Emmerdale

It depends how you define Hell, and real. Hell will certainly be a reality for those placed there, whether it's a physical place or purely spiritual state. Obviously the human body will be left behind when we die, so the description of fire and burning is a metaphor for something we do not yet understand.

I personally think that Hell is permanent separation from God, the awareness that he is somewhere we can never be. That would certainly qualify as "burning"; the sense that you had missed your chance, wasted your life, and would never be whole again.

Answer:

Four different words in the King James Version are translated "hell" and mean different things.

1) In the Old Testament, the word is "sheol"... which is a "pit," a "hole in the ground," or "the grave."

2) In the New Testament, one word is "hades"... which corresponds to the Old Testament word "sheol."

Both of these are "places" -- the grave... or a pit.

3) Peter uses the word "tartarus" or "tartaroo"... which is translated "hell." This is the only place in the KJV where this word is used, and it's in reference to "sinning angels":

"...if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell [tartaroo]..." (II Peter 2:4).

Tartaroo is more of a "spiritual condition" than a "place." Spirit beings [like the wind - see John 3:8] aren't affected by real physical chains like a human body is... but Peter calls them chains of "darkness." Which makes this "hell" more of a "condition of spiritual restraint or confinement" rather than a "place."

4) Jesus often uses the word "Gehenna," that the KJV translators also decided to call "hell"... which is the only usage in the Bible where "hell" has any connotation to "fire" or infernal regions.

"...whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell [Gehenna] fire." (Matt.5:22)

Gehenna, a valley on the outskirts of Jerusalem was a "place" where trash was burned anciently... along with the occasional bodies of incorrigibly wicked criminals.

If Jesus' words can be believed... He indicates that this Gehenna Valley may well become the prophesied "Lake of Fire" [Gehenna Fire]... that will be kindled when He returns and literally burn all during His thousand year rule on earth... and on through Judgment Day.

"...the Beast was taken, and with him the False Prophet... These both were cast alive into a Lake of Fire burning with brimstone [sulfur]." (Rev.19:20)

"...the dead... were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell [hades] were cast into the Lake of Fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire." (Rev.20:13-15)

These are the "hells" of the Bible.

In the hearts and minds of man's imagination, hell takes on innumerable meanings of their own... as many meanings as there are people to contemplate the word.