Musings on "hell" in modern translations

One hell of an issue?

Fellow Catholics, and all Christians, I have something to show you.  When someone talks about “the pits of hell”, “burning in hell”, or being cast into “hell”, what does this evoke in you?  If you are a Catholic, it should invoke a sense of dread.  If you’re an atheist it should conjure up images of demons boiling poor souls in oil (or worse).  My point being that hell is a pungent word in English.  Hell SOUNDS bad.  Hell sounds like a place you’d want to avoid.

Now what about if I said “go to Sheol!” or “rot in Sheol” or “the pits of hades”, or “burning in Gehenna” or “chained up in Tartarus”.  Not so much reaction right?

Well I just compiled a list of ten Bibles, both Catholic and Protestant, to show you the difference in use of “hell”.  I am ashamed to see that my Churches main American Bible contains the word a total of…. Zero times.

From least to most times:

10) NABRE - 0.

9) NRSV - 13

8) RSVCE - 13

7) NASB - 13

6) NIV - 13

5) AMP, Amplified Bible - 13

4) ESV - 14

3) NKJV - 32

2) KJV- 54

1) Douay-Rheims – 110

This saddens me.  For 433 years we Catholics have had an English Bible that mentioned hell a WHOPPING number of 110 times.  More than twice as much as the KJV.  Now, a lot of these are mistranslations in a way, because in the OT Sheol is not rendered properly into hell.  But that is for another time to discuss translation methodology. 

I also want to make note that 5 of the 10 agree on using hell in 13 places and I am going to argue that our modern Catholic Bibles (and preferably the 2025 update of the NAB Bible) will use hell in those thirteen places and not just transcribe Greek words.  I understand it is truer to the underlying text, but again, “hades” or “Gehenna” just does not evoke the same reaction of the listener/reader as does “hell”

Some of these thirteen places where hell ought to be used include: 

Luke 12:5 But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear him!

 Now what evokes more thought in Jesus words here?  This rendition of being cast into hell….or the NABRE where they transcribe the Greek Gehenna.

Do most American Catholics understand what Gehenna is?  Are many, besides some scholars, clergy, religious and learned laity really fearful of Gehenna?  They do not even know what it is.  However, tell average Joe Catholic he can be cast into hell… and that changes things.

Now next we have 2 Peter 2:4 “For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of nether gloom to be kept until the judgment”

Okay, I’m sure most would understand these fallen angels are being kept in agony in hell.  But what about our NAB?  In our NABRE, they are in Tartarus.  Now again, granted, Tartarus is the Greek word St. Peter used to describe this in the 1^st century A.D., but in the 1^st century A.D. Greek speaking Christians would fully understand what Tartarus was.  In A.D. 2015 in America, how many American Catholics can tell you what Tartarus is?  And I know there is a footnote explaining it, but it should be the opposite way: hell in the text, footnote explaining Tartarus and the meaning of the word.

Matthew 23:33 “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?”

Whoa.  Powerful words from Jesus!

Now here’s the NABRE version:

“You serpents, you brood of vipers, how can you flee from the judgment of Gehenna?”

Now which one makes even a learned person who knows what Gehenna is take these words a little more solemnly?

One last example that is not in any of the Protestant based translations, but is only found in the DR Bible, that should be in ALL Catholic Bibles of course is:

Matthew 16:18 “And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

In closing, I am not saying we ought to go back to the Douay way of doing things and translate hell a whopping 110 times, however, I think going in the opposite direction and leaving hell completely out of the Bible is not a good thing to do.  We need temperance with this issue, as with all things in life.  I believe a perfect NAB for 2025 would have “hell” instead of the transcribed Greek “Hades/Gehenna/Tartarus” in all 13 places where all the other Bibles do, and also in Matthew 16:18.

Feedback is welcome and I appreciate your time.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Jason Michael Spyridon