[dpark]

The Christian bible does not definitively state where Hell is, and doesn't explicitly call it an "underworld". But there are also no references to different "planes of existence".

There are of course no actual references to "hell" in the original texts at all. Several other words are used in the old and new testaments. Which of these correspond to "hell" is up to the translator and the translations don't agree. Some of the words (Hades) were literally underground. Others (Gehenna) not so much.

Wikipedia has a discussion about it. It seems like the "literally inside the Earth" interpretation is trending downward, which isn't surprising since biblical literalism in general seems to be declining.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_views_on_hell#Hell_a...

[dragonwriter]

> Some of the words (Hades) were literally underground. Others (Gehenna) not so much.

AFAIK, Hades isn't in the original text either; I do know it appears in Greek OT texts as a translation of the Hebrew Sheol (while the Hades of Greek mythology is literally an underworld, the Sheol of pre-Christian Jewish belief is, again AFAIK, not.)

> It seems like the "literally inside the Earth" interpretation is trending downward, which isn't surprising since biblical literalism in general seems to be declining.

The "literally inside the Earth" interpretation isn't particularly grounded in Biblical literalism (though the groups holding to those two beliefs may overlap significantly.)

[dpark]

"Hades" wouldn't be in the original Old Testament, but it is in the New Testament. As you noted, it's basically how "Sheol" was translated into Greek. So in the New Testament, they continued using "Hades". That's my understanding, anyway.

It seems like Sheol was considered to be underground, though, since it referred to the grave.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheol#Judaism

Again, though, this is just my understanding. I'm not a biblical scholar and I can't read Greek or Hebrew.