutral land of the dead rather than a place of torment.
Imported citation, not independently checked: Septuagint; Psalm 16:10 and Acts 2:27, bedrock
In Revelation 20:13-14, Hades is a temporary holding place that is itself thrown into the lake of fire, not the final punishment.
Imported citation, not independently checked: Revelation 20:13-14; Luke 16:23
Gehenna, the hell-word Jesus actually uses, is the name of a real place: the Valley of Hinnom, a ravine outside Jerusalem.
Imported citation, not independently checked: 2 Kings 23:10; Jeremiah 7:31; Mark 9:43-48; Matthew 23:33, bedrock
When Jesus warns of Gehenna he uses a local image of judgment rooted in a real burning valley, not a description of the classical underworld.
Imported citation, not independently checked: Mark 9:43-48; Matthew 10:28; Henry Ansgar Kelly, Satan: A Biography (2006)
Tartarus, the deepest pit of Greek myth, appears exactly once in the Bible, in 2 Peter 2:4, as a prison for rebel angels rather than human dead.
Imported citation, not independently checked: 2 Peter 2:4; 1 Enoch 10, bedrock
The English word "hell" is a composite that flattens at least three different biblical words, Sheol, Hades and Gehenna, into one.
Imported citation, not independently checked: Genesis 37:35; Septuagint; Matthew 5:22; 2 Peter 2:4
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