BSN: HELL

  • “Hell” is on this earth in this life.
  • This word shows up 13 times in the NASB – all in the New Testament. It is most often a translation of the word “Gehenna” – the name of a valley just outside the wall around ancient Jerusalem.
  • In the NASB Old Testament, “Gehenna” shows up about the same number of times. There, it appears as “Hinnom” or “Ben-Hinnom” – as in “the valley of Hinnom” (3x), “the valley of Ben-Hinnom” (7x), or “the valley of the son of Hinnom” (3x).
    • In the Hebrew language of the OT, the prefix “Ben-” means “son of.”
    • “Ben-Hinnom” in Hebrew (OT) became “Gehenna” in Greek (NT).
  • To summarize, Gehenna was a physical place that became a metaphor – much like Jerusalem, Eden, and Babylon were physical places that became metaphors.
  • Many people have confused this term with Sheol (Hades), but their meanings are quite different. For starters, Gehenna was a place outside Jerusalem, whereas Sheol (Hades) was a place below. Further to that point, Gehenna was a place in this life, whereas Sheol (Hades) was a place in the afterlife.
  • Hell is a subset of the broader metaphor used throughout both the Old Testament and the New Testament: fire. For example, Isaiah wrote of a “consuming fire” (Is 33:14) and Paul described God Himself as a “consuming fire” (Heb 12:29). Hell, hellfire, or fire are all symbolic of the judgment of God that comes in the form of destruction and death as a consequence of sin. In other words, hell is the wrath of God.
  • In 2 Peter 2:4, the NASB 1995 translates as “hell” a form of the Greek word for “Tartarus.”
  • For more, see the chapter on Hell in the book The Biblical Case for Everyone Going to Heaven.

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