How did the popular "hell" imagery develop?

by Xenophon32

IIRC there's not much basis for our usual vision of fire and brimstone image of hell in either the New or Old Testaments, the Greek Hades had torture and general unpleasantness, but not many other similarities, and I can't think of much else in European or Mideastern mythology.

My guess would be the Talmud, since it was written between the New Testament and the Quran (which features many references to what sounds like the Medieval Christian "inferno").

sunagainstgold

This earlier answer of mine might be a little further down the, uh, highway to hell than you're asking about, but maybe worth a read? (I pretty much skipped right over the actual descriptions in the Apocalypse of Peter and Shepherd of Hermas...well, that'd be where to look online, to start.)