Given what is generally preached today about Jesus's message, one would expect the Gospels to include many instances of how God will punish sinners in hell for all eternity.
An analysis of all uses of the word hell
in the Gospels shows something quite different though.
This is one of a series examining what the Gospels actually say about some specific topics:
Copyright © 2024, Ray Butterworth.
Each verse is presented here in two translations, the traditional familiar King James Version, which provides a very literal translation of the original Greek language, and the New Living Translation, which is written in modern English and stresses the presumed intended meaning of the original.
Looking at both literal translations and paraphrases can be beneficial when studying the Bible, especially when the two approaches are in agreement.
Studying the text for the purpose of determining what the original authors actually meant, is known as exegesis (critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially of scripture
).
Unfortunately, when paraphrasing the intended meaning, sometimes the translators end up including either their personal beliefs or those of their target audience.
Studying the text for the purpose of confirming what one already believes, is known as eisegesis (the interpretation of a text (as of the Bible) by reading into it one's own ideas
).
The four Gospels contain almost everything that was recorded about what Jesus taught.
Two thousand years ago, Jerusalem had Jewish religion, Greek culture, and Roman governance. Each of the four Gospels was written to present Christianity to a different audience.
The Lawor
The Book of Moses, the most sacred of Jewish scripture, his Gospel is divided into five sections. It stresses Jesus's royal ancestry and presents Jesus as the prophesied Messiah and King.
In addition to the KJV and YLT translations, this page also includes Young's Literal Translation, an extremely literal translation of the original Greek language.
Some Bibles, such as Young's Literal Translation and the New World Translation don't contain even a single instance of the word hell
in either the Hebrew or Greek scriptures.
Unfortunately, the King James Version of the Bible translates three completely different Greek words into Hell
, and those three words have little to do with each other.
Conflating all three meanings into one word, which itself has significantly changed in meaning since the translation was made over 400 years ago, presents a very confusing picture, one that was never intended.
The connotations that the word hell
has in popular English immediately bias the reader's understanding of what the Bible is actually saying.
In ancient Greek mythology, Tartaroō
(ταρταρόω) was a subterranean region where the wicked dead are punished for their evil acts.
Peter uses this well-known idea to illustrate to his Greek audience what happened to the angels that joined Satan's rebellion against God.
Other scriptures refer to this confinement of fallen angels (demons) without applying a name to it:
| Verse | KJV | YLT | NLT |
|---|---|---|---|
| Isaiah 14:12 | How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! | How hast thou fallen from the heavens, O shining one, son of the dawn! Thou hast been cut down to earth, O weakener of nations. | “How you are fallen from heaven, O shining star, son of the morning! You have been thrown down to the earth, you who destroyed the nations of the world. |
| 2 Peter 2:4 | For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell [tartaroō], and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; | For if God messengers who sinned did not spare, but with chains of thick gloom, having cast them down to Tartarus, did deliver them to judgment, having been reserved, | For God did not spare even the angels who sinned. He threw them into hell [tartaroō], in gloomy pits of darkness, where they are being held until the day of judgment. |
| Jude 1:6 | And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. | messengers also, those who did not keep their own principality, but did leave their proper dwelling, to a judgment of a great day, in bonds everlasting, under darkness He hath kept, | And I remind you of the angels who did not stay within the limits of authority God gave them but left the place where they belonged. God has kept them securely chained in prisons of darkness, waiting for the great day of judgment. |
This word Tartaroō
appears only once in the Bible, and whatever it is that Peter is using it to refer to, it clearly applies only to Satan and his demons and not to humans.
The Greek word hades
(ᾅδης) corresponds to the Hebrew word sheol
(שְׁאוֹל), which simply means a grave or pit where bodies are buried.
Similarly, k'vura
(קְבוּרָה) and mnēmeion
(μνημεῖον) refer to visible markers on a grave (e.g. tombstone, crypt).
The word Hades
has no connotation of consciousness continuing after death.
It appears in the following scriptures as hell
(an Old English word that used to mean nothing more than something that covers up or hides an object (cf. the expression helling potatoes
), where it could more accurately be translated as grave
.
| Verse | KJV | YLT | NLT |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ecclesiastes 9:5 | For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. | For the living know that they die, and the dead know not anything, and there is no more to them a reward, for their remembrance hath been forgotten. | The living at least know they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, nor are they remembered. |
| Acts 2:27 | Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell [hades], neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. | because Thou wilt not leave my soul to hades, nor wilt Thou give Thy Kind One to see corruption; | For you will not leave my soul among the dead [hades] or allow your Holy One to rot in the grave. |
| Acts 2:31 | He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell [hades], neither his flesh did see corruption. | having foreseen, he did speak concerning the rising again of the Christ, that his soul was not left to hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. | David was looking into the future and speaking of the Messiah’s resurrection. He was saying that God would not leave him among the dead [hades] or allow his body to rot in the grave. |
| 1Corinthians 15:55 | O death [thanatos], where is thy sting? O grave [hades], where is thy victory? | where, O Death, thy sting? where, O Hades, thy victory?' | O death [thanatos], where is your victory? O death [thanatos], where is your sting?” |
| Revelation 1:18 | I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell [hades] and of death. | and he who is living, and I did become dead, and, lo, I am living to the ages of the ages. Amen! and I have the keys of the hades and of the death. | I am the living one. I died, but look — I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death [thanatos] and the grave [hades]. |
| Revelation 20:13 | And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell [hades] delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. | and the sea did give up those dead in it, and the death and the hades did give up the dead in them, and they were judged, each one according to their works; | The sea gave up its dead, and death [thanatos] and the grave [hades] gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds. |
| Revelation 20:14 | And death and hell [hades] were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. | and the death and the hades were cast to the lake of the fire — this is the second death; | Then death and the grave [hades] were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death. |
| Revelation 6:8 | And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell [hades] followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth. | and I saw, and lo, a pale horse, and he who is sitting upon him — his name is Death, and Hades doth follow with him, and there was given to them authority to kill, (over the fourth part of the land,) with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and by the beasts of the land. | I looked up and saw a horse whose color was pale green. Its rider was named Death, and his companion was the Grave [hades]. These two were given authority over one-fourth of the earth, to kill with the sword and famine and disease and wild animals. |
Hell
appears in the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man in Luke's gospel, which was written for a Greek audience.
In this one case, it doesn't refer to the grave, but invokes the Greek mythological concept of a place of punishment after death, an image that Luke's audience would have been very familiar with.
Parables illustrate concepts using fictional events; they don't define literal doctrine.
| Verse | KJV | YLT | NLT |
|---|---|---|---|
| Luke 16:23 | And in hell [hades] he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. | and in the hades having lifted up his eyes, being in torments, he doth see Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom, | and his soul went to the place of the dead [hades]. There, in torment, he saw Abraham in the far distance with Lazarus at his side. [no soulin the Greek] |
Hades is translated as hell
in two of the Gospels, each time meaning simply the grave:
| Verse | KJV | YLT | NLT |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matthew 11:23 | And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell [hades]: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. | 'And thou, Capernaum, which unto the heaven wast exalted, unto hades shalt be brought down, because if in Sodom had been done the mighty works that were done in thee, it had remained unto this day; | “And you people of Capernaum, will you be honored in heaven? No, you will go down to the place of the dead [hades]. For if the miracles I did for you had been done in wicked Sodom, it would still be here today. |
| Matthew 16:18 | And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell [hades] shall not prevail against it. | 'And I also say to thee, that thou art a rock, and upon this rock I will build my assembly, and gates of Hades shall not prevail against it; | Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock'), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell [hades] will not conquer it. |
| Luke 10:15 | And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell [hades]. | 'And thou, Capernaum, which unto the heaven wast exalted, unto hades thou shalt be brought down. | And you people of Capernaum, will you be honored in heaven? No, you will go down to the place of the dead. [hades]” |
Just like Nikita Khrushchev's famous We will bury you
at the United nations, it is metaphor, not literal action.
The Greek word Geenna (γέεννα) appears only once outside of the Gospels:
| Verse | KJV | YLT | NLT |
|---|---|---|---|
| James 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 [geenna]. | and the tongue is a fire, the world of the unrighteousness, so the tongue is set in our members, which is spotting our whole body, and is setting on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire by the gehenna. | And the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell [geenna] itself. |
The word comes from Gehenna
, the name of a large garbage pit south of Jerusalem, where filth and dead animals were dumped and burned.
During Jesus's time it was a metaphor for an ignominious end, with one's body being dumped and burned along with the dead animals and other waste rather than being given a proper burial and marker.
The Gospels frequently also use it figuratively to represent the eventual end-time fire that will destroy the incorrigible wicked following the Millennium. Like the fires in the garbage pit, this fire will continue to burn until everything is completely gone.
| Verse | KJV | YLT | NLT |
|---|---|---|---|
| Malachi 4:1,3 | For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts. | For, lo, the day hath come, burning as a furnace, And all the proud, and every wicked doer, have been stubble, And burnt them hath the day that came, Said Jehovah of Hosts, That there is not left to them root or branch, And ye have trodden down the wicked, For they are ashes under the soles of your feet, In the day that I am appointing, Said Jehovah of Hosts. | The LORD of Heaven’s Armies says, “The day of judgment is coming, burning like a furnace. On that day the arrogant and the wicked will be burned up like straw. They will be consumed — roots, branches, and all. On the day when I act, you will tread upon the wicked as if they were dust under your feet,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. |
| Matthew 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 [geenna]. | And be not afraid of those killing the body, and are not able to kill the soul, but fear rather Him who is able both soul and body to destroy in gehenna. | “Don't be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell [geena]. |
| Matthew 18:9 | And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell [geenna] fire. | 'And if thine eye doth cause thee to stumble, pluck it out and cast from thee; it is good for thee one-eyed to enter into the life, rather than having two eyes to be cast to the gehenna of the fire. | And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It's better to enter eternal life with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell [geenna]. |
| Matthew 23:15 | Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell [geenna] than yourselves. | 'Wo to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye go round the sea and the dry land to make one proselyte, and whenever it may happen — ye make him a son of gehenna twofold more than yourselves. | “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you cross land and sea to make one convert, and then you turn that person into twice the child of hell [geenna] you yourselves are! |
| Matthew 23:33 | Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell [geenna]? | 'Serpents! brood of vipers! how may ye escape from the judgment of the gehenna? | Snakes! Sons of vipers! How will you escape the judgment of hell [geenna]? |
| Matthew 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 [geenna] fire. | but I — I say to you, that every one who is angry at his brother without cause, shall be in danger of the judgment, and whoever may say to his brother, Empty fellow! shall be in danger of the sanhedrim, and whoever may say, Rebel! shall be in danger of the gehenna of the fire. | But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell [geena]. |
| Matthew 5:29 | And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell [geenna]. | 'But, if thy right eye doth cause thee to stumble, pluck it out and cast from thee, for it is good to thee that one of thy members may perish, and not thy whole body be cast to gehenna. | So if your eye — even your good eye — causes you to lust, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell [geena]. |
| Matthew 5:30 | And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell [geenna]. | 'And, if thy right hand doth cause thee to stumble, cut it off, and cast from thee, for it is good to thee that one of thy members may perish, and not thy whole body be cast to gehenna. | And if your hand — even your stronger hand — causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell [geena]. |
| Matthew 7:13 | Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: | 'Go ye in through the strait gate, because wide is the gate, and broad the way that is leading to the destruction, and many are those going in through it; | “You can enter God's Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell [apōleia] is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. |
| Mark 9:43 | And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell [geenna], into the fire that never shall be quenched: | 'And if thy hand may cause thee to stumble, cut it off; it is better for thee maimed to enter into the life, than having the two hands, to go away to the gehenna, to the fire — the unquenchable — | If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It's better to enter eternal life with only one hand than to go into the unquenchable fires of hell [geenna] with two hands. |
| Mark 9:45 | And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell [geenna], into the fire that never shall be quenched: | 'And if thy foot may cause thee to stumble, cut it off; it is better for thee to enter into the life lame, than having the two feet to be cast to the gehenna, to the fire — the unquenchable — | If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It's better to enter eternal life with only one foot than to be thrown into hell [geenna] with two feet. |
| Mark 9:47 | And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell [geenna] fire: | And if thine eye may cause thee to stumble, cast it out; it is better for thee one-eyed to enter into the reign of God, than having two eyes, to be cast to the gehenna of the fire — | And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out. It's better to enter the Kingdom of God with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell [geenna], |
| Luke 12:5 | But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell [geenna]; yea, I say unto you, Fear him. | but I will show to you, whom ye may fear; Fear him who, after the killing, is having authority to cast to the gehenna; yes, I say to you, Fear ye Him. | But I'll tell you whom to fear. Fear God, who has the power to kill you and then throw you into hell [geenna]. Yes, he's the one to fear. |
Unfortunately this analogy has become associated with the pagan idea of inflicting punishment on dead people (who are somehow still conscious).
Dante's famous fictional trilogy, written more than seven centuries ago, has firmly fixed this popular concept in the public's mind, resulting in so many Bible translations using the word hell
to translate geenna
.
In literal translations, the word hell
doesn't appear at all.
In most other translations, the word hell
appears only 15 times in the Gospels (the record of Jesus's direct teachings):
It's clear that Jesus himself never taught anything like the Pagan myth of conscious immortal human souls being tortured for all eternity, something that is still popularly believed today by so much of Christianity.
Given that Jesus never mentioned such things, it's reasonable to conclude that his Christian teachings on the subject were the same as what was taught by Judaism at the time, that people do not have immortal souls and that a loving God would never deliberately subject anyone to perpetual torture and suffering. Such fantasies have as much to do with Christianity as does Santa Claus and The Easter Bunny.