1. What does “hell” mean?

2. Hades Hades (Greek) = realm of the dead; 11 occurrences
Sheol (Hebrew) = the grave
Victory over Hades:
Christ’s victory (Matt. 16:18; Acts 2:23-31; Ps. 16:8-11)
Our victory (I Cor. 15:54-57; Hos. 13:14)
Christ’s power over death and Hades (Rev. 1:18; 6:8; 20:13-14)
Pre-judgment place
Two parts of Hades: paradise and torment (Luke 16:22-23; 23:43)
Impossible to cross from one part to the other
Souls are conscious – able to feel anguish or comfort

3. Tartarus Tartarus (Greek) = deep, dark pit; 1 occurrence
Part of Hades; torment
II Peter 2:4-9 (illustrates certain doom of false teachers)
Sinful angels cast into hell (Tartarus)
Wicked reserved for punishment there
I Peter 3:19 (those who perished in the flood)
“spirits now in prison”
Dungeon– prisoners kept in torment, awaiting final judgment

4. Gehenna – Old Testament
Gehenna (Greek) = Valley of Hinnom (lamentation); hell
Judah-Benjamin border; near Jerusalem (Josh. 15:8; 18:16)
Ammonite god Molech and child sacrifice (Lev. 20:1-5)
Judah’s involvement in child sacrifice (II Chron. 28:3; 33:6)
Josiah’s cleansing (II Kings 23:10)
Topheth = “burning place” (part of the Valley of Hinnom)
Judah’s guilt (Jer. 32:28, 35)
God would make the valley a mass grave (Jer. 7:31-34; Jer. 19)
Associated with pain, sorrow, fire, and death

5. Gehenna – first century
Gehenna (Greek) = Valley of Hinnom; hell (English); 12 occurrences
Jerusalem’s waste management system – a burning dump
Matt. 5:22; 23:15, 33; Mark 9:43-47; Luke 12:15; James 3:6
Post-judgment place – final and eternal destination
Things associated with Gehenna to the first-century Jew:
Fire never stopped burning
Trash, waste, dead bodies
Repulsive history of child sacrifice
Place of punishment and mass grave for evil Jews about 6th century

6. Where are you going?