If you ask a random person on the street to describe hell, they’ll probably start talking about pitchforks. They’ll mention a guy in a red suit, pointed horns, and maybe some lava. It’s the Dante version. Or the Looney Tunes version. But if you actually sit down and look at how is hell described in the bible, you realize the scriptural reality is way more complicated—and arguably more unsettling—than the cartoons suggest.
The Bible doesn't actually have one single, uniform "map" of the underworld. It’s a collection of ancient texts written over 1,500 years. Because of that, the language shifts. One minute you’re reading about a shadowy graveyard, and the next, you’re hearing about a lake of fire. It’s a lot to wrap your head around.
The Old Testament Confusion: Sheol is Just the Grave
Most people assume the Old Testament is full of fire and brimstone. It isn't. Not really.
When Hebrew writers talked about the afterlife, they used the word Sheol. It’s a weird term. Honestly, it mostly just means "the pit" or "the grave." It wasn't necessarily a place of punishment for the "bad guys." It was just where everyone went. Think of it as a massive, silent waiting room underground where the dead just... exist. There’s no fire. No demons. Just silence.
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In Job 10:21-22, it’s described as a land of "gloom and deep shadow." It’s gloomy. It’s dark. It sucks, sure, but it’s not an oven. The ancient Israelites were much more concerned with being cut off from God and the living than they were with being tortured by a red monster.
Gehenna: The Smoldering Trash Heap
When we get to the New Testament, the language changes. Jesus talks about hell more than anyone else in the Bible, but he uses a specific word: Gehenna.
To the people listening to him in Jerusalem, this wasn't some abstract theological concept. Gehenna was a real place. The Valley of Hinnom. You could walk there. It was a valley outside the city walls with a nasty history of child sacrifice in pagan rituals. By the time of Jesus, it had basically become the city’s burning trash dump.
It smelled. It smoldered constantly. Maggots lived in the filth.
So, when Jesus describes hell as a place where "the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9:48), he’s using a local landmark to make a point. He’s saying that being outside of God's kingdom is like being tossed onto the smoldering scrap heap of the universe. It’s about being discarded. It’s about waste.
The Imagery of Fire and Darkness
Okay, so why the fire?
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In Matthew 25:41, Jesus mentions an "eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." This is where the modern "basement of the universe" idea comes from. But here’s the kicker: the Bible also describes hell as "outer darkness" (Matthew 22:13).
Wait.
How can a place be a blazing furnace and pitch black at the same time?
Scholars like N.T. Wright or the late Tim Keller have often argued that these are metaphors. Fire represents the agony of a soul disintegrating. Darkness represents the total isolation from the "Light of the World." If you’re looking for a literal, physical description that fits together like a blueprint, you won't find it. The Bible uses "fire" and "darkness" to describe the psychological and spiritual ruin of a human being who has completely rejected their Creator.
It’s about the loss of the self.
Why the "Basement" Theory is Modern, Not Biblical
We’ve inherited this idea that hell is a place under the earth where a winged creature rules over prisoners. That’s not in the Bible. Not even close.
In the biblical narrative, Satan isn't the warden of hell. He’s the star prisoner. Revelation 20:10 says the devil is "thrown into the lake of burning sulfur." He isn't holding a pitchfork; he’s the one being judged. The idea of "ruling in hell" comes more from John Milton’s Paradise Lost than it does from the Gospel of Luke.
The "Second Death" and Eternal Destruction
The book of Revelation introduces the "Lake of Fire." This is the "final" hell.
It’s often called the "second death."
There is a massive debate among theologians about what this actually means. On one side, you have the traditionalists who believe in "Eternal Conscious Torment." They argue the fire never goes out and the soul never ends. On the other side, you have "Annihilationists"—people like the late John Stott—who suggest that the "Lake of Fire" actually consumes and destroys the person entirely. They argue that "perishing" means you stop existing.
The Bible says "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23), not "the wages of sin is living forever in a microwave." It’s a nuance that changes the whole vibe of the conversation.
What This Means for Readers Today
Understanding how is hell described in the bible isn't just an academic exercise. It changes how you view the whole story of the Bible. If hell is primarily about "separation" and "decay" rather than "torture," it shifts the focus back to human choice.
C.S. Lewis famously said that the doors of hell are locked from the inside. The biblical imagery suggests a state where a person gets exactly what they wanted in life: a world without God. And it turns out, in the biblical worldview, a world without the source of all love, light, and life is a pretty miserable place to be.
Practical Steps for Deeper Study
If you want to move beyond the Sunday School versions and really dig into the Greek and Hebrew nuances, here is how you should approach it:
- Compare the four words: When you see "hell" in your English Bible, look up the original word. Is it Sheol (the grave), Hades (the Greek equivalent), Tartarus (used only once in 2 Peter 2:4 for fallen angels), or Gehenna (the burning valley)? Each carries a different weight.
- Contextualize the parables: When Jesus talks about "weeping and gnashing of teeth," he’s usually talking to religious people who thought they were "in" but were actually excluding others. Don't just apply it to "the bad guys" out there; see who the original audience was.
- Read the Church Fathers: Look at how people like Origen or Augustine viewed these texts. You’ll find that the "one-size-fits-all" view of hell is a relatively modern invention and that the early church had a lot of vibrant (and heated) debates about the nature of the afterlife.
- Focus on the "Why" over the "Where": Scriptural descriptions of the afterlife are almost always intended to influence how people live now. The warnings about Gehenna were calls to justice, mercy, and radical faith in the present moment.
The biblical account of hell is less about a torture chamber and more about the tragic reality of a life wasted and a soul unmade. It's a warning, sure, but it's a warning framed in the language of a doctor telling a patient that their choices have consequences. It’s gritty, it’s metaphorical, and it’s deeply tied to the geography and history of the ancient Near East.