On Supernatural we’re told that time in hell passes quicker than on Earth. In Angel a “hell dimension” Angel’s son is sucked into causes the boy to age several years in just a few months. Giles explained to Buffy in a BTVS episode that time moves quickly for mortals in demon dimensions too. And in Rob Thurman book Nightlife, a character in another hellish dimension ages a handful of years in a few days or weeks. I’m sure there are other examples of this too.
Is there any sort of religious basis for this not-uncommon theme? If not the Bible (which, as far as I know, does not describe hell in great detail) than some other sort of religious text?
Assuming not, does anyone know what work of fiction is the earliest example of this theme? And is this theme something everyone knows, like everyone knows vampires are creatures of the night, or are there a great many works of fiction that run counter to the idea that time passes differently for mortals in hell?
The Chronicles of Narnia (and in particular The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) is the oldest work I’m familiar with that includes this, although in that case it involved Narnia rather than hell. That was written in 1950.
The TV tropes entry Year Inside Hour Outside gives quite a few examples, some of which may be early than that. I suspect the source is more likely to be fiction involving people transported to another world, rather than religion. Hell isn’t usually seen as somewhere you get to leave, although there are stories (the musical Carousel for example), which involve the dead at Saint Peter’s gate being allowed (or required) to return to earth to right some wrong.
On that note, from the Wikipedia article, in the musical Carousel, the character Billy returns to earth 15 years after he died, to make amends for his sins. I assume he doesn’t hang around that long in heaven. However, according to the entry for Liliom, the original play, he does stay in purgatory or something similar for 16 years before returning.
I suspect that the theory of relativity and time dilation have influence the science fiction version of the theme.
I could be wrong in all this, but the TV tropes entry should give you some idea of the variety of works that include the theme, although not specific to hell.
There are old folktales of people being invited into a fairy mound for a night of revelry. When they return to the outside, they find that a hundred years have passed.