Book review: Quenched, What Everyone (Especially Christians) Should Know About Hell

★★★★★

I’m very impressed. I follow Crystal’s blog online, though apparently not closely enough, or I would have known she had written this booklet. It’s a concise introduction to what the Bible really says about hell–and what it doesn’t say. It focuses on the Hebrew and Greek words “Hades,” “Gehenna,” “Tartarus,” and “Sheol.” Each of these words has a unique meaning and symbolism, each has a different metaphorical and poetic usage common to biblical times, but each is translated into the same English word: “hell.” This merging of different meanings led to a strange and frightening development of Christian doctrine regarding eternal damnation, as reformers compared one mistranslated word to another, compounding the confusing.

Certainly, this is not the first book I’ve read on the topic, but Crystal has a way of explaining things simply and gently, using few words. This won’t be the last word on the topic as we continue to learn about the idioms and figures of speech in the Bible, but I fully agree with Crystal’s claim: every Christian should know at least this much.