Thanks for the more serious reply, Mrs. Don-o.
You say: “The word “hell” has neither Catholic nor 16th century origins...”
I didn’t say the word hell originated with the RCC or in the 16th Century. They appropriated the word, loaded it up with concepts of eternal conscious torment, and it appeared in English translations. Most of us got it from the KJV, which (mistakenly) translated Sheol, Hades, Tartarus, and Gehenna all as hell. Later translations rightly distinguish between the first three, and Gehenna shouldn’t have been translated at all, being a geographical place name.
Then you say: “Some of the medieval Rabbis said the “fiery furnace” that Abraham saw was Gehenna; in Matthew, too, “fiery furnace” is identified with the gates of Gehenna.”
If by “gates of Gehenna” you’re thinking of Mt. 16.18, Gehenna is not in that passage, but Hades.
Thanks again for your more reasoned response.
Meaning, hell had certain portals -- three gates, some of the Rabbis said --- one in the wilderness, one in the sea (I suppose that's the Mediterranean?) and one of them near Jerusalem (Gehenna).
I am no expert, not at all, and I don't know what this all means. It's not Catholic doctrine. I got the business about the portals from here: