“Hell” before Christ’s resurrection was a holding place of the souls of the dead with two compartments, one for the damned and one for he righteous. The righteous compartment was one free of despair, where saints were comforted by each other - as mentioned in Jesus’ parable of the rich and poor man. (the poor man was comforted in Abraham’s bosom.). The two groups could literally communicate with each other, as he rich man and Lazareth did. This would not have been possible in the final Hell to come at the Final Judgement.
Christ freed the awaiting righteous souls from this compartment, leaving the damned to await the Last Judgement, after which they will be cast into Hell with the Devil and his angels.
RE: “Hell” before Christ’s resurrection was a holding place of the souls of the dead with two compartments, one for the damned and one for he righteous.
The Jews have a word for it — SHEOL.
Th Greek speaking people call it — HADES.
Hell is another word altogether — GEHENNA. It is derived from the Hebrew, ‘Ge-Hinnom’, the valley of Hinnom.
A valley of Jerusalem that was used to dump dead animals and waste in. The heaps of refuse were then burned. It was figuratively used to designate ‘a place of eternal dwelling and eternal punishment’.