By Clare Kelly
There are many different representations of hell, or purgatory, that have changed as time has gone on that differs slightly depending on different peoples beliefs within their own religions. The modern English word hell is derived from Old English hel, helle which was first attested around 725 AD to refer to a nether world of the dead. Hell appears in several mythologies and religions. It is commonly inhabited by demons and the souls of dead people. No matter what the belief is though, there is always some version of heaven, and some version of hell and for the most part they can be seen as decently similar. Punishment in Hell typically corresponds to sins committed during life. Sometimes these distinctions are specific, with damned souls suffering for each sin committed, but sometimes they are general, with condemned sinners relegated to one or more chamber of Hell or to a level of suffering. In many religious cultures, including Christianity and Islam, Hell is often depicted as fiery, painful, and harsh, inflicting suffering on the guilty. Despite these common depictions of Hell as a place of fire, some other traditions portray Hell as cold. Among Christian descriptions Dante’s Inferno portrays the innermost (9th) circle of Hell as a frozen lake of blood and guilt.
In the Bible, purgatory is a place where people are tormented for all eternity that came after Christ. It is a place where suffering and torment takes place after one has passed away. According to the Bible, hell is also seen as what we go through during our life then after we pass we can go to heaven and be freed from the torture and suffering of the hell which was life on earth as humans have created it. For the most part, the word hell is not mentioned much in the Bible and when it is, mainly it shows up in the New Testament. Within the accurate translations, the word hell is only mentioned around 14 times. One problem may be that the word hell isn’t the most common word to use in reference to the place the wicked go after death. While in the translations of the Bible these terms are not used, it is where the English word Hell is taken form. Even if the word hell is not used the place is still referenced in quite a few different passages. Revelation 21:8 says, “But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars-they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.” This is saying that all of these that go against the Lord and what he teaches will be sent to a fiery lake of burning sulfur where they will remain for eternity. This is like they are dying for the second time and it can be a punishment worse than death. According to 2 Thessalonians 1:9, “They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.” Purgatory is where those that turned away from the Lord are sent to be as well as others that didn’t believe or turned away from Him in favor of temptations. They will be shut out from the kingdom go God to be without him and his glory. In Matthew 13:50 the Lord says, “and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Those that are being thrown into the burning furnaces are the ones who are sinners that wouldn’t repent and turned away from the lord to get what they wanted in life. In each of these passages, there has been some reference to suffering or to some type of fire or burning. Even if there is not a physical place that is mentioned and named hell throughout the Bible, the depiction stays decently similar in who is sent there and what happens.
Early Jews developed the concept of Sheol, an Underworld where the all dead resided in a kind of semi-existence. Genesis, 1 Kings, Psalms and Job all mention Sheol. Eccles 9:10 describes it as a place in which “you are bound, there is neither dying nor thinking neither understanding nor wisdom.” When Jacob concluded his beloved son was dead, he moaned, “I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” The concept of Sheol was partly based on the Greco-Roman belief of Hades, a dreary and depressing place where people went after they died. The Pharisees, a Jewish sect that lived around the time of Jesus, embraced the Greco-Roman idea of heaven as place with distinct “levels,” or areas. In the 2nd century B.C. when the Hebrew scriptures were translated to Greek, the word Hades was used instead of Sheol. Isaiah predicts a punishment of fire for the wicked and Daniel describes “shame and everlasting contempt” for evildoers. There is no mention of Hell in the Old Testament as a permanent place of punishment for the wicked but Hades is represented as a temporary abode for the wicked. The Book of Enoch reads: “And this has been made for sinners when they die and are buried in the earth and judgment has not been executed upon them in their lifetime. Here their spirts shall be set apart in great pain, till the great day of judgment, scourging, and torments of the accursed for ever.” Judaism widely reject a literal interpretation of hell. In the 18th century the influential Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn reasoned that hell couldn’t exist because a punishment of eternal suffering was is incompatible with God’s mercy.
No matter the culture or the beliefs, there is some version of a hell where the soul of someone will spend the rest of eternity. It can be said that throughout time there has always been some version of a hell. A place for the wicked to go specifically apart from the good souls after death seems to be something that we as humans need to imagine exists. It is a motivation to keep on the “right” path during our time in our human bodies on earth. As it is said in Mark 9:43, “If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out.”