Hell

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The English word hell comes from hel, the abode of the dead and the underworld of Norse mythology. In the Bible, the Hebrew word Sheol and the Greek word Hádēs refer to the netherworld, a shadowy realm of the dead more than a place of torment (though some New Testament texts use Hádēs to refer to punishment or the dominion of death; see Luke 16:23, Matt. 16:18, and Rev. 6:8).

The biblical word for the state of postmortem punishment is Gehenna, from the Hebrew ge-hinnōm, an abbreviation for the “valley of the son of Hinnom,” a place south of Jerusalem known for idolatry and human sacrifice (see 2 Kings 23:10 and Jer. 7:31–32). In Jewish apocalyptic and rabbinic literature, Gehenna often refers to a place of darkness, fire, and punishment for the wicked— a punishment variously conceived as everlasting, temporary, or ending in annihilation. In modern times, many Jews have rejected the concept of eternal damnation.

In the New Testament, Gehenna is used for the state of everlasting punishment and fire (see Matt. 5:22, Mark 9:43, and James 3:6), though the Greek word Tartarus does appear (see 2 Pet. 2:4). The concept of eternal punishment is expressed through images of “everlasting fire” (Matt. 18:8 and 25:41), “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 8:12), “fire and brimstone” (Rev. 14:10), and a “pool of fire” (Rev. 19:20). People confined to the everlasting fire include those who despise the needy (Matt. 25:41–46), as well as “cowards, the faithless, the polluted, murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters and liars” (Rev. 21:8). In addition to damned humans, Satan and the fallen angels also receive everlasting punishment (see Jude 6, Matt. 25:41, and Rev. 20:10).

Christian theology developed an understanding of hell as everlasting punishment and exclusion from heaven. In the Middle Ages, temporary purifications after death (purgatory) were distinguished from the everlasting torments of hell, as was the state of limbo, in which the souls of unbaptized babies and virtuous non-Christians were deprived of the beatific vision but did not suffer the torments of hell. Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) gave poetic expression to limbo and the levels of hell in his Inferno, the first part of his Divine Comedy, which continues with Purgatory and Paradise.

Traditional Christians (whether Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant) affirm hell as a true possibility, either for those who culpably reject the Christian Gospel or who die in a state of “mortal sin.” The everlasting nature of hell, even after the resurrection of the body, was affirmed at various Church councils (e.g., the local synod of Constantinople of 543 and the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215). Some Christians hope for universal salvation, but most Christian denominations still affirm the possibility of eternal damnation. Many Christians today believe that sincere non-Christians, who are outside of the Church “through no fault of their own,” might still achieve salvation (see Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 847).

The ancient Greeks and Romans had multiple concepts of the underworld and the fate of the dead. In the mystery religions and fertility cults, Hádēs or the underworld played a prominent role in themes of death and rebirth. By the fifth century BCE (perhaps due to Egyptian and Persian influences), the Greeks had developed concepts of rewards and punishments after death, with Tarturus, the lower realm of Hádēs, as the place of punishment for the wicked. Platonism and Neoplatonism incorporated beliefs in reincarnation and the transmigration of souls, which made purification from wrongdoing achievable over multiple lifetimes.

In the ancient world, the Egyptians and the Zoroastrians from Persia were most pronounced in their affirmations of rewards and punishments after death. Around 1750 BCE, the Egyptian Book of Going Forth by Day (or Book of the Dead ) described how the soul or heart of the deceased person is weighed on a scale balanced by the “feather of truth.” Rewards or punishments then follow (with complete destruction being one possibility).

The Persian religion of Zoroastrianism (from the prophet Zoroaster/Zarathustra, circa ninth or tenth century BCE) describes judgment after death as the crossing of the Chinvat Bridge toward Paradise. The souls of the wicked are tossed off the bridge into hell, whereas the righteous souls enter Paradise and other souls go to a state of limbo. At the end of time, the souls of the deceased are reunited with their bodies and experience a final judgment. The souls in limbo (and perhaps those in hell) then enter Paradise after a final purification. The evil spirit Angra Mainyu and other demons are, however, consigned to hell forever.

Islam, like Christianity and Zoroastrianism, affirms judgment after death and a future resurrection of the body, as well as rewards in heaven (paradise) and punishments in hell. Muslims believe that God (Allah) assigns certain angels to keep a record of human deeds, and this record will determine one’s fate after death. After death, those who are wicked begin to experience the hellfire— even in the grave prior to the Day of Judgment and the resurrection of the body. The righteous souls, in turn, begin to experience the rewards of Paradise, which continue forever after the reunion with their bodies. Some Muslims, following 2:262 and 5:69 of the Qurʾan, believe that followers of other religions can escape hell and enter Paradise. Others, following 4:56, believe severe punishments await those who deny the Qurʾan as God’s revelation.

Classical Chinese culture recognized some type of life after death, but a clear and consistent concept of hell never developed. Confucius (c. 551–479 BCE) was reluctant to talk about the afterlife, and Taoism tended toward a naturalism that denied personal survival after death.

Jainism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism—the main religions originating in India—all affirm reincarnation and the transmigration of souls; moreover, Hindus and Buddhists recognize thousands of hells. Because of reincarnation, however, the possibility of eventual purification and deliverance is maintained, even if this liberation may require countless lifetimes.

The fear of hell remains a living reality among many people today, especially in Christian and Muslim circles. In modern secular societies, however, the word hell has assumed a largely metaphorical meaning. Situations of poverty, violence, and devastation are described frequently as “living hells.” Many psychologists and sociologists understand hell as an archetype of the deepest fears of the human imagination, expressing the thoughts of torture, rejection, and abandonment that circulate within the human psyche.

SEE ALSO Anxiety; Christianity; Heaven; Psychology; Religion

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Badham, Paul, and Linda Badham, eds. 1987. Death and Immortality in the Religions of the World. New York: Paragon House Publishers.

Freedman, David Noel, ed. 2000. Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: W. B. Eerdmans Publishing.

Johnston, Sarah Iles. 2005. Afterlife: Greek and Roman Concepts. In Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd ed., Vol. 1, ed. Lindsay Jones, 163–166. Detroit, MI: Thomson Gale.

McKenzie, John L., S.J. 1965. Dictionary of the Bible. Milwaukee, WI: Bruce Publishing.

Smart, Ninian. 1989. The World’s Religions. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Turner, Alice K. 1993. The History of Hell. Orlando, FL: Harcourt Brace.

Robert Fastiggi

hell / hel/ • n. a place regarded in various religions as a spiritual realm of evil and suffering, often traditionally depicted as a place of perpetual fire beneath the earth where the wicked are punished after death. ∎  a state or place of great suffering; an unbearable experience: I've been through hell he made her life hell. • interj. used to express annoyance or surprise or for emphasis: oh, hell—where will this all end? hell, no, we were all married. ∎  (the hell) inf. expressing anger, contempt, or disbelief: who the hell are you? the hell you are! PHRASES: all hell broke loose inf. suddenly there was pandemonium. (as) —— as hell inf. used for emphasis: he's as guilty as hell. be hell on inf. be very unpleasant or harmful to: a sensitive liberal mentality can be hell on a marriage. catch (or get) hell inf. be severely reprimanded: Paul kept his mouth shut and looked apologetic—we got hell. come hell or high water whatever difficulties may occur. for the hell of it inf. just for fun: she walked on window ledges for the hell of it. —— from hell inf. an extremely unpleasant or troublesome instance or example of something: I've got a hangover from hell. get the hell out (of) inf. escape quickly from (a place or situation): let's all get the hell out of here. give someone hell inf. severely reprimand or make things very unpleasant for someone. go to hell inf. used to express angry rejection of someone or something. go to (or through) hell and back endure an extremely unpleasant or difficult experience. go to hell in a handbasket inf. undergo a rapid process of deterioration. hell for leather as fast as possible. hell's bells inf. an exclamation of annoyance or anger. a (or one) hell of a —— inf. used to emphasize something very bad or great: it cost us a hell of a lot of money. hell's half acre a great distance. hell on wheels a disastrous situation. like hell inf. 1. very fast, much, hard, etc. (used for emphasis): it hurts like hell. 2. used in ironic expressions of scorn or disagreement: like hell, he thought. not a hope in hell inf. no chance at all. play hell inf. make a fuss; create havoc. ∎  cause damage: the rough road played hell with the tires. there will be hell to pay inf. serious trouble will occur as a result of a previous action. to hell used for emphasis: damn it to hell. to hell with inf. expressing one's scorn or lack of concern for (someone or something): to hell with the consequences. until (or till) hell freezes over for an extremely long time or forever. what the hell inf. it doesn't matter.DERIVATIVES: hell·ward / -wərd/ adv. & adj. ORIGIN: Old English hel, hell, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch hel and German Hölle, from an Indo-European root meaning ‘to cover or hide.’

hell in Western monotheistic religions, eternal abode of souls damned by the judgment of God. The souls in hell are deprived forever of the sight of God. The punishment of hell is generally analogized to earthly fire. A constant feature is Satan or Lucifer (also known as Iblīs in Islam), considered the ruler of hell. Among ancient Jews, Sheol or Tophet was conceived as a gloomy place of departed souls where they are not tormented but wander about unhappily. The ethical aspect apparently developed gradually, and Sheol became like the hell of Christianity. Gehenna, in the New Testament, which drew its name from the Vale of Hinnom , was certainly a place of punishment. Many Christian churches now regard hell more as a state of being than a place. In Zoroastrianism, the souls of the dead must cross the Bridge of the Requiter, which narrows for the wicked so that they fall into the abyss of horror and suffer ceaseless torment. In ancient Greek religion the great underworld is Hades , ruled by the god of that name (also known as Pluto). The Romans called this underworld also Orcus, Dis, and, poetically, Avernus. In Buddhism, hell is the lowest of six levels of existence into which a being may be reborn depending on that being's karmic accumulations. Hell is often treated with detailed imagination in legend and literature. See heaven ; sin .

Bibliography: See M. Himmelfarb, Tours of Hell (1981); P. Toon, Heaven and Hell (1986).

Hell

Christianity

The word ‘hell’ in English Bibles translates both Heb. sheol and Gk. gehenna. Traditional theology holds that unrepentant sinners go to hell after this life, while the redeemed go either to purgatory or directly to heaven. According to scholastic theology, souls experience in hell both the loss of contact with God (poena damni) and poena sensus, usually taken to be an agent tormenting them. But many theologians, if not critical of the whole notion of everlasting punishment (see UNIVERSALISM), are reticent about the doctrine of hell. See also JUDGEMENT; DESCENT OF CHRIST INTO HELL.

Islam

Jahannam (cf. Heb., gēhinnōm, Gk., gehenna) is mentioned frequently in the Qur'ān. It has seven gates (39. 71; 15. 43), and different levels, the lowest being the tree Zaqqūm and a cauldron of boiling pitch and fire. Punishments are in accord with the gravity of sins—a theme much elaborated by later commentators. The Qur'ān does not make it clear whether punishments of Muslim sinners are for ever. In contrast, a kāfir is generally held to be punished eternally.

Other Religions

For Buddhist and Hindu hells see NARAKA (Pālī, niraya).

hell The English word is used misleadingly in older versions to translate the Hebrew sheol, the Aramaic Gehenna, and the Greek Hades. Normally the word is understood to denote a place of eternal torment, especially by fire (Isa. 66: 24), for those who are irredeemably wicked (Rev. 21: 8) and it is confusing that the word also designates the place of rest or waiting, and not of agonizing pain, for the departed, which is the meaning of the word ‘Hades’ in Rev. 20: 13 and also in the clause of the Church's creed which asserts that Christ ‘descended into hell’ after the crucifixion. This is a belief based on 1 Pet. 3: 19, which may well be a Christian appropriation of ancient redemption myths of the descent of deities to the underworld (Orpheus and Eurydice, Persephone, etc.); in the NT context it is an assertion in terms of the belief that Christ's mission is universal—it extends even to those who died before the incarnation.

Hell. The word is used in English translations of the Bible to represent both the Hebrew ‘Sheol’, the place of the departed, and the Greek ‘Gehenna’, the place of punishment for the wicked after death. In Christian theology it normally signifies the place or state to which unrepentant sinners are held to pass, by God's final judgement, after this life. According to traditional Scholastic theology, souls in hell experience both the poena damni, i.e. exclusion from God's presence and loss of contact with Him, and a certain poena sensus, denoted in the Bible by fire and usually interpreted as an external agent tormenting them. Modern theology stresses that hell is but the logical consequence of ultimate adherence to the soul's own will and rejection of the will of God which necessarily separates the soul from God, and hence from all possibility of happiness.

Hell

Hell is a place of punishment after death or, in more abstract terms, a state of spiritual damnation. In religions and mythologies that separate the dead according to their conduct in life or the purity of their souls, the evil go to hell while the good go to heaven.

Hell is related to the concept of the underworld. In the myths of many ancient cultures, the underworld was the mysterious and often gloomy realm of the dead. Although usually imagined as a dark underground kingdom associated with caves and holes in the earth, hell was not always a place of punishment and suffering. Later belief systems introduced the idea of an afterlife in which the wicked received punishment, and hell was where that punishment occurred.

Although the word hell comes from Hel, the Norse* goddess of death, hells appear in the beliefs and mythologies of many cultures. Common features of hells include burning heat or freezing cold, darkness (symbolizing the soul's separation from light, goodness, and truth), physical agony that represents spiritual suffering, and devils or demons who torment the damned.

Hindu Version. Hinduism is based on the belief that each soul lives many, many lives. A soul may spend time in any of 21 hells to pay for wrong actions during a lifetime, but eventually that soul will be reborn in the world. In the Jain religion, which is related to Hinduism, sinners go to a hell called bhumis, where demons torment them until they have paid for whatever evil they committed in life.

Buddhist Version. There are numerous versions of Buddhism with various ideas of hell. The strictest form of Buddhism does not include a hell, but some Buddhists still follow the traditional belief of up to 136 hells. The hell to which a dead soul goes for punishment depends on the person's actions in the most recent life. Some Buddhist doctrines speak of the karmavacara, the realm of physical and sensory perceptions, as a series of hells. The Chinese belief that souls are punished after death to pay for sins or errors committed during life combines some Buddhist ideas with elements of traditional Taoist Chinese mythology.

Pre-Christian European Version. Before Christianity gave its own meanings to the concepts of heaven and hell, the pagan peoples of Europe imagined the dark side of the afterlife. The Norse pictured Hel, the corpselike goddess of death, as queen of a grim underground realm populated by those who had died of sickness and old age. This view of hell involves a dread of death and a horror of the cold, dark, decaying grave, but it does not suggest a place of punishment.

The Greek underworld was divided into three regions: Hades, Tartarus, and Elysium. Most of the dead went to the kingdom of the god Hades. In the deepest part of the underworld, a terrible dark place known as Tartarus, the very wicked suffered eternal punishment at the hands of the Furies. The third region, Elysium or the Elysian Fields, was where exceptionally good and righteous people went after death.

Persian Version. The image of hell as a place of torment for sinners emerged fully in the Persian mythology based on the faith founded in the 500s b.c. by Zoroaster. According to Zoroastrian belief, souls are judged after death at a bridge where their lives are weighed. If the outcome is good, the bridge widens and carries them to heaven. If they are judged to have been evil, the bridge narrows and pitches them down into a dreadful hell. Those whose lives were an equal mix of good and evil go to a realm called hamestagan, in which they experience both heat and cold.

Jewish Version. The early Hebrews called their afterworld Sheol and pictured it as a quiet, sad place where all the dead went. By around 200 b.c., under the influence of Zoroastrianism and other belief systems, the Jews had adopted the idea of judgment for the dead. The afterworld became a heaven for the good and a hell for the wicked.

A river of fire known as Gehenna ran through hell, and sometimes the whole region was called Gehenna. Scores of demons dwelled there and so did the gods and goddesses of the Greeks,

To Hell and Back

Images of hell in Chinese myth are a blend of Buddhist scriptures and Taoist beliefs. Such images enlivened books about fictional journeys to hell, such as Travels in the West, which gave readers an unsettling glimpse of possible future torments. Sinners descend to the base of the sacred mountain, Meru, to undergo a set period of punishment in one hell or in a series of hells. When they have paid for their sins and are ready for rebirth, they drink a brew that makes them forget their past lives. In some accounts, a wheel of rebirth lifts them to their next life, while in others they are thrown from a bridge of pain into a river that carries them onward.

pagan term used by early Christians to describe non-Christians and non-Christian beliefs

* See Names and Places at the end of this volume for further information.

Romans, Celts*, and other peoples who had also been turned into demons. Some interpretations described hell as a series of ever-smaller levels or rings, like a downward-pointing, seven-tiered mountain. Half the year the sinners being punished in hell endured the torments of fire. For the rest of the time they suffered the even worse misery of bitter cold.

Christian Version. Christian belief built upon the Jewish notion of hell as a place of punishment for the wicked and the home of Satan, the chief devil, and all of his evil demons, or fallen angels. Most often hell was pictured as an inferno, a place of flames and cruel heat. Many early Christian writings emphasized the agonies that sinners suffered in hell when demons boiled them in kettles or stabbed them with pitchforks. In such interpretations of hell the punishments were often tailored to fit specific sins.

During the Middle Ages, Christians sometimes pictured hell as a fiery dragon's mouth swallowing up sinners. In The Divine Comedy, an allegory of the soul's journey written in the early 1300s, Italian poet Dante Alighieri drew upon many mythological traditions. He portrayed hell as an inferno of punishment, descending through many levels where sinners of different categories received punishment. Dante also described the realm that Christians had come to call purgatory, a state between hell and heaven. Christian belief included the possibility that a soul could, after punishment in purgatory and true repentance, work its way toward heaven and salvation.

Islamic Version. The Muslims inherited their vision of hell, like many other elements of their faith, from the Jews and the Christians. The Islamic hell is called Jahannam (or sometimes Gehenna). Jahannam can be portrayed as a devouring, fire-breathing monster or a multilayered, pitlike realm below the earth whose chief characteristic is fire. As in Persian mythology, the souls of the dead are required to cross a bridge of judgment, "sharper than a sword and finer than a hair," that stretches over Jahannam to paradise. Sinners and unbelievers slip and fall into hell. The kind of punishment that each sinner receives matches his or her sins.

allegory literary and artistic device in which characters represent an idea or a religious or moral principle

Central American Version. According to the Maya, the souls of most of the dead went to an underworld known as Xibalba. Only individuals who died in violent circumstances went directly to one of the heavens. In the Mayan legend of the Hero Twins, told in the Popol Vuh, Xibalba is divided into houses filled with terrifying objects such as knives, jaguars, and bats. The twins undergo a series of trials in these houses and eventually defeat the lords of Xibalba. The Aztecs believed that the souls of ordinary people went to an underworld called Mictlan. Each soul wandered through the layers of Mictlan until it reached the deepest level.

See also Afterlife; Devils and Demons; Furies; Hades; Heaven; Hel; Satan; Sheol; Underworld; Xibalba.

hell. Buddhism has no concept of hell as a place of eternal punishment, and its notion of post-mortem retribution is closer to the Western notion of purgatory. The accumulation of bad karma can lead to rebirth in one of a number of hells (Skt., naraka; Pāli, niraya), often vividly depicted in popular art and folklore. There are said to be both hot hells and cold hells, each with numerous subdivisions where evil-doers are tormented by demons until their bad karma has run its course and they are reborn in a better state. The deepest of all the hells is Avīci. See also cosmology; heaven; gati.

323. Hell (See also Underworld.)

1. Abaddon place of destruction. [N.T.: Revelation 9:11; Br. Lit.: Paradise Lost ]
2. Gehenna place of eternal suffering. [O.T.: II Kings 23:10]
3. Hades the great underworld. [Gk. Myth.: NCE, 1219]
4. Hinnom valley of ill repute that came to mean hell. [Judaism: NCE, 1244]
5. Naraka realm of torment for deceased wicked people. [Buddhism, Hindu Myth.: Brewer Dictionary, 745]
6. Pandemonium chief city of Hell. [Br. Lit.: Paradise Lost ]
7. Sheol (or Tophet ) gloomy place of departed, unhappy souls. [Judaism: NCE, 1219]

hell Abode of evil spirits, and the place or state of eternal punishment after death for the wicked. In modern Christian theology, hell is conceived as eternal separation from God. Hell is parallelled in other religions and mythologies, for example, the Hebrew sheol or the Greek Hades. See also heaven; limbo; purgatory

hell OE. hel(l) = OS. hellia (Du. hel), OHG. hella (G. hölle), ON. hel, Goth. halja :- Gmc. *χaljō, f. *χal- *χel- *χul- cover, conceal (OE. helian, helan, OS., OHG. helan, etc.; OE. hyllan, Goth. huljan, etc.).

203. Hell

See also 114. DEMONS ; 117. DEVIL .

hadephobia

an abnormal fear of heil. Also called stygiophobia .

stygiophobia

hadephobia.

he'll / hēl/ • contr. of he shall; he will.

hell •Adele, Aix-la-Chapelle, aquarelle, artel, au naturel, bagatelle, béchamel, befell, bell, belle, boatel, Brunel, Cadell, carousel, cartel, cell, Chanel, chanterelle, clientele, Clonmel, compel, Cornell, crime passionnel, dell, demoiselle, dispel, dwell, el, ell, Estelle, excel, expel, farewell, fell, Fidel, fontanelle, foretell, Gabrielle, gazelle, gel, Giselle, hell, hotel, impel, knell, lapel, mademoiselle, maître d'hôtel, Manuel, marcel, matériel, mesdemoiselles, Michel, Michelle, Miguel, misspell, morel, moschatel, Moselle, motel, muscatel, nacelle, Nell, Nobel, Noel, organelle, outsell, Parnell, pell-mell, personnel, propel, quell, quenelle, rappel, Raquel, Ravel, rebel, repel, Rochelle, Sahel, sardelle, sell, shell, show-and-tell, smell, Snell, spell, spinel, swell, tell, undersell, vielle, villanelle, well, yell •Buñuel • Pachelbel • handbell •barbell • harebell • decibel • doorbell •cowbell • bluebell • Annabel •mirabelle • Christabel • Jezebel •Isabel, Isobel •nutshell • infidel • asphodel •zinfandel • Grenfell • Hillel • parallel •Cozumel • caramel • Fresnel •pimpernel • pipistrelle • Tricel •filoselle