Hell (from the Anglo-Saxon, hel, from helan, to cover), properly signifies originally the covered or invisible place. In the English Bible the word is used to translate the Hebrew sheol (grave or pit) and Gehenna (properly the valley of Hinnom), as well as the Greek Hades (the unseen). In the Revised Version of the New Testament, however, hell is used only to translate Gehenna, Hades being left where it stands in the Greek. In common Christian mythology usage hell signifies the place of punishment of the wicked after death, its earlier meaning being lost. The distinctive Scripture term for the place of future punishment of the wicked is Gehenna, which, unlike Sheol and Hades, never has an intermediate signification; and the bible adopting on this point the current language of the time gave the sanction of authority to the leading ideas involved in it. Gehenna, or hell, is with the bible the place of final torment. The Eastern and Western churches are at one as to the punishment of hell being partly 'a pain of loss,' that is, the consciousness of being debarred the presence of God, and partly a 'pain of sense,' that is, real physical suffering. The prevailing idea is that the 'fire' and the 'worm' are significant emblems to provide the most descriptive conceptions of hell. Research Hell
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Abbreviations
Mythology
Research Hell
