Heaven (pronounced hev-uhn)
(1) In
theology, the abode of God, the angels, and the spirits of the righteous after
death; the place or state of existence of the blessed after the mortal life.
(2) The
celestial powers; God (initial capital letter and often in the plural).
(3) A
metonym for God.
(4) In
architecture, as heavens (used with a singular verb), a wooden roof or canopy
over the outer stage of Elizabethan theatres.
(5) In
poetic and (mostly historic) scientific & legal use, often in the plural, the
sky, firmament, or expanse of space surrounding the earth, including the moon,
Sun, planets & stars.
(6) A place
or state of supreme happiness, often expressed as “heaven on earth”.
(7) A
component of expression (variously singular & plural), used in exclamatory
phrases of surprise, exasperation, emphasis etc.
(8) In
mythology, a place, such as Elysium or Valhalla, to which those who have died
in the gods' favour are brought, there eternally to dwell in happiness.
Pre 900:
From the Middle English heven, hevin,
heuen & hewin (heaven, sky),
from the Old English heofon (home of
God (and earlier) the visible sky, firmament), probably from the Proto-Germanic
hibin (heaven, sky), a dissimilation
of himin and source also of the Middle
Low German heven, the Old Saxon heban, the Old Swedish himin, the Low German heben, the Old Norse himinn, the Old Danish himæn, the Gothic himins, the Old Frisian himul,
the Scots heaven & hewin, the Dutch
hemel and the German Himmel (heaven, sky). The mysterious Proto-Germanic hibin (which existed also as hebn) is of uncertain and disputed
origin. It was cognate with and possibly
the rare Icelandic and Old Norse hifinn
(heaven, sky), which may be dissimilated forms of the Germanic root was more familiar
in the Old Norse himinn (heaven, sky). Among etymologists, the most popular alternative
root is the Proto-Germanic himinaz
(cover, cloud cover, firmament, sky). A
now archaic alternative spelling (in both sacred and secular writing) which
persisted in poetry into the twentieth century because of the rhythmic
advantages was heav'n.
From the late
fourteenth century, the word in English assumed the meaning "a heavenly
place; a state of bliss”. The plural use
in sense of "sky" may have emerged from a simple habit of use
influenced by other words although a link has been suggested with the Ptolemaic
theory of space as composed of many spheres.
It had also been used in the same sense in the singular in Biblical
language, as a translation of Hebrew plural shamayim. The earliest adjectival sense “heaven-sent” is
attested from the 1640s.
Hell (pronounced hel)
(1) In
theology, the place or state of eternal punishment of the wicked after death;
the abode of evil and condemned spirits; Gehenna or Tartarus. The ruler of hell is said often to be Satan;
the Devil.
(2) Any
place or state of torment or misery; something that causes torment or misery.
(3) The
powers of evil.
(4) The
abode of the dead; Sheol or Hades.
(5) Extreme
disorder or confusion; chaos.
(6) In
informal use, something remarkable of its kind (as in “one hell of a…”).
(7) A
receptacle into which a tailor throws scraps and off-cuts (a practice in many
industries). In commercial printing, as
the hellbox, a box into which a printer throws discarded type.
(8) A
general purpose utterance of in swearing or for emphasis, now generally
regarded as not actually obscene; used as an intensifier to express surprise,
anger, impatience etc; an general intensifier in many phrases.
(9) A
gambling house or booth in which bets are placed (archaic).
(10) In
metal-working, to add luster to, burnish silver or gold (now rare).
Pre 900: From the Middle English, from the Old English hel & hell (nether world, abode of the dead, infernal regions, place of torment for the wicked after death), it was cognate with the Old High German hella & hellia (source of the Modern German Hölle), the Icelandic hella (to pour), the Norwegian helle (to pour), the Swedish hälla (to pour), the Old Norse hel & hella and the Gothic halja. It was related to the Old English helan (to cover, hide) and to hull. The Old English gained hel & hell from the Proto-Germanic haljō (the underworld) & halija (one who covers up or hides something), the source also of the Old Frisian helle, the Old Saxon hellia, the Dutch hel, the Old Norse hel, the German Hölle & the Gothic halja (hell). The meaning in the early Germanic languages was derived from the sense of a "concealed place", hence the Old Norse hellir meaning "cave or cavern", from the primitive Indo-European root kel (to cover, conceal, save). In sacred art, hell, whether frozen or afire, is almost always depicted as a cavernous place.
The
English traditions of use may have been influenced by Norse mythology and the Proto-Germanic
forms. In the Norse myths, Halija (one who covers up or hides
something) was the name of the daughter of Loki who rules over the evil dead in
Niflheim, the lowest of all worlds (nifl "mist") and it was not
uncommon for pagan concepts and traditions to be grafted onto Christian rituals
and idiom. Hell was used figuratively to
describe a state of misery or bad experience (of which there must have been
many in the Middle Ages) since the late fourteenth century and as an expression
of disgust by the 1670s. In eighteenth
century England, there were a number of Hellfire
Clubs, places where members of the elite could indulge their immoral proclivities. They were said to attract many politicians.
It
proved adaptable in the English vernacular.
To have all hell break loose
is from circa 1600; to hell in a
handbasket is attested by 1867 (an in a context implying earlier use)
although it may simply have been derivative of to heaven in a handbasket from 1853 which was a happy phrase implying
an easy passage to a nice place. Hell or high water from 1874 seems to
have been a variation of the earlier between
the devil and the deep blue sea and the first recorded instance of wishing someone
would go to hell seems to have been
in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice
although it’s hard to believe it hadn’t before then been a familiar oral form
and one with which the bard may well have been acquainted. The snowflake’s
(later snowball's) chance in hell meaning "no chance" is from
1931 and till hell freezes over meaning
"never" is documented from 1832.
To do something just for the hell
of it is from 1921, to ride (a horse) hell
for leather is from 1889 and hell on
wheels was noted (in the US) first in 1843, a reference to the river steamboats
which, for propulsion, used large wheels rather than propellers and gained a
general popularity after 1869 after it was used in reference to the temporary
vice-ridden towns established along the path of the US transcontinental
railroad. Unrelated to this was the
earlier (1580s) Scottish hell-wain (a phantom wagon seen in the sky at night).
What
happens to snowflakes and snowballs in hell is interesting. In the writings drawn from the Abrahamic
traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, hell is certainly a hot place,
the “fire and brimstone” of the New Testament used in the US as a description of a certain type of preacher. However, in the Divine Comedy (1320), Dante
Alighieri (circa 1265–1321) located hell in Earth’s innermost core and he
wrote of its characteristics in ways consistent with Aristotelian dynamics; it
was mostly hot and fiery but in some places frozen and immobile:
When we were down in that ditch’s darkness, well
below the giant’s feet, my gaze still drawn by the wall above us, I heard a
voice say: ‘Watch where you walk. Step so as not to tread upon our heads, the
heads of wretched, weary brothers.’ At that I turned to look about. Under my
feet I saw a lake so frozen that it seemed more glass than water. Never in
winter did the Austrian Danube nor the far-off Don, under its frigid sky, cover
their currents with so thick a veil as I saw there.
This prison of ice is reserved for a variety of
different species of traitors. Depending on the severity of their offense, they
may only be frozen from the waist down; or, they may be completely immersed.
A vision of Hell: Pandæmonium (1841) by John Martin (1789–1854).
Dante lists the intricate layers of location for the punishment of sinners and evildoers and while some are hot, the ninth and innermost circle, reserved for the worst of the worst, is icy cold. Dante goes further, noting that even within the ninth circle, there are gradations, the worst and coldest spot kept for Judas Iscariot. A colder conception of hell than that familiar from scripture but the idea of a cold hell exists also in Buddhism and some Christian texts of the first millennium. Dante’s marvelous work was however for centuries neglected and others took the chance to make sure the Biblical stories held sway, John Milton (1608-1674) in Paradise Lost (1667-1674) having the last word, convincing all that Hell was no place for snowflakes. So today it remains.
“At once, as far as Angel’s ken, he viewsThe dismal situation waste and wild.A dungeon horrible, on all sides round,As one great furnace flamed; yet from those
flamesNo light; but rather darkness visibleServed only to discover sights of woe,Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peaceAnd rest can never dwell, hope never comesThat comes to all, but torture without endStill urges, and a fiery deluge, fedWith ever-burning sulphur unconsumed.”
For
those wondering about the fate of certain friends and family members or
contemplating their own eternal fate, Dante’s Lonely Planet Guide to Hell summarizes
the nine circles thus:
(1)
Limbo: The first circle of Hell is
Limbo, where the souls of the unbaptized and virtuous pagans reside; while there
are no actual punishments, those in Limbo are forever denied the joy of God's
presence. Limbo, frankly, was a bit of a
fudge, concocted by medieval theologians as a work-around to avoid the worst
injustices of strict Christian rules (notably the souls of the stillborn being
sent to Hell on the basis of being unbaptized).
Still it was orthodox Christian thought in Dante’s time and although in
subsequent centuries there was much debate, it never went away. Benedict XVI (1927–2022; pope 2005-2013, pope
emeritus 2013-2022), no stranger to dancing on the head of a pin, seemed both
to clarify and cloud the waters by saying limbo was only ever “medieval conjecture” and given there is
no explicit answer from Scripture, people seem still free to make of it what
they will.
(2)
Lust: The second circle is for the
lustful. They are punished by being
blown around in a violent storm, symbolizing their lack of self-control. Perhaps surprisingly, given the fixation many
modern denominations seem to have upon anything to do with sex, historically
the Christian churches regarded lust usually as the “least to be condemned” of the seven deadly sins, the basis of that,
as Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) pointed out: it was a sin “of the flesh and not the soul” and thus both
understandable and forgivable as would one forgive one’s pet cat for eating the
meat; it’s just what cats do. Lust
(sometimes expressed as “lechery) included not only fornication but also rape,
adultery and “unnatural acts upon beasts
of the field” so it was an uncharacteristically generous view from the pulpit. Of course, given the well-documented predilection
of priests, bishops and the odd pope to lustful ways, the relaxed view may have
been corporate self-interest.
(3)
Gluttony: The third circle is for
the gluttonous. They are forced to lie in a vile slush of filth, symbolizing
the garbage of their excessive consumption.
Theologians had a broader view of gluttony than is now current in that
they were thinking also in terms of social justice; one person’s excessive
consumption meant there were others who went hungry. Some also explored aspects of gluttony as an
example of “the idolatry of food” and
thus a violation of one of the Ten Commandments. One improbable supporter of this was Benito
Mussolini (1883-1945; Duce (leader) & prime-minister of Italy 1922-1943)
who re-purposed the notion in his forlorn attempt to convince Italians it was
time to re-create the Roman Empire, lambasting his countrymen for “…following the French into the decadence of
elevating cooking to high art while letting the blade of the sword fall to rust.”
(4)
Greed: The fourth circle is for the
greedy. They are divided into two groups and forced to push heavy weights,
symbolizing their excessive desire for material wealth. Again it’s linked to worship of a “false idol”, the “worship of money” being the “root
of all evil” long accepted as orthodox Christian theology (often
acknowledged rather than practiced) although the distinction seems lost in many
of the modern evangelical congregations (notably those which sing, clap and
strum guitars) where it’s made clear McMansions, surf-skis and a big TV in as
many rooms as possible is most Godly.
(5)
Wrath: The fifth circle is for the
wrathful. They are submerged in the river Styx and must fight each other on the
surface. Wrath does seem a curious basis
on which to be condemned to Hell, if only because if too rigorously enforced
there would be few not damned. The point
seemed to be that the Christian message was not that one should never feel
anger (indeed the Church would clarify this by saying mere anger was “neutral”) but that one should “practice Christian charity” and never
allow wrathful thoughts to lead to the harming of one’s neighbour.
(6)
Heresy: The sixth circle is for the
heretics. They are trapped in flaming tombs, symbolizing their rejection of
God's love. Heresy really is about as
bad as it gets because it means one has disagreed with what the priest says and
that means defying the pope who, as the “Vicar
of Christ on Earth” is uniquely able to express the thoughts of God. So, what the pope says goes which is why he is
“infallible” in such matters; the
internal logic is perfect. While wrathful
souls may end up in the fifth circle, a wrathful God is going to punish
heretics by sending them for eternity to the sixth: “Vengeance is Mine” said the Lord.
(7)
Violence: The seventh circle is
divided into three rings, each for a different type of violence: against
others, against oneself, and against God. The punishments include being boiled
in blood, being transformed into trees and bushes, and being chased and mauled by
dogs with sharp teeth. It’s been hard
for critics to resist the feeling Dante enjoyed writing of the sufferings in
the seventh circle more than any other, possibly because of the exalted positions
many of the victims enjoyed during however many of their four score & ten
they managed. The sanction of violence
against self (suicide & attempted suicide) entered the criminal law systems
in many jurisdictions and it’s only in recent decades that in some places it
has been reclassified from crime to health condition of some type.
(8)
Fraud: The eighth circle is for the
fraudulent. It is divided into ten bolgias
(from the Italian bolgia used
here in the sense of “ditch”), each for a different type of fraud. The
punishments include being whipped by demons, being immersed in excrement, and
being transformed into reptiles. In the
matter of fraud, Dante casts a wider net than the offence captures in the modern
imagination where it ranges from shop-lifting to Bernie Madoff’s (1938–2021) Ponzi
scheme. Instead of involving just
financial matters, Dante encompasses fraud in a kind of omnibus bill which
captures sins as diverse as those who corrupt others with flattery, those who
seduce the innocent with lies and deception, those who practice magic &
sorcery, those who corrupt the truth by the pedalling of fake news as well as,
most obviously, thieves.
(9)
Treachery: The ninth circle is for
the treacherous. It is divided into four rounds, each for a different type of
treachery. The punishments include being frozen in ice, being gnawed on by a
three-headed demon, and being devoured by Lucifer himself. Dante makes clear the sin of treachery is the
worst of all and because there’s obviously some overlap with the offences which
justify being sent to the other eight, the ninth is reserved for the worst of
the worst. Interestingly, the ninth
circle is the part of Hell Dante describes as an icy, frozen place, something
usually ignored in pop-culture, film-makers and Satanists staging their video
clips almost always preferring fire, molten lava and red-hot pokers. It could though be worse still because in the
centre of Hell sits miserably the Devil, cast there for committing the ultimate
sin: his personal treachery against God which saw him forever banished from
Heaven.
Benedict XVI looking for Cardinal George Pell (1941-2023). Canto XVIII, part of the eighth circle of Hell, in Divine Comedy (circa 1494), illustrated by Sandro Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi; circa 1445–1510).
The legal doctrine cuius est solum, eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos (whoever's is the soil, it is theirs all the way to Heaven and all the way to Hell) is a historic principle of property law which holds the owner of a piece of land enjoys rights not just to the defined soil but to the air above (stretching to Heavens, ie to infinity) and what lay below (as far as Hell, ie all the way down); the legal shorthand is ad coelum. Developments in technology, such as radio waves and flight, have much modified the doctrine but it continues, with limitations, to operate. Some of the airspace above a piece of land can be recognized as a property right and as something therefore transferable but the right does not extend far, a position modified also in international law as long ago as the 1950s to accommodate the implication of satellites and, later, space flight, realizing the implications of discussions which had been going on since the advent of flight. The rights to ownership of what lies below the soil and even the right to deny access to others now varies between jurisdictions but has long since ceased to be absolute.
Although there are no specific references in the record, it may be the origin of the maxim lies in in Roman or Jewish law, or at least customary practice. The earliest surviving mention in English law is recorded in Bury v Pope (1587) Cro Eliz 118, [1653] EngR 382, (1653) Cro Eliz 118, (1653) 78 ER 375 (B), the Chief Justice, Sir Edward Coke (1552–1634), holding “the earth hath in law a great extent upwards, not only of water as hath been said, but of aire, and all other things even up to heaven, for cujus est solum ejus est usque ad coelum, as it is holden.”, finding for a plaintiff seeking to erect a structure which would block to his neighbor’s window the light which had fallen there for thirty years. Even then however, limits were noted, Sir Edward saying ad coelum might be defeated if a claim for a right in conflict could be found to have existed prior to 1189, the significance of the date being the beginning of the reign of King Richard I (1157–1199; King of England 1189-1199) and, mentioned here as a legal fiction, the end point of time immemorial.
English law seems to have picked it up from the writings of thirteenth century Italian jurist Accursius (circa 1182–1263),
and is said to have been used in common law during the reign of Edward
I (1239–1307; King of England 1272- 1307) and the legal framework (air above and
ground below) was defined by William Blackstone in his treatise Commentaries on the Laws of England (1766).
Land hath also, in its legal signification, an
indefinite extent, upwards as well as downwards. Cujus est solum, ejus est
usque ad coelum, is the maxim of the law, upwards; therefore no man may erect
any building, or the like, to overhang another's land: and, downwards, whatever
is in a direct line between the surface of any land, and the center of the
earth, belongs to the owner of the surface; as is every day's experience in the
mining countries. So that the word "land" includes not only the face
of the earth, but every thing under it, or over it. And therefore if a man
grants all his lands, he grants thereby all his mines of metal and other
fossils, his woods, his waters, and his houses, as well as his fields and
meadows.
Heaven and Hell: Google and Bing
In a study hardly scientific but with a consistent methodology, a Google search for Heaven yielded 1.1 billion results and one for Hell, 784 million. The same search using Microsoft’s Bing engine delivered 51.4 million hits for Heaven and 48.9 million for Hell. Noting the method in the search engines' algorithm which underpins how results are delivered, this suggests 58.82% of Google’s users favor God and 41.18% prefer the Devil while Microsoft’s users are more evenly divided, 51.25% being godly and 48.75% Satanists. Given the state of the world, both God and Satan might have hoped for better numbers but the results are unlikely greatly to have surprised either and it seems to confirm what Google have long said: Use Bing and burn in Hell.
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