Hell

HELL, Infernus; in Hebrew, Scheol. שאול Scheol. Infernus,This word in holy Scripture signifies often the Grave, the bottom of the Earth, where Sepulchrum.the bodies of the dead rest. Jacob says, that he shall go down into the Grave, or into Hell, overwhelmed with sorrow, for Gen. xxxvii. 35.the death of his dear son Joseph. The Conspirators Corah, Dathan, and Abiram, were swallowed up in the Earth, and descended quick into Hell; that is to say, they were buried alive. Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell, says the Psalmist; thou wilt not suffer my Body to putrify in the Grave.

Hell is often put for the place, where the souls of men continue after their separation from the body. Isaiah speaking to the King of Babylon, says, Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming; it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth. Ezekiel speaks much after the same manner to the King of Egypt: In the day when the King of Assyria went down to Hell, I caused a mourning, I covered the deep for him… They who were before in the nether parts of the earth were comforted at his arrival. It is in these subterraneous places, that the Giants groan under the waters; according to Job’s expression. Here it was that the rich man was buried. The rebellious Angels were cast down into Hell, and delivered into chains of darkness.2 Pet. ii. 4.

Lastly, the name of Hell sometimes denotes the place where the Souls of the Saints waited for the coming of our Saviour, and from thence after his Resurrection went to heaven, there to enjoy eternal happiness. Into this Hell Jesus Christ descended after his Resurrection: Descendit ad Inferos. Of him it is said, Thou shalt not leave my Soul in Hell, neither shalt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. To him likewise are applied these words of Hosea, O Death, I will be thy plagues; O Grave, or Hell, I will be thy destruction, &c.

We have heretofore, in the Article ELISIAN FIELDS, taken notice of the opinion entertained by Jews and Heathens, concerning the state of the Soul after death. The Learned are divided as to the Origin, and first Authors of Hell, Tartarus, the Elisian Fields, and what we read in the Greek and Latin Fathers, concerning the state of Souls separated from the Body. Some pretend, that the ancient Lucas Brugensis. See Basnage Hist. des Juifs, t. 4. l. 6. c. 31.Jews acknowledged no other than temporal rewards and punishments for the virtuous and the wicked. The Law seems to promise no others. It threatens the Israelites with an untimely and ignominious death; with the severest penalties, with cutting off or extermination, with excommunication, with the extinction of their families, with barrenness in their lands, with captivity and slavery, with being transported into a strange country, with being conquered and pursued by their enemies, with seeing an heaven of brass, and a land of iron, &c. but never with Hell and eternal Death; and the like in proportion, as to rewards. It promises long life, a numerous family, plentiful harvests, fruitful flocks, and profound peace throughout their country; victory over their enemies, riches, plenty, honours, and every thing that may gratify the self-love and senses of mankind; but it never says any thing of eternal Life, of the glory of Paradise, or of the rewards of the other Life.

The Learned are of opinion, that when the Jews became conversant with the Greeks, they began to enquire into what Homer and the other ancient Poets had said of Hell, Tartarus, and the Elisian Fields; and that then, and not before, the Jewish Doctors were observed to be divided in their sentiments, some having adopted what the Greeks said, others adhering to the old opinions received in their nation. And this division produced, as they say, the Sects which afterwards appeared among the Jews: those of the Pharisees and Essenians were more favourable to the opinions of the Greeks, and that of the Sadducees more conformable to the ancient Tradition of the Hebrews. This is what these Authors have asserted.

Others think, that the Jews received these opinions rather from the Persians and Egyptians than the Greeks; because they are to be met with among the oriental People and Egyptians, as well as among the Greeks, and there is a general prepossession, that the Religion of the Greeks was derived from the Eastern People or Egyptians, and formed upon the Ideas only which have been borrowed from other places. The Authors of these opinions have this in common, that they agree in their judgment of the Jews borrowing from other people, the notions which they had of Hell and Paradise, and that the Christians received the same from them.

But upon a nearer examination of the writings of the Hebrews, we shall find, that they thought and spoke almost like the Greeks before Homer, Hesiod, and the most ancient Poets of this nation. Job, the Psalmist, Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, make mention very clearly of Hell, the place where the wicked are detained. Moses himself takes notice of a fire which is kindled in God’s anger, and shall burn unto the lowest Hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundation Deut. xxxii. 22. Deut. xxx. 15.of the mountains. And in another place, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil. It is evident, that good men are not always rewarded in this life, nor the wicked punished in this world according to their merit. Moses therefore intended to point out another life, and another death, other goods, and other evils, than those of this life. And if the Hebrews expected nothing after death, why should Balaam desire of God, that his end might resemble theirs? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be Numb. xxiii. 10.like his.

But let us come to more express testimonies. It is agreed, that Job lived pretty near the time of Moses: and though there may be some difficulty as to the Author of the Book, which goes under his name, some attributing it to Job himself, others to Moses, others to Solomon, and others again to Isaiah; we have reason to believe however, that the writer of this work has expressed the sentiments of Job, that is to say, those which were at that time received in his country, and among the Edomites, or Arabians. Now he distinctly describes the Pains of Hell. He says, that the Giants, those wicked Wretches of old, who corrupted all the ways of Nature by their sins, and whose abominations God drowned in the general Deluge, that these Giants groan under the waters, and they who dwell with them. The place of their punishment, Hell, is naked before God, and destruction hath no covering. And in another passage, Drought and heat consume the snow-waters; so doth the grave, or Hell, those which have sinned. The womb shall forget him, the worm shall feed sweetly on him.

This is all previous to the Poets, who have informed us, that the Giants rebelling against Jupiter, were plunged under the waters, and imprisoned under mountains.

The Reader may consult² Homer, Hesiod, and the other Poets who wrote after them.

Solomon, who is more ancient than all the Greek Authors, speaks of Hell in the same manner almost as Job: he mentions the Giants; Libertine women, he says, allure fools to the enjoyment of pleasures, who perceive not that this is the way to Hell, where the Giants³ have their abode; and that they who eat at the table of a debauched woman, go into the depths of Hell. He says in another place, That the house of an harlot inclineth unto death, and that her paths lead to Hell, or to the Giants… and that none who go unto Prov. v. 5.her return again. And again, That her feet go down to death, and her steps take hold on Prov. vii. 27.Hell. And, Her house is the way to Hell, going down to the chambers of death. And Prov. xv. 11.again, Hell and destruction are before the Lord, how much more then the hearts of the children of men? Here then again, Hell, Perdition, and the Abode of the Giants, are represented as the place where the wicked, the debauched, and adulterers are confined and punished. This certainly was no imitation from Homer or Hesiod, much less from Virgil, no more than that other passage in the same Solomon; The man that wandereth Prov. xxi. 16.out of the way of understanding, shall remain in the congregation of the Giants: in cœtu gigantum.

If we could prove that all the Psalms were David’s, we might find excellent proofs in these divine Hymns, against those who pretend, that the Jews of old had no distinct idea of Hell; but supposing the Author of the lxxxviith Psalm to have lived no earlier than the captivity of Babylon, it would still be very certain, that he did not borrow his sentiments of Hell from any of the Greek writings. He addresses himself to God in the following terms; Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee? or, according to the Hebrew, Psalm lxxxviii. 10, 12.Shall the Rephaims rise to publish thy praises? Doest thou expect that the old Giants should come forth out of Hell to praise thee? He adds, Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? For Hell, Destruction, and Forgetfulness are synonymous words. The very Heathens placed the river Lethe, or of Forgetfulness, in Hell; and maintained, that the dead drunk of it, in order by this means to lose the remembrance of life:

The Prophet Isaiah was a contemporary almost with Hesiod and Homer; Ezekiel lived some time after these old Poets: but it may be affirmed upon very good grounds, that they had no manner of knowledge either of their persons or writings; that they speak of Hell, and the state of the dead in another life, after a manner at least as clear as they, and in expressions very like theirs. Isaiah mentions the fire of the damned which never is to be extinguished, the worm which gnaws Isa. lxvi. 24.them and dies not, and the insupportable stench which every way surrounds them. Corpore virorum qui prævaricati sunt in me, vermis eorum non morietur, & ignis eorum non extinguetur, & erunt usque ad satietatem visionis universæ carnis. The Hebrew literally, they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh. The same Prophet in another place Isa. xxvi. 14, 19. Isa. xiv. 9, &c.says, The dead shall not live, they are deceased, thay shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish. Here therefore they are represented to be in Hell, and in a state of oblivion. But thy dead men (the Israelites) shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise: awake, and sing ye that dwell in dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and thou shalt destroy the land of the Giants; or rather, according to the Hebrew, thou shalt cast down the land of the Giants. Thou shalt overwhelm thine enemies the Giants, with the earth which shall fall upon them, and close the mouth of the great deep upon them. Compare Ezek. xxxi. 10. Jerem. Lament. iii. 5. Psal. lxiii. 16. and what the Poets say of the gates of Hell, and the difficulty of going out of it.

The same Isaiah, speaking of the King of Babylon’s fall, says to him, Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth, it hath raised up from their thrones all the Kings of the nations. All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? Art thou become like to us? thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols; the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. How art thou fal’n from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations? Thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, yet thou shalt be brought down to Hell, to the sides of the pit: they that see thee, shall narrowly look upon thee and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms? Here we have a Prosopopœia very like those which we meet with in the Poets and profane Authors, who describe Hell and the Elisian Fields.

Ezek. xxxi. 15, 16.Ezekiel is still more express. In the day when the Assyrian went down to the grave, I caused a mourning: I shut the entrance of the deep upon him, (that he might not get out.) I restrained the floods thereof, and the great waters were stayed, and all the trees of Eden, and the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth. They also went down into Hell with him, unto them that be slain with the sword, and they that were his arm, that dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the heathen… Thou shalt be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth, thou shalt lie with them that be slain by the sword: this is Pharaoh and all his multitude.

He afterwards addresses his discourse to the King of Egypt, and tells him, he must descend Ezek. xxxii. 18, 19,descend into Hell with others. Go down, and be thou laid with the uncircumcised: the strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of Hell, with them that help him: they are gone down, they lie uncircumcised, slain by the sword. A-shur is there, and all her company, all of them slain, fal’n by the sword, which caused terrour in the land of the living. There is Elam, Meshech, and Tubal, and all her multitude. They shall not lie with the mighty that are fal’n of the uncircumcised, which are gone down to Hell with their weapons of war: and they have laid their swords under their heads, &c.

Here it is to be observed, as well as in the Poets, that the dead retain in Hell the marks of their profession, and the instruments of their inclinations. Here the Heroes wear their swords in Hell, and place them under their bolsters: in Virgil they have their horses, chariots, arms, and exercises in the Elisian Fields.

Joseph. de Bello, l. 2. c. 12. & Antiq. l. 18. c. 2.The Essenians, of whom Josephus gives us so advantageous an idea, entertained almost the same opinions as the Heathens, with relation to the souls of men separated from their bodies. They held the soul to be immortal, and that as soon as it was released from the body, it soared with great joy towards heaven; freed, as it were, from a long bondage, and loosed from the ties of the earth: that the souls of good men went beyond the ocean to a place of delight and rest, where they are not subject to any irregularity of seasons; those, on the contrary, of the wicked, are confined to places exposed to all the injuries of air, where they suffer eternal torments. Josephus adds, that from these ideas, the Greek Poets seem to him to have forged the delicious abodes of their Heroes and Demi-gods, and the punishments wherewith wicked men are tortured in Hell under the dominion of Pluto.

The Jews place Hell in the center of the earth. We have observed above, that they called it the deep, and destruction; that they believed it to be situated under waters and mountains; they likewise term it often Gehennon or Gehenna, which signifies the valley of Hinnon, or the sons of Hinnon, which was, as it were, the common Sewer of Jerusalem, where children were sacrificed to the God Moloch. See GEHENNA. The Heathen, in like manner, torments believed the place of torture to be in the Virgil. Æneid. vi. ver. 576.deepest part of the earth.

Matth. xvi. 18. Jonah ii. 3. Isai. xxxi. 9.The Gates of Hell, mentioned by our Saviour in the Gospel, signify nothing more than the power of Hell; for the eastern people call the Palaces of their Princes by the names of Gates. There are three, as the Jews say, belonging to Hell: the first is in the wilderness, and by that Korah, Dathan, and Abiram descended into Hell: The second is in the sea; for it is said that Jonah, who was thrown into the sea, cried to God out of the belly of Hell: The third is in Jerusalem; for Isaiah tells us, That the fire of the Lord is in Sion, and his furnace in Jerusalem. These remarks are but trifling: it is certain however, that Pythagoras and the Poets speak of the Gates of Virgil. Æneid. vi.Hell. Virgil:

The Hebrews acknowledged seven degrees of Pains in Hell, because they find this place called by seven different names in Scripture; and are persuaded, that there is a great diversity in the pains endured by the damned. Christians have likewise owned, that there are several degrees of them: but no one ever thought of determining the number. It is very credible that it is infinite, as the degrees of men’s demerits are innumerable. Many Divines admit of four sorts of Hell, namely, the Hell of the Damned, Purgatory, the Limbus of Children, and that of the Fathers; for all these places are sometimes called Hell: but this name, properly and rigorously speaking, belongs only to that of the damned.

Besides the torment of fire, which is that of the sense, and acknowledged by Mussulmen as well as us, they acknowledge likewise the pœna damni, which is the most terrible of all, and without which the other would be inconsiderable: this is a separation from God, a privation of his sight, and of the beatifick vision, wherein consists the most extreme punishment of the damned.

Leo of Modena’s C. remonies of the Jews. Part 5. c. 12.The eternity of Hell-torments is acknowledged throughout the whole Scripture: the fire of the damned will never be extinguished, nor their worm die. But the Jews believe, that there are some among them, who will not continue for ever in Hell. They of Hell. They maintain that every Jew, who is not infected with some heresy, and has not acted contrary to other points mentioned by the Rabbins, is not above a year in Purgatory; and that Infidels only, or people eminently wicked, remain perpetually in Hell. Every one knows, that Origen was also of opinion, that the torments of the damned would one day have an end. Manasseh Ben-Israel Manasseh Ben-Israel de Resurrect. l. ii. c.1. p.181.names three sorts of persons who would be damned eternally; Atheists, who deny the existence of God; they who deny the divine authority of the Law; and, lastly, they who reject the Resurrection of the Dead. These people, though otherwise their lives were pure, will be punished with endless tortures. Other Rabbins, such as Maimonides, Moses Maim. Porta retribution. Lent. resurrect. Jud. p. ult.Abrabanel, &c. assert, that after a certain time, the souls of wicked men will be annihilated.

As the happiness of Paradise is expressed in Scripture under the idea of a feast or wedding, at which there is a great deal of light, joy, and pleasure, so Hell is represented in the New Testament as a dismally dark place, where there is nothing but grief, sadness, vexation, rage, despair, and gnashing of teeth, like one excluded, or during the obscurity of the night, and the severity of the cold, driven from the place of entertainment, where he pleased himself with the thoughts of being admitted.

The Rabbins acknowledge three different sorts of torments in Hell, Cold, Heat, Vide Bartolocci, l.2. p. 134. Job xxiv. 19.and Trouble of Mind, or Despair. Cold and fire are taken notice of in Job: Ad nimium calorem transeat ab aquis nivium. Let him 4 Esdr.return from the cold of snow-water to excessive heat. And the Author of the fourth book of Esdras, places the souls of the damned between fire and water; having fire on the right, and water on the left-hand, and equally tormented by both. The Rabbins believe, that God took from Hell the fire wherewith he burnt Sodom, and the water wherewith he overflowed the earth at the time of the Deluge. Thus the Heathens imagined a river of fire in Hell, and another as cold as ice, which they called Phlegeton and Acheron; and said, some of the Titans were tormented with fire, and others with Virgil. Æneid. vi.water.

The regret, remorse, and despair of the damned, are expressed by the Rabbins under the name of disorder in the soul: this Isai. lxvi. 24. Mark ix. 43, 45.is what Isaiah, and after him the Gospel, means by that worm which gnaws and does not die. Vermis eorum non moritur.

The Mussulmen (says D’Herbelot, Bibl. Orient. p. 368. Gehennem) have borrowed the name Gehennem or Gehim from the Jews and Christians, to signify Hell; Gehennem in Arabic signifies a very deep ditch; and Gehim an ugly and deformed man; Ben-Gehennem, a son of Hell, a reprobate. The Angel who presides in Hell, they call Thabeck.

Alcoran. ch. of the Stone.As the Jews acknowledge seven degrees of torments in Hell, so do they seven Gates; which likewise is the opinion of several Commentators, who suppose those Mussulmen to be in the first degree of torment, called Gehennem, who have deserved to be involved in it. The second degree, named Ladha, is reserved for Christians. The third, called Hothama, for the Jews. The fourth, Sair, is appointed for the Sabians. The fifth, Sacar, for the Magians, or Guebres, who are worshippers of fire. The sixth, called Gehim, for Pagans and Idolaters. The seventh, is the deepest part of the Abyss, it goes by the name of Haoviath, and is reserved for Hypocrites, who disguise their Religion, and conceal another in their heart different from that which they profess outwardly.

Others explain these seven Gates of Hell in another manner; for example, there are some who believe that they denote the seven capital sins: some take them for the seven principal members of the body, which men make use of to offend God, and are the seven principal instruments of their crimes. For this reason, a Persian Poet uses this expression; You have the seven Gates of Hell in your body; but the soul may make seven Locks for these Gates, the Key whereof is your Free-will, which may be used so effectually by you, as to close these Gates in such a manner, that they may never more open for your Destruction.

Read this article in its place on the printed pages