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[Harrister]

Revelation 20:14

"And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire."

is that death and hell as a concept, something tangible or what ?

[jimwalton]

The context (Rev. 20.11-14) has been speaking repeatedly about the final judgment before God and "the dead." The Greek word in v. 11-13 is νεκρούς, the generic term for physical death. It is used of men and animals, but here in the context of Revelation it is talking about human beings being brought out of death to judgment.

In v. 13 the author makes a distinction between the physically dead and physical death (νεκροὺς) and "death" (θάνατος). Here he is speaking of dead as a concept and as a fate of humans. Here "death" is the more the idea of a philosophical concept. In Greek usage (since Greeks believed in an afterlife), death (θάνατος) often represents the liberation of the soul imprisoned in the body. It is an unavoidable transition, but it is not to be feared, even though it destroys life. It at least brings rest and liberation from ignominy and suffering. It is the entrance to a state of immortality. In Plato, death was a value. For Stoics, death was a natural phenomenon to be accepted. In the NT, the concept of death (θάνατος) is that it is the consequence of sin, and is therefore destructive and avoidable (which physical death is not avoidable). Death (θάνατος) in the NT is a destroying power.

And here Hades is the common destiny of the dead, in other words, and inseparable pair. "Hades" here means the power of death (again, a concept) because it's the abode of the dead from which none escape.

In Rev. 20.13, you see that death (θάνατος) and Hades yield to the sovereign judgment of God and release the dead (νεκρος) that are in it to stand before God. Their powers are inferior to and subject to God's power.

Then in Rev. 20.14, death (θάνατος—the power of death and the enemy of life) and Hades (ᾅδης—also representing the power of death) are personified. Once the people—the dead (νεκρος)—are judged, they are consigned to separation from God for their sin, and then "Death and Hades," as the powers that claim the souls, have finished their work and even "they" are cast into their eternal state: the Lake of Fire, which is their full and final defeat.

This is "the second death" (v. 14). Physical death (νεκρος) is never a cessation in the Bible, but always a transition. The concept of death (θάνατος) is a power, and Hades is a destination. They all submit to the power of God, and they are all cast from His presence—the final, ultimate, and eternal end.