Mat 5:22 “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery Hell.
Mat 5:29 “If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into Hell.
Mat 5:30 “If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into Hell.
Mat 10:28 “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell.
Mat 11:23 “And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day.
Mat 16:18 “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
Mat 18:9 “If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be cast into the fiery Hell.
Mat 23:15 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of Hell as yourselves.
Mat 23:33 “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of Hell?
Mar 9:43 “If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled, than, having your two hands, to go into Hell, into the unquenchable fire,
Mar 9:45 “If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame, than, having your two feet, to be cast into Hell,
Mar 9:47 “If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into Hell,
Luk 10:15 “And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will be brought down to Hades!
Luk 12:5 “But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into Hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!
Luk 16:23 “In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and *saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom.
Act 2:27 BECAUSE YOU WILL NOT ABANDON MY SOUL TO HADES, NOR ALLOW YOUR HOLY ONE TO UNDERGO DECAY.
Act 2:31 he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that HE WAS NEITHER ABANDONED TO HADES, NOR DID His flesh SUFFER DECAY.
Jas 3:6 And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by Hell.
2Pe 2:4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into Hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment;
Rev 1:18 and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.
Rev 6:8 I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.
Rev 20:13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.
Rev 20:14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
Gehenna (In these verses, I have replaced Hell in the original NASB text with Gehenna.)
G1067 γέεννα
géenna; gen. geénnēs, fem. noun. Hell, the place or state of the lost and condemned (Mat 5:29-30; Mat 10:28 [cf. Mat 23:15; Jas 3:6]). Represents the Hebr. gā-Hinnom (the Valley of Tophet) and a corresponding Aramaic word. Found twelve times in the NT, eleven of which are in the Synoptic Gospels and in every instance spoken by the Lord Himself. Many times the word Hádēs (G86) is wrongly translated “hell” or “grave.” Terms descriptive of hell are found in Mat 13:42; Mat 25:46; Php 3:19; 2Th 1:9; Heb 10:39; 2Pe 2:17; Jud 1:13; Rev 2:11; Rev 19:20; Rev 20:6, Rev 20:10, Rev 20:14; Rev 21:8. The word Gehenna is derived from the Hebr. expression, gā-Hinnom, Valley of Hinnom (Jos 15:8; Neh 11:30) which is an abbreviated form of “valley of the son of Hinnom” (2Ki 23:10; 2Ch 28:3; 2Ch 33:6; Jos 18:16; Jer 7:31-32; Jer 19:2, Jer 19:6). In the Sept. this name appears variously as pháragx (G5327) [a gorge], ravine, Onom or Ennom (Jos 15:8); gaienna (Jos 18:16); Gaibenthom or Gēbeennom (2Ch 28:3); ge Bane Ennom or ge Beennom (2Ch 33:6). Elsewhere we find generally pháragx, ravine, of the son of Hinnom.
This place became so notorious through its evil associations that it was simply called “the valley” (Jer 2:23; Jer 31:40), and the gate of Jerusalem leading toward it “the valley gate” (2Ch 26:9; Neh 2:13, Neh 2:15; Neh 3:13). This valley lay to the south and southwest of Jerusalem. Topographically, it provided the boundary between Judah and Benjamin (Jos 15:8; Jos 18:16) and the northern limit of the district occupied by the tribe of Judah after the captivity (Neh 11:30), and it lay in front of the gate Harsith of Jerusalem (Jer 19:2).
Religiously it was a place of idolatrous and human sacrifices. These were first offered by Ahaz and Manasseh who made their children to “pass through the fire” to Molech in this valley (1Ki 16:3; 2Ki 21:6; 2Ch 28:3; 2Ch 33:6). These sacrifices were probably made on the “high places of Tophet which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom” (Jer 7:31 [cf. Jer 32:15]). In order to put an end to these abominations, Josiah polluted it with human bones and other corruptions (2Ki 23:10, 2Ki 23:13-14). But this worship of Molech was revived under Jehoiakim (Jer 11:10-13; Eze 20:30). In consequence of these idolatrous practices in the Valley of Hinnom, Jeremiah prophesied that one day it would be called the “valley of slaughter” and that they should “bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury” (Jer 7:32; Jer 19:11).
It is also referred to as a place of punishment for rebellious or apostate Jews in the presence of the righteous. Gehinnom or Gehenna is not actually mentioned with this meaning in the OT, but it is this and no other place that is implied in Isa 50:11, “in a place of pain shall ye lie down” (a.t.). Furthermore, in Isa 66:24 it bears this new connotation and the punishment of the apostate Jews is conceived of as eternal: “They . . . shall look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.” The punishment of Gehenna is implied also in Dan 12:2, “some to shame and everlasting abhorrence” (a.t.). This particular word “abhorrence” occurs in these two passages only, and the reference in both is to Gehenna. Therefore, Gehenna was always conceived of as a place of both corporeal and spiritual punishment, not only for the Jews, but for all the wicked in the presence of the righteous.
In the NT Gehenna is presented always as the final place of punishment into which the wicked are cast after the last judgment. It is a place of torment both for body and soul as indicated in Mat 5:29-30, “It is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body go into Gehenna” (a.t.). The Lord Jesus did not have the living in mind here, but the dead, for it is not until after the final judgment that the wicked are cast into Gehenna. At the resurrection, the spirit and the body are united. Both are punished in Gehenna. Gehenna as the last punishment was conceived of also as the worst. It slays both soul (the incorporeal spiritual part of man) and body (the corporeal)-not in the absolute sense of annihilation, but relatively in that it permitted a change of state that could suffer the pain and punishment of Gehenna. Thus in Mat 10:28, “Fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna” (a.t. [cf. Luk 12:5]). Gehenna is conceived of as a fire (Mat 5:22; Mat 18:9); an unquenchable fire (Mar 9:45); a place where “their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched” (Mar 9:48); a “furnace of fire” (Mat 13:42, Mat 13:50); “the outer darkness” (Mat 8:12; Mat 22:13; Mat 25:30); a “lake of fire” (Rev 19:20; Rev 20:10, Rev 20:14-15; Rev 21:8). Because fire is often used as an apocalyptic symbol of judgment (especially eschatological judgment) it is difficult to insist that the flames are material. Nevertheless, such a symbol clearly represents a real and painful judgment. Hades, the place of the disembodied wicked spirits, is finally cast into it (Rev 20:14). In the NT, Hades and Gehenna seem never to be confused together. See Hádēs (G86), the place of the departed souls often translated “hell,” but mistakenly so; ábussos (G12), abyss, bottomless pit; tartaróō (G5020), to incarcerate in eternal torment, spoken of the fallen angels.
Mat 5:22 “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery Gehenna.
Mat 5:29 “If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into Gehenna.
Mat 5:30 “If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into Gehenna.
Mat 10:28 “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.
Mat 18:9 “If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be cast into the fiery Gehenna.
Mat 23:15 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of Gehenna as yourselves.
Mat 23:33 “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of Gehenna?
Mar 9:43 “If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled, than, having your two hands, to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire,
Mar 9:45 “If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame, than, having your two feet, to be cast into Gehenna,
Mar 9:47 “If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into Gehenna,
Luk 12:5 “But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into Gehenna; yes, I tell you, fear Him!
Jas 3:6 And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by Gehenna.
Hades
G86 ᾅδης
hádēs; gen. hádou, masc. noun from the priv. a (G1), not, and ideín, the inf. of the 2d aor. eídō (G1492), to see. In Homer and Hesiod the word is spelled Haïdḗs meaning obscure, dark, invisible. Hades, the region of departed spirits of the lost (Luk 16:23).
It corresponds to Sheol in the OT which occurs 59 times. In the NT, Hádēs occurs only 10 times. It is found nowhere in John’s gospel, the epistles of Paul, the Epistle to the Hebrews, or the General Epistles. Three of the occurrences are on Christ’s lips (Mat 11:23 [with Luk 10:15]; Luk 16:18; Luk 16:23). In two of these, the words are obviously used in a figurative sense: in the case of Capernaum to express an absolute overthrow, a humiliation as deep as the former loftiness and pride had been great; in the case of the Church, to express a security which shall be proof against death and destruction. The third occurrence, in the story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luk 16:19-31), is of a different kind and has even been taken to put our Lord’s confirmation on the Jewish idea of two compartments in Hades, distinct from and yet near one another. In Act 2:27, Act 2:31, the word Hádēs occurs in a quotation from Psa 16:10 in an application of OT faith in the advent of Christ, His death, and His resurrection. Therefore, it has again the meaning of the world of the departed into which Christ passed like other men, but only to transform its nature from a place accommodating both believers and unbelievers to one for unbelievers only (Mat 11:23; Mat 16:18; Luk 10:15; 1Co 15:55; Rev 1:18; Rev 6:8; Rev 20:13-14).
In all the NT passages except Mat 11:23; Luk 10:15, Hades is associated with death. It expresses the general concept of the invisible world or abode into which the spirits of men are ushered immediately after death. The prevalent idea connected with it in its association with death are those of privation, detention, and just recompense. The thought of the relative reward of good is subordinate, if expressed at all, to the retribution of evil and to the penal character pertaining to Hades as the minister of death. In none of the passages in which the word itself occurs have we any disclosures or even hints of purgatorial fires, purifying processes, or extended operations of grace.
The state of human beings in Hades is immediate and irreversible after death, although it does not constitute the eternal state, for Hades itself later becomes the exclusive place for unbelievers. It is cast into the lake of fire (Rev 20:14), while the reign of the just becomes paradise (Luk 23:43; 2Co 12:4; Rev 2:7) which is ultimately absorbed into the final heaven (Rev 21:1). Our Lord conclusively teaches in the story of the rich man and Lazarus that there is no possibility of repentance after death. It is in this light that 1Pe 3:18-20 should be viewed (cf. phulakḗ [G5438], prison).
Unfortunately, both the OT and NT words have been translated in the KJV as “hell” (Psa 16:10) or the “grave” (Gen 37:35) or the “pit” (Num 16:30, Num 16:33). Hades never denotes the physical grave nor is it the permanent region of the lost. It is the intermediate state between death and the ultimate hell, Gehenna (Géenna [G1067]). Christ declares that He has the keys of Hades (Rev 1:18). In Rev 6:8 it is personified with the meaning of the temporary destiny of the doomed; it is to give up those who are in it (Rev 20:13), and is to be cast into the lake of fire (Rev 20:14).
Syn.: Géenna (G1067), the final destiny of the wicked, hell; tartaróō (G5020), the prison of the fallen angels or evil spirits; ábussos (G12), abyss, the place where the dragon (drákōn [G1404]), i.e., Satan, is bound during the millennial reign (cf. Luk 8:31; Rev 9:11); límnē (G3041) and toú purós (G4442), lake of fire, the place into which the beast and the false prophet are cast after their defeat by Christ. An additional statement in Rev 21:8 describes those who have their part in the lake of fire, compare the description of those who are outside the city (Rev 22:15).
Ant.: parádeisos (G3857), paradise; kólpos Abraám (kólpos [G2859], bosom; Abraám [G11], Abraham), Abraham’s bosom; ouranós (G3772), heaven.
Mat 11:23 “And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day.
Mat 16:18 “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
Luk 10:15 “And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will be brought down to Hades!
Luk 16:23 “In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and *saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom.
Act 2:27 BECAUSE YOU WILL NOT ABANDON MY SOUL TO HADES, NOR ALLOW YOUR HOLY ONE TO UNDERGO DECAY.
Act 2:31 he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that HE WAS NEITHER ABANDONED TO HADES, NOR DID His flesh SUFFER DECAY.
Rev 1:18 and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.
Rev 6:8 I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.
Rev 20:13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.
Rev 20:14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
Tartarus
G5020 ταρταρόω
tartaróō; contracted tartarṓ, fut. tartarṓsō, from Tártaros (n.f.), the subterranean abyss of Greek mythology where demigods were punished. It is mentioned in the pseudepigraphal book of Enoch as the place where fallen angels are confined. It is found only in its verbal form in 2Pe 2:4 meaning to cast into or consign to Tartarus. It is part of the realm of death designated in Scripture as She’ōl (H7585) in the OT and Hádēs (G86) in the NT. These angels are being held in this netherworld dungeon until the day of final judgment. Peter’s usage of this term is not evidence either that Christianity was a syncretistic religion or that Peter himself believed in the pagan myths about Tartarus. Peter has adpated a word and not adopted a theology.
2Pe 2:4 (NASB) For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into Hell [ταρταροω-tartaroo-Tartarus] and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment;
2Pe 2:4 (YLT) For if God messengers who sinned did not spare, but with chains of thick gloom, having cast them down to Tartarus, did deliver them to judgment, having been reserved,
Paradise
G3857 παράδεισος
parádeisos; gen. paradeísou, masc. noun. Paradise. This is an oriental word which the Greeks borrowed from the Persians, among whom it meant a garden, park, or enclosure full of all the vegetable products of the earth. In Xenophon’s economics, Socrates said that the king of Persia took particular care, wherever he was, to have gardens or enclosures full of every beautiful and good thing the earth could produce. These were called paradises. The original Eastern word pardes occurs in Neh 2:8; Ecc 2:5; Son 4:13. In Sanskrit, paradésha and paradisha meant a land elevated and cultivated. In Armenian, pardes means a garden around the house planted with grass, herbs, and trees for food and ornament. The Sept. uses it to refer to the Garden of Eden (Gen 2:8). In later Jewish usage and in the NT, parádeisos is used for the abode of the blessed after death. Paradise, before Christ’s resurrection, has been thought to be the region of the blessed in Hades although it was not specifically called by that name (Luk 16:23). Jesus said He would take the repentant thief with Him to paradise (Luk 23:43).
Hades (G86) in the NT was the world or abode of the dead in general. According to the notions of the Jews, Hades was a vast subterranean area where the souls or the spirits of the dead existed in separate states until the resurrection of their bodies. The region of the blessed during this interval, or the inferior paradise, was thought to be in the upper part of this receptacle. Beneath this was the abyss, Gehenna (G1067) or Tartarus (G5020), in which the souls of the wicked were subjected to punishment.
The expression “the paradise of God” means the celestial paradise where the spirits of the just dwell with God. By comparing 2Co 12:4 to 2Co 12:2, we see that it is also called the third heaven. This is an allusion to the three heavens: the lower heaven or hemisphere; the middle heaven or firmament; and the superior heaven, i.e., the highest heaven, the abode of God, the angels, and glorified spirits, the spiritual paradise (cf. Eph 4:10; Heb 4:14; Heb 7:26; Sept.: Deu 10:14; 1Ki 8:27; see Rev 2:7 in relation to Gen 2:8).
Syn.: ouranós (G3772), heaven.
Ant.: hadḗs (G86), abode of the dead; géenna (G1067), the place of eternal punishment.
Luk 23:43 And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”
2Co 12:4 was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak.
Rev 2:7 ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.’
