Instant Access To 100,000+ Essays!

Webster's Third New International Dictionary, unabridged, under "Hell" says: "from 'helan' to conceal." The word "hell" thus originally conveyed no thought of heat or torment but simply of a 'covered over or concealed place.' In the old English dialect the expression "helling potatoes" meant, not to roast them, but simply to place the potatoes in the ground or in a cellar. Collier's Encyclopedia (1986, Vol 12, p.28) says concerning "Hell": First it stands for the Hebrew Sheol of the Old Testament and the Greek Hades of the Septuagint and New Testament. Since Sheol in the Old Testament times refered simply to the abode of the dead and suggested no moral distinctions, the word 'hell,' as understood today, is not a happy translation." The meaning given today to the word "hell" is that portrayed in Dante's Divine Comedy and Milton's Paradise Lost, which meaning is completely foreign to the original definition of the word. The idea of a "hell" of firey torment, dates back long before Dante or Milton. The Grollier Universal Encyclopedia (1971, Vol. 9,p.205) under "Hell" says: "Hindus and Buddhists regard hell as a place of spiritual cleansing and final restoration. Islamic tradition considers it as