Kim interacts deeply with the cultural background at a level I'd not seen before (although now I've read a few similar books), tracing even such obscurities as how the intertestamental Jews used the words derived from Tartarus (for example, interestingly, in addition to meaning the Greek concept of a jail below hades, they also used it to mean the "waters" of uncreation that underlie the earth -- an interesting way to translate the Hebrew concept to the Greek worldview). Nor is this merely a loose collection of scholarly facts (although I admit that one is, since /tartaroo/ is not used with that meaning in the New Testament); Kim keeps the text readable and informative in matters of real Biblical interpretation, so we can see that there's a reason to be performing this level of study. The claim below that this book is bad because the author holds a wrong opinion is one that should be considered in light of what the author is attempting to do. In my opinion, Kim manages to present extremely useful and well organized information, and only in a secondary sense rallys it into an argument for his opinion. In no sense do I think the data collected is ad-hoc support for his position, and the argument made is not mere propaganda (although I will not judge its success, since at the time I read it I was convinced by Edward Fudge's exegetical arguments that the wicked will be killed and denied life in punishment and natural consequence of their unrepentant unholiness, and gehenna serves as a place to shame and then destroy their bodies and souls, not as a place anywhere synonymous with torture).