Ok I am home now so .....
THis comes straight from the New Internationial Encyclopedia of Biblical words:
Hell. The popular notion of heaven and hell as the abodes of the souls of the dead is more or less correct. But as we have seen, "heaven" is used in a much broader, more significant sense. How then is "hell" used?
Three Greek words in the NT are most often used to express concepts associated with hell. The two most significant are
gehenna and
hades.
(See ABYSS) Gehenna occurs twelve times in the NT (Mt 5:22, 29-30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15, 33; Mk 9:43, 45, 47; Lk 12:5; Jas 3:6). It is always translated "hell" in the NIV. The Greek word translated "sent ... to hell" in 2 Pe 2:4 appears only there in the NT; it is
tartaroo, which means "to confine in Tartaros." Tartaros was the Greek name for the mythological abyss where rebellious gods were confined.
Hades occurs eleven times in the NT (Mt 11:23; 16:18; Lk 10:15; 16:23; Ac 2:27, 31; 1 Co 15:55; Rev 1:18; 6:8; 20:13-14). It is translated "Hades" in the NASB and variously by "death," "the grave," and "Hades" in the NIV.
The reason for the wider scope of translations in the NIV is that this version adopts the OT sense of the grave when quoting OT passages that contain
s'ol (Mt 11:23; Lk 10:15; Ac 2:27, 31). These passages and 1 Co 15:55 refer to the place where the body goes after death.
But in other uses,
hades means the temporary residence of the persons awaiting final judgment. Luke 16 contains Jesus' story of the rich man and Lazarus. Both of these men died. The rich man found himself in
hades, "where he was in torment" (v. 23; cf. v. 28). He was in "agony" and in "fire" (v. 24). But Lazarus was comforted and was in Abraham's very arms. Between those in
hades and the blessed dead there is a great and uncrossable gulf (v. 26).
Many believe that Jesus, at the time of his resurrection, released the saved of OT times from their place of waiting, causing them to go directly into God's presence (cf. 1 Th 4:14). Also, in Revelation's prophetic portrayal of the end it is only those awaiting final condemnation who are in
hades when the "dead [will be] judged according to what they [have] done as recorded in the books" (Rev 20:12).
In NT times, the rabbis used the word
gehenna to indicate the place of final punishment. Jesus maintained this meaning in the Gospels. In his warnings to his listeners Jesus often spoke of
gehenna in association with fire (Mt 5:22; 18:9; Mk 9:43, 48). The phrase "eternal fire" is also used of hell, and human beings will be punished there in a fire prepared for "the devil and his angels" (Mt 25:41).
The most striking picture of eternal punishment is found in the Book of Revelation. There the state of the condemned is described. They are in a "fiery lake of burning sulfur" (19:20; cf. 20:10), a "lake of fire" (20:14-15), where "they will be tormented day and night for ever and ever" (20:10).
Hope that helps
