Question:

Can you please clarify what the Scriptural (i.e. Catholic) meaning is of the following terms: paradise, sheol, hades, gehenna, tartaros, the pit, Abraham's bosom, the prison, paradise?

Answer:

The general Hebrew term for the abode of the dead was "sheol." It had both good neighborhoods and bad neighborhoods. "Hades" was the Greek name for this place.

The term "paradise" was used by the pre-Christian Jews to refer to the abode of the righteous dead where they awaited the resurrection. It was also known as the "bosom of Abraham".

The unrighteous dead, were believed by these same Jews to go to a place of torment/purgation that they called "Gehenna" after a garbage dump outside of Jerusalem where there were spontaneous combustion fires burning all the time. (It was also known as "the pit," and "the prison.") It was really unclear whether the Rabbis considered "gehenna" to be a permanent or temporary state. Jesus affirmed that it was both. Hence our distinction between Hell and Purgatory. Some Rabbis believed that at the general resurrection, the unrighteous who had not been purified would be annihilated.

Tartaros was the term for Hell in Greek mythology wherer the Titans were improsoned by the Olympian gods.

Generally, Catholic theology has identified Sheol with Hell. The good folk and the bad folk who were being purged were in Limbo (i.e., the limbus or edge of Hell). The bad folk who were damned were in Hell proper.

The parable of Lazarus and the Rich man was a story about Limbo. The rich man was being purged in preparation for the resurrection. He was not in Hell proper.

When Jesus "descended into Hell" (Apostle's Creed & 1Pet 3:19ff) he went to set free all of the righteous dead of the OT and those who were being purged. This was known as the "Harrowing of Hell." The truly damned stayed where they were.