In the King James Version of the Bible there are three differents words 
translated into the word "hell".  These Greek words have totally different 
meanings.  The words are Hades, Tartaros, and Gehenna.

    In bibical usage, the Greek word Hades is used only 11 times in the 
New Testament, and is roughly the equivalent to the Old Testament word Sheol...
meaning the grave or pit (compare Acts 2:27 with Psalms 16:10).  Hades may be 
likened to a hole in the ground. (In the Bible it has nothing to do with fire!)

    Most modern bibical translators admit that the use in the English word hell
to translate Hades and Sheol are an unfortunate and misleading practice.  

    Why?  Because when seeing the word "hell" many readers impute to it the 
traditional connotation of an ever-burning inferno, when this was never 
remotely intended in the Greek language or in Old English!

    In its true bibical usage Hades does indeed refer to the state or abode of 
the dead, but not in the sense of spirits walking around in some sort of 
"shadowy realm."  Hades is simply the abode we call the grave.  All dead go to 
this hell.

    The second "hell" of the Bible, Tartaros, is mentioned only once in 
scripture, 2 Pet.2:4; "For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast 
them down to hell (TARTAROS), and delivered them into chains of darkness to be 
reserved unto judgment..."

    Following their rebellion to unseat God from His throne (Isa.14:12-14; 
Rev.12:4), the archangel Lucifer (now Satan) and a third of the created angels 
(now demons) were ejected from heaven (Luke 10:18).  They were cast down to 
Tartaros, a place or condition of restraint that God has imposed on the 
mutinous angels as they await ultimate judgment (Jude 6; 1 Cor.6:3).

    Tartaros, then, is a "hell" that applies only to evil, rebellious angels or
demons (It is interesting that the ancient Greeks used this word to describe 
the place in which Zeus confined the rebellious Titans).  Nowhere in the Bible 
is there any mention of men being put into this particular "hell".

    The the third word that is translated as "hell" in the Bible is Gehenna. It
comes from the Hebrew GAI HINNOM, meaning "valley of Hinniom."  Hinnom is a 
deep, narrow ravine located to the south and southwest of Jerusalem.

    In Old Testament times it was a place of abominable pagan rites, including 
infant sacrifice (It was there that the apostate kings Ahaz and Manasseh made 
their children "pass through the fire" to the god Molech.  The rites were 
specifically celebrated in Tophet, the "place of abhorrence," one of the chief 
groves in the valley).

    King Josiah of ancient Judah finally put an end to these abominations.  He 
defiled the valley, rendering it ceremonially unclean (2 Kings 23:10).  Later 
the valley became the cesspool and city dump of Jerusalem; a repository for 
sewage, refuse and animal carcasses.  The bodies of dispised criminals were 
also burned there along with the rubbish.  Fires burned continuously, feeding 
by a constant supply of garbage and refuse.

    Aceldama, the "field of blood", purchased with the money Judas received for
the betrayal of Christ (Matt.27:8) was also in part of the valley of Hinnom.

    So what does this valley called Gehenna have to do with hell?  

    In Rev.19:20: the Satan inspired political dictator and a miracle-working 
religious figure, the False Prophet, working with him will resist the 
re-establishment of the government of God by Jesus Christ at His Second Coming.
Their fate is revealed by the apostle John: "And the beast was taken, and with 
him the false prophet...  These both were cast alive into a lake of fire 
burning with brimstone."
    
    Where will this temporary lake of fire (this "hell") be?

    The prophet Isaiah wrote of this lake of fire prepared for the Beast: "For 
Tophet (in the valley of Hinnom) is ordained of old, yea for the king it is 
prepared, he hath made it deep and large, the pile thereof is fire and wood, 
the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it" (Isa.30:33).

    One thousand years later, Satan himself will be cast into this rekindled 
fiery lake where the Beast and False Prophet were cast! (Rev.20:10).

    But what of the wicked who have died over the millennia?  Does the Bible 
say that they are now suffering fiery punishment for their sins in a lake of 
fire?

    In the sequence of Rev.20 the incorrigibly wicked are resurrected to be 
thrown into the lake of fire after Satan is cast there! (Rev.20:15). What will 
become of these wicked?  Will they writhe in flames for eternity? 
 
    The wicked will be burned up from the intense heat of the coming Gehenna 
fire on the earth.  They wil be consumed, annihilated, destroyed!  This 
punishment will be everlasting (permanent and final).  The Bible calls it the 
"second death" (Rev.20:14; 21:8), from which there is no possibility of a 
further resurrection.

    The Bible does teach eternal punishment, but not eternal punishing.
                           
    The prophet Malachi provides a graphic description. "For, behold, the day 
cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do 
wickedly, shall be stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them up..."
(4:1).  To the righteous, God says that the wicked shall be "ashes under the 
soles of your feet..."(Mal.4:3).

    Gehenna was a place of destruction and death, not a place of living 
torture!  Jesus was talking to Jews who understood all about this Gehenna or 
valley of Hinnom.  Utter destruction by fire was complete.  Nothing was left, 
but ashes!
 
    Every text in the Bible translated from this Greek word Gehenna means 
complete destruction, not living torture (not eternal life in torment)!  The 
Bible says, in Romans 6:23, "The wages of sin is death", not eternal life in 
torture.  The punishment revealed in the Bible is Death... the cessation of 
life. 