The word Hell actually comes from Norse Mythology, so I won't use it here.
I have a lot of problems with the Christian idea of the negative afterlife!
The general idea that at the end of the world, some people will be destroyed in fire, while others will enter Heaven, is obviously enough even as far back as Daniel 12:2.
But there is a lot of guesswork and make-believe when it come to questions such as- why on Earth would God make it be that way? Did God make it that way? Where are dead people right now, anyway?
So, as always, what does the Bible say?
To understand that, we need to introduce the Hebrew word 'Sheol.' Both Jewish tradition and Biblical context make it very obvious that Sheol is an Underworld to which shades abscond at death, but as always, theologians have attempted to wipe out this narrative by blatantly mistranslating the word as 'grave.'
Other theologians attempt to compromise, saying that Sheol refers sometimes to the grave, sometimes to the Underworld, but there's really no reason to introduce the second definition.
Every single passage fits the Underworld, and only a few could also fit the grave, so it seems most reasonable and fitting to interpret 'Sheol' as referring always to the Underworld, unless we have reason to do otherwise.
A heck ton of verses directly describe a 'layer cake' universe of Heaven above, Earth in the middle and Sheol below. This was the belief of almost every ancient culture and religion, so even outside it's Biblical presence, it is the height of chronological snobbery to dismiss it outright.
Psalm 139:8:
If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
Amos 9:2:
“If they dig into Sheol, from there shall my hand take them; if they climb up to heaven, from there I will bring them down.
1 Samuel 2:6:
Yahweh kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up.
2 Peter 2:4 tells us that Yahweh "did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into Tartarus and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment."
Tartarus was a region of the Underworld in Greek Mythology, into which the Giants who rebelled against the gods were cast. The word was adapted by Judaism to describe the prison of the fallen angels who rebelled against Yahweh in Genesis 6, and Peter followed their example.
In Numbers 16:32-33, "the earth opened its mouth and swallowed" the Sons of Korah, and "they went down alive into Sheol."
Perhaps referencing the future destruction of Sheol and the Earth, Deuteronomy 32:22 says that "a fire will be kindled by my wrath, one that burns down to Sheol below. It will devour the earth and its harvests and set afire the foundations of the mountains."
That idea of "the foundations the mountains" is important, by the way, as Sheol was believed the hold the roots of the mountains. In the same manner, the tops of mountains were seen as spiritual gateways to heaven above, from which angels descend.
This was why the fallen Sons of God came to Mount Hermon in the Book of Enoch, why the Angel of Yahweh appeared on the bush of Mount Horeb, the Mountain of God, and why Moses ascended Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments.
For the same reason, valleys were also connected with Sheol, which brings us to the next step in the Theology of the Underworld- Gehenna.
Ge-Hinnon or Genenna literally means 'The Valley of Hinnom,' and originally referred to a valley used for human sacrifices. It was cursed by Yahweh (Jeremiah 7:31, 19:2-6), and adopted as a nickname for the realm of the Underworld where wicked shades are kept.
Gehenna was also called Tophet ('fireplace' or 'set aflame') and the Valley of Slaughter (Jeremiah 19:6). Kabbalists interpreted 'the Valley of the Shadow of Death' from Psalm 23:4 as a reference to Gehenna as well- which makes sense, really.
Isaiah 30:33 describes a "burning place" where the Assyrian army will be destroyed, probably referencing Gehenna. Here is introduced somewhat of a conflicting metaphor- while Sheol was viewed as a neutral realm, from whence even such shades as Samuel could be summoned (1 Samuel 28), Gehenna was introduced with a new element, that of destroying fire.
Here, I believe we have a distinction drawn between the Underworld in general, Sheol, and the place therein reserved for those who are very wicked, Gehenna- which is associated with eventual annihilation in flames.
The ancient Jews described Gehenna as a sort of Purgatory, in which wicked souls see the error of their ways. Most Jewish sources state that the longest a soul can be punished is twelve months, before they move on to the world to come, and no punishment ever occurs on Sabbaths.
Jesus also developed the idea of Gehenna, though in a more negative and fearsome way.
Matthew 10:28: "....rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna."
Mark 9:47: "It is better for you to enter the Kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes, to be cast into Gehenna."
Here we see that Gehenna is the direct alternative to entering the Kingdom of God. But strikingly absent from this picture is the idea of eternal hell! In fact, the verses speak of destruction of soul and body!
Now, an important takeaway here is that this final destruction is indeed from God, and not from Satan. The final fire is described by Matthew 25:41 as having been "prepared for the Enemy and his messengers." As we have seen, it is Yahweh who will "set afire the foundations of the mountains."
But that does not mean that the Underworld itself was a creation of God. Will God eventually burn it to ashes, just as he will burn the entire sinful world? Most certainly.
Furthermore, as demonstrated by the incident with Korah and Sons, God uses the Underworld to get rid of those who cause trouble. But I do not concede that any of this undeniably requires that the Underworld was God's idea.
If you read my last post, you know that I am developing a theological theory in which Justice is the realm of the Accuser (hence the name), and Jesus' death is explained as a subversion or trickery of that Justice.
I believe this theory has great explanatory power, reaching even to the Problem of Evil, and thus I wish to see it applied to the question of Gehenna.
Regarding this, then, it is important to note that Yahweh's binding of the fallen Watcher angels in Tartarus would not necessarily have been opposed by Satan, but may in fact be seen as a sort of uneasy cooperation between the two parties!
There's no reason to assume that Satan was allies with the Watchers. In fact, their chaotic Nephilim children were probably a problem for Satan's oppressive statist system- exemplified by Rome, Babylon and the like.
Is it possible that God used Satan's Justice Underworld to get rid of the extremely powerful Watchers?
Such an 'uneasy peace treaty' between Yahweh and Satan may seem strange or even heretical, but notice in Job that Satan enters the court of Yahweh not as an intruder, but a guest. He is allowed to speak and his words are taken into consideration- he is not driven out by flaming swords.
1 Timothy 1:20 directly describes such a relationship- God needs Hymenaeus and Alexander to learn not to blaspheme, so he hands them over to Satan. The details are left unclear, but we see clearly that Satan is enacting punishments, and God is using that for his own ends.
Not until Christ's death is Satan banished from the Divine Council- see Revelation 12.
Gehenna is described by Christ not only as the location of evil's eventual destruction, but as a source from which evil enters the world. This makes more sense if it is chiefly inhabited and governed by demons.
Matthew 23:15 describes the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees as children of Gehenna, and James 3:6 says that the wicked tongue is "set on fire by Gehenna."
Many in the early church believed that not only God's enemies occupied the Underworld. While they are not described as inhabiting Gehenna, deceased Jews and OT saints were described as going down to Sheol- and they did not seem to regard this as generally desirable.
If Satan is Justice, it would make sense that God's chosen people, generally not horribly wicked, would recieve significantly less punishment, and most traditions of the Underworld (Jewish and pagan alike) describe it as being separated into separate regions for separate levels of sin.
The Book of Enoch describes four hollows around the Dark Mountain of the Dead- one for the righteous, one for Abel, one for the wicked who were punished in life and one for the wicked who were never punished.
'Abraham's Bosom' and the fiery pit below it, from Luke 16, are probably dramatized references to this cultural idea.
Dante's Inferno famously continued the tradition, diving Hell into nine circles- in which, notably, it is demons and not angels who carry out the torture.
This idea of devils with pitchforks seems very strange if we assume that Satan was involved only as a victim of the Underworld- and while Judeo-Christian traditions all assume God as the ultimate governor of Hell, it is almost universally common for Satan to be described as the boss of punishment, the chief executioner (as Lewis would say).
The difference between Sheol in general and a more specific realm doomed to final destruction is very clearly described in verses such as these:
Job 26:6: Sheol is naked before God, and Destruction has no covering.
Proverbs 15:11: Sheol and Destruction lie open before Yahweh, how much more the hearts of the children of man!
Theologians can be very annoying when it comes to trying to describe things away. Samuel is very much described as arising as a ghost from below- from the Underworld! The Limbo of the Forefathers from which Jesus rescues the Old Testament saints is very much canon- Dante got that one right too.
They have attempted to describe this as an impersonating demon, but it seems very strange that a demon would be delivering God's message as Samuel does, and stranger still that God would wait for the command of the witch to send this fake demon-Samuel, and play along with her tricks.
Furthermore, the single most common use of 'Sheol' in the Bible is in expressions of 'going down to Sheol in sorrow' or 'bring my grey head down to Sheol' and the like- almost always used by members of God's religious order, and particularly those he blessed especially!
I could include citations to every verse, but anyone who reads the Bible knows what I mean, so I will simply link all mentions of Sheol.
For you skeptics who still refuse to accept Sheol as the Jewish Underworld, I recommend scrolling through that list. The evidence speaks for itself.
The Biblical evidence is not alone is speaking of an Underworld, literally below us in a spiritual realm, occupied by shades in judgment and holding the armies of Satan.
When Jesus told Peter 'on this rock I will build my church, and the Gates of Hades shall not prevail against it' (Matt. 16:18), they would have been standing right near the grotto of Pan, which was known by locals as 'the gates of Hades'.
Many people actually thought one could get into the Underworld from there!
According to Josephus, people would take great lengths of rope and lower it into the water, but it could never reach the bottom no matter how much rope they used. It sits, by the way, at the base of the cosmic gateway Mount Hermon.
The word 'Hades' here directly refers to the Underworld and was used by Jews to translate 'Sheol' into Greek, so there's no doubt that these Gates of Hades are the same as the Gates of Sheol described in Psalm 141:7 and Isaiah 38:10.
This spiritual Underworld invasion is also described in fascinating terms by 1 Peter 3:18-22, which says that after his death Christ "went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits, to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah."
Any logical reader of the Gospels would connect the strange earthquakes and rising of dead shades in Matthew 27 to Jesus' invasion of the Underworld and freeing of the imprisoned.
Now, think logically- if the Underworld was just God's prison house, run as an expression of his justice- why would he need to break down the gates and invade? Would the US police invade the US prison system?
The best conclusion is that this realm of punishment was of a demonic nature, ruled by Satan- who as we've already seen was directly associated with Justice. I mean, come on, it's the Underworld! That's like the most evil thing.
The same passage goes on to say that Christ "has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him." His invasion of the Underworld directly resulted in his kingship.
These authorities and powers should not be read as 'the good guys' but as the principalities and powers which we are told are our spiritual enemies. They did not submit willingly but were in fact conquered.
A solid reading of Revelation reveals that Satan is currently imprisoned. However, all of this need not be taken as a heavy-handed negation of literally all Satan's power. This is still an enemy world, and as Ephesians 6:12 tells us, the spiritual war is very much ongoing.
Christ did not take over only to change nothing, leaving this evil Satanic system intact. Rather he is actively waging war on it- and we are told that he will eventually conquer.
In Revelation 1:18, Christ says "I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades."
The death and resurrection is directly tied to the possession of the keys, because it was through his death that he took this authority from Satan.
Is Scripture a little ambiguous as to how this all works? Absolutely.
But it tells us everything we need to know to recognize Christ as our conquering savior, and to praise his name with gladdened hearts.
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