hell in the king james version of the bible there are three differents words translated into the word hell these greek words have totally different meanings the words are hades tartaros and gehenna in bibical usage the greek word hades is used only times in the new testament and is roughly the equivalent to the old testament word sheol meaning the grave or pit compare acts with psalms hades may be likened to a hole in the ground in the bible it has nothing to do with fire most modern bibical translators admit that the use in the english word hell to translate hades and sheol are an unfortunate and misleading practice why because when seeing the word hell many readers impute to it the traditional connotation of an ever burning inferno when this was never remotely intended in the greek language or in old english in its true bibical usage hades does indeed refer to the state or abode of the dead but not in the sense of spirits walking around in some sort of shadowy realm hades is simply the abode we call the grave all dead go to this hell the second hell of the bible tartaros is mentioned only once in scripture pet for if god spared not the angels that sinned but cast them down to hell tartaros and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment following their rebellion to unseat god from his throne isa rev the archangel lucifer now satan and a third of the created angels now demons were ejected from heaven luke they were cast down to tartaros a place or condition of restraint that god has imposed on the mutinous angels as they await ultimate judgment jude cor tartaros then is a hell that applies only to evil rebellious angels or demons it is interesting that the ancient greeks used this word to describe the place in which zeus confined the rebellious titans nowhere in the bible is there any mention of men being put into this particular hell the the third word that is translated as hell in the bible is gehenna it comes from the hebrew gai hinnom meaning valley of hinniom hinnom is a deep narrow ravine located to the south and southwest of jerusalem in old testament times it was a place of abominable pagan rites including infant sacrifice it was there that the apostate kings ahaz and manasseh made their children pass through the fire to the god molech the rites were specifically celebrated in tophet the place of abhorrence one of the chief groves in the valley king josiah of ancient judah finally put an end to these abominations he defiled the valley rendering it ceremonially unclean kings later the valley became the cesspool and city dump of jerusalem a repository for sewage refuse and animal carcasses the bodies of dispised criminals were also burned there along with the rubbish fires burned continuously feeding by a constant supply of garbage and refuse aceldama the field of blood purchased with the money judas received for the betrayal of christ matt was also in part of the valley of hinnom so what does this valley called gehenna have to do with hell in rev the satan inspired political dictator and a miracle working religious figure the false prophet working with him will resist the re establishment of the government of god by jesus christ at his second coming their fate is revealed by the apostle john and the beast was taken and with him the false prophet these both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone where will this temporary lake of fire this hell be the prophet isaiah wrote of this lake of fire prepared for the beast for tophet in the valley of hinnom is ordained of old yea for the king it is prepared he hath made it deep and large the pile thereof is fire and wood the breath of the lord like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it isa one thousand years later satan himself will be cast into this rekindled fiery lake where the beast and false prophet were cast rev but what of the wicked who have died over the millennia does the bible say that they are now suffering fiery punishment for their sins in a lake of fire in the sequence of rev the incorrigibly wicked are resurrected to be thrown into the lake of fire after satan is cast there rev what will become of these wicked will they writhe in flames for eternity the wicked will be burned up from the intense heat of the coming gehenna fire on the earth they wil be consumed annihilated destroyed this punishment will be everlasting permanent and final the bible calls it the second death rev from which there is no possibility of a further resurrection the bible does teach eternal punishment but not eternal punishing the prophet malachi provides a graphic description for behold the day cometh that shall burn as an oven and all the proud yea and all that do wickedly shall be stubble and the day that cometh shall burn them up to the righteous god says that the wicked shall be ashes under the soles of your feet mal gehenna was a place of destruction and death not a place of living torture jesus was talking to jews who understood all about this gehenna or valley of hinnom utter destruction by fire was complete nothing was left but ashes every text in the bible translated from this greek word gehenna means complete destruction not living torture not eternal life in torment the bible says in romans the wages of sin is death not eternal life in torture the punishment revealed in the bible is death the cessation of life eternal life is the gift of god
