Everything about Hell totally explained
Hell, according to many
religious beliefs, is a place of suffering during
afterlife where the wicked or unrighteous souls are punished. Hell is usually depicted as underground. Within
Islam and
Christianity, Hell is traditionally depicted as fiery and painful, inflicting guilt and suffering. Some other traditions, however, portray Hell as cold and gloomy. Existence after life isn't concrete in
Judaism and may be portrayed as a state of neutrality, an eternal nothingness ("
sheol", often mis-translated as hell), simply non-life.
Some theologies of Hell offer graphic and gruesome detail (for example, Hindu
Naraka). Religions with a linear divine history often depict Hell as endless (for example, see
Hell in Christian beliefs). Religions with a
cyclic history often depict Hell as an intermediary period between
incarnations (for example, see Chinese
Di Yu). Punishment in Hell typically corresponds to sins committed in life. Sometimes these distinctions are specific, with damned souls suffering for each wrong committed (see for example Plato's
myth of Er or Dante's
The Divine Comedy), and sometimes they're general, with sinners being relegated to one or more chamber of Hell or level of suffering (for example,
Augustine of Hippo asserting that unbaptized infants, whom he believed to be deprived of Heaven, suffer less in Hell than unbaptized adults). In
Islam and
Christianity, however,
faith and
repentance play a larger role than actions in determining a soul's afterlife destiny.
Despite the common depictions of Hell as a fire,
Dante's
Inferno portrays the innermost (9th) circle of Hell as a frozen lake of blood and guilt.
Hell is often portrayed as populated with
demons, who torment the damned. Many are ruled by a death god, such as
Nergal, the Hindu
Yama, or concepts of the Christian
Satan. In contrast to Hell, other general types of afterlives are abodes of the dead and paradises. Abodes of the dead are neutral places for all the dead (for example, see
sheol), rather than prisons of punishment for sinners. A paradise is a happy afterlife for some or all the dead (for example, see
heaven). Modern understandings of Hell often depict it abstractly, as a state of loss rather than as fiery torture literally under the ground.
Etymology
The modern English word
Hell is derived from Old English
hel,
helle (about 725 AD) and ultimately from
Proto-Germanic halja, meaning "one who covers up or hides something". Germanic cognates exist in
Old Frisian helle,
hille,
Old Saxon hellja,
Middle Dutch helle (modern Dutch
hel),
Old High German helle (Modern German
Hölle) and
Gothic halja. The English term is also possibly derived from Old Norse
Hel. Surviving 13th century
Icelandic representations of
Germanic paganism in the form of
Norse mythology feature a female being named
Hel, who is described as ruling over
Hel, a location in
Niflheim.
The word "Hell" used away from its religious context was long considered to be
profanity, particularly in North America. Although its use was commonplace in everyday speech and on television by the 1970s, many people in the US still consider it somewhat rude or inappropriate language, particularly involving children.
Many, particularly among religious circles and in certain sensitive environments, still avoid casual usage of the word. In
British English and some parts of North America, the word has fallen into common use and isn't considered profane; often considered to be a safer and less offensive alternative to swearing, as in the phrase, "Go to Hell."
Religious literature and beliefs
Hell appears in several
mythologies and
religions. It is commonly inhabited by
demons and the
souls of dead people.
Hell is often depicted in art and literature, perhaps most famously in
Dante's
Divine Comedy.
Bahá'í Faith
The
Bahá'í Faith regards the conventional description of Hell (and heaven) as a specific place as symbolic. Instead the
Bahá'í writings describe Hell as a "spiritual condition" where remoteness from God is defined as Hell; conversely
heaven is seen as a state of closeness to God. The analogy to the womb in many ways summarizes the Bahá'í view of earthly existence: just as the womb constitutes an important place for a person's initial physical development, the physical world provides for the development of the individual soul. Accordingly, Bahá'ís view life as a preparatory stage, where one can develop and perfect those qualities which will be needed in the next life.
The Bahá'í teachings state that there exists a hierarchy of souls in the afterlife, where the merits of each soul determines their place in the hierarchy, and that souls lower in the hierarchy can't completely understand the station of those above., where that'll be punished for
sin after the
general resurrection and
last judgment. However, in modern times some Christian theologians have 'adopted' alternative beliefs such as
conditional immortality and
universalism. It is said that St. Peter is the keeper of hell in some forms of Christianity. He is supposedly the mediator between who gets to go to hell or heaven.
Greek mythology
In classic Greek mythology, below Heaven, Earth, and Pontus is Tartarus, or Tartaros (Greek Τάρταρος, deep place). It is either a deep, gloomy place, a pit or abyss used as a dungeon of torment and suffering that resides within Hades (the entire underworld) with Tartarus being the hellish component. In the Gorgias, Plato (c. 400 BC) wrote that souls were judged after death and those who received punishment were sent to Tartarus. As a place of punishment, it can be considered a hell. The classic Hades, on the other hand, is more similar to Old Testament Sheol.
Hinduism
In
Hinduism, there are contradictions as to whether or not there's a Hell (referred to as 'Narak' in Hindi). For some it's a metaphor for a conscience. But in
Mahabharata there's a mention of the
Pandavas going to Heaven and the
Kauravas going to Hell. Hells are also described in various
Puranas and other scriptures. Garuda Purana gives a detailed account on Hell, its features and enlists amount of punishment for most of the crimes like modern day penal code.
It is believed that people who commit 'paap' (sin) go to Hell and have to go through the punishments in accordance to the sins they committed.
The god
Yamaraj, who is also the god of death, is the king of Hell. The detailed accounts of all the sins committed by an individual are supposed to be kept by
Chitragupta who is the record keeper in Yama's court. Chitragupta reads out the sins committed and Yama orders the appropriate punishments to be given to the individuals. These punishments include dipping in boiling oil, burning in fire, torture using various weapons etc. in various Hells. Individuals who finish their quota of the punishments are reborn according to their
karma. All of the created are imperfect and thus have at least one sin to their record, but if one has led a generally pious life, one ascends to
Heaven, or
Swarga after a brief period of expiation in Hell.
Islam
Muslims believe in
jahannam (in
Arabic: جهنم) (which is related to the Hebrew word gehennim and resembles the versions of Hell in
Christianity). In the
Qur'an, the holy book of
Islam, there are literal descriptions of the condemned in a fiery Hell, as contrasted to the garden-like
Paradise (
jannah) enjoyed by righteous believers.
In addition, Heaven and Hell are split into many different levels depending on the actions perpetrated in life, where punishment is given depending on the level of evil done in life, and good is separated into other levels depending on how well one followed God while alive.
There is an equal number of mentions of both Hell and paradise in the Qur'an, which is considered by believers to be among the numeric miracles in the Qur'an.
The Islamic concept of Hell is similar to the medieval Christian view of
Dante. However, Satan isn't viewed as Hell's ruler, merely one of its sufferers. The gate of Hell is guarded by
Maalik also known as
Zabaaniyah. The
Quran states that the fuel of Hellfire is rocks/stones (
idols) and human beings.
Names of Hell according to Islamic Tradition based on the Quranic ayah and Hadith:
- Jahim
- Hutamah
- Jahannam
- Ladza
- Hawiah
- Saqor
- Sae'er
- Sijjin
- Zamhareer
Although generally Hell is often portrayed as a hot steaming and tormenting place for sinners there's one Hell pit which is characterized differently from the other Hell in Islamic tradition.
Zamhareer is seen as the coldest and the most freezing Hell of all, yet its coldness isn't seen as a pleasure or a relief to the sinners who committed crimes against God. The state of the Hell of Zamhareer is a suffering of extreme coldness of
blizzards ice and snow which no one on this earth can bear. The lowest pit of all existing Hells is the Hawiyah which is meant for the Hypocrites and two-faced people who claimed to believe in Allah and His messenger by the tongue but denounced both in their hearts. Hypocrisy is considered to be the most dangerous sin of all (despite the fact that
Shirk is the greatest sin viewed by Allah). According to the Qur'an, all non-believers who have received and rejected Islamic teachings for reasons unknown will go to Hell.
The Qur'an asserts that Hell is a place of everlasting of torture just as Heaven is asserted as a place of everlasting enjoyment. However, while some Muslims are said to be tortured finitely for their unforgiven sins, there are verses in the Qur'an explicitly mentioning an everlasting and infinite torture in Hell. Morever, even though in Islam, the devil, or
shaitan, is created from fire, he suffers in Hell because Hellfire is 70 times hotter than the fire of this world. It was also said that Shaytan is derived from shata, (literally `burned'), because it was created from a smokeless fire.
Judaism
Daniel 12:2 proclaims "And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, Some to everlasting life, Some to shame and everlasting contempt."
Judaism doesn't have a specific doctrine about the afterlife, but it does have a mystical/Orthodox tradition of describing
Gehenna. Gehenna isn't Hell, but rather a sort of
Purgatory where one is judged based on his or her life's deeds, or rather, where one becomes fully aware of one's own shortcomings and negative actions during one's life. The
Kabbalah describes it as a "waiting room" (commonly translated as an "entry way") for all souls (not just the wicked). The overwhelming majority of rabbinic thought maintains that people are not in
Gehenna forever; the longest that one can be there's said to be 11 months, however there has been the occasional noted exception. Some consider it a spiritual forge where the soul is purified for its eventual ascent to
Olam Habah (
heb. עולם הבא;
lit. "The world to come", often viewed as analogous to
Heaven). This is also mentioned in the
Kabbalah, where the soul is described as breaking, like the flame of a candle lighting another: the part of the soul that ascends being pure and the "unfinished" piece being reborn.
According to Jewish teachings, hell is entirely physical; rather, it can be compared to a very intense feeling of shame. People are ashamed of their misdeeds and this constitutes suffering which makes up for the bad deeds. When one has so deviated from the will of
God, one is said to be in
gehinom. This isn't meant to refer to some point in the future, but to the very present moment. The gates of
teshuva (return) are said to be always open, and so one can align his will with that of God at any moment. Being out of alignment with God's will is itself a punishment according to the
Torah. In addition, Subbotniks and Messianic Judaism believe in Gehenna, but Samaritans probably believe in a separation of the wicked in a shadowy existence, Sheol, and the righteous in heaven.
Maya faith
In
Maya mythology,
Xibalbá is the dangerous
underworld of nine levels ruled by the demons
Vucub Caquix and
Hun Came. The road into and out of it's said to be steep, thorny and very forbidding.
Metnal is the lowest and most horrible of the nine Hells of the
underworld,it is ruled by
Ah Puch. Ritual healers would intone healing prayers banishing diseases to
Metnal. Much of the
Popol Vuh describes the adventures of the
Maya Hero Twins in their cunning struggle with the evil lords of
Xibalbá.
Norse mythology
Taoism
Ancient
Taoism had no concept of Hell, as morality was seen to be a man-made distinction and there was no concept of an immaterial soul. In its home country
China, where Taoism adopted tenets of other religions, popular belief endows Taoist Hell with many deities and spirits who punish sin in a variety of horrible ways. This is also considered Karma for Taoism.
Other Hells
The hells of Europe include Briton Mythology's “Anaon”,
Celtic Mythology's “
Uffern”, the hell of Lapps Mythology and Ugarian Mythology's “Manala” leads to annihilation. The hells in the Middle East include
Sumerian Mythology's “Aralu”; the hells of Canaanite Mythology, Hittite Mythology and
Mithraism; the weighing of the heart in
Egyptian Mythology can lead to annihilation. The hells of Asia include Bagobo Mythology's “Gimokodan” and Ancient
Indian Mythology's “Kalichi". African hells include Haida Mythology's “Hetgwauge” and the hell of Swahili Mythology. The hells of the Americas include
Aztec Mythology's “Mictlan”,
Inuit Mythology's “Adlivun” and Yanomamo Mythology's “Shobari Waka”. The Oceanic hells include Samoan Mythology's “O le nu'u-o-nonoa” and the hells of Bangka Mythology and Caroline Islands Mythology.
The Gathas mention a "House of the Lie" where those who had more bad thoughts, words, and deeds go. Over the history of Zoroastrianism they've believed in annihilation of the wicked, purgation of the wicked in molten metal and in eternal punishment. It is difficult to find which one is correct because they all have standing in Zoroastor's writings.
Hell in literature
In his
Divina commedia ('Divine comedy'; set in the year 1300),
Dante Alighieri employed the conceit of taking
Virgil as his guide through
Inferno (and then, in the second cantiche, up the mountain of
Purgatorio). Virgil himself isn't condemned to Hell in Dante's poem but is rather, as a virtuous pagan, confined to
Limbo just at the edge of Hell. The geography of Hell is very elaborately laid out in this work, with nine concentric rings leading deeper into the Earth and deeper into the various punishments of Hell, until, at the center of the world, Dante finds Satan himself trapped in the frozen lake of
Cocytus. A small tunnel leads past Satan and out to the other side of the world, at the base of the Mount of Purgatory.
John Milton's
Paradise Lost (1667) opens with the
fallen angels, including their leader
Satan, waking up in Hell after having been defeated in the war in heaven and the action returns there at several points throughout the poem. Milton portrayes Hell as the abode of the demons, and the passive prison from which they plot their revenge upon Heaven through the corruption of the human race. 19th century French poet
Arthur Rimbaud alluded to the concept as well in the title and themes of one of his major works, "
A Season In Hell". Rimbaud's poetry portrays his own suffering in a poetic form as well as other themes.
Many of the great epics of European literature include episodes that occur in Hell. In the Roman poet
Virgil's Latin epic, the
Aeneid, Aeneas descends into Dis (the underworld) to visit his father's spirit. The underworld is only vaguely described, with one unexplored path leading to the punishments of Tartarus, while the other leads through Erebus and the Elysian Fields.
The idea of Hell was highly influential to writers such as
Jean-Paul Sartre who authored the 1944 play "
No Exit" about the idea that "Hell is other people". Although not a religious man, Sartre was fascinated by his interpretation of a Hellish state of suffering.
C.S. Lewis's
The Great Divorce (1945) borrows its title from
William Blake's
Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1793) and its inspiration from the
Divine Comedy as the narrator is likewise guided through Hell and Heaven. Hell is portrayed here as an endless, desolate twilight city upon which night is imperceptibly sinking. The night is actually the
Apocalypse, and it heralds the arrival of the demons after their judgment. Before the night comes, anyone can escape Hell if they leave behind their former selves and accept Heaven's offer, and a journey to Heaven reveals that Hell is infinitely small; it's nothing more or less than what happens to a soul that turns away from God and into itself.
Words translated as "Hell"
Sheol
In the
King James Bible, the
Old Testament term
Sheol is translated as Hell 31 times.
However, sheol was translated as "grave" 31 times.
Sheol is also translated as pit three times.
Gehenna
In the New Testament of the KJV, Gehenna is always translated as Hell.
Hades
The KJV translates
Hades as "Hell" 10 times, and as "grave" once.
Hades is traditionally the Greek word for
Sheol.
Tartarus
The KJV translates
tartarus, which appears only in II Pet. 2:4, as "Hell".
Abaddon
The Hebrew word
Abaddon, meaning "destruction", is sometimes used as a synonym of Hell.
Infernus
The Latin word
infernus means "being underneath" and is often translated as "Hell".
Further Information
Get more info on 'Hell'.
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