Hell

In the Old Testament of the Bible, the modern word Hell normally corresponds to the Hebrew sheol, which was simply the place of the dead. But in the New Testament the word used is either Gehenna (the garbage dump outside the walls of Jerusalem where fires were kept eternally burning to consume the refuse and keep down the stench) or Hades, the Greeks' dark, gloomy underworld.

To Christians, Hell is a place where the souls of the wicked are punished eternally for all the sins they perpetrated during their lifetime on Earth. According to Christians, the only way to avoid hell is to know, love, and serve God and rely on His forgiveness, though opinion is divided as to whether faith in God needs to have been accompanied by deeds.

Christian tradition usually emphasises the Gehenna aspect: Hell is extremely hot and filled with fire and brimstone. Opinion varies on the question of whether, while Hell itself is eternal, experience of it purges away the sins of sufferers to the point of eventual redemption. See purgatory.