Rethinking Hell: A Bible Study on Sheol, Hades, and Gehenna

Below I present an alternate view of hell than what is presented by the mainstream. For the a mainstream view on hell read this article: Bible Study About Hell

I still remember the first time I heard a fire-and-brimstone sermon. I was a kid, sitting in a wooden pew, wide-eyed and terrified as the preacher described sinners burning forever in hell.

That night I barely slept, imagining flames and pitchforks under my bed. If you’ve ever felt that fear or confusion, you’re not alone.

But as I grew in faith and started studying my Bible for myself, I discovered something surprising: the KJV uses the single word “hell” to translate several different biblical concepts – and not all of them line up with the traditional idea of a fiery underworld.

In this study, we’ll take an honest, friendly look at what “hell” means in the KJV. We’ll explore the original Hebrew and Greek words behind it – Sheol, Hades, Gehenna (and even Tartarus) – and see how understanding these can challenge the usual image of hell.

Along the way, I’ll share what I’ve learned (and un-learned) as a fellow believer, with a bit of humor and a lot of empathy. My goal isn’t to provoke a theological food fight, but to shed some light on a topic that often scares us in the dark.

One Word, Many Meanings: “Hell” in the KJV

One of the first things that shocked me was realizing that “hell” in the KJV doesn’t always mean what we think it means. In fact, the KJV translators used hell to render four different words from the original biblical languages​. No wonder there’s confusion! Let’s break them down:

Sheol (Hebrew) – This appears 65 times in the Old Testament.

The KJV translates Sheol as “hell” 31 times, but also as “grave” 31 times and “pit” 3 times​. (Yes, the same word got translated half the time as a fiery hell and half the time as a grave!).

Sheol in Hebrew literally refers to the grave or the realm of the dead – basically the place everyone goes when they die, righteous or wicked. It’s not inherently a place of torment.

In fact, when the context was about a faithful person going there, the KJV translators usually chose “grave” instead of “hell”.

They probably didn’t want to say, “Jacob went to hell” or “Job prayed to go to hell,” because that sounds shocking – yet in Hebrew that’s exactly what it says (more on those verses soon!).

Hades (Greek) – This is the New Testament equivalent of Sheol.

It appears 11 times in the NT, and the KJV renders it as “hell” in 10 of those, and “grave” in 1 instance.

Hades, in Greek thought, was the unseen world of the dead. In the NT, it carries the same idea: the general place of the departed spirits.

For example, Acts 2:27 (quoting Psalm 16) uses Hades to translate Sheol, showing they correspond​. Just like Sheol, Hades is usually a neutral term – more like an underworld holding place than an active torture chamber.

Modern Bible versions often don’t translate these words as “hell” at all; many simply say “grave” or leave “Hades” untranslated to avoid confusion​.

Gehenna (Greek) – This is the word most associated with the classic hellfire imagery in the New Testament.

Gehenna is used 12 times, and the KJV always translates it as “hell” (sometimes “hell fire”)​.

But here’s the kicker: Gehenna was (and is) a real place on earth​! The word “Gehenna” comes from the Hebrew Ge Hinnom, the Valley of Hinnom, which is a valley just outside Jerusalem.

Back in Bible times, this valley had a nasty reputation – it was once the site of child sacrifices to pagan gods, and by Jesus’ day it was associated with a smoldering garbage dump where the city burned its trash​. (Picture moldy food scraps and the occasional dead animal carcass being burned – ick, but effective.)

The fires there were kept burning continually to consume the waste, and maggots (“worms”) infested the refuse – a pretty gruesome scene​. Jesus tapped into this vivid imagery when he warned about “hell” – but he actually said Gehenna. More on that soon!

Tartarus (Greek) – This word appears only once in the New Testament (2 Peter 2:4).

The KJV translates it with the phrase “cast them down to hell.” In Greek mythology, Tartarus was a deep, dark pit in the underworld – like a cosmic prison.

Peter uses it to describe a place where rebellious angels are kept in chains of darkness. So Tartarus isn’t about human souls at all in Scripture. It’s basically an angelic jail. (If you blinked, you missed it – and it never shows up in KJV as “Tartarus,” just as part of that one “hell” reference.)

That’s a lot to absorb, but here’s the big takeaway: When you read “hell” in the KJV, it could mean different things depending on the original word. It might mean the grave, or the unseen realm of the dead, or a nasty burning trash valley, or (rarely) a special spirit prison.

This alone starts to challenge the idea that every mention of “hell” is about a single, fiery place of eternal torment. Context and original language matter – a lot.

Before your eyes glaze over with all these foreign terms, let’s look at each concept more closely in a down-to-earth way. (I promise it’s actually fascinating – and it might even be encouraging.)

Sheol & Hades – When “Hell” Just Means the Grave

Let’s start with Sheol, the Hebrew word often hiding behind “hell” in the Old Testament. What was Sheol according to ancient biblical writers? Honestly, it was a bit of a downer – not because it was full of fire, but because it was basically the land of the dead, a place of darkness and silence.

The Old Testament portrays Sheol as a shadowy pit where everyone goes when they die, whether good or bad. It’s depicted as a place of silence (not screams!) and oblivion where no one praises God anymore​. For example:

• “It is a land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness.” – Job 10:21 (KJV) describing going to Sheol. No mention of flames or pitchforks here – just gloom.
• “The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence.” – Psalm 115:17 (KJV). Sheol is that silent place of the dead.
• “There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave (Sheol), whither thou goest.” – Ecclesiastes 9:10 (KJV)​. In other words, in Sheol you’re not doing anything – it’s like clocking out of existence for a while.

Not exactly the torture dungeon we sometimes imagine hell to be, right? Sheol was more like the great equalizer – the grave that eventually claims everyone. Righteous people in the Old Testament expected to go to Sheol when they died.

For instance, Jacob (Israel) believed he’d go to Sheol mourning his son (see Genesis 37:35), and faithful Job even prayed to go to Sheol to find rest from his suffering: “O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave (Sheol)…” (Job 14:13 KJV)​.

In the KJV it says “grave” there, because obviously Job asking God to hide him in hell would sound nuts! And indeed, the translators chose “grave” since Job was a good guy. But in Hebrew, Job literally said Sheol.

There’s no separate word for a nice comfy “grave” versus a fiery “hell” – it’s the same term.

Likewise, in Psalm 86:13, when David talks about God delivering his soul from the “lowest hell” (KJV), the word is Sheol​.

The translators opted for “hell” that time, probably because being delivered from the “lowest Sheol” sounded bad (maybe like being at death’s door).

Essentially, they tended to render Sheol as “hell” whenever the vibe was negative, and as “grave” when the vibe was neutral or positive​.

This inconsistency has led scholars to call it “a grave error – or rather a hell of an error,” pun intended.

Because really, Sheol is Sheol. It means the grave or the state of death, plain and simple. As one source bluntly states, “Grave is the right word in all cases. Any Hebrew expert would confirm Sheol is grave/pit.”​

Now, why does this matter? It means that many Old Testament verses which the KJV (and other older translations) make sound like they’re talking about a fiery hell are actually just talking about death or the grave.

For example, Psalm 9:17 in KJV says, “The wicked shall be turned into hell (Sheol), and all the nations that forget God.” It sounds like, “bad people go to hell.”

But if you know Sheol = the grave, the verse is basically saying the wicked will die and return to the dust, just like anyone else – not necessarily that they’ll be consciously barbecued forever. This opens up alternative ways to understand scriptures on the fate of the wicked (more on that later).

Switch over to the New Testament. The word Hades picks up where Sheol left off. When the apostles preached or wrote in Greek, they used Hades to talk about the realm of the dead.

• If you have a KJV with Jesus’ words in red, you’ll see “hell” in red letters in verses like Matthew 11:23 or Luke 16:23 – those are Hades in the Greek text​.
• For instance, Jesus says, “And thou, Capernaum... shalt be thrust down to hell” – and that “hell” is Hades​.

He’s not saying the town of Capernaum is going to an eternal lake of fire; he’s using Hades metaphorically to warn that it will be brought down to death/ruin (which, historically, it was – that town is long gone).

The KJV translators, steeped in the medieval idea of hell, still rendered it “hell” 10 out of 11 times Hades appears.

Only once did they break pattern: in 1 Corinthians 15:55, “O grave (Hades), where is thy victory?” Here they evidently understood Hades as death/grave (quoting Hosea’s prophecy), so they translated it as “grave.” Again, same word, different English based on context.

• The bottom line for Sheol/Hades: In the Bible’s original languages, these words point to the grave or the state of the dead, not a fiery torture chamber.

In fact, in the book of Revelation, we see a distinction between Hades and the final punishment – “death and Hades” are thrown into the “lake of fire” (Rev 20:14). That implies Hades (the realm of the dead) itself gets destroyed in the end.

So if we’re thinking in terms of alternative interpretations, one view held by many Christians (including groups like Seventh-day Adventists, some Baptists, etc.) is that when people die, they simply go to Sheol/Hades (the grave) and wait for resurrection and judgment, rather than going straight to a conscious heaven or hell.

In this view, “hell” as a present place of burning torment isn’t on the menu at all – at least not until after the final judgment.

This is sometimes called the “conditional immortality” or annihilationist perspective: the idea that the wicked dead are unconscious (often termed “soul sleep”) until they are raised to be judged, and ultimately destroyed rather than eternally tortured.

Whether or not you agree, it’s a perspective rooted in taking Sheol/Hades at face value. And the KJV, if read carefully, actually provides some hints in that direction by translating Sheol as “grave” so often.

I remember when I first learned about this possibility – that maybe Aunt Edna who died without professing Christ isn’t currently roasting but simply sleeping in the grave until judgment – it was a huge relief to me.

It made me reconsider the character of God’s justice. Of course, we can’t stop at Sheol/Hades. The New Testament does talk about fiery judgment. But that’s where Gehenna comes in – and it might not be what we were taught either.

Gehenna – Jerusalem’s Garbage Dump Turned Object Lesson

Whenever Jesus spoke about a fiery fate for the wicked, the word recorded in the Gospels is usually Gehenna. Remember, Gehenna was literally the name of a valley just south of Jerusalem’s walls.

If you had taken a walk with Jesus outside the city, you could have pointed and said, “Oh yeah, that valley down there is Gehenna.” It’d be like someone in New York City referring to Staten Island’s old landfill – a specific place known for burning trash.

• In fact, one writer quipped that if Gehenna really meant the afterlife hell, “we could actually book a flight to hell,” since you can visit the Valley of Hinnom even today​!

So, why was Jesus warning people about Gehenna?

Was he just really concerned about proper waste management? Not quite. Gehenna already had a grim metaphorical meaning in Jewish culture.

• Centuries before Jesus, the prophet Jeremiah used the Valley of Hinnom as a picture of coming judgment. He warned the Israelites that if they didn’t turn from their evil, Jerusalem would be destroyed by invaders and the valley would become overflowing with corpses – “the valley of slaughter” (see Jeremiah 7:32-33).

There’s no mention of eternal fiery torment there, but it’s graphic: the dead would be eaten by birds and beasts because there’d be no one left to bury them​. Yikes.

• And guess what? Around 40 years after Jesus, Jeremiah’s gruesome prophecy literally came true during the Roman siege of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.

During that siege, so many people were killed inside the city that, according to the historian Josephus, the survivors had to throw the bodies over the walls into the valleys below because they ran out of room to bury folks​.

• One of those valleys was Hinnom (Gehenna). Talk about hell on earth – there were heaps of decaying corpses piled up, being consumed by maggots and fire, right there outside Jerusalem.

Many biblical scholars (and a lot of us regular Bible geeks too) believe that when Jesus spoke of Gehenna, he was tapping into this very real impending judgment.

In other words, Jesus wasn’t inventing a brand-new concept of an otherworldly inferno; he was warning his generation about a coming catastrophe in this world (the destruction of Jerusalem), using Gehenna as the symbol of it​.

• For example, when Jesus says, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3) – and elsewhere talks about the damnation of Gehenna – it fits the narrative that those who rejected his message and took up revolt against Rome would meet a fiery end.

Indeed, some inhabitants of Jerusalem in 70 AD were literally burned (when the Romans torched the city and Temple) and their bodies thrown into Gehenna.

From this angle, Gehenna = the physical and national judgment that befell Israel for rejecting Christ. This interpretation is common in a theological view called preterism (which sees many of Jesus’ “end times” warnings as fulfilled in the first century).

But Gehenna also carries a broader symbolism that applies to final judgment as well.

• Notice how Jesus phrases things like, “Fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell (Gehenna)” (Matt 10:28 KJV)​. Destroy both soul and body – that’s total destruction.

The imagery of Gehenna conveys the idea of complete annihilation – like garbage being totally burned up, nothing left but ashes. In Gehenna, the fire was unquenchable, yes, but what does that mean?

It means no one can put it out until it does its job – which is to burn everything to ashes.

• Likewise, Jesus says in Gehenna “the worm dieth not” (Mark 9:48) – a phrase taken from Isaiah 66:24 about the corpses of rebels.

The maggots (worms) in a dump keep breeding and doing their work as long as there’s something to devour. It doesn’t mean those worms live forever in some metaphysical sense; it means the decay won’t stop until the bodies are completely consumed​.

Gross, I know – but the point is, Gehenna consistently symbolizes destruction of wickedness, not perpetual torture of it.

Jesus’ Jewish listeners would instantly picture that nasty valley and understand the warning: “Don’t end up like trash to be burned – repent and turn to God.”

They would not immediately think of the Greek underworld or Dante’s Inferno; they’d think “Oh no, I don’t want to be dumped in that awful valley after God judges me.” It’s we later Gentile readers who conflated Gehenna with the medieval hell imagery.

Now, to be fair, by Jesus’ time some Jewish traditions did start using “Gehenna” as a term for the afterlife fate of the wicked. Sort of like saying, “Those evil people will burn in Gehenna.” They were using their local trash heap as a metaphor for divine judgment.

Jesus uses it in this metaphorical sense too – but the question is, is he talking about a never-ending process or an ultimate outcome?

The language of destroying body and soul, and the very visual of Gehenna, leans toward an outcome of death and destruction rather than eternal conscious suffering.

In fact, the book of Revelation picks up this theme: it talks about a future “lake of fire” where death and Hades and those not in the Book of Life are thrown to be destroyed (Rev 20:14-15).

Many theologians equate that “lake of fire” with what we think of as “hell.” If Gehenna = lake of fire, then hell is ultimately about the second death (to borrow Revelation’s term) – the final, irrevocable destruction of evil. “The wages of sin is death,” after all (Romans 6:23), not unending life in agony.

The alternative view of hell that emerges here is often called annihilationism or conditional immortality. It suggests that the Bible teaches the wicked will be completely destroyed (body and soul), ceasing to exist, rather than preserved forever in torment.

• Verses like Matthew 10:28 (destroy soul and body in Gehenna)​, or Malachi 4:1 (the wicked will be burned up like stubble), or even John 3:16 (perish vs. eternal life) resonate with this idea.

Gehenna’s imagery supports it strongly – recall that in the historical Gehenna, nothing thrown in survived; it was consumed. As one source humorously noted: in the real Gehenna, “No living thing, not even an animal, suffered any torture there” – only dead bodies and garbage were burned up​.

Jesus likely wasn’t giving a biology lesson about worms or a geology lesson about fire; he was giving a theology lesson about God’s judgment: that it is absolute and thorough, but not a sadistic circus.

So, when the KJV (and most English Bibles) say “hell fire” or “the fire of hell” in passages like Mark 9:43 or Matthew 5:22, remember they’re translating “Gehenna”.

Try reading those verses with “Gehenna” in mind: a fire outside Jerusalem, and ask yourself what point Jesus was making. It might just shift how you conceptualize hell – from “a place where God actively tortures people forever” to “a fate where God destroys wickedness for good.”

I find it strangely comforting that Jesus used a local, concrete image to describe judgment. It makes the whole idea less abstract. It’s like he’s saying, “See that awful dump? That’s what awaits if you persist in evil – you’ll be trash in God’s holy universe, taken out and burned.

Don’t choose that fate.” It’s a stark warning, but it’s also not the cartoonish devil-with-a-pitchfork stuff. It’s about God’s justice cleaning up the world, which, while severe, has a cleansing finality to it.

What About Eternal Torment? (The Traditional View, in Brief)

At this point you might be thinking, “Okay, alternative interpretations noted. But what about all those teachings I’ve heard my whole life? You know, the devil, the lake of fire, people screaming forever – eternal conscious torment?”

We can’t ignore that, and indeed, throughout history the mainstream Christian view (especially in the West) has been that hell is a place of eternal fiery punishment for the wicked.

• This view is often based on passages like the story of the rich man and Lazarus (where the rich man is tormented in flames), or Jesus saying “depart into everlasting fire” (Matthew 25:41), or the phrase “tormented day and night for ever and ever” in Revelation 20:10.

A traditional KJV-based doctrine would say: Immediately after death, souls of the unsaved go to a fiery hell and remain conscious in anguish. Then at the final judgment, they’re resurrected, judged, and thrown into the lake of fire to continue that torment eternally.

Not a happy thought, but it’s been preached as the fate that awaits anyone who dies without Christ – hence the urgency of evangelism (“save souls from hell!”).

It’s worth noting, the KJV itself doesn’t differentiate clearly between the intermediate state and final state when it uses the word hell. That has contributed to the traditional view’s dominance, because all the imagery kind of blurs together.

The term “Hell” in common usage came to mean the whole package: the devil’s domain, the fiery furnace, the eternal torture pit, etc. The medieval church certainly reinforced this idea – sometimes with good intentions (to warn people off sin), and sometimes cynically (instilling fear to control the masses).

By the Middle Ages, artworks and literature had cemented a very lurid picture of hell.

Dante Alighieri’s 14th-century epic Inferno famously mapped out hell as nine circles of endless torments, and although it was fictional poetry, it massively influenced how people imagined hell​. The thought of hell being literally under the earth with demons poking folks was more shaped by Dante (and others like him) than by Scripture directly.

Yet, those images carried into sermons, passion plays, and eventually into the cultural DNA of Western Christianity. Even today, phrases like “Dante’s Inferno” or jokes about meeting the devil “downstairs” reflect this ingrained concept.

The traditional doctrine of hell – eternal conscious torment – became essentially standard orthodoxy after the 5th century, largely due to St. Augustine.

Augustine (AD 354–430) was a hugely influential church father who argued vigorously that punishment for sin is endless in duration, appealing to the idea of the soul’s immortality (something he picked up from Greek philosophy)​.

He acknowledged some Christians in his day were “tender-hearted” and believed God’s mercy would eventually empty out hell (we’ll get to those folks in a sec), but he dismissed that and helped solidify the teaching that once you’re in hell, it’s forever​.

From that point on, questioning an eternal fiery hell could brand you a heretic in many circles. The Protestant Reformers (like Luther, Calvin) inherited this doctrine too – though interestingly, a few voices like conditionalists popped up even then.

So yes, the idea of God consciously tormenting the wicked eternally is one strand of Christian thought – in fact, the dominant one for much of church history.

But it’s not the only strand – and that’s what we’re highlighting in this study. We’ve already looked at how the Bible’s words Sheol, Hades, and Gehenna can be read in ways that diverge from the eternal torture image. And indeed, throughout history, some Christians have held alternative views on hell that they believe are more faithful to Scripture and God’s character.

Before we move on, let me be clear (in case anyone’s worrying): No one here is denying that God is a just judge or that there is a serious consequence for sin.

The question is what is the nature of that consequence? Is it never-ending conscious pain? Or is it death and destruction? Or something else? Sincere, Bible-believing Christians have answered that question differently over the centuries.

It’s okay to examine and even challenge the traditional view, as long as we do so with Scripture in hand and respect in heart. If truth is on the traditional side, it can withstand scrutiny; if not, then we’ll have drawn closer to God’s true intent by studying this.

Alright, history hat on – let’s briefly survey how Christian interpretations of “hell” have evolved from the early church to today.

From the Early Church to Today: Evolving Views of Hell

It might surprise you (it sure surprised me) that the earliest Christians did not unanimously teach the Dante-style hell. In the first few centuries of the church, there was actually a variety of beliefs about the fate of the wicked:

Some early Christians believed in eventual restoration (Universalism)

Not the modern “all roads lead to heaven” thing, but a specific theological hope that after a period of post-mortem purification or punishment, everyone would ultimately be saved by God’s mercy.

This view, called Apokatastasis (restoration of all things), was notably taught by Origen of Alexandria (3rd century) and later by Gregory of Nyssa (4th century), among others.

They took verses like 1 Timothy 4:10 (“God... is the Savior of all men, especially of those that believe”) and the idea of every knee bowing to Christ to suggest that God’s love would triumph over even the worst sin eventually.

Origen thought of “hell-fire” as a purifying fire that cleanses sinners so they can eventually enter heaven. While these views were controversial, they were relatively common in the influential Eastern (Greek-speaking) wing of the church.

In fact, one study notes that out of six major theological schools in the early centuries, four taught universal salvation (in some form), one taught annihilation (the idea that the unsaved are destroyed), and only one taught eternal torment as doctrine​! That one hardcore hell-as-eternal-torment school was in North Africa (Carthage), where Tertullian and later Augustine were.

Some taught eternal torment, even gleefully

On the flip side, we have folks like Tertullian (AD 160–220). He’s sometimes called the “Father of the Latin Church.” Tertullian was the first Christian writer we know of to explicitly describe hell as a place of endless torment for the wicked and he had absolutely zero chill about it.

He basically said, “Hell is where people I don’t like go.” He even fantasized about watching from heaven and laughing as his theological opponents writhe in agony below​. (Yes, a church father said that!).

That… doesn’t sound super Christlike, does it? But it shows the range of attitudes. Tertullian’s approach was not universal among early Christians, but it planted seeds in Western theology.

Enter Augustine – Game Over for Dissent:

By the time St. Augustine came along (late 4th/early 5th century), the debate was tilting in favor of the eternal hell camp, at least in the Latin West. Augustine had enormous influence.

He’s the guy who asserted that unbaptized babies go to hell (though a milder “upper level” of hell) and who essentially declared that hell’s torments are never-ending for anyone not saved through Christ.

Augustine wasn’t shy about using the doctrine as a stick, either – he believed fear of eternal fire was useful to bring people into the Church (and unfortunately, he also used it to justify persecuting heretics).

With Augustine’s theological might behind it, the eternal conscious torment view became the official teaching of the Western Church (eventually codified in medieval Catholic doctrine).

Dissenting views (like Origen’s universalism) were condemned or pushed underground. Only in the Eastern Orthodox side did a quieter hope for universal reconciliation flicker on (Gregory of Nyssa was honored as a saint despite his universalist leanings, for example).

Medieval and Reformation eras:

During the Middle Ages, the fear of hell was a huge part of Christian life. It showed up in everything from Gothic art to morality plays. As mentioned, Dante’s Inferno (early 1300s) had a massive impact on the popular imagination.

It wasn’t an official church document, but it basically reinforced in vivid detail what most clergy were already saying: hell is real, awful, and forever.

The Catholic Church even started selling “indulgences” partly with the promise of reducing time in Purgatory (a concept of a temporary purifying fire for believers – which itself shows not all punishment was seen as forever; Purgatory was temporary hell for Christians, in Catholic theology).

The Protestant Reformers in the 1500s rejected Purgatory but kept the eternal hell for the unsaved. Hellfire preaching remained a staple. (Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, anyone? Jonathan Edwards’ famous 1741 sermon graphically described a sinner dangled over hellfire by a thread – classic example.)

Questioning Hell in modern times:

It’s only in the last couple centuries that significant numbers of orthodox Christians have openly questioned the eternal torment view again.

Conditional immortality (the idea we discussed, that only the saved receive eternal life, while the lost ultimately perish) gained traction in the 1800s among some theologians and denominations (e.g., Advent Christians, Seventh-day Adventists, etc.).

They argued that “immortal soul torment” came from Greek philosophy (Plato) and not the Bible​. Others advocated for “wider hope” or restorationism (a soft form of universalism that maybe some could be saved after death by God’s grace).

In recent decades, even some evangelical scholars have shifted toward annihilationism – for example, John Stott (a respected Anglican) tentatively leaned that way, and the subject became less taboo to debate.

In 2011, pastor Rob Bell made waves with his book Love Wins, which questioned the traditional hell and leaned toward a hopeful universalism. That sparked a huge debate (with folks like Francis Chan defending the traditional view, as we saw him critiquing the “metaphor of a garbage dump” idea​).

The conversation is very much alive today. Christians are re-reading the Bible to see what it actually says, and some are concluding that eternal conscious torment might not be the biblical default after all.

Looking back over this history, I personally see a pendulum swing. Early on, there was diversity and even a majority (in some regions) who believed God’s judgment wasn’t never-ending torment. Then, for many centuries, one view (eternal hell) dominated – in part due to institutional power and cultural reinforcement.

Now, in our time, believers have the freedom to access Scripture and scholarly research and are revisiting these tough questions. It doesn’t mean everyone will agree (spoiler: they won’t!). But it does mean you’re not crazy, unfaithful, or alone if you find yourself saying, “I’m not sure the Bible really teaches that God will fry people forever.”

So where does that leave us? Let’s wrap up with a few closing thoughts.

Conclusion: Why This Matters (With a Dash of Hope)

Talking about hell is never comfortable. Trust me, I’d rather discuss almost anything else – anything. But I truly believe it’s worth studying deeply because our understanding of hell profoundly affects how we view God and the gospel.

If you’ve been terrified by the idea of eternal torment, take comfort: the Bible’s actual teachings about final judgment are nuanced, and there is biblical hope that God’s justice might be more restorative (or at least more merciful in outcome) than what the medieval tradition handed down.

After digging into the meanings of Sheol, Hades, Gehenna, and Tartarus in my KJV, I found that much of what I assumed about hell wasn’t a direct line from Scripture, but a patchwork of verses and imagery inherited over generations.

This study set me free to approach God with less fear and more trust. I no longer picture God as a cosmic torturer delighting in agony (like poor Tertullian did​); I see Him as a righteous judge who will remove evil and right all wrongs, but who “takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked” (Ezekiel 33:11).

If “hell” is the grave, I know God can conquer that (hello, resurrection!). If “hell” is Gehenna’s fire, I know that fire is meant to burn up refuse – to cleanse, not simply to cause pain for pain’s sake.

Of course, good and holy Christians disagree on these things. You might study this and conclude, “Nope, I think the traditional view is still correct.” And that’s okay. (We’ll still high-five as fellow believers, and I’ll even buy you a coffee and listen to your case!).

But even if you hold the traditional view, understanding these different biblical terms can enrich your perspective.

You might clarify in your mind the difference between “Hades” (present state of the dead) and “Gehenna” (future judgment), or realize that when sharing the gospel, it might be better to emphasize “eternal life through Jesus” rather than just “avoid eternal hell.”

For those who have felt the traditional view makes God seem cruel or unloving, these alternate interpretations can be a lifesaver for faith. Some of the kindest, most devout Christians I know came very close to leaving the faith because they couldn’t reconcile eternal torment with a loving God.

Learning that the Bible may not actually teach that as the only option gave them space to stay, to keep believing in Jesus while holding a different view of hell (often conditional immortality). It’s a serious reminder that theology isn’t just academic – it affects hearts and souls.

In the end, whatever hell is or isn’t, as a Christian I take Jesus’ warnings seriously. They tell me that a life set against God leads to ruin. Whether that ruin is everlasting destruction or everlasting conscious misery, I don’t intend to find out firsthand!

I also take great comfort in Jesus’ promises – that through Him, we have eternal life and will not be lost. John 3:16 is still the core: “whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Notice the contrast: perish vs everlasting life. God’s heart is that we choose life.

Studying “hell” from a KJV perspective has oddly enough made the gospel feel even more like good news. It reassures me that God isn’t a two-faced deity with a sadistic streak; He’s consistently just and loving in a way far beyond us. If there is a hell of some sort, I trust His handling of it will be right. And because of Jesus, I have confidence that mercy triumphs over judgment for those who trust in Him.

Thank you for sticking with this deep (and deep-fried) topic in a long post. I hope it brought you some clarity, or at least made you think.

And if nothing else, next time you see “hell” in your KJV Bible, you might peek at the margin or concordance and ask: “Sheol, Hades, Gehenna, or…?” – and realize there’s more to the story behind that little word. Keep studying, keep seeking, and as the apostle Paul wrote, “prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”

(No souls were harmed in the making of this blog post. 😉)

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Citations

• christianityoriginal.com​christianityoriginal.com Christianity Original – Sheol/Hades: Translators Gone Rogue. (Details the KJV translation of Sheol as “grave/pit” vs “hell” and notes translators’ inconsistency.)
• christianityoriginal.com Christianity Original – Ibid. (Example of Job 14:13 as “grave” and Psalm 86:13 as “hell”, calling the translation a mistake since Sheol means grave in all cases.)
• christianityoriginal.com Christianity Original – Ibid. (Descriptions of Sheol in Scripture: darkness, silence, no knowledge, not a fiery place of torment.)
• christianityoriginal.com Christianity Original – Ibid. (Notes that the Greek Septuagint translates Sheol as Hades, e.g. Acts 2:27 quotes Psalm 16:10 with Hades=Sheol, confirming they’re equivalent.)
• christianityoriginal.com Christianity Original – Ibid. (Mentions that some translators like the KJV misleadingly rendered Hades as “hell” in verses like Luke 10:15, total ten occurrences.)
• christianityoriginal.com Christianity Original – Ibid. (Suggests KJV 1611 translators were influenced by medieval “hell” theories and thus biased in translating Sheol/Hades as hell, unlike some other translations which never use the word “hell”.)
• bereanbiblesociety.org Berean Bible Society – Hell, Sheol, Hades, Paradise, and the Grave. (Provides counts: Sheol 65x in OT – 31 “grave”, 3 “pit”, 31 “hell”; Hades 11x in NT – 10 “hell”, 1 “grave”; also notes Tartarus 1x and Gehenna 12x, both rendered “hell”.)
• en.wikipedia.org Wikipedia – Hell in Christianity. (Affirms that Sheol and Hades generally refer to the grave or underworld, not specifically a place of eternal punishment; many modern Bibles translate Sheol as “grave” and leave Hades as is.)
• en.wikipedia.org Wikipedia – Ibid. (States that Gehenna in the NT was a physical location outside Jerusalem, where Jesus said body and soul could be destroyed in unquenchable fire (Matt 10:28, Mark 9:43), usually translated “Hell” or “Hell fire” in English Bibles.)
• christianityoriginal.com Christianity Original – Gehenna: Lake of Fire…Just Outside Jerusalem. (Describes Gehenna: in Jesus’ time it was where garbage, carcasses, and the bodies of criminals were thrown to be burned up; no living person was tortured there, only dead things destroyed.)
• christianityoriginal.com Christianity Original – Ibid. (Points out Gehenna is translated “hell” 12 times in KJV, yet it’s an actual place in Israel. Mentions translations like Young’s Literal Translation use “Gehenna” by name to avoid confusion, since it’s like saying “the fire of Gehenna” akin to a local reference.)
• christianityoriginal.com Christianity Original – Ibid. (Explains where Gehenna is: the Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem, used in Jesus’ day as the city’s garbage incinerator with continually burning fires fueled by brimstone, ensuring total destruction of whatever was thrown in.)
• christianityoriginal.com​christianityoriginal.com Christianity Original – Ibid. (Explains the imagery of “where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:48) in context of Gehenna. The fire was always burning in the dump (unquenched = not extinguished until it consumes), and worms (maggots) thrived on the decaying matter on the slopes – they “don’t die” in the sense that they turn into flies, i.e. the process continues. Jesus used this to illustrate that dead bodies in Gehenna were completely consumed either by fire or worms – symbolizing unavoidable destruction of sinners, not eternal conscious torture.)
• postost.net Andrew Perriman (Postost blog) – Gehenna as historical judgment. (Argues that Jesus used Gehenna to signify the divine punishment coming upon Jerusalem via war. Cites Jeremiah’s prophecy of bodies thrown into the Valley of Hinnom and Josephus’ account of the 70 AD siege where Jews hurled the dead into the surrounding valleys, aligning with Jesus’ warnings.)
• postost.net​postost.net Andrew Perriman (Postost) – Was Gehenna a burning rubbish dump?. (Notes Jeremiah 7:32-33 prophesied Jerusalem’s dead would be in the Valley of Hinnom with no room to bury (food for birds/beasts), making the city a horror. Josephus later records during the Roman siege that corpses were indeed thrown over the walls into the valleys due to lack of burial space (Wars 5.12.3).)
• medium.com Medium (Brazen Church) – How & When Eternal Torment Invaded Church Doctrine. (Quotes Dr. Ken Vincent: Tertullian (160–220 A.D.) was the first Christian to write about an “eternal hell.” He imagined hell as a place for people he didn’t like, even expecting to watch and laugh at his opponents suffering there​medium.com. This highlights that early on, eternal hell was not a universally held doctrine but rather introduced in the Latin West.)
• medium.com Medium (Brazen Church) – Ibid. (States that out of six major theological schools from approx. 170–430 A.D., only one (Carthage) taught eternal torment. Four schools taught universal salvation through Christ’s restorative judgment (universal reconciliation), and one taught annihilation. This shows the diversity of early Christian thought on hell.)
• medium.com Medium (Brazen Church) – Ibid. (Notes Augustine (354–430 A.D.) as the main figure responsible for making hell eternal in Western Christian theology. Augustine, not knowing Greek well, misunderstood certain terms and firmly asserted that hell’s punishment is everlasting for the wicked and even for non-Christians in general, cementing this doctrine in the Western Church.)
• 1517.org 1517.org – Dante and Our Obsession with Hell. (Observes that Dante’s Inferno (14th cent.) became a best-selling classic that greatly influenced the Western Medieval church’s development. Over the centuries, Dante’s vivid portrayal of hell played a large role in shaping Christian (especially popular) conceptions of hell.)
• postost.net Andrew Perriman (Postost) – Gehenna dump legend debate. (Mentions Rob Bell’s view of Gehenna as the city dump metaphor for suffering consequences on earth, contrasted with Francis Chan’s skepticism of the “garbage dump” theory – Chan noting it might be a medieval legend. While Chan affirms hell is real, he was unsure if it’s eternal torment or annihilation, indicating current debates among evangelicals about hell’s nature.)