Sects of Judaism are infected: the historian Josephus reported that the Essenes, a Jewish sect, believed that ''the souls are immortal, and continue forever.'' He added, ''this is like the opinion of the Greeks they allot to bad souls a dark tempestuous den, full of never ceasing punishments''

Introduced into 'Christianity': in the 2nd centuary C.E the false book 'Apocalypse of Peter' said of the wicked: ''there is spread out for them unquenchable fire'' it also stated: ''Ezrael, the angel of wrath brings men and women with the half of their bodies burning and casts them into a place of darkness, the hell of men. And a spirit of wrath chastises them.'' During the same time period, writer Theophilus of Antioch quotes Greek prophetess Sibyl as fortelling the punishment of the wicked: ''upon you burning fire shall come, and ever ye shall daily burn in flames''

Hellfire used to justify violence in the middle ages: Mary I, queen of England(1553-1558), known as blood Mary for burning nearly 300 protestants at the stake said: ''as the soul of heretics are hereafter to be eternally burning in hell, there can be nothing more proper than for me to imitate the Divine vengeance by burning them on earth''

A recent definition of hell: in recent yrs some denominations have revised their teachings about hell. For example, the doctrine commission of the Church Of England said in 1995: ''Hell is not eternal tormentbut it is the final and irrevocable chosing of that which is opposed to God so completely and so absolutely that the only end is total non-being''