Hades vs. gehenna

[heisey8]

Can anyone explain to me the difference between hades and gehenna in the bible? Do we know this is to differentiate between Hell and Purgatory? There is another place that begins with a “t”, although I don’t have my Bible in front of me. Does anyone know what that is referring to?
Thanks,
Nicole

 

[Lazerlike42]

Hades is the place of the dead. It is where the dead went before Christ to wait.

Gehenna is what we would call Hell. Neither refers to Purgatory.

 

[But_for_Grace]

Gehenna originated from the place just outside of Jerusalem that was used as the city dump, hence the references to the worm not dying and the fire not being quenched. The people would have been intimately familiar with it as a place where their trash was sent. People would labor day and night trying to burn up as much as possible, as maggots contunually spread among the filth.

(originally Ge bene Hinnom; i.e., “the valley of the sons of Hinnom”), a deep, narrow glen to the south of Jerusalem, where the idolatrous Jews offered their children in sacrifice to Molech (2Ch_28:3; 2Ch_33:6; Jer_7:31; Jer_19:2-6). This valley afterwards became the common receptacle for all the refuse of the city. Here the dead bodies of animals and of criminals, and all kinds of filth, were cast and consumed by fire kept always burning. It thus in process of time became the image of the place of everlasting destruction. (M.G. Easton M.A., D.D., Illustrated Bible Dictionary, 1897)

As you can see it was a very potent image for the Jews of the day.

 

[youthcrusader]

Lazerlike42:

Hades is the place of the dead. It is where the dead went before Christ to wait.

Gehenna is what we would call Hell. Neither refers to Purgatory.

Could you show me the source for this. I remember in listening to one of Scott Hahn’s talks that the greek word hades as opposed to gehenna, when translated into Latin became purgatoria. Because hades is the the place of eternal damnation but rather a reference to the dead or to the grave, isn’t it possible that hades or the netherworld could be Purgatory, and that the souls in the Old Testament that awaited Christ’s Ascension waited in a state of purification before the Messiah redeemed them?

 

[youthcrusader]

youthcrusader:

Because hades is the the place of eternal damnation but rather a reference to the dead or to the grave

I meant "Because hades is NOT

the place…"

 

[Liberian]

heisey8:

Can anyone explain to me the difference between hades and gehenna in the bible? Do we know this is to differentiate between Hell and Purgatory? There is another place that begins with a “t”, although I don’t have my Bible in front of me. Does anyone know what that is referring to?
Thanks,
Nicole

Nicole,

The third place is Tartarus and is mentioned only once in the Bible, in 2 Peter 2:4, as the place where the disobedient spirits went. The running commentary in my Bible says that the term comes from Greek mythology.

• Liberian

 

[Shiann]

youthcrusader:

Could you show me the source for this. I remember in listening to one of Scott Hahn’s talks that the greek word hades as opposed to gehenna, when translated into Latin became purgatoria. Because hades is the the place of eternal damnation but rather a reference to the dead or to the grave, isn’t it possible that hades or the netherworld could be Purgatory, and that the souls in the Old Testament that awaited Christ’s Ascension waited in a state of purification before the Messiah redeemed them?

In the New Testament, Christ refers by various names and figures to the place or state which Catholic tradition has agreed to call the limbus patrum. In Matt. 8:11, it is spoken of under the figure of a banquet “with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of Heaven” (cf. Luke 8:29; 14:15), and in Matt. 25:10 under the figure of a marriage feast to which the prudent virgins are admitted, while in the parable of Lazarus and Dives it is called “Abraham’s bosom” (Luke 16:22) and in Christ’s words to the penitent thief on Calvary the name paradise is used (Luke 23:43). St. Paul teaches (Eph. 4:9) that before ascending into Heaven Christ “also descended first into the lower parts of the earth,” and St. Peter still more explicitly teaches that “being put to death indeed, in the flesh, but enlivened in the spirit,” Christ went and “preached to those souls that were in prison, which had been some time incredulous, when they waited for the patience of God in the days of Noah” (I Pet 3:18-20).

It is principally on the strength of these Scriptural texts, harmonized with the general doctrine of the Fall and Redemption of mankind, that Catholic tradition has defended the existence of the limbus patrum as a temporary state or place of happiness distinct from Purgatory. As a result of the Fall, Heaven was closed against men. Actual possession of the beatific vision was postponed, even for those already purified from sin, until the Redemption should have been historically completed by Christ’s visible ascendancy into Heaven. Consequently, the just who had lived under the Old Dispensation, and who, either at death or after a course of purgatorial discipline, had attained the perfect holiness required for entrance into glory, were obliged to await the coming of the Incarnate Son of God and the full accomplishment of His visible earthly mission. Meanwhile they were “in prison,” as St. Peter says; but, as Christ’s own words to the penitent thief and in the parable of Lazarus clearly imply, their condition was one of happiness, notwithstanding the postponement of the higher bliss to which they looked forward. And this, substantially, is all that Catholic tradition teaches regarding the limbus patrum.

newadvent.org/cathen/09256a.htm

 

[robert_ambrose]

gehenna was the place outside the city walls where all the rubbish was thrown,hence it was continually burning, also it became home to most of the lepers. hades is the greek word for sheol the underworld .

 

[donosti]

Ghehenna was Jerusalem’s city dump.There was always fire in there in order to burn the garbage from the city.Jesus compared the permanent flames of this place with hell.Hades is the place of the dead according to Greek mithology.It is neither Heaven or hell.I is the afterlife,an unknown place.Christ makes difference between Hades,an unknown place,to the Kingdom of God,a place Jesus spoke many times about.This Hades mysterious Hades is an undesirable place compared to the Glory of God.:tiphat:

 

[Ourboy]

Can anyone point me to a source that better explains why Gehenna, obviously a physical, temporal place, would have been meant by Jesus to suggest eternal damnation, or at least eternal fire of some kind?

I’ve heard argued that because Jesus was talking about a trash dump, essentially, that he was not talking about a literal, eternal Hell. He was speaking more about a more temporary (and less tormenting) type of suffering. I’d like to be able to address that argument.

 

[thistle]

Can anyone explain to me the difference between hades and gehenna in the bible? Do we know this is to differentiate between Hell and Purgatory? There is another place that begins with a “t”, although I don’t have my Bible in front of me. Does anyone know what that is referring to?
Thanks,
Nicole

Father John Hardon’s Modern Catholic Dictionary:

HADES. In Greek religion the god of the underworld; consequently the kingdom ruled over by Hades, or the abode of the dead. In the Bible the Greek translation of the Hebrew sheol, also meaning the abode of the dead, or death, or the power of destruction, or the place of the wicked after death. (Etym. Greek Haid_s, the nether world.)

GEHENNA (Hinnom). A valley southwest of Jerusalem which developed an evil reputation among Jews because of idolatrous and barbarous events that took place there during the reigns of Ahaz and Manasseh (II Chronicles 28:1-4, 33:1-6). Jeremiah deplored the superstitious excesses and renamed it the Valley of Slaughter (Jeremiah 7:32). Yahweh warned the inhabitants it would become a “city of desolation” (Jeremiah 19:8). In the New Testament the name in Hebrew acquired the meaning of Hell. Jesus used it on numerous occasions, warning sinners they would be condemned to Hell if they continued their sinful ways (Matthew 5:22, 5:29; Mark 9:43).