Cross-Linguistic and Cross-Cultural Misunderstandings Around the Concept of “Hell”

Arguably, few words have caused as many misunderstandings and as much harm to millions of people as the English word “hell.” A good example is provided by a recent article in the Australian opinion magazine Quadrant, which includes the following statement about Jesus: “Jesus talked about hell more than anyone else in the Bible. He talked about it more than about heaven” (Giffin 2020). I believe that this statement – coming from a serious and dedicated Christian writer on Christianity – is extremely misleading and misrepresents Jesus and the Christian faith; unfortunately, it is also far from isolated.