hell

The English word is used misleadingly in older versions to translate the Hebrew sheol, the Aramaic Gehenna, and the Greek Hades. Normally the word is understood to denote a place of eternal torment, especially by fire (Isa. 66:24), for those who are irredeemably wicked (Rev. 21:8) and it is confusing that the word also designates the place of rest or waiting, and not of agonizing pain, for the departed, which is the meaning of the word ‘Hades’ in Rev. 20:13 and also in the clause of the Church's creed which asserts that Christ ‘descended into hell’ after the crucifixion. This is a belief based on 1 Pet. 3:19, which may well be a Christian appropriation of ancient redemption myths of the descent of deities to the underworld (Orpheus and Eurydice, Persephone, etc.); in the NT context it is an assertion in terms of the belief that Christ's mission is universal—it extends even to those who died before the incarnation.