The KJV translates several distinct terms — Hebrew Sheol, and Greek Hades, Gehenna, and Tartarus — all simply as 'hell,' collapsing genuinely different concepts and generating theological confusion about death, the intermediate state, and final judgment.

Concede this fully — it is a real and theologically consequential translation flattening, not a minor stylistic quirk. שְׁאוֹל (Sheol) in the OT denotes the shadowy common realm of all the dead, righteous and wicked alike (Gen 37:35; Job 14:13; Ps 89:48), without the developed judgment connotations later theology associates with 'hell.' ᾅδης (Hades) in the NT largely inherits this same LXX-mediated 'realm of the dead' sense (e.g., Acts 2:27 citing Ps 16:10; Luke 16:23), distinct from the specifically judgment-laden Gehenna, per standard treatment in BDAG. γέεννα (Gehenna), used by Jesus roughly a dozen times (Matt 5:22; 10:28; Mark 9:43), draws on the polluted, fire-associated Valley of Hinnom (2 Kings 23:10; Jer 7:31) as an image of final eschatological judgment — a NT-specific development. ταρταρόω (2 Peter 2:4, the verb 'cast into Tartarus') borrows a single term from Greek mythology to describe the confinement of fallen angels pending judgment. The KJV's single word 'hell' for all four genuinely obscures these distinctions and has fed folk conflations of the intermediate state with final judgment. This is precisely why NIV, NRSVUE, and ESV generally transliterate Sheol, Hades, Gehenna, and Tartarus rather than flattening them — a direct, acknowledged correction of the recognized problem.

Distinguishing an OT-era shadowy intermediate state (Sheol/Hades) from a NT-clarified final judgment (Gehenna) tracks a real, theologically expected progressive revelation across the canon, already well documented in studies of biblical afterlife theology (e.g., N. T. Wright's treatment of the development of resurrection hope). The precision recovered by modern translations was present in the original Hebrew and Greek vocabulary the entire time; the KJV's collapse into one word was an artifact of 1611 English's comparatively thin technical vocabulary for the afterlife, not evidence the biblical writers themselves were confused about the concepts.