Hell
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In religion and folklore, Hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history sometimes depict hells as eternal, such as in some versions of Christianity and Islam, whereas religions with reincarnation usually depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations, as is the case in the Indian religions. Religions typically locate Hell in another dimension or under Earth's surface. Other afterlife destinations include heaven, paradise, purgatory, limbo, and the underworld.
Other religions, which do not conceive of the afterlife as a place of punishment or reward, merely describe an abode of the dead, the grave, a neutral place that is located under the surface of Earth (for example, see Kur, Hades, and Sheol). Such places are sometimes equated with the English word hell, though a more correct translation would be "underworld" or "world of the dead". The ancient Mesopotamian, Greek, Roman, and Finnic religions include entrances to the underworld from the land of the living.
Etymology
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The modern English word hell is derived from Old English hel, helle (first attested around 725 AD to refer to a nether world of the dead) reaching into the Anglo-Saxon pagan period.[1] The word has cognates in all branches of the Germanic languages, including Old Norse hel (which refers to both a location and goddess-like being in Norse mythology), Old Frisian helle, Old Saxon hellia, Old High German hella, and Gothic halja. All forms ultimately derive from the reconstructed Proto-Germanic feminine noun *xaljō or *haljō ('concealed place, the underworld'). In turn, the Proto-Germanic form derives from the o-grade form of the Proto-Indo-European root *kel-, *kol-: 'to cover, conceal, save'.[2] Indo-European cognates include Latin cēlāre ("to hide", related to the English word cellar) and early Irish ceilid ("hides"). Upon the Christianisation of the Germanic peoples, extensions of the Proto-Germanic *xaljō were reinterpreted to denote the underworld in Christian mythology[1][3] (see Gehenna).
Related early Germanic terms and concepts include Proto-Germanic *xalja-rūnō(n), a feminine compound noun, and *xalja-wītjan, a neutral compound noun. This form is reconstructed from the Latinized Gothic plural noun *haliurunnae (attested by Jordanes; according to philologist Vladimir Orel, meaning 'witches'), Old English helle-rúne ('sorceress, necromancer', according to Orel), and Old High German helli-rūna 'magic'. The compound is composed of two elements: *xaljō (*haljō) and *rūnō, the Proto-Germanic precursor to Modern English rune.[4] The second element in the Gothic haliurunnae may however instead be an agent noun from the verb rinnan ("to run, go"), which would make its literal meaning "one who travels to the netherworld".[5][6]
Proto–Germanic *xalja-wītjan (or *halja-wītjan) is reconstructed from Old Norse hel-víti 'hell', Old English helle-wíte 'hell-torment, hell', Old Saxon helli-wīti 'hell', and the Middle High German feminine noun helle-wīze. The compound is a compound of *xaljō (discussed above) and *wītjan (reconstructed from forms such as Old English witt 'right mind, wits', Old Saxon gewit 'understanding', and Gothic un-witi 'foolishness, understanding').[7]
Origins
The idea of retribution for evil thoughts and evil deeds features almost universally in human cultural history. Accordingly, justice may be carried out post-mortem, whereby positing a place of punishment in the afterlife.[8] As early as 1500 BCE, the Egyptians asserted that the dead will be judged and, if found guilty, punished and tortured for their crimes.[8][9] One of the oldest detailed descriptions of Hell, however, are probably found in the Kathāvatthu, one of the earliest Buddhist writings written around 250—100 BCE.[10] It argues that Hell is a state as the result of a bad action,[11] connecting Hell to the concept of the retribution for bad actions and compensation for good actions.[12] Such concept of Hell did not require the existence of a God and does not depend on deities.
Within the context of Persian dualism, which posits the existence of the embodiment of good and evil, Hell was considered to be the abode of the principal Devil called Angra Manyu.[9] According to Mazdaist eschatology, the dead are not condemned to Hell, but freely choose paradise or Hell determined by their actions in life, which either corresponds to the values of God or the Devil. In the mythological narrative, Hell is believed to be in the middle of Earth, a bridge spans over it, and the dead must pass over Hell, but those who did evil in life will fall down. In Hell, the souls are tormented by the inhabitants of Hell; demons, and tortured according to their crimes and sins.[9] However, their torment is not eternal, as eventually God would triumph over the Devil and his demons, destroy Hell, restore cosmic order, and redeem the lost souls.[9]
In the New Testament, part of the Christian sacred scripture, references to Hell are sparse. The Septuagint understanding of Hades is similar to the Hebrew Sheol, a place for the dead to await resurrection.[13] Gehenna, on the other hand, is portrayed differently, as containing "unquenchable fire" and "worms that never die" where body and soul can be destroyed.[13] As evident from apocrypha, such as Ethiopic Book of Enoch, the idea of the underworld and Hell begin to conflate: In the Ethiopic Book of Enoch, the apostate Jews will suffer in Gehenna and for the Rabbis, it was a temporal punishment for Jews, but eternal for the Gentiles.[13] Closely after the composition of the New Testament, the idea arose that the Devil is also a prisoner to Hell.[13]
Punishment
Punishment in Hell typically corresponds to sins committed during life. Sometimes these distinctions are specific, with damned souls suffering for each sin committed, such as in Plato's Myth of Er or Dante's The Divine Comedy, but sometimes they are general, with condemned sinners relegated to one or more chambers of Hell or to a level of suffering.[citation needed]
Despite common depictions of Hell as a place containing fire, some other traditions portray Hell as cold. Buddhist – and particularly Tibetan Buddhist – descriptions of Hell feature an equal number of hot and cold hells. Among Christian descriptions Dante's Inferno portrays the innermost (9th) circle of Hell as a frozen lake of blood and guilt.[17] But cold also played a part in earlier Christian depictions of Hell or Purgatory, beginning with the Apocalypse of Paul, originally from the early third century;[18] the "Vision of Dryhthelm" by the Venerable Bede from the seventh century;[19] "St Patrick's Purgatory", "The Vision of Tundale" or "Visio Tnugdali", and the "Vision of the Monk of Eynsham", all from the twelfth century;[20] and the "Vision of Thurkill" from the early thirteenth century.[21]
Examples in different religions
Ancient Egypt
With the rise of the cult of Osiris during the Middle Kingdom, the "democratization of religion" offered to even his humblest followers the prospect of eternal life, with moral fitness becoming the dominant factor in determining a person's suitability.
At death a person faced judgment by a tribunal of forty-two divine judges. If they had led a life in conformance with the precepts of the goddess Maat, who represented truth and right living, the person was welcomed into the heavenly reed fields. If found guilty the person was thrown to Ammit, the "devourer of the dead" and would be condemned to the lake of fire.[23]
The person taken by the devourer is subject first to terrifying punishment and then annihilated. These depictions of punishment may have influenced medieval perceptions of the inferno in Hell via early Christian and Coptic texts.[24]
Purification for those considered justified appears in the descriptions of "Flame Island", where humans experience the triumph over evil and rebirth. For the damned complete destruction into a state of non-being awaits but there is no suggestion of eternal torture; the weighing of the heart in Egyptian mythology can lead to annihilation.[25][26]
The Tale of Khaemwese describes the torment of a rich man, who lacked charity, when he dies and compares it to the blessed state of a poor man who has also died.[27] Divine pardon at judgment always remained a central concern for the ancient Egyptians.[28]
Modern understanding of Egyptian notions of Hell relies on six ancient texts:[29]
- The Book of Two Ways (Book of the Ways of Rosetau)
- The Book of Amduat (Book of the Hidden Room, Book of That Which Is in the Underworld)
- The Book of Gates
- The Book of the Dead (Book of Going Forth by Day)
- The Book of the Earth
- The Book of Caverns
Ancient Mesopotamia
The Sumerian afterlife was a dark, dreary cavern located deep below the ground,[30] where inhabitants were believed to continue "a shadowy version of life on earth".[30] This bleak domain was known as Kur,[31]: 114 and was believed to be ruled by the goddess Ereshkigal.[30][32]: 184 All souls went to the same afterlife,[30] and a person's actions during life had no effect on how the person would be treated in the world to come.[30]
The souls in Kur were believed to eat nothing but dry dust[31]: 58 and family members of the deceased would ritually pour libations into the dead person's grave through a clay pipe, thereby allowing the dead to drink.[31]: 58 Nonetheless, funerary evidence indicates that some people believed that the goddess Inanna, Ereshkigal's younger sister, had the power to award her devotees with special favors in the afterlife.[30][33] During the Third Dynasty of Ur, it was believed that a person's treatment in the afterlife depended on how he or she was buried;[31]: 58 those that had been given sumptuous burials would be treated well,[31]: 58 but those who had been given poor burials would fare poorly.[31]: 58
The entrance to Kur was believed to be located in the Zagros Mountains in the far east.[31]: 114 It had seven gates, through which a soul needed to pass.[30] The god Neti was the gatekeeper.[32]: 184 [31]: 86 Galla were a class of demons that were believed to reside in the underworld;[31]: 85 their primary purpose appears to have been to drag unfortunate mortals back to Kur.[31]: 85 They are frequently referenced in magical texts,[31]: 85–86 and some texts describe them as being seven in number.[31]: 85–86 Several extant poems describe the galla dragging the god Dumuzid into the underworld.[31]: 86 The later Mesopotamians knew this underworld by its East Semitic name: Irkalla. During the Akkadian Period, Ereshkigal's role as the ruler of the underworld was assigned to Nergal, the god of death.[30][32]: 184 The Akkadians attempted to harmonize this dual rulership of the underworld by making Nergal Ereshkigal's husband.[30]
Ancient Greece and Rome
In classic Greek mythology, below heaven, Earth, and Pontus is Tartarus, or Tartaros (Ancient Greek: Τάρταρος). 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 of the deceased were judged after they paid for crossing the river of the dead and those who received punishment were sent to Tartarus.[34][non-primary source needed] 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. The Romans later adopted these views.
East Africa
The hell of Swahili mythology is called kuzimu, and belief in it developed in the 7th and 8th century under the influence of Muslim merchants at the East African coast.[35] It is imagined as very cold.[35]
West Africa
Serer religion rejects the general notion of heaven and hell.[36] In Serer religion, acceptance by the ancestors who have long departed is as close to any heaven as one can get. Rejection and becoming a wandering soul is a sort of hell for one passing over. The souls of the dead must make their way to Jaaniw (the sacred dwelling place of the soul). Only those who have lived their lives on earth in accordance with Serer doctrines will be able to make this necessary journey and thus be accepted by the ancestors. Those who cannot make the journey become lost and wandering souls, but they do not burn in "hell fire".[36][37]
In Yoruba religion, irredeemably wicked people (guilty of e.g. theft, witchcraft, murder, or cruelty[38]) are confined to Ọrun Apaadi (heaven of clay potsherds), while the good and charitable people continue to live in the ancestral realm, Orun Baba Eni (heaven of the fathers of humanity).[39]
Pacific
The Bagobo of the Philippines have the otherworld "Gimokodan", where the Red Region is reserved who those who died in battle, while ordinary people go to the White Region.[40]
East Asia
According to a few sources, Hell is below ground, and described as an uninviting wet[41] or fiery place reserved for sinful people in the Ainu religion, as stated by missionary John Batchelor.[42] However, belief in Hell does not appear in oral tradition of the Ainu.[43] Instead, there is belief within the Ainu religion that the soul of the deceased (ramat) would become a kamuy after death.[43] There is also belief that the soul of someone who has been wicked during lifetime, committed suicide, got murdered or died in great agony would become a ghost (tukap) who would haunt the living,[43] to come to fulfillment from which it was excluded during life.[44]
Judaism
Judaism does not have a specific doctrine about the afterlife, but it does have a mystical/Orthodox tradition of describing Gehinnom. Gehinnom is originally a grave and in later times a sort of Purgatory where one is judged based on one's life's deeds, or rather, where one becomes fully aware of one's own shortcomings and negative actions during one's life. The Kabbalah explains 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 Gehinnom forever; the longest that one can be there is said to be 12 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 not 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 Gehinnom. This is not 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.
Many scholars of Jewish mysticism, particularly of the Kabbalah, describe seven "compartments" or "habitations" of Hell, just as they describe seven divisions of heaven. These divisions go by many different names, and the most frequently mentioned are as follows:[45]
- Sheol (Hebrew: שְׁאוֹל – "underworld", "Hades"; "grave")
- Abaddon (Hebrew: אֲבַדּוֹן – "doom", "perdition")
- Be'er Shachat (Hebrew: בְּאֵר שַׁחַת, Be'er Shachath – "pit of corruption")
- Tit ha-Yaven (Hebrew: טִיט הַיָוֵן – "clinging mud")
- Sha'are Mavet (Hebrew: שַׁעֲרֵי מָוֶת, Sha'arei Maveth – "gates of death")
- Tzalmavet (Hebrew: צַלמָוֶת, Tsalmaveth – "shadow of death")
- Gehinnom (Hebrew: גֵיהִנוֹם, Gehinnom – "valley of Hinnom"; "Tartarus", "Purgatory")
Besides those mentioned above, there also exist additional terms that have been often used to either refer to Hell in general or to some region of the underworld:
- Azazel (Hebrew: עֲזָאזֵל, compd. of ez עֵז: "goat" + azal אָזַל: "to go away" – "goat of departure", "scapegoat"; "entire removal", "damnation")
- Dudael (Hebrew: דּוּדָאֵל – lit. "cauldron of God")
- Tehom (Hebrew: תְהוֹם – "abyss"; "sea", "deep ocean")[46]
- Tophet (Hebrew: תֹּפֶת or תוֹפֶת, Topheth – "fire-place", "place of burning", "place to be spit upon"; "inferno")[47][48]