Is Hell Biblical?
Hell, as illustrated in the 12th century Hortus deliciarum by Herrad of Landsberg, (1125-1195), Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons.
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Hellfire and brimstone sermons are well known to many Christians. Some parents have used the fear of hell to control their children’s behavior. Vivid and frightening images of hell are well known and often produce long-lasting fears. Descriptions of eternal torture in hell are commonly assumed to be biblical.
Are these terrifying descriptions really based on the Bible?
Is hell a biblical concept?
Sheol
Sheol is sometimes translated into English as “hell.” In the Hebrew scriptures, Sheol is a shadowy place for all the dead, without distinctions. Sheol was not a place of reward or punishment nor was it understood as a place of eternal torture.
Sheol is not hell.
Gehenna
Also sometimes translated as “hell,” Gehenna first referred to a geographical location, the Valley of Hinnom. Known as the place where children were sacrificed to Molech and Baal, Gehenna presented a hideous and terrifying image.
In centuries around the time of Jesus, Gehenna began to be portrayed more generally as “a fiery place of punishment” in Jewish apocalyptic literature. Gehenna has sometimes been explained as a burning trash heap, but evidence for that association is inconclusive.
Descriptions of Gehenna resemble later portrayals of hell.
(See articles on the Bible Odyssey website on hell, sheol and gehenna.)
Hades
Greek concepts of Hades also influenced how people thought about the afterlife. Hades was, like Sheol, a shadowy place of the dead. In the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures known at the time of Jesus, the Septuagint, Sheol was translated as Hades. The New Testament includes several references to Hades. The word is often translated as hell, but the term refers to a less defined place for the dead rather than a fiery location for eternal torture of the unrighteous. Greek and Roman literature also mentioned Tartarus, a deeper location beneath Hades where those who had committed particularly heinous offenses against the deities were consigned for punishment. Descriptions of Tartarus as a place of torture resemble later portrayals of hell.
Hades is not hell, but Tartarus resembles hell.
Just Deserts for the Rich and Powerful
Some images in the New Testament resemble what later became more detailed descriptions and a more developed doctrine of hell. These images show consequences specifically for the rich and powerful.
The Rich Man and Lazarus
The parable known as the Rich Man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19–31 envisions what happens to a wealthy man who lived in lavish comfort while ignoring Lazarus, a poor man who suffered miserably just outside his door. They both die. Lazarus is carried by angels into the bosom of Abraham. The rich man suffers torments while he can see Lazarus with Abraham in a place of comfort. When the rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus to relieve his anguish, Abraham reminds him that he once lived in comfort while Lazarus suffered. The tables have turned and now the rich man experiences the suffering Lazarus once knew.
The Judgment of the Sheep and the Goats
Another story, found in Matthew 25:31–46, uses the image of a shepherd separating the sheep from the goats. This parable also portrays consequences based on how people treat others in need. Those who provide food, welcome, clothing, and companionship for the “least of these” receive life. Those who do not are consigned to the perpetual fire.
The Lake of Fire
Revelation 14:10 includes apocalyptic visions of “fire and brimstone” and a “lake of fire,” more images that have come to be associated with hell. The author of Revelation envisions a great cosmic battle where God’s forces defeat an oppressive empire identified as “Babylon” and under various identities as a beast. When the visions were written, such depictions spoke of the power of the Roman empire without risking too clear an identification. Some of those defeated in the battle are consigned to the “lake of fire,” including figures named in the visions as the beast, the false prophet, Death, and Hades. The “lake of fire” is part of a complex final cosmic battle scene that dispenses suffering and destruction upon perpetrators of violence.
Such images may offer some satisfaction to those who suffer in poverty while the rich enjoy luxurious lives. The theme of “just deserts” is more central, however, than a detailed description or doctrine of hell. The image of fire is also associated as much with the destruction of those who have abused their power as with eternal torture.
New Testament images that resemble hell depict consequences for the rich and powerful.
A Place of Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth
Another image of hellish anguish, weeping and gnashing of teeth, may have been familiar to gospel writers from Psalm 112. The psalm praises the righteous who are generous to the poor, righteousness the psalmist calls everlasting. The psalm closes with a pronouncement on the unrighteous who “see it and are angry, they gnash their teeth and melt away; the desire of the wicked comes to nothing.” (v. 10) NRSV.
Again an image that becomes associated with hell originates as a consequence for those who ignore the needs of the poor. The ability of these unrighteous to see the generous righteous ones receiving the benefits of life intensifies the pain of their own destruction. Luke 13:28 refers to this image and emphasizes the added pain for the unrighteous in seeing who is included in the divine household after being cast out themselves, but no image of hell is included.
The author of the gospel of Matthew is particularly fond of this image and refers several times to “the outer darkness” as a location for the “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 8:12; 13:42; 13:50; 22:13; 24:51; and 25:30) This place of darkness begins to emerge in Matthew’s gospel as a place of punishment. Yet the notion of the eternal torture of hell is less prominent than the assumption of destruction.
Weeping and gnashing of teeth depict anguish included in later descriptions of hell.
Depictions of Hell Develop
In the centuries when Christianity was developing, notions of hell as a place of eternal torture began to develop. Some theologians began to describe hell as a place of torment and heaven as a place of reward using more elaborate descriptions than are found in the Bible. Notions of the afterlife became more important among some of the early Christ groups, and these notions varied. In the Middle Ages, literary works like Dante’s Inferno and many paintings and artworks depicted hell in lurid detail. In the centuries that followed and continuing to this day, some Christian preachers struck and still strike fear into the hearts of their hearers by describing gruesome details of the anguish of hell.
Hell was composed from images that might have comforted people experiencing poverty and violence by envisioning those causing such suffering in anguish themselves. From images intended to provide some form of comfort, hell was described as a fate for all to fear. Fear of hell was then used by powerful people to control rather than comfort others.
Lurid descriptions of hell include some images from the Bible.
Fear of hell became a way to control people.
Hell and Fear
For many people, fear of hell is real. The notion that hell itself does not literally exist, that hell is a human creation and depictions of it evolved over centuries, may be a new concept. Yet people of various faiths, including many Christian groups, do not consider hell to be real. Many whose faith centers on a loving God find the concept of hell inconsistent with that God. Others of varying beliefs, with or without concepts of God, criticize concepts of hell as intended to instill fear. Those who were taught to fear hell and its eternal tortures but no longer believe in the reality of hell describe many different experiences that changed their perspective. Understanding hell as a human creation has often been helpful.
For many taught to fear hell, thinking about hell as a human creation may be a new idea.
Many people of faith do not believe in hell.
While images that have become associated with hell are present, hell as it is later described and defined hardly features prominently in the Bible. The images are there, so we have not answered “No.” Yet hell is not quite fully present enough or central enough in the biblical texts to say that hell is “Somewhat” biblical. Hell is thus “Not Really” a biblical concept. Yet the concept of hell has been derived partly from some images found in the Bible.
