Hell

A word used in Christian tradition to describe the place where the unrighteous go after death. The traditions about hell grew up largely after the biblical period. Where the word appears in the New Testament it is translating either the Greek word Gehenna (in the Gospels) or the word Tartarus (2 Peter 2.4). Gehenna was a valley just outside Jerusalem which was strongly associated with fire. Tartarus comes from Greek mythology and is an abyss below Hades in which the wicked were tormented.