Why is Hell only mentioned in the New Testament?
The short answer? Because the concept of Hell didn’t exist in the Old Testament. There are four centuries between the end of the Old Testament and the writing of the New Testament…and a lot happened in those 400 years. Primarily, the Babylonian Captivity.
The Israelites were living in captivity (exile) for the majority of those 400 years. They were either in Babylon or had escaped to places like Egypt.
During this time, the Israelites are influenced by Greek, Egyptian, Babylonian, and Mesopotamian cosmologies. And that’s where the Israelites got the images of Hell we see in the New Testament.
The Old Testament’s version of Hell
Before the Babylonian takeover, the Israelites used the word “Sheol” to describe the afterlife.
Sheol was a neutral term simply used to describe the place we go when we die. It was used with both good and bad connotations all throughout the Old Testament.
Outside Influences
But later on, as the Israelites become influenced by outside cultures and theologies, we see the Israelites’ language and imagery for the afterlife change.
In the 6th century BC, we begin to see the emergence of a duality, i.e heaven, and hell. This idea that righteous people dwell with God and the wicked go to Gehenna (a bad place).
Why? Ancient Greek cosmology included similar depictions of a neutral place. Only their neutral place was called Hades. Where spirits stayed after death.
The wicked went to an evil place called Tartarus. Duality then becomes an increasing trend in ancient Hebrew texts as well as Ancient Greek cosmology.
In the 4th century BC after Alexander the Great conquered Judea, Greek cosmology began to influence Jewish thought and literature (this is the outside influence referenced earlier due to the Babylonian takeover that spread the Israelites into other territories).
A few hundred years later, with the writing of the first gospels in 65–85 AD we see Jesus using this dualistic idea of heaven and hell, describing Gehenna and evil-doers being banished away from the presence of God and the righteous dwelling with God for eternity.
Jesus even references Greek cosmology by saying in Matt 16:18 that the gates of hades will not prevail against the church. We’ve translated it as “hell” in English but the Greek word used is hadou (hades). An idea that was fairly new in terms of cosmological imagery and not unique to the early Christians.
Why does all of this matter?
Today, the Christian community has a habit of condemning people to Hell or telling people they are doomed to a life in eternal torture. But that idea and imagery was very new, even in Jesus’ time.
This dualistic idea of Heaven and Hell had only just come on the cosmology scene when Jesus spoke about it. So when we read Jesus speaking about Hades, Gehenna, or heaven and hell, we need to understand that he’s influenced by the language and cultural norms around him.
He was born into and the product of his time and place in history. But taking his words about the afterlife literally is about as useless and inaccurate as taking the “eye for an eye” metaphor literally.
This doesn't mean his words surrounding the afterlife are useless. But honoring his words for what they were, the product of multicultural influence, can help us better understand the culture of that time.
Instead of focusing on how Jesus describes hell, we can focus on what Jesus said to do to avoid such a place. Love thy neighbor, protect the widow and child, honor your parents, feed the hungry, and turn the other cheek.
Looking at the New Testament from 10,000 feet, it’s clear that the point of this ancient literature is not to pinpoint what the afterlife consists of with 100% accuracy. The point of this ancient literature is to learn how to be better while we are in this life.
