Hell in Christianity

In some versions of Christian theology, Hell is the place or state into which, by God's definitive judgment, unrepentant sinners pass in the general judgment, or, as some Christians believe, immediately after death as a result of a person's choice to be separated from God (particular judgment). Its character is inferred from teaching in the biblical texts, some of which, interpreted literally, have given rise to the popular idea of Hell. Some theologians see Hell as the consequence of rejecting union with God.

Different Hebrew and Greek words are translated as "Hell" in most English-language Christian Bibles. These words include:

• "Sheol" (Biblical Hebrew: שְׁאוֹל, romanized: Šəʾōl) in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), and "Hades" in the New Testament. Some modern versions, such as the New International Version, translate Sheol as "grave" and transliterate "Hades". Some denominations, like the Jehovah's Witnesses, believe that these refer to a state of complete unconsciousness. It is generally agreed that both Sheol and Hades typically refer to the grave, the temporary abode of the dead, the underworld.
• "Gehenna", in the New Testament, in which it is described as a place where both soul and body can be destroyed (Matthew 10:28) in "unquenchable fire" (Mark 9:43). The word is often translated as "Hell", but it is sometimes transliterated as Gehenna.. Gehenna, referenced in Joshua 18:16, Jeremiah 7:31, Jeremiah 19:2, and Jeremiah 19:6 in the Hebrew Bible, Rosh Hashanah 17a:3 and Shabbat 33b:7 in the Talmud, and Shemot Rabbah 2:2 and Bereshit Rabbah 48:8 in the Midrash, was a physical location situated outside the city walls of Jerusalem.
• The Greek verb ταρταρῶ (tartarō, derived from Tartarus), which occurs once in the New Testament (in 2 Peter 2:4), is almost always translated by a phrase such as "thrown down to hell". A few translations render it as "Tartarus"; of this term, the Holman Christian Standard Bible states: "Tartarus is a Greek name for a subterranean place of divine punishment lower than Hades."