There are three hells described in the Bible. The word hell is mentioned 54 times, translated from four different words. In the King James Version of the Bible the only word in the Old Testament translated as hell is the Hebrew word sheol. It is translated “hell” 31 times. In the New Testament the Greek word hades has the meaning of the grave, a pit or the abode of the dead. Hades is translated “hell” 10 times in the New Testament.
In Psalms 6:5 and 30:3 the psalmist speaks of sheol as the grave. Amos the prophet uses sheol to state that one may dig into “hell“— indicating the grave was in the earth (Amos 9:2, KJV). When Jonah was in the belly of the great fish (or whale as wrongly translated), he was said to be in “hell” (Jonah 2:2). All of those words for hell are translated from the Hebrew word sheol.
In 1 Corinthians 15:55 the word grave is translated from hades. In the book of Acts, King David is said to have been in “hell.” Since David was a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14) and will rule with God in His Kingdom (Jeremiah 30:9), he would not have gone to the hell traditionally pictured for the incorrigibly wicked. In Acts 2:27 David is mentioned as being in “hell” or the grave, but with the promise that he will not remain there forever. He will be resurrected. So, the first “hell” is simply the grave—the place of the dead, both good and evil!
The second “hell” is translated from the Greek word gehenna and literally means the Valley of Hinnom, a place outside Jerusalem where trash was burned. Gehenna is also associated with fire and is called hell fire (Matthew 5:22) or the lake of fire (Revelation 20:15). This second “hell” is a place where the incorrigible will be sent as a final punishment after the last judgment. If they have deliberately turned from God, they will be resurrected and cast into gehenna (hell) and burned completely. Malachi 4:1-3, describes the wicked as ashes under the feet of the righteous.
Two verses that many assume prove the wicked are to be eternally tortured in hellfire are Matthew 25:41 and 25:46. They refer to when Jesus “comes in His glory” (Matthew 25:31-32) and separates the sheep from the goats. The sheep represent the righteous (Matthew 25:34-40), while the goats in this instance represent sinners. The goats are consigned to “the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41).
The key to understanding this verse is knowing what will occur everlastingly. The word everlasting is translated from the Greek word aionios. In Matthew 25:46 Jesus spoke of everlasting (aionios) punishment and of life eternal (aionios). Since the righteous will be given eternal, or everlasting, life, many theologians believe the punishing of the wicked must last as long as the life given to the righteous. But this cannot be reconciled with the statement that those cast into the lake of fire perish. As explained elsewhere, they suffer death—the second death (Revelation 2:11; 20:6, 14:1-20 and 21:8).
The meaning of Matthew 25:46 fits with the rest of the Bible. The wicked are cast into a fire that annihilates them forever. The aionios fire is a one-time event, the results of which will remain forever—that is, eternal death. It is not ongoing punishment that continues forever without end. Genesis 19 describes God’s destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah for their wickedness. In the New Testament, Jude describes these cities as “suffering the vengeance of eternal [aionios] fire” (Jude 1:7). Yet it is obvious the fires that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah are not still burning, but the results of the fire had an everlasting effect.
The third “hell” refers to the restraint of the demons. Tartaroo is used in only one place in the Bible (2 Peter 2:4) and only in reference to the demons being chained or restrained until the time of their judgment by God.
So, we see that human beings will go to hell (the grave) when they die, but they will be resurrected. Some will be resurrected to eternal life and others to judgment. Those who have deliberately rejected God and His ways will be burned up in gehenna (hell) fire (Revelation 20:14). The demons await the time of final judgment in yet another “hell“—tartaroo —their condition of imprisonment here on earth, restrained from venting their full fury on mankind and reserved to judgment at the end (Jude 6).
