You have to remember the apostles were preaching in the roman world using concepts and terms understandable to roman gentiles.
it was understood in the greco-roman world that hades was some place in the underworld. Its where the dead dwell. There locatedwas a dreadful dark region in the lower level called tartarus, basically the basement. But there were areas for the heroes and virtuous such as the elysian fields and a place for the majority called the asphodel meadows.
So is Abrahams bosom, third heaven, paradise, place of comfort, adjectives for the same basic place?
Is place of torment, darkness with gnashing of teeth, tartarus the same place adjectives for hades?
Yes, many words. And on top of that, I've been taught this before becoming Orthodox, and somewhat after. And it's not a thing that concerns me greatly, so I try to remember, but I've not given it careful study. Because of all of these things, it does confuse me a bit.
I remember being taught - and I thought Orthodoxy somewhat confirmed - that there was a place for the dead (most often referred to as Hades or simply "the grave" in Scripture) where all went before Christ was crucified. And that that place had different "areas" such that some were in torment, and some were in Abraham's bosom.
I was also taught that after the Resurrection, the righteous dead were with Christ "in paradise" Most often it was simply regarded as spirits being with God in heaven until the final judgement - but some get a little fuzzy on this. Orthodoxy has never told me definitively that departed righteous are in heaven with God.
Hell, the lake of fire, gehenna, and the place with the gnashing of teeth was always taught to be the place of the "unsaved" after the final judgment. Nothing was usually mentioned about where the souls of the condemned reside between death and judgment.
How much of this Orthodoxy affirms a little unsure of. I get VERY tenuous answers when I ask my priest. He will only affirm that souls experience a foretaste of what they will experience after the final judgment, and that the Saints are able to be connected with Christ in such a way that they are aware of our requests for intercession, and that God hears their prayers.
If that's as far as we go, I'm ok with that. I just wanted to take the chance to get some input to know where to draw the lines. But every time I hear anything, it's either not very much (as my priest tells me) or else it's nearly always contradicted by someone else in the Church. So I'm thinking we may not have a perfect consensus on much of anything?
I hope that explains why I ask. But I'm ok with not knowing more than Father M has told me. If that's what the Church teaches, then I'm ok with that.