Going to Hell: Gehenna

The concepts of going to heaven or hell after death, that most people believe is taught by the Bible, is largely influenced by no more than a story: Dante's "Divine Comedy". In particular it moulded the beliefs of influential artists such as Michaelangelo who graphically represented hell in his painting of "The Last Judgement" on the wall of the Sistene Chapel. The concept has maintained the same level of popularity ever since, despite it being based more on Dante's imagination than scripture.

Mostly "Hell" is Translated From Words for The Grave

That said, particularly in the authorised or King James Version of the Bible, there are many many references to "hell". The vast majority of the times when hell is referred to in scripture though; it is either translated from "hades" in the Greek Scriptures (or New Testament) and "sheol" in the Hebrew Scriptures (or Old Testament). Both of these words simply mean the grave. Nevertheless, thanks to the medieval popularisation of the firey torture concept of hell by people like Dante and Michaelangelo; when most people read the english word "hell" in scripture, they immediately think of everlasting fiery torture.

When Hell is Translated from "Gehenna"

However, there are a minority of Greek scriptures where the word hell is translated from the word "Gehenna" and this has a substantially different meaning from "hades", or its hebrew equivalent "sheol". Here are some examples:

Matthew 5:22-23

22 But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, 'Raca!' shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hell fire (gehenna). NKJV

Matthew 5:29-30

29 If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell (gehenna). NKJV

Matthew 18:9

9 And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire (gehenna). NKJV

Matthew 10:28-29

28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell (gehenna). NKJV

Matthew 23:14-16

15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell (gehenna) as yourselves. NKJV

Matthew 23:28-34

29 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, 30 and say, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.' 31 "Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers' guilt. 33 Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell (gehenna)? NKJV

Matthew 10:28-29

28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell (gehenna). NKJV

Interestingly Christ Himself talks not about eternal torment in hell, but of "body and soul" being destroyed in Gehenna. We'll read more about this later on.

Luke 12:4-6

4 "And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. 5 But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell (gehenna); yes, I say to you, fear Him! NKJV

James 3:4-7

4 Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. 5 Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell (gehenna). NKJV

So What Is "Gehenna" Hell ?

Gehenna is strictly "the valley of Hinnom" (Joshua 15:8; Nehemiah 11:30); "the valley of the children of Hinnom" (2 Kings 23:10); "the valley of the son of Hinnom" (2 Chronicles 28:3); "the valley of dead bodies," or Tophet, where malefactors' dead bodies were cast, South of the city (Jeremiah 31:40). A deep narrow glen South of Jerusalem, where, after Ahaz introduced the worship of the fire gods, the sun, Baal, Moloch, the Jews under Manasseh made their children to pass through the fire (2 Chronicles 33:6), and offered them as burnt-offerings (Jeremiah 7:31; 19:2-6). So the godly Josiah defiled the valley, making it a receptacle of carcass and criminals' corpses, in which worms were continually gendering. A perpetual fire was kept to consume this putrefying matter; hence it became the image of that awful place where all that are unfit for the holy city are cast out a prey to the ever gnawing "worm" of conscience from within and the "unquenchable fire" of torments from without. (Source: Fausset's Bible Dictionary)

VALLEY OF HINNOM

[HE N nahm]-a deep, narrow ravine south of Jerusalem. At the HIGH PLACES of Baal in the Valley of Hinnom, parents sacrificed their children as a burnt offering to the pagan god Molech (2 Kings 23:10). Ahaz and Manasseh, kings of Judah, were both guilty of this awful wickedness (2 Chron 28:3; 33:6). But good King Josiah destroyed the pagan altars to remove this temptation from the Hebrew people. The prophet Jeremiah foretold that God would judge this awful abomination of human sacrifice and would cause such a destruction that "the Valley of the Son of Hinnom" would become known as "the Valley of Slaughter" (Jer 7:31-32; 19:2,6; 32:35). The place was also called "Tophet." Apparently, the Valley of Hinnom was used as the garbage dump for the city of Jerusalem. Refuse, waste materials, and dead animals were burned here. Fires continually smoldered, and smoke from the burning debris rose day and night. Source: Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary.

So any inhabitant of Jerusalem and indeed Judea would have immeditely understood what Jesus meant when he spoke of "Gehenna". It had been the place where human sacrifices had once taken place, but had ultimately become one of, if not the city's waste incinerator. Here's another example:

Mark 9:42-50

42 "But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea. 43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell (gehenna) , into the fire that shall never be quenched-- 44 where...

'Their worm does not die,
And the fire is not quenched.'

45 "And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched-- 46 where...

'Their worm does not die,
And the fire is not quenched.'

47 "And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire-- 48 where...

'Their worm does not die,
And the fire is not quenched.'

Our Messiah was quoting from Isaiah 66:

Isaiah 66:24

24 "And they shall go forth and look
Upon the corpses of the men
Who have transgressed against Me.
For their worm does not die,
And their fire is not quenched.
They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh."
NKJV

Don't forget though, that in Matthew 10:28-19 which we read above, that people are destroyed in Hell. Isaiah 66:24 shows us that they look upon the burning corpses or dead bodies of those who have transgressed, so he too appears to show that "hell" or Gehenna fire isn't a place of eternal torture, but simply a place where dead bodies are cremated.

We must be careful not to read into scripture, simply because, often without knowing it, we bring a lot of the cultural baggage of Greek mythology about "hades" with us and interpret scripture in this context.

For example, just because the fire "is not quenched" doesn't mean to say that it burns forever. We can say though, that it isn't extinguished prematurely.

Isaiah 34:9-10 seems also to be talking about Gehenna:

Isaiah 34:9-10

9 Its streams shall be turned into pitch,
And its dust into brimstone;
Its land shall become burning pitch.
10 It shall not be quenched night or day;
Its smoke shall ascend forever.

But if we take time to look at the context we see again that far from being the hell described in Dante's inferno indeed plants and wildlife live in the same place as these fires.

Isaiah 34:8-15

8 For it is the day of the LORD's vengeance,
The year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
9 Its streams shall be turned into pitch,
And its dust into brimstone;
Its land shall become burning pitch.
10 It shall not be quenched night or day;
Its smoke shall ascend forever.
From generation to generation it shall lie waste;
No one shall pass through it forever and ever.
11 But the pelican and the porcupine shall possess it,
Also the owl and the raven shall dwell in it.
And He shall stretch out over it
The line of confusion and the stones of emptiness.
12 They shall call its nobles to the kingdom,
But none shall be there, and all its princes shall be nothing.
13 And thorns shall come up in its palaces,
Nettles and brambles in its fortresses;
It shall be a habitation of jackals,
A courtyard for ostriches.
14 The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the jackals,
And the wild goat shall bleat to its companion;
Also the night creature shall rest there,
And find for herself a place of rest.
15 There the arrow snake shall make her nest and lay eggs
And hatch, and gather them under her shadow;
There also shall the hawks be gathered,
Every one with her mate.
NKJV

Furthermore, we can't simply assume that just because smoke ascends forever that the fires burn forever. Arguably smoke from a fire that has gone out continues to circulate. Perhaps it's simply emphasising that ultimately all the wicked will ever amount to is a few smoke particles.

Malachi 4:1

"For behold, the day is coming,
Burning like an oven,
And all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble.
And the day which is coming shall burn them up," NKJV

Again that doesn't sound like eternal torment in an underworld hell does it ?

Want More Information on The Meaning of Life?

For more information on the subject of the Meaning of Life see the following links:

Does Galatians really mean the Mosaic law (the written Torah) is " done away" especially if, in the predominantly Jewish New Testament church, no fuss was recorded about it, yet in Acts only one small and predictable change about the circumcision of gentile proselytes caused massive turmoil.

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