The primary goal of this series is to dispel the God-dishonoring doctrine of hellfire and eternal torment as a punishment for sinners endorsed by God. Galatians 5:22-23 describes nine characteristics that are "fruit of the Spirit:" love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (NKJV). Of these fruits of the Spirit, the Bible describes Jehovah as being the embodiment of only one, love: "He who does not love does not know God, for God is love" (1 John 4:8, NKJV). The common doctrine of hellfire in much of Christendom undermines this simple Bible truth, for such a place of eternal torment is not consistent with a loving God.
Besides this, the Bible clearly states that "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23, NKJV). This means when one dies, they have paid for their sins, and there is no need for further suffering. In fact, Romans 6:7 states, "for he who has died is freed from sin" (New American Standard Bible). I use this version of the Bible for this quote because it contains a footnote on the word "freed," which states, "Or acquitted," which really illustrates what is happening. When someone dies, they are acquitted of their sins and no more punishment is necessary.
So what is hell? There are four words in the Bible which are rendered "hell" in many common Bible translations: Hades (Greek), Sheol (Hebrew), Tartarus (Greek), and Gehenna (Greek). Each word has a distinct meaning in the Bible, so to translate all of them simply as "hell" overshadows exactly what the Bible is saying when talking about each concept (the two exceptions are Hades and Sheol--Sheol is the Hebrew counterpart to the Greek hades).
The first word I will address is Tartarus, simply because it is the easiest, and also to get it out of the way because it is the least relevant. The word "Tartarus" appears only once in the Bible. 2 Peter 2:4 states, "For is God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell [Tartarus] and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment [...]" (NKJV). Thus, the word Tartarus is used only in conjunction with the demons ("the angels who sinned") and hence has no bearing on the fate of humans.
The two main words I will discuss in this post are Hades and Sheol. These two words are the Greek and Hebrew counterparts of one another and mean the same thing. Literally translated, they mean "grave," but they do not mean an individual's grave (they do not even refer to a literal place). The word Greek and Hebrew words for an individual's grave or literal place of burial are "taphos," and "qever," respectively. The words "Hades" and "Sheol," on the other hand are somewhat more abstract--they mean "the common grave of mankind." To illustrate this concept, one might say today of someone who has died that he or she has "gone to the grave." This reference to "the grave" does not mean the individual's grave, because that phrase may be used for someone who was not buried yet or will not be buried (such as people who are cremated). By referring to the common grave a mankind, the phrase "he has gone to the grave," is simply another way of saying that the person died. In support of this interpretation, the Bible mentions righteous people who are in "hell" (Hades or Sheol): Job 14:13 describes Job being in hell. More distinctly, Acts 2:25-27 quotes David as saying of Jesus himself: "Because thou [God] will not leave my soul in hell [Hades]." The important point here is that in order to be left in hell, one must first be in hell, and indeed, Jesus was in Hades, the common grave of mankind, for three days before his resurrection--which is just another way of saying that Jesus was dead for three days.
So if this interpretation of hell is accurate, then where did the notions of eternal torment and hellfire come from? The answer to this question is present when one understand what the final word for hell, "Gehenna," means But in order to understand what Gehenna means, one must first understand what future hope the dead have. This will be covered in the next part in this series, which will discuss the resurrection.
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