Biblical Studies

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HELL

Carol Newsom
Emory University

Introduction
General Overviews
Reference Works
Antecedents to Biblical Concepts of the Abode of Dead
Abode of the Dead in the Hebrew Bible
Terminology for the Abode of the Dead
Life and Death Contrast
Gehenna
Eternal Punishment in the New Testament
The Gospels
The Epistles
Revelation
Hell in the Jewish Apocalypses
Primary Sources and Translations
Secondary Literature
Hell in the early Christian Apocalypses
Primary Sources and Translations
Secondary Literature

INTRODUCTION
Today, the mention of hell usually invokes imagery of a fiery place, below the earth in which
the wicked are tortured for eternity. Although this dominant model of hell owes much to
the history of interpretation of Jewish and Christian scriptures, the reader of the Bible is
hard-pressed to locate this specific depiction of hell in the Bible itself. There are a number
of reasons for this apparent paucity of references to hell in the Bible. To begin, the concepts
of the abode of the dead in ancient Judaism (i.e. Sheol, the Pit, Abaddon) did not refer to a
lively afterlife per se, and were not places in which a person received rewards or
punishments. Instead, many of the ideas about the abode of the dead in the Hebrew Bible
envision the place of the dead as a generally unpleasant place in which all departed persons
reside in a kind of shadowy existence. During the Hellenistic and early Roman periods new
ideas about the afterlife begin to develop within Judaism and Christianity for a number of
reasons. Namely, Hellenism allowed for greater exposure to ideas from other cultures. The
social and political pressures of this period also led to internal developments within Second
Temple Judaism, including the development of new genres of literature that addressed the
changing concerns of ancient Judaism. The New Testament documents reflect a time period
in which the Judeo-Christian concept of hell was in flux, containing conceptual breadth
because of the dynamic cultural climate in which they were written. For instance, the
association of eternal punishment with fire and torment emerged within the Jewish and
Christian apocalyptic literature of the Hellenistic period. As a result of this development, the
extent to which a New Testament text engages the idea of hell as a fiery place of
punishment is often determined by the author’s apocalyptic outlook. Investigations into the
study of the topic of “hell” in the bible deal with the constellation of Hebrew and Greek
words that are translated as “hell.” Scholars are not only attentive to the way these words
are used the biblical texts, but also to the relationship between the ancient Jewish and
Christian uses of these terms and the correlative concepts in surrounding cultures. In order
to trace the history of the idea of hell within second Temple Judaism and early Christianity,
research also considers the Pseudepigrapha and Apocrypha that discuss eternal
punishment.

GENERAL OVERVIEWS
There are a number of general overviews that treat the topic of hell. The following
representative works each offer some discussion of the relevant biblical texts in the course
of their historical or theological overviews. Bremmer 2002 and Segal 2004 each treat the
topic of hell within a larger conversation about the historical development of the concept of
the afterlife. Despite their wide angle lens, both Bremmer 2002 and Segal 2004 give
detailed treatment to the role of biblical texts within that history. Bernstein 1993 and Minois
1991 provide diachronic historical analysis, and are focused more specifically on the topic of
hell. Avery-Peck and Neusner 1995 and Nicklas 2011 are both collections of essays that
include treatments of specific texts or particular historical issues in the study of the afterlife.
Vorgrimler 1993 also gives a diachronic historical view of the concept of hell, but does so
from the perspective of a systematic theologian, attentive to theological issues. Seymour
2000 deals with philosophical and theological tensions between the concept of eternal
punishment and the theistic traditions in which they arise.

Avery-Peck, Alan J. and Jacob Neusner eds. Death, Life-after-Death, Resurrection, and the
World-to Come in the Judaisms of Antiquity. Leiden: Brill, 1995.
Collection of essays that discusses the topic of “hell” as part of a broader discussion
about death and the afterlife within ancient Judaism. Includes essays on the concept
of the afterlife in the Psalms, Wisdom literature, Apocalyptic literature, the Dead Sea
Scrolls, the Gospels, and Rabbinic literature.

Bernstein, Alan E. The Formation of Hell: Death and Retribution in the Ancient and Early
Christian Worlds. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993.
An overview of hell that focuses on the development of the idea in Greek, Roman,
Jewish and early Christian milieux, concluding with the views of Augustine. Since
Bernstein is concerned with a relatively shorter period of time, his treatment of the
theme within the biblical texts is more expansive than some of the other overviews.

Bremmer, Jan. The Rise and Fall of the Afterlife: The 1995 Read-Tuckwell Lectures at the
University of Bristol. New York: Routledge, 2002.
A collection of essays that were originally delivered as lectures, exploring the topic of
human immortality. Provides a more detailed analysis of the cultural exchange of
ideas about the afterlife than some of the other overviews, focusing on the historical
relationships between each of the distinct conceptions of the afterlife within
antiquity.

Minois, Georges. Histoire des Enfers. Paris: Fayard, 1991.

A broad “history of Hell,” in which Minois traces the development of the idea,
focusing less on the historical analysis of each iteration of the theme in its context
than on the diachronic history of the idea of hell. Published in German as Die Hölle :
zur Geschichte einer Fiktion. München : Dt. Taschenbuch-Verl., 1996.

Nicklas, Tobias et al. Other Worlds and Their Relation to This World: Early Jewish and Ancient
Christian Traditions. Boston: Brill, 2010.
A collection of essays which includes treatment of the concept of “hell” as part of
topical essays on “other worlds” within the Jewish and Christian literature of
antiquity. This volume includes essays on “other worlds” in the Enochic literature,
the Dead Sea Scrolls, Rabbinic literature, Virgil, the New Testament, and the early
Christian apocalypses.
Segal, Alan F. Life after Death: A History of the Afterlife in the Religions of the West. New
York: Doubleday, 2004.
An overview of the concept of the afterlife as it pertains to Western religious
traditions, which includes significant chapters on the concept of afterlife in First
Temple Israel, Second Temple Israel, Paul, the Gospels, the Early Church Fathers, and
the Rabbis. Segal’s introduction to the topic includes basic historical background for
each of the texts he discusses.

Seymour, Charles Steven. A Theodicy of Hell. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic, 2000.

An historical study of philosophical and theological problems raised by the concept of
hell that attempts to reconcile the concept of eternal punishment with its roots in
theistic traditions that affirm God’s goodness.

Vorgrimler, Herbert. Geschichte der Hölle. München: W. Fink, 1993.

A very broad overview of the concept of hell, beginning with Sumerian ideas and
continuing chronologically to the present day. Working from the tradition of
systematic theology, Vorgrimler is primarily concerned with hell as a theological
concept.

REFERENCE WORKS
The reference works on the subject of hell in the bible that offer the most basic introduction
to the topic are the encyclopedia entries, which provide lists of the most relevant primary
and secondary literature, and introduce the major scholarly questions about hell. Bauckham
1992 provides an excellent starting point for researchers who are new to the topic,
discussing Hades and all of the relating terminology that is often translated as “hell.” Lewis
1992 provides more focused treatment of the concepts of the abode of the dead within the
Hebrew Bible, and Watson 1992 is a specific analysis of the development of the concept of
“Gehenna.” Frankemölle 2007 gives equal treatment to the Hebrew Bible and the New
Testament, and also offers a brief introduction to the rhetorical and theological function of
hell in the Bible. Frithjof Gent 2002 and Segal 2006 offer data that will be useful for
comparative historiography, discussing the ways in which Hades and the abode of the dead
were conceived in surrounding cultures. Charlesworth 1983 and Hennecke and
Schneemelcher 1991 offer English translations of the relevant primary texts in the
Pseudepigrapha and New Testament Apocrypha, with critical introductions that accompany
each text.

Bauckham, Richard. "Hades, Hell." In The Anchor Bible Dictionary, Vol. 3. Edited by David
Noel Freedman, 14-16. New York: Doubleday, 1992.
Compares and contrasts the different uses of the term “Hades” in Greek literature,
including succinct summaries of the usage of this word in the LXX, the
Pseudepigrapha, the New Testament and the Apocrypha. Bauckham also discusses
the relationship between Hades and other related terms that are often translated as
“hell.”

Charlesworth, James H. Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. 2 vols. Garden City, NY: Doubleday,
1983.
English translations of the Pseudepigrapha, with critical introductions accompanying
each text.

Frankemölle, Hubert. “Hell: New Testament.” In Religion Past and Present, Vol.6. Edited by
Hans Dieter Betz et al., 37-38. Leiden: Brill, 2007.
Provides separate treatments of hell in the “Old Testament” and “New Testament”
that discuss the relevant terminology as well as the rhetorical and theological
function of the concept of hell within the Bible. This is the English translation of
 “Hölle.” In Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart Vol. 3 Edited by Hans Dieter Betz
et al., 1844-1854. Tübingen : Mohr Siebeck, 1998.

Frithjof Gent, Roald. “Hades.” In Brill’s New Pauly: Encyclopedia of the Ancient World,
Antiquity, Vol.5. Edited by Hubert Cancik and Helmuth Schneider, 1076-1077. Leiden: Brill,
2002.
Provides a brief introduction to the various ways in which “Hades” was understood in
the Greek and Latin literature, and the possible development of that concept
between the time of Homer and the 5th century B.C.E.

Hennecke, Edgar and Wilhelm Schneemelcher eds., New Testament Apocrypha . trans.
Robert M. Wilson. 2 vols. Louisville, Ky: Westminster John Knox, 1991.
English translations of the New Testament Apocrypha, with critical introductions
accompanying each text. This is the English translation of the 6 th German Edition of
Neutestamentlichen Apokryphen. Tübingen : Mohr Siebeck, 1989.

Lewis, Theodore J. "Dead, Abode of the." In The Anchor Bible Dictionary, Vol. 2. Edited by
David Noel Freedman, 101-105. New York: Doubleday, 1992.
A concise yet thorough discussion of the relevant issues in the study of Sheol in the
Hebrew Bible, summarizing briefly the other terminology for the abode of the dead,
and describing the use of the term Hades in the New Testament.
Segal, Alan. “Dead, Abode of the.” In New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. 2.
Edited by Katharine Doob Sackenfeld, 63-65. Nashville: Abingdon, 2006.
Discusses the concept of the abode of the dead in the Ancient Near East, comparing
and contrasting the ideas about post-mortem dwelling places in Ancient Egypt,
Mesopotamia and Canaan, and Israel.

Watson, Duane F. "Gehenna." In Anchor Bible Dictionary, Vol.2. Edited by David Noel
Freedman, 926-28. New York:Doubleday, 1992.
Traces the development of the idea of Gehenna from earliest references to the
“Valley of Hinnom” in the Hebrew Bible, to its later association with eternal
punishment, providing a helpful introduction to the most relevant primary sources.

ANTECEDENTS TO BIBLICAL CONCEPTS OF THE ABODE OF DEAD

Much of the research on the concept of hell in Biblical literature takes a comparative
approach, examining concepts of the abode of the dead and the afterlife from surrounding
cultures. The Mesopotamian, Canaanite, Egyptian, Babylonian and Ugaritic understandings
of the afterlife help to illuminate the development of this concept in the Hebrew Bible. Hays
2011 provides an excellent starting place for understanding the relationship between the
concept of the afterlife in Ancient Israel and other Ancient Near Eastern cultures. Taylor
2001 describes Egyptian burial practices, and texts recording the myths of Isis and Osiris,
illuminating the relationship between the belief in the afterlife and the major political and
social developments of ancient Egypt. Pardee 2002 offers the most up to date study of the
cultic practices at Ugarit. Included as an example of the way in which the comparative
material can help illuminate the ancient Jewish understanding of the afterlife, Sanders 2009
explores the possible Assyrian roots of the later apocalyptic ideas of a tour of hell. For the
study of the New Testament scholars look not only to the Hebrew Bible and ancient Judaism,
but also to Greek and Roman traditions regarding Hades. Albinus 2000 is a conceptual
study of the distinctive ways of understanding Hades within Greek literature. Morris 1989
and Sourvinou-Inwood 1995 each conduct diachronic studies of the ancient Greek attitudes
toward death, but with differing assessments of the reasons for major differences in the
conception of death in ancient Greece. Edmonds 2004 challenges many of the long-
standing hypotheses about ancient “Orphism,” most notably that the concept of a “lively
afterlife” was a departure from the normative Greek conceptions of Hades.
Albinus, Lars. The House of Hades: Studies in Ancient Greek Eschatology. Aarhus [Denmark]:
Aarhus University Press, 2000.
Overview of the different ways in which Hades was conceptualized in ancient Greece
in literature, philosophy, religion, and art.

Edmonds, Radcliffe G. Myths of the Underworld Journey in Plato, Aristophanes, and the
'Orphic' Gold Tablets. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Edmonds provides an alternative point of view to much of the current scholarship on
Greek ideas about the afterlife, performing a literary analysis of the relevant texts
with careful attention to the distinctive way in which each author uses particular
elements of the katabasis myth.

Hays, Christopher B. Death in the Iron Age II and in First Isaiah. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck,
2011.
Not only engages questions about the conception of the afterlife in ancient Israel and
the ANE, but also provides an up to date history of the relevant scholarship.

Morris, Ian. “Attitudes toward Death in Archaic Greece.” Classical Antiquity 8 (1989): 296-
320.
A short diachronic study of Greek attitudes toward death, identifying the sociological
factors that contributed to differences or shifts in perception.

Pardee, Dennis. Ritual Cult at Ugarit. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2002.
A collection of primary texts that reflect ritual practices at Ugarit, some of which
include rites for the deified royal dead.

Sanders, Seth L. “The First Tour of Hell: from Neo-Assyrian Propaganda to Early Jewish
Revelation.” Journal Of Ancient Near Eastern Religions 9 (2009): 151-169.
A representative example of history of religions scholarship on Ancient Near Eastern
conceptions of the abode of the dead.

Sourvinou-Inwood, Christiane. "Reading" Greek Death: To the End of the Classical Period.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995.
Sourvinou-Inwood provides a diachronic analysis of Greek understandings of death,
focusing upon psychological factors that influenced the ways in which death and the
afterlife were conceived.

Taylor, John H. Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt. London: British Museum, 2001.
Taylor treats the textual and material evidence for the beliefs and practices
surrounding death in Ancient Egypt, drawing upon the collection at the British
Museum in London.

ABODE OF THE DEAD IN THE HEBREW BIBLE

There are several different scholarly approaches to the study of the abode of the dead within
the Hebrew Bible. Works such as Rosenberg 1980 and Tromp 1969 take a philological
approach, beginning with a literary-historical study of the various terms that are used to
refer to the abode of the dead. Eberhardt 2007, Avery-Peck and Neusner 1995 ask historical
and social scientific questions about the distinctive ways in which the abode of the dead was
conceived over the period of time in which the Bible was written. Hays 2011 is an example
of a study that takes into account this conceptual diversity, examining the understandings of
the abode of the dead during a particular period of history in order to illuminate the
iterations of that concept in a particular text. Brichto 1973 has questioned the extent to
which the abode of the dead is connected to cultic understandings of death in Ancient Israel.
In a different kind of attempt to engage religious praxis, Childs 1987 and Levenson 2006
consider the way in which these various historical considerations bear upon larger
theological questions about understandings of life and death and good and evil in ancient
Israel.

Avery-Peck, Alan J. and Jacob Neusner eds. Death, Life-after-Death, Resurrection, and the
World-to Come in the Judaisms of Antiquity. Leiden: Brill, 1995.
Collection of essays, which probe the issue of the relative paucity of references to the
afterlife in the Hebrew Bible, providing an excellent summary of the state of the
question, and cautioning the reader against hypothesizing one static view of the
afterlife for all of ancient Judaism. Includes essays on the concept of the afterlife in
the Psalms, Wisdom literature, and Apocalyptic literature.

Brichto, Herbert C. “Kin, Cult, Land and Afterlife – A Biblical Complex” Hebrew Union College
Annual 44 (1973): 1–54.
Watershed article on the cult of the dead in Ancient Israel, which argues for a robust
understanding of the dead as a part of the ancient family, and isolates evidence for
this view of an “afterlife” in the Hebrew Bible.

Childs, Brevard S. “Death and Dying in Old Testament Theology.” Love & Death in the
Ancient Near East: Essays in Honor of Marvin H. Pope. Edited by John H Marks and Robert
McClive Good. Guilford, Conn.: Four Quarters, 1987.
A synthetic approach to the concept of the abode of the dead in the Hebrew Bible,
aimed at understanding the theological implications of the concept in its ancient
environs.

Eberhardt, Gönke. JHWH und die Unterwelt: Spuren einer Kompetenzausweitung JHWHs im
Alten Testament. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2007.
Diachronic study of depictions of the abode of the dead in the Hebrew Bible, which
posits a gradual development towards an understanding of YHWH as authoritative
over the underworld.

Hays, Christopher B. Death in the Iron Age II and in First Isaiah. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck,
2011.
An example of a synchronic study that utilizes the available historical data regarding
conceptions of the abode of the dead during the Iron Age II in order to illuminate the
literary application of that concept in First Isaiah.

Levenson, Jon D. Resurrection and the Restoration of Israel: The Ultimate Victory of the God
of Life. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
Discussion of the abode of the dead in relationship to larger theological concerns
about the afterlife, life, death, and divine justice.

Rosenberg, Ruth. “The Concept of Biblical Sheol Within the Context of ANE Beliefs.” Ph.D.
diss.: Harvard University, 1980.
A comprehensive literary-historical study of each use of the term Sheol in the Hebrew
Bible, which places the Biblical concept of Sheol in the larger cultural milieu of the
Ancient Near East.

Tromp, Nicholas J. Primitive Conceptions of Death and the Nether World in the Old
Testament. Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1969.
An overview of the various terms used for the abode of the dead in the Hebrew Bible,
exploring the linguistic and historical origins of each term and attending to the ways
each term is used in the context of the Bible.

Terminology for the Abode of the Dead

Much of the work on the concept of hell within the Bible includes a discussion of the various
terms that are used to refer to the abode of the dead, such as Sheol, the Pit, and Abaddon.
Lewis 1992 offers a concise overview of the relevant terminology in both the Hebrew Bible
as well as the LXX. Within the Hebrew Bible, Sheol is the term that is used most frequently,
and so many studies on the abode of the dead begin with etymological studies of the word
Sheol, as in Day 1996 and Köhler 1956. Others, such as Johnston 2002, Powys 1998,
Rosenberg 1980, and Tromp 1969, take a philological approach, surveying the different
terms for the abode of the dead in their various literary contexts throughout the Hebrew
Bible. In addition to considering these terms in their literary contexts within the Hebrew
Bible, Rosenberg 1980 and Tromp 1969 also give attention to the historical contexts in
which these terms are used, discussing the relationships between the terms that are used in
the Hebrew Bible and their corollaries in other Ancient Near Eastern cultures.

Day, John. “The Development of the Belief in Life After Death in Ancient Israel.” In After the
Exile: Essays in Honour of Rex Mason, Edited by John Barton and David James Reimer, 231-
258. Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 1996.
Day discusses the etymology of the word “Sheol” and suggests that it comes from
the root šā' â (“to lie desolate”), with a suffixed lamed.

Johnston, Philip. Shades of Sheol: Death and Afterlife in the Old Testament. Downers Grove,
Ill: InterVarsity, 2002.
An overview of the way in which the most relevant terminology is used in the Hebrew
Bible, written from an evangelical perspective and attentive to theological concerns.
Provides useful charts organizing the data.

Köhler, Ludwig. “Problems in the Study of the Language of the Old Testament.” Journal of
Semitic Studies 1 (1956): 3-24.
Koehler also argues that "Sheol" originates with the root šā' â (“to lie desolate”), with
a suffixed lamed.

Lewis, Theodore J. "Dead, Abode of the." In The Anchor Bible Dictionary, Vol. 2. Edited by
David Noel Freedman, 101-105. New York: Doubleday, 1992.
An excellent starting place for researching the various terms used for the abode of
the dead. Lewis discusses the relevant issues in the study of Sheol in the Hebrew
Bible, introduces briefly the other terminology for the abode of the dead, and
describes the use of the term Hades in the LXX and the New Testament.

Powys, David J. "'Life', 'Death' and 'Judgment' in the Old Testament." In“Hell”: A Hard Look
at a Hard Question: The Fate of the Unrighteous in New Testament Thought, 65-106.
Carlisle, Cumbria: Paternoster, 1998.
Considers the terminology for the abode of the dead in the Hebrew Bible, isolating
particular passages as central to the understanding of each term. This chapter is
part of a larger effort to understand "hell" as a theological concept from an
evangelical perspective.

Rosenberg, Ruth. “The Concept of Biblical Sheol Within the Context of ANE Beliefs.” Ph.D.
diss.: Harvard University, 1980.
Foundational work on the concept of Sheol in the Hebrew Bible, in that it considers
the role that the concepts of the abode of the dead played in other Ancient Near
Eastern cultures. Rosenberg argues that Sheol comes from the root šā'al ("to ask or
inquire"), suggesting a semantic development towards a punitive meaning.

Tromp, Nicholas J. Primitive Conceptions of Death and the Nether World in the Old
Testament. Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1969.
 In addition to the terms discussed here, Tromp surveys over two dozen different
terms for the underworld that are used in the Hebrew Bible. Tromp’s overview is
useful because of its comprehensive scope, including concepts beyond those that are
lexically identified with Sheol.

Life and Death Contrast

The concepts of the abode of the dead cannot be fully comprehended without placing them
in the broader context of the overarching understanding of Life and Death in the Hebrew
Bible. The following entries represent the different ways in which scholars have made sense
of the depictions of this fundamental contrast between Life and Death in the Hebrew Bible.
Friedman and Overton 1995 establishes the scope of the question, asserting that a variety
of attitudes toward death and the afterlife appear to be reflected in the Hebrew Bible. Other
works like Collins 1978, Knibb 1989, and Sanders 2005 have focused upon the two distinct
ways in which death was understood in the Hebrew Bible, either literally or figuratively,
situating the figural or “qualitative” understanding of death in its ancient literary and
sociological contexts. These studies discuss the tradition of the “Two Ways,” the recurring
motif in the Hebrew Bible, which juxtaposes the “Way of Life /Righteousness” and the “Way
of Death/Wickedness.” Hays 2011, Levenson 2006 and Williamson 2011 have each explored
the ancient conceptual framework behind the idea of a figurative death, or the “Way of
Death.” Cribb 2009 evaluates the narrative depictions of death in the Hebrew Bible,
isolating rhetorical and theological themes.

Collins, John J. “The Root of Immortality: Death in the Context of Jewish Wisdom.” Harvard
Theological Review 71 (1978): 177–192.
A clear explanation of the way in which the Hebrew Bible differentiates between
“biological” life/death and “qualitative” life/death. Collins situates the fundamental
life and death contrast with in the context of Jewish Wisdom literature, providing a
close examination of the manifestation of this contrast in the literary-historical
contexts of Sirach and Wisdom of Solomon.

Cribb, Bryan. Speaking on the Brink of Sheol. Piscataway, N.J.: Gorgias, 2009.
A form-critical study that attempts to identify a genre of literature that Cribb calls
“death stories.” This analysis identifies the ways in which these stories usually use
death in service of some larger rhetorical or theological purpose, as an opportunity to
reflect upon the dying person’s character.

Friedman, Richard, and Shawna Dolansky Overton. “Death and the Afterlife: the Biblical
Silence.” In Death, Life-after-Death, Resurrection, and the World-to-Come in the Judaisms of
Antiquity. Edited by Alan J. Avery-Peck and Jacob Neusner, 37-59. Leiden: Brill, 1995.
Introduction to the concepts of death and the afterlife in ancient Judaism. Begins
with the caveat that there is not one monolithic concept of death or the afterlife
within the Hebrew Bible.

Hays, Christopher B. “Death and the Dead in Iron II Israel and Judah and the Old Testament.”
Death in the Iron Age II and in First Isaiah, 133-202. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011.
Hays treats the way in which the tradition of the “Two Ways” was employed
rhetorically in the Hebrew Bible. An excellent introduction to the most relevant and
current scholarship on the concept of death in the Hebrew Bible.

Knibb, Michael A. “Life and Death in the Old Testament.” In The World of Ancient Israel:
Sociological, Anthropological, and Political Perspectives: Essays by Members of the Society
for Old Testament Study. Edited by R.E. Clements, 395–418. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1989.
Offers a good introduction to the most relevant mid-20th century scholarship on life
and death in the Hebrew Bible. Knibb also introduces a few of the most relevant
 Hebrew Bible passages on the subject of life and death, relating the Hebrew Bible
conceptions of life and death to his discussion of the afterlife.

Levenson, Jon D. Resurrection and the Restoration of Israel: The Ultimate Victory of the God
of Life. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
Levenson, describes the attitude toward death in ancient Israel. A person could die
twice, once when enduring the pain of affliction or the consequences of folly, and
then again, at the end of his or her physical life, a person experiences death a second
time. While Levenson’s focus is on the resurrection, he discusses the biblical
passages that mention escape from Sheol or death.

Sanders, Jack T. “Wisdom, Theodicy, Death, and the Evolution of Intellectual Traditions.”
Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic and Roman Period 36 (2005): 263–
277.
A diachronic study of the understanding of theodicy in the Wisdom tradition, which
considers the concepts of life and death in the context of the historical development
of ideas about theodicy. The article begins with the questions about theodicy in
Proverbs and Job, moving chronologically toward texts which offer answers to those
questions, such as the book of Wisdom and 4QInstruction.

Williamson Jr., Robert. “Death and Symbolic Immortality in Second Temple Wisdom
Instructions.” Ph.D. diss.: Emory University, 2011.
Williamson explores the life and death contrast within Wisdom literature, arguing that
in the wisdom texts prior to the late second century the righteous do not actually
escape Sheol. Instead, the righteous people transcend Sheol “symbolically,” either
through the lives of their children, or other lasting impacts of their lives upon the
world.

Gehenna
The essays in this section represent scholarly efforts to understand how and when the term
Gehenna came to refer to hell. In the Hebrew Bible, Gehenna is simply a geographical
location, associated with child sacrifice to Molech (condemned in 2 Kgs 23:10; Jer 7:31-32;
19:2, 6; 32:35) and is perhaps also the valley discussed in Isa 66:24. Hays 2011 provides a
summary of the relevant literature on Molech and child sacrifice. The term Gehenna is more
prevalent in the 1st century C.E., and thus the Pseudepigrapha, the New Testament and the
earliest Rabbinic texts become important sources for understanding how and why this
concept shifted away from its original association with a geographic location within “this
world,” toward association with an other-worldly locale. Collins 2010, Himmelfarb 1983, and
Watson 1992 each analyze the texts that refer to Gehenna during this time period, focusing
on how and when Gehenna was associated with fire and the fate of the wicked. Bailey 1986
is an example of an attempt to use archeological evidence to explain how the geography of
the Valley of Hinnom came to be associated with the underworld. Milikowsky 1988
compares the Rabbinic understandings of Gehenna to the New Testament use of the term,
focusing upon the theological significance that is attributed to Gehenna by each author.
Charlesworth 1983 provides English translations of the relevant Pseudepigrapha, (see
Watson 1992 for a complete list of the relevant references to Gehenna). Though they are
later texts, the Isaiah and Elijah fragments provide examples of the way in which the
concept of Gehenna became fully synonymous with hell in later apocalypses, assigning
punishments to the wicked and carrying them out in Gehenna (texts with English
translations available in Stone and Strugnell 1979).

Bailey, Loyd R. “Gehenna. The Topography of Hell.” Biblical Archeologist 49 (1986): 187-
91.
 Summarizes how Gehenna developed as a concept, beginning with the cult center
and evolving into the entrance to the underworld. Refers to the relevant
archeological data as well as the Rabbinic literature.
Charlesworth, James H. The OldTestament Pseudepigrapha. Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday,
1983.
Provides translations and critical introductions to the texts of Pseudepigrapha, in
which many of the earliest references to Gehenna as a place of punishment occur.

Collins, John J. “The Otherworld in the Dead Sea Scrolls.” In Other Worlds and their Relation
to this World: Early Jewish and Ancient Christian Traditions. Edited by Tobias Nicklas.
Boston: Brill, 2010, 95–116
Collins, 99-101, considers the extent to which the Valley of Hinnom was associated
with the fate of the wicked in 1Enoch and Daniel.

Hays, Christopher B. Death in the Iron Age II and in First Isaiah. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck,
2011.
Hays provides a clear summary of the most relevant literature on Molech and child
sacrifice, p.180-83.

Himmelfarb, Martha. Tours of Hell: An Apocalyptic Form in Jewish and Christian Literature.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983.
Himmelfarb asserts that the “The fiery associations of Gehinnom precede its
development into hell,” (108) making an argument for the gradual development of
the concept of Gehenna as a place of punishment. Himmelfarb also provides an
argument for the date of the Isaiah and Elijah Fragments (2nd century C.E.).

Milikowsky, Chaim. “Which Gehenna: Retribution and Eschatology in the Synoptic Gospels
and in Early Jewish Texts.” New Testament Studies 34 (1988): 238–249.
Discusses the range of meaning of the term Gehenna in the relevant Rabbinic
literature before moving to a discussion of the way that the term is used theologically
by Matthew and Luke.

Stone, Michael E., and John Strugnell. The Books of Elijah, Parts 1 and 2. Missoula, Mont.:
Scholars, 1979.
Provides access to the texts of the Isaiah fragments and the Elijah fragments, with
English translations on the facing page.

Watson, Duane F. "Gehenna." In Anchor Bible Dictionary, Vol.2. Edited by David Noel
Freedman, 926-28. New York:Doubleday, 1992.
Gives a general introduction to the term Gehenna and its gradual development and
eventual association with the concept of hell. Also provides a summary of the
relevant primary texts from the Hebrew Bible, Pseudepigrapha and the New
Testament.

ETERNAL PUNISHMENT IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

The New Testament documents were written during a time period in which Jewish and
Christian ideas about hell were beginning to crystallize. Bernstein 1993 gives the reader a
basic introduction to the topic, and is a synchronic study of the New Testament texts,
looking to the Hebrew Bible and Greek and Roman literature as contextual data for
illuminating early Christian conceptions of hell. Segal 2004 situates the early Christian
development of a concept of the afterlife within broader theological and philosophical
debates of the time, namely as a response to questions regarding the delay of the parousia
and the immortality of the soul. Likewise, Bremmer 2002 considers Christian conceptions of
hell alongside other ancient beliefs regarding the afterlife. In the New Testament several
different terms are used to refer to the abode of the dead including Gehenna, Hades, and
Tartarus. Bauckham 1992 provides an introduction to that terminology and its use within
the New Testament. During the 1st century C.E., Christian authors were writing for
audiences who would likely have been familiar with the idea of an unwelcome afterlife, using
the available terminology for eternal punishment in ways that may not have been
perceptibly different to a general audience. Kyrtatas 2009 demonstrates some of the ways
in which the New Testament texts reflect commonly held beliefs about eternal punishment.
Alternatively, some authors may have intentionally chosen different terminology in order to
invoke a specific set of ideas about the afterlife. Milikowsky 1988 makes an argument for
the latter possibility, arguing that the term Gehenna is used differently in the Gospel of
Matthew than in the Gospel of Luke. Likewise, Clarke-Soles 2006 argues against attempts to
see “univocality” in the disparate New Testament passages that refer to death or the
afterlife, although the author’s argument is socio-historical rather than linguistic. Powys
1998 offers a text-centered approach to the question, paying special attention to both
diachronic historical questions as well as theological concerns.

Bauckham, Richard. "Hades, Hell." In The Anchor Bible Dictionary, Vol. 3. Edited by David
Noel Freedman, 14-16. New York: Doubleday, 1992.
Introductory article that will be helpful to beginning researchers, orienting them to
the terms used for hell within the New Testament.

Bernstein, Alan E. The Formation of Hell: Death and Retribution in the Ancient and Early
Christian Worlds. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1993.
General overview of the early Christian concept of Hell that provides an overview of
the comparative historical data accessible to non-specialists.

Bremmer, Jan. The Rise and Fall of the Afterlife: the 1995 Read-Tuckwell Lectures at the
University of Bristol. New York: Routledge, 2002.
A published collection of lectures that includes a comparative essay on the
development of the early Christian afterlife, placing Christian ideas in conversation
with those of other ancient cultures, namely the understandings of Hades that were
popular in Greek and Roman literature.

Clarke-Soles, Jaime. Death and the Afterlife in the New Testament. New York: T&T Clark,
2006.
Provides an overview of the perspectives on death and the afterlife in the New
Testament that attends to the different perspectives offered by each New Testament
author. Clarke-Soles writes a social history of the New Testament conception of the
afterlife, focusing in particular upon the influence of Roman religious practices and
Hellenistic philosophy.

Kyrtatas, Dimitris J. “The Origins of Christian Hell.” Numen 56 (2009): 282–297.

A concise depiction of the development of the idea of Christian hell, beginning with
the relevant New Testament passages.

Milikowsky, Chaim. “Which Gehenna: Retribution and Eschatology in the Synoptic Gospels
and in Early Jewish Texts.” New Testament Studies 34 (1988): 238–249.
Covers all of the possible uses of the term Gehenna in the relevant Rabbinic
literature and then makes a comparative argument about the distinctive ways that
the concept of an unwelcome afterlife is configured theologically in Matthew and
Luke.

Powys, David J. “The Fate of the Unrighteous in New Testament Thought.” In“Hell”: A Hard
Look at a Hard Question: The Fate of the Unrighteous in New Testament Thought, 271-411.
Carlisle, Cumbria: Paternoster, 1998.
 General overview of the concept of Hell in the New Testament from an evangelical
theological perspective.

Segal, Alan F. Life after Death: a History of the Afterlife in the Religions of the West. New
York: Doubleday, 2004.
Segal’s work includes chapters on “Paul’s Vision of the Afterlife” (399-440), “The
Gospels in Contrast to Paul’s Writings” (441-477) and “The Pseudepigraphic
Literature” (478-531). Treatment of these topics focuses on the afterlife in general,
discussing hell only occasionally.

The Gospels
Of all the New Testament documents, the gospels contain the largest number of references
to eternal punishment and eschatological judgment. Milikowsky 1988 attempts to
understand the separate terms for eternal punishment as references to distinct ideas, and
looks for a coherent “theology of hell” in each gospel, focusing primarily on the use of
Gehenna in Matthew and Luke. Many other scholars treat the references to eternal
punishment in each gospel on a case by case basis, not presuming that a given author was
working with a consistent idea about hell. Mark’s gospel contains only one passage which
mentions Gehenna several times as a deterrent for those who would be tempted to sin
(Mark 9: 42-50). Luke’s gospel does not use this Markan material, but instead reports the
story of Lazarus seeing the rich man in Hades (Luke 16:19-31), as well as the two pieces of
Q material that mention Hades and Gehenna (Luke 10:13-16; 12:5). Matthew’s gospel
contains the greatest number of references to eternal punishment, not only recapitulating
the material from Mark (Matt 5:21-30; 18:6-9) and Q (Matt 10:26-33; 11:20-24), but also a
number of other sayings in which the place of eternal punishment is used to characterize
Peter as triumphant (Matt 16:13-20), the Pharisees as corrupt (Matt 23:15, 33), and the
standards of the kingdom as deadly serious (Matt 8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30).
Commentaries, such as Bovon 1991, Collins 2007, and Davies and Allison 1988, enable
researchers to situate these references to eternal punishment within the literary and
historical contexts of the gospels in which they occur. Bauckham 1998 provides an overview
of some of the relevant ancient literary parallels to Luke’s story of the Rich man and
Lazarus. Lehtipuu 2007 situates this same story within its ancient literary and historical
contexts through a thorough investigation of the concept of the afterlife in the ancient
Jewish, Greek and Roman parallels but also provides a discussion of the story within its
context in Luke’s gospel. Marguerat 1981 and Sim 1996 treat the themes of judgment and
eschatology in the Gospel of Matthew, enabling the researcher to contextualize Matthew’s
references to eternal punishment within the gospel’s eschatological outlook.

Bauckham, Richard. “The Rich Man and Lazarus: The Parable and the Parallels.” In The Fate
of the Dead: Studies on the Jewish and Christian Apocalypses, 97–118. Leiden: Brill, 1998.
Bauckham details the Egyptian story of Setme and Si-Osiris and the way its major
themes influenced other ancient literature, including Luke 16:19-31.

Bovon, François. L’Evangile Selon Saint Luc III, 15:1-19:27. Genève: Labor et Fides, 1991.
Critical commentary on the Gospel of Luke, which offers discussion of Luke 16:19-31,
as well as an introduction to the relevant issues of interpretation in the Gospel of
Luke.

Collins, Adela Yarbro. Mark: A Commentary. Hermeneia. Fortress, 2007.

Critical commentary on the Gospel of Mark, which offers discussion of Mark 9:42-50,
as well as an introduction to the relevant issues of interpretation in the Gospel of
Mark.
Davies, W.D., and Dale C. Allison. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel
according to Saint Matthew. 3 vols. International Critical Commentary Series. Edinburgh:
T&T Clark, 1988-2004.
Critical commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, which offers discussion of each of the
relevant passages, as well as an introduction to the relevant issues of interpretation
in the Gospel of Matthew.

Lehtipuu, Outi. The Afterlife Imagery in Luke’s Story of the Rich Man and Lazarus.
Supplements to Novum Testamentum, v. 123. Leiden: Brill, 2007.
Monograph that offers comprehensive treatment of Luke 16:19-31 in conversation
with relevant parallels from its historical contexts as well as its literary context within
the Gospel of Luke. Also an excellent source for additional bibliography on afterlife
imagery in Luke.

Marguerat, Daniel. Le Jugement dans l’Evangile de Matthieu. Genève: Editions Labor et

Fides,1981.
Treats the topic of judgment in Matthew, interpreting the passages that discuss
judgment in concert with Matthew’s emphasis on ecclesiology and paraenesis.

Milikowsky, Chaim. “Which Gehenna: Retribution and Eschatology in the Synoptic Gospels
and in Early Jewish Texts.” New Testament Studies 34 (1988): 238–249.
Focuses on the use of the term Gehenna in the synoptic gospels, identifying the
possible uses of the term Gehenna in the relevant Rabbinic literature and then
comparing the distinctive ways that the concept of Gehenna is used by Matthew and
Luke.

Sim, David C. Apocalyptic Eschatology in the Gospel of Matthew. Cambridge:

CambridgeUniversity Press, 1996.
Offers an overview of the apocalyptic elements in Matthew’s Gospel, enabling the
researcher situate the references to eternal punishment within the context of
Matthew’s apocalyptic framework.

The Epistles
There are a few references to eternal punishment in the New Testament Epistles, two
explicit references to the concept of hell in James 3:6 and 2 Peter 2:4, and other more
general references to the idea of eternal punishment in Paul’s letters. Clarke-Soles 2006,
Collins 2010, and Segal 2004 all discuss Paul’s conception of the afterlife. Clark-Soles 2006
and Segal 2004 are both focused upon the relationship between Paul’s perspective and
Greek and Roman philosophy, while Collins 2010 offers exegesis of the relevant texts and
compares Paul’s understanding of the afterlife to key apocalyptic texts. Neyrey 1993 offers
commentary on 2 Peter with recourse to cross-cultural data, while Kraftchick 2002 focuses
upon historical-critical and theological interpretations of 2 Peter. Watson 1993 takes a
rhetorical approach, comparing the structure of James 3 to patterns of argumentation from
Greek and Latin texts. Johnson 1995 interprets James 3 in the context of the whole letter,
discussing the meaning of the passage within its literary and historical contexts. Bauckham
1998 argues against the grain of scholarship on James, contending that the “tongue set on
fire by Gehenna” (James 3:6) is an example of ius talionis (that punishments fit the sins
committed).

Bauckham, Richard. “The Tongue Set on Fire by Hell (James 3:6).” In The Fate of the Dead:
Studies on the Jewish and Christian Apocalypses, 119–131. Leiden: Brill, 1998.
Bauckham provides a contrast to most of the scholarship on James 3, which contends
that “the tongue set on fire by Gehenna” in James 3:6 as a symbolic reflection on the
destructive power of the tongue. Instead, Bauckham reads this passage as an
 example of ius talionis, comparable to what we find in the Jewish and Christian
apocalypses that describe hell.

Clarke-Soles, Jaime. “Paul: the Ethics of Death and the Afterlife.” In Death and the Afterlife
in the New Testament. 60-110. New York: T&T Clark, 2006.
Essay on death and the afterlife in Paul’s epistles that investigates Paul’s thought in
conversation with Greco-Roman philosophy, illuminating the philosophical and
theological framework in which Paul reflected upon death.

Collins, Adela Yarbro. “The Otherworld and the New Age in the Letters of Paul.” In Other
Worlds and Their Relation to This World: Early Jewish and Ancient Christian Traditions. Edited
by Tobias Nicklas et al., 189–207. Boston: Brill, 2010.
Essay that treats Paul’s conception of the “Otherworld” specifically, providing
exegetical discussion of the relevant passages, and relating Paul’s thoughts on
eternal reward and punishment to existing concepts (namely apocalyptic ones) of the
otherworld from his historical context.

Johnson, Luke Timothy. The Letter of James: A New Translation with Introduction and
Commentary. New York: Doubleday, 1995.
Critical commentary on James, which offers discussion of James 3:6, as well as an
introduction to the exegetical issues in the interpretation of the epistle.

Kraftchick, Steven J. Jude, 2 Peter. Abingdon New Testament Commentary. Nashville:

Abingdon, 2002.
Critical commentary on 2 Peter, which offers discussion of 2 Peter 2:4 as well as an
introduction to the historical critical and literary critical issues in the interpretation of
the epistle.

Neyrey, Jerome H. 2 Peter, Jude: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary.
Anchor Bible. New York: Doubleday, 1993.
Critical commentary on 2 Peter, which uses social scientific methods to illuminate the
epistle.

Segal, Alan. “Paul’s Vision of the Afterlife.” In Life after Death: a History of the Afterlife in the
Religions of the West. 399-440. New York: Doubleday, 2004.
Discusses Paul’s vision of the afterlife, based upon the few passages that imply a
general scheme of rewards and punishments. While Segal is not focused on “hell”
specifically, his overall picture of Paul’s understanding of the afterlife provides
scaffolding that enables one to see where eternal punishment may have fit within
Paul’s thought.

Watson, Duane F. “The Rhetoric of James 3:1-12 and a Classical Pattern of Argumentation.”
Novum Testamentum 35 (1993): 48–64.
Discusses the rhetorical function of James 3:1-12 by comparing it to the standard
elaboration pattern outlined in Greek and Latin rhetorical texts.

Revelation
While one might expect to find explicit discussion of the places of eternal punishment in the
graphic imagery of the book of Revelation, it contains only a few passing references to
Hades, the lake of fire, and the second death. Aune 1997-98 provides extensive discussion
of the significance of these references to eternal punishment within their literary context in
the book of Revelation, as well as detailed treatment of the relevant historical parallels.
Several short essays treat different aspects of the interpretation of the passages in
Revelation that deal with the fate of the wicked. Lambrecht 2000 discusses the concepts of
eternal reward and punishment within the overall scheme of eschatological judgment in
Revelation. Bertrand 1999 describes several other literary contexts in which fire and sulfur
are used as descriptors, and considers the possible textual antecedents to the concept of
the lake of fire and sulfur in Revelation. Houtman and Misset-van de Weg 2008 provides a
concise survey of the ancient texts that use the term second death (including the book of
Revelation), comparing the disparate literary and historical contexts of each occurrence of
the term. Collins 2011 offers a reflection on a contemporary theological interpretation of
Revelation’s imagery of eternal punishment, evaluating the extent to which this
contemporary theological interpretation coheres with the meaning of the text in its historical
context.

Aune, David E. Revelation. 3 vols. Word Biblical Commentaries. Dallas: Word, 1997-98.
Critical commentary on the book of Revelation, which offers a thorough discussion of
the terms for eschatological judgment and eternal punishment, including an
introduction to the relevant ancient parallels to those terms. Aune also interprets
the relevant passages within the literary context of the book of Revelation.

Bertrand, Daniel A. “L’Étang de Feu et de Soufre.” Revue d’histoire et de philosophie

religieuses 79 (1999): 91–99.
Short essay on the possible literary antecedents to the imagery of the lake of fire and
sulfur.

Collins, Adela Yarbro. “Is Hershel Doomed to the Lake of Fire?” Biblical Archaeology Review
37 (2011): 26.
Essay in response to contemporary conservative theological claims that a person will
be consigned to the “lake of fire” based upon his or her beliefs, which discusses the
references to this concept in the book of Revelation in order to determine whether or
not there is a textual basis for these claims.

Lambrecht, Jan. “Final Judgments and Ultimate Blessings: The Climactic Visions of Revelation
20,11 21,8.” Biblica 81 (2000): 362–385.
Discusses the visions of eschatological judgment that are presented in chapters 20-
21 of the book of Revelation, reading the imagery of eternal reward and punishment
within the overall narrative of the Apocalypse.

Houtman, Alberdina, and Magdalena Wilhelmina Misset-van de Weg. “The Fate of the
Wicked: Second Death in Early Jewish and Christian Texts.” In Empsychoi Logoi -- Religious
Innovations in Antiquity. Edited by Alberdina Houtman, Albert de Jong, and Magda Misset-
van de Weg, 405–424. Leiden: Brill, 2008.
Offers a detailed survey of the places in which the term “second death” occurs in
ancient Jewish and Christian literature, providing the researcher with the data
necessary to compare the use and meaning of this term in Revelation with its usage
in other ancient texts.

HELL IN THE JEWISH APOCALYPSES

In the Jewish apocalypses the concept of hell departs from more general ideas about the
abode of the dead and develops into a place of fire, torment and specific punishments for
specific earthly misdeeds. Some of these texts are available in the standard collections of
Pseudepigrapha and others are more difficult to locate. The section on *Primary Sources
and Translations* will enable the reader to find each of the relevant Jewish apocalypses as
well as a translation of each text into modern languages. The section on *Secondary
Literature* provides an introduction to some of the most important scholarly works on the
concept of hell in the Jewish apocalypses.
Primary Sources and Translations
1 Enoch is the earliest of the relevant Jewish apocalypses, and includes references to
Gehenna (1 Enoch 26-27; 54:1-6; 56: 1-4; 90:24-27), spaces of detention in which the
wicked and the righteous are separated while awaiting eschatological judgment (1 Enoch
22), and shares the “tour” format of the later apocalypses. An English translation of 1
Enoch is available in Nickelsburg and Vanderkam 2004, and Knibb and Ullendorff 1978
provides a reconstructed Ethiopic text as well as an English translation. 2 Enoch contains a
more detailed depiction of eternal rewards and punishments, associating specific behaviors
with specific eternal consequences (2 Enoch 8-10). There are two different textual traditions
of 2 Enoch, one that is Jewish and another that betrays Christian influence. Andersen 1983
offers an English translation of 2 Enoch along with a short introduction to the text. The
Apocalypse of Zephaniah is a fragmentary text, which details a cosmic tour that includes
stops at the city of life, the dwelling place of the angels who record human deeds, and
Hades. Steindorff 1899 provides the Coptic text of the Apocalypse of Zephaniah with a
German translation; an English translation is available in Wintermute 1983. The Isaiah
Fragments and Elijah Fragments are significant to the study of the concept of hell in the
Jewish apocalypses because they are the only Jewish apocalypses which include the
“hanging punishments” that are common in the early Christian tours of hell. These
fragments are available in Hebrew (Isaiah Fragments) and Latin (Elijah Fragments), with
English translations on the facing pages in Stone and Strugnell 1979.

Andersen, F. I. “2 Enoch.” Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. Edited by James H. Charlesworth,

1: 91-222. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1983.
English translation of 2 Enoch with a short introduction to the text.

Knibb, Michael A., and Edward Ullendorff. The Ethiopic Book of Enoch: A New Edition in the
Light of the Aramaic Dead Sea fragments. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978.
Offers the Ethiopic text and an English translation of 1 Enoch, based upon Rylands
Ethiopic MS 23 and taking into account the Aramaic fragments of 1 Enoch that were
found at Qumran.

Nickelsburg, George W.E. and James C. VanderKam. 1 Enoch: A New Translation,

Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2004.
English translation of 1 Enoch with a short introduction to the text.

Steindorff, G. Die Apokalypse des Elias, eine unbekannte Apokalypse und Bruchstuke der
Sophonias Apokalypse. Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichs, 1899.
Provides the Coptic text and a German translation of the Apocalypse of Zephaniah.

Stone, Michael E., and John Strugnell. The Books of Elijah, Parts 1 and 2. Missoula, Mont.:
Scholars, 1979.
Provides the Hebrew text of the Isaiah Fragment and the Latin text of the Elijah
Fragment, with English translations on the facing page.

Wintermute, O.S. “Apocalypse of Zephaniah.” InThe Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. Edited

by James H Charlesworth, 1: 497–515. Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday, 1983.
English translation of the Apocalypse of Zephaniah with a short introduction to the
text.

Secondary Literature
The discussion regarding the depictions of hell in Jewish apocalypses begins with Collins
1979, which not only defines the genre of apocalyptic literature, but provides a concise
summary of each of the apocalyptic texts and the major scholarly questions surrounding the
study of each text. For the better part of the twentieth century, scholarship downplayed the
role of the Jewish apocalypses on the development of the apocalyptic tours of hell.
Himmelfarb 1983 provided a corrective for this trend, arguing that the most distinctive
features of the tours of hell are rooted in 1 Enoch. Later research attempts to nuance
Himmelfarb’s claims for the importance of the Jewish apocalypses as the historical genesis
of the tours of hell. For instance, Bauckham 1998 and Bremmer 2011 both return attention
to the Greek katabasis literature, arguing that the Jewish apocalypses may have been
influenced by the imagery and ideas of Greek and Roman texts. In contrast, Sanders 2009
argues that the Neo-Assyrian visionary journey to hell is the genesis of this sub-genre.
Nickelsburg 2001 offers commentary and interpretation for the relevant passages of 1
Enoch, introducing the researcher to the historical and literary contexts of the depictions of
eternal punishment in this text. Bautch 2003 is an example of recent research on the Jewish
apocalypses, which is taking into account the full range of historical and cultural influences
upon the texts, focusing specifically upon the geographic descriptions of a few chapters of 1
Enoch. Orlov 2005 presents a comprehensive study of the traditional elements in the text of
2 Enoch, which is the most recent study of this magnitude that treats the text of 2 Enoch.

Bauckham, Richard. “Early Jewish Visions of Hell.” In The Fate of the Dead: Studies on the
Jewish and Christian Apocalypses, 49-80. Leiden: Brill, 1998.
Critiques the work of Himmelfarb 1983, arguing that the “tours of hell” were
informed by Jewish apocalypses, but that the Jewish apocalypses may in turn have
been informed by Greek and Roman ideas and imagery pertaining to the afterlife.

Bautch, Kelley Coblentz. A Study of the Geography of 1 Enoch 17-19: “No One Has Seen
What I Have Seen”. Leiden: Brill, 2003.
Monograph that focuses upon the geography described in several chapters of 1
Enoch, using literary approaches and cognitive mapping in order to demonstrate the
rhetorical effects of 1 Enoch’s apocalyptic depictions of otherworldly terrain.

Bremmer, Jan. “Tours of Hell: Greek, Roman, Jewish and Early Christian,” In W. Ameling
Ed. Topographie des Todes, 13-34. Stuttgart: Steiner, 2011.
Bremmer has traces the development of the “tour of hell” beginning with a specific
set of Greek and Roman traditions, arguing that the Jewish apocalypses were
influenced by Orphic-Pythagorean ideas about the underworld.

Collins, John J. “The Jewish Apocalypses.” Semeia 14 (1979): 21–59.

Gives a brief introduction to each of the texts that fits the generic definition for
“Jewish Apocalypse,” including data about the date of composition, cultural milieu
and basic contents of each text.

Himmelfarb, Martha. Tours of Hell: An Apocalyptic Form in Jewish and Christian Literature.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983.
Argues for the importance of the Jewish apocalypses in understanding the
development of the sub-genre of “tours of hell.” Also includes concise summaries of
each text, charts which graphically depict the historical relationships between the
relevant primary texts, and appendices which provide bibliographic data on the
manuscript traditions of each text.

Nickelsburg, George W.E. 1 Enoch: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch. Hermeneia.

Minneapolis: Fortress, 2001.
Critical commentary on 1Enoch, which provides a thorough introduction to the issues
surrounding the historical interpretation of the text, as well as detailed
interpretations of the passages relevant to the study of the concept of hell.

Orlov, Andrei A. Enoch-Metatron Tradition. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005.

Orlov offers the most recent and comprehensive study of 2 Enoch, which establishes
that the text was written prior to 70 C.E.

Sanders, Seth L. “The First Tour of Hell: from Neo-Assyrian Propaganda to Early Jewish
Revelation.” Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions 9 (2009) 151-169.
 Argues that the Assyrian empire’s colonization of dream life is the original context for
the tours of Hell, and that the Jewish apocalypses are rooted in Neo-Assyrian
literature.

HELL IN THE EARLY CHRISTIAN APOCALYPSES

In the Christian apocalypses the concept of hell parallels the fiery torment and measure for
measure punishments of the Jewish apocalypses, but also develops these ideas in ways that
reflect the specific concerns of early Christian theological and ecclesiological concerns.
Many of these texts are available in the standard collections of Apocrypha. The section on
*Primary Sources and Translations* will enable the reader to find the best ancient language
editions of each of the relevant early Christian apocalypses as well as a translation of each
text into modern languages. The section on *Secondary Literature* provides an introduction
to some of the most important scholarly works on the concept of hell in the early Christian
apocalypses.

Primary Sources and Translations

The Apocalypse of Peter is the earliest of the Christian apocalypses that describe hell in
detail. The Ethiopic text of the Apocalypse of Peter is available in Buchholz 1988, and the
Greek fragment is presented in Kraus and Nicklas 2004. English translation of both the
Ethipioc and Greek texts, along with a brief introduction to the text is provided in Hennecke
and Schneemelcher 1991. The Apocalypse of Paul presents longer tours of both heaven and
hell, and is the tour of hell on which many later apocalypses are based. James 1893
contains the Latin text of the Apocalypse of Paul, and Silverstein and Hilhorst 1997 offers a
critical edition of three different versions of the Latin text. An English translation of the
Apocalypse of Paul is available in Hennecke and Schneemelcher 1991. Bouvier and Bovon
2004 presents a related Greek fragment of the text, the “Prayer and Apocalypse of Paul.”
The Greek Apocalypse of Ezra and the Greek Apocalypse of Mary both elaborate upon the
theme of the Saint interceding for the damned that is found in the Apocalypse of Peter and
the Apocalypse of Paul. The Greek text of the Greek Apocalypse of Ezra is available in Wahl
1977 and an English translation is provided in Roberts and Donaldson 1994. James 1893
contains the Greek text of the Greek Apocalypse of Mary, and an English translation is
available in Roberts and Donaldson 1994.

Bouvier, Bertrand, and François Bovon. “Prière et apocalypse de Paul dans un fragment grec
inédit conservé au Sinaï: introduction, texte, traduction et notes.” Apocrypha 15 (2004): 9–
30.
Text of a fragment of the “Prayer and Apocalypse of Paul,” with critical introduction
and notes.

Buchholz, Dennis D. Your Eyes Will Be Opened: A Study of the Greek (Ethiopic) Apocalypse
of Peter. Dissertation series (Society of Biblical Literature). Atlanta: Scholars, 1988.
Full text of the Ethiopic version of the Apocalypse of Peter, along with an analysis of
the text and an English translation.

Hennecke, Edgar and Wilhelm Schneemelcher eds., New Testament Apocrypha . trans.
Robert M. Wilson. 2 vols. Louisville, Ky: Westminster John Knox, 1991.
English translations of the Apocalypse of Peter and the Apocalypse of Paul, as well as
critical introductions to each text. This is the English translation of the 6 th German
Edition of Neutestamentlichen Apokryphen. Tübingen : Mohr Siebeck, 1989.

James, M. R. Apocrypha Anecdota: A Collection of Thirteen Apocryphal Books and Fragments.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1893.
A collection of original texts and translations, which includes of several of the early
Christian apocalypses that discuss hell. This source includes the Latin text of the
Apocalypse of Paul and the Greek Text of the Greek Apocalypse of Mary.
Kraus, Thomas J., and Tobias Nicklas. Das Petrusevangelium und die Petrusapokalypse: Die
griechischen Fragmente mit deutscher und englischer Übersetzung. Neutestamentliche
Apokryphen. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2004.
Greek fragments of the Apocalypse of Peter, along with German and English
translations.

Roberts, Alexander and James Donaldson eds. Ante-Nicene Fathers: The Writings of the
Fathers down to A.D. 325. Peabody, Mass: Hendrickson, 1994.
English translations of Greek Apocalypse of Ezra and the Greek Apocalypse of Mary,
with short introductions to each text.

Silverstein, Theodore, and A. Hilhorst, eds. Apocalypse of Paul: A New Critical Edition of
Three Long Latin Versions. Geneve: P. Cramer, 1997.
Critical edition of three different versions of the Latin text of the Apocalypse of Paul,
this text also provides a good introduction to the textual tradition of the Apocalypse
of Paul.

Wahl, Otto, ed. Apocalypsis Esdrae; Apocalypsis Sedrach; Visio Beati Esdrae. Leiden: Brill,
1977.
Provides the Greek text for the Greek Apocalypse of Ezra.

Secondary Literature
For the beginning researcher, Collins 1979 offers an overview of each of the early Christian
apocalypses, summarizing the contents and provenance of each text, and classifying the
texts into sub-genres. The scholarly conversation about the “tours of hell” began much
earlier in the twentieth century, with the work of Dieterich 1969 [1913], which claimed that
the Akhmim fragment of the Apocalypse of Peter relied upon Orphic-Pythagorean traditions
(and not Jewish apocalypses) for its understanding of heaven and hell. Himmelfarb 1983
argued against Dieterich 1969 [1913], contending that the “demonstrative explanations”
and tour format of 1 Enoch was the primary tradition that influenced the tours of hell (and
not the Orphic-Pythagorean traditions). Bauckham 1998 sought to moderate between the
positions of Dieterich 1969 [1913] and Himmelfarb 1983, returning the debate to
consideration of Greek and Latin literature, while also remaining mindful of the connections
between the Jewish and Christian apocalypses that were established in Himmelfarb 1983.
Bremmer 2010 also represents an attempt to revive parts of Dieterich’s research, focusing
on more recent insights into ancient Orphism. Nicklas 2011 is in part a response to the
questions of geographic provenance of the Apocalypse of Peter that were raised in Bremmer
2010, which concludes that elements of the text reflect a Jewish Christian background, but
do not necessitate Palestinian provenance. Bremmer and Czachesz 2003 and Bremmer and
Czachesz 2007 are collections of essays, which introduce the major historical and thematic
issues in the study of the Apocalypse of Peter and the Apocalypse of Paul, respectively.

Bauckham, Richard. The Fate of the Dead: Studies on the Jewish and Christian Apocalypses.
Leiden: Brill, 1998.
This volume shifts the debate about the origins of the tours of hell, returning
attention to the influence of Greek and Latin literature. Bauckham also offers a short
overview of the places of the dead in apocalyptic literature, and longer thematic
essays on the interpretation of some of the most relevant apocalypses.

Bremmer, Jan. “Orphic, Roman, Jewish and Christian Tours of Hell: Observations of the
Apocalypse of Peter.” In Other Worlds and Their Relation to This World: Early Jewish and
Ancient Christian Traditions. Edited by Tobias Nicklas et al., 305–322. Leiden: Brill, 2010.
 Essay that argues for multi-directional influence between Orphic traditions and Jewish
and Christian tours of hell, opening the debate to include the possibility that the
Roman authors were influenced by the Jewish apocalypses.

Bremmer, Jan and István Czachesz eds. The Apocalypse of Peter. Leuven: Peeters, 2003.
A collection of essays, which each explore different interpretive questions regarding
the Apocalypse of Peter. The volume begins with a brief history of the past research
on this text, and a discussion of the manuscript tradition.

Bremmer, Jan and István Czachesz eds. The Visio Pauli and the Gnostic Apocalypse of Paul.
Leuven: Peeters, 2007.
A collection of essays, which each treat different aspects of the interpretation of the
Apocalypse of Paul. The volume begins with a brief history of the past research on
this text, and a discussion of the manuscript tradition.

Collins, Adela Yarbro. “The Early Christian Apocalypses.” Semeia 14 (1979): 61–121.
Overview of the genre of the early Christian apocalypse, which includes introductions
to each of the apocalyptic texts that depict hell.

Dieterich, Albrecht. Nekyia: Beiträge zur Erklärung der neuentdeckten Petrusapokalyse.

Stuttgart: B.G. Teubner, 1969 [1913].
This is a reprint of the original 1913 edition. Dieterich is the foundational work on the
Apocalypse of Peter, beginning the discussion about the genesis of the early Christian
tradition of the tours of hell.

Himmelfarb, Martha. Tours of Hell: An Apocalyptic Form in Jewish and Christian Literature.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983.
Demonstrates that early Christian tours of hell were primarily based upon their Jewish
counterparts, arguing that the Jewish and Christian tours were part of the same sub-
genre and developed alongside one another. Provides concise summaries of each
text, charts which graphically depict the historical relationships between the relevant
primary texts, and appendices which provide bibliographic data on the manuscript
traditions of each text.

Nicklas, Tobias. “‘Insider’ und ‘Outsider’: Überlegungen zum historischen Kontext der
Darstellung ‘jenseitiger Orte’ in der Offenbarung des Petrus.” InTopographie des Jenseits:
Studien zur Geschichte des Todes in Kaiserzeit und Spätantike. Edited by Walter Ameling,
35–48. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2011.
Essay which considers the geographic and cultural provenance of the Apocalypse of
Peter, engaging the most recent scholarship on the question, and offering new
insights. Also an excellent source for up to date bibliography on the Apocalypse of
Peter.