What is hell?

So one of the biggest misconceptions in modern Christianity, I think it's the assumption that every time you see the word hell in your English Bible, that it's referring to the same place. It isn't. In fact, that's one of the biggest translation problems in this entire conversation. Over time, several different biblical words were translated into the single English word hell. And eventually, many Christians came to believe they all described one eternal place where people are consciously tortured in fire for all eternity. But Hades doesn't mean that at all. Take Luke chapter 16, for example, the story of the rich man and Lazarus. Now, in the last episode, we looked at the word Gehenna, the valley of Hinnom, a real physical place outside Jerusalem that became a powerful symbol in Jesus's teachings. But Gehenna isn't the only word that's translated hell in our English Bibles. Luke 16 uses an entirely different word for hell. Most English Bibles say hell, but if you read the Greek text, the word isn't Gehenna, and it isn't hell. It's Hades. Now, that's significant because Hades and Gehenna are not interchangeable terms at all. They're completely different words with different histories and different meanings. You see, Hades is the Greek word, and it's in Strong's G86. Many Greek scholars understand its likely etymology to mean the unseen. Now, in Greek speaking culture, Hades referred to the unseen realm of the dead. It was associated with death, the realm of the departed, not automatically a place of eternal fiery punishment. But here's one of the strongest pieces of evidence in the entire discussion. About two centuries before Jesus, Jewish scholars translated the Hebrew scriptures into Greek, and that translation is known as the Septuagint. And when those Jewish translators repeatedly came to a Hebrew word, Sheol, they overwhelmingly translated it as Hades. Now, think about what that tells us. The Jewish scholars closest to the Hebrew text understood Sheol and Hades as corresponding terms, both meaning the realm of the dead. And that's why you'll find Hades throughout the New Testament. Luke 16 uses Hades. Acts chapter 2 uses Hades when Peter quotes Psalm 16. It isn't Gehenna. And then we get to Revelation chapter 20, and this is one of the most overlooked passages in the entire discussion. Revelation 20:14 says, death and Hades, or hell, were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death. Notice what the text actually says. It does not call the lake of fire Hades or hell. It does not call it Gehenna, and it does not call it an eternal torture chamber, either. The text calls it the second death. Now, here's where interpretation begins. Revelation is apocalyptic literature, so most scholars recognize that it's communicating through highly symbolic imagery. Death and Hades are thrown into the lake of fire. Death isn't a literal person you can throw into flames, and Hades isn't a physical object. Now, within Christian theology, many interpreters understand this scene to represent God's final victory over death and the end of the realm of the dead. Now, whether someone accepts that theological conclusion, it's a separate conversation for a different day. My point here is much simpler. The text itself distinguishes Hades from the lake of fire. They are not presented as the same thing. This is why biblical scholarship pays such close attention to words and word usage and linguistics and etymology. Once you translate Gehenna, Hades, Sheol, and later Tartarus all into one English word, you lose distinctions the biblical authors intentionally were trying to preserve. And we're still not finished, because if Hades is the Greek translation of Sheol, then the obvious question for critical thinkers would be, what exactly is Sheol? And that's where we're going next. Hey, if this conversation intrigued you or even challenged what you've always been taught, you'll love what our company is building. If you're on a journey of deconstructing and reconstructing your faith, you shouldn't have to spend years in a seminary or hundreds of hours piecing together what words like hell, repentance, salvation, sin, and kingdom of God actually meant. That's exactly why my company, Brooks Consulting and Training Solutions, is building The Bible Decoder. We're in the final stages of development and testing, putting the finishing touches on a research platform designed to help you explore more than 60 of Christianity's most misunderstood words, doctrines, and concepts through the original Hebrew and Greek historical context, translation comparisons, and trusted scholarship, all in plain language. We're almost ready. Join the waitlist today and be one of the first to know when The Bible Decoder officially launches. Somewhere around this video, you'll see a link to join the waitlist.