Changes

In the English translation of the [[Bible]]'s Old Testament, the word '''hell''' normally corresponds to the [[Hebrew]] ''sheol'', which was simply the place of the dead. But in the Greek New Testament the word used is either ''Gehenna'' (the garbage dump outside the walls of Jerusalem where fires were kept eternally burning to consume the refuse and keep down the stench) or ''Hades'', the [[Greek]]s' dark, gloomy underworld. The modern English word appears to derive most directly from "Holle" or "Hela" or "Hel", goddess of the dead in Germanic/Norse mythology. When the Anglo-Saxons converted to Christianity, the existing word in the language was reused in this new context and applied to the meanings given above.