JP2

I understand that three different words are used for "hell" in the gospels and the epistles: hades (i.e. Mt 11:23), tarturus (i.e. 2 Pet 2:4) and gehenna (i.e. Mk 9:43). Is there any consensus about what these words might have meant to Jewish thinkers of Jesus' day and what the broader view on punishment after death might have been? I understand that shoel is commonly translated as "hell" in the tanakh, but what exactly would that word have represented for the average hebrew in the late BC era? How would its use have differed from the three words for hell that we find in the NT, and how did the words of greek words (hades and tarturus) come to be incorporated into 1st century jewish thought? What was Jewish thought like concerning the afterlife before then?

I know that these are a lot of questions, but I'm finding the issue quite confusing and my limited research has so far only dug up contradictory answers.

Toto

This very question has been asked here before:

Did early Christians believe in something like hell?

you can find more discussion by using the search function on the forum page, with hell hades tartarus gehenna

judge

There is an argument that Jesus draws his imagery about gehenna from the Aramaic targum of Isaiah.
I'm not sure we can definitely place this work beofre the gospels but to me it seems unlikely that Jews using that targum would have copied ideas from the gospels.

The targum and Mark's gospel both associate gehenna with Isaiah 66 which seems to me, eschatological (or to do with the end times).
The idea of unending torment seems, to me, to be a later christian interpretation (ie later than Marks gospel).


Does Old Testament make any references to Hell or Hades?

Roger Pearse

"What Did the NT Authors / 1st Century Jews Believe About Hell?"

They were against it.