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Note: Tanakh quotes are from the Judaica press Tanach. New Testament quotes from the Bible in this article are from the King James Bible.
.
Gehenna (or gehenom or gehinom (גהינום)) is the Jewish hell or
purgatory. It has sometimes been described as a final punishment for the wicked and sometimes as a spiritual forge in which souls are purified
afterlife. In English, Jews commonly use the term "hell" in place of "gehenna." The name derived from the burning garbage dump near Jerusalem (the Hinnom gulch), metaphorically identified with the entrance to the underworld of punishment in the afterlife.
Gehenna also appears in the New Testament and in early Christian writing to represent the place where evil will be destroyed. It lends its name to Islam's hell,
Jahannam.
In both Jewish and Christian writing, Gehenna as a destination of the wicked, is different from Tartarus (deepest sheol) and from
hades (
sheol) the abode of all the dead. In some accounts, the fiery punishment of Gehenna takes place in one level or section of hades.
Etymology
The word is derived from the
Greek (language), ultimately from
Gêhinnôm (also
Gai ben-Hinnom () meaning the
Valley of Hinnom's son. The valley forms the southern border of
City of David and stretches from the foot of Mt. Zion, eastward, to the Kidron Valley. It is first mentioned in Joshua 15:8. as a deep, narrow ravine at the foot of the walls of Jerusalem where refuse was burned. It is here that the bodies of executed criminals or others deemed unworthy of a proper burial were dumped. The association with hell derives from the tradition that the Canaanites sacrificed children to their god
Moloch in this place.
Hebrew Bible observations
It is mentioned in the
Tanakh several places, notably 2 Books of Chronicles 28:3; 33:6; 2
Books of Kings 23:10; the southwestern gate of Jerusalem, overlooking the valley, came to be known as "The Gate of the Valley" (). Book of Jeremiah 7:31; 19:2-6; 32:35; the Book of Jeremiah (2:23) speaks of Jerusalemites worshipping
Moloch and committing
Abomination (Bible)s, foreshadowing the destruction of Jerusalem:
"19:2.
And you shall go out to the Ben-Hinnom Valley which is at the entrance of the Harsith Gate, and you shall call there the words that I will speak to you.19:3.
And you shall say; Hearken to the word of the Lord, O kings of Kingdom of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; so said the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel; Behold I am bringing evil upon this place, which whoever hears, his ears will tingle.19:4.
Because they forsook Me and they estranged this place and burnt incense therein to other gods, which they had not known, they, their forefathers, and the kings of Judah, and they filled this place with the blood of innocent people.19:5.
And they built the high places of Baal to burn their children with fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command, neither did I speak nor did it enter My mind.19:6.
Therefore, behold days are coming, says the Lord, when this place will no longer be called Topheth or Ben-Hinnom Valley, but the Valley of Slaughter."
In Hebrew:
וְיָצָאתָ אֶל-גֵּיא בֶן-הִנֹּם אֲשֶׁר פֶּתַח שַׁעַר החרסות (הַחַרְסִית) וְקָרָאתָ שָּׁם אֶת-הַדְּבָרִים אֲשֶׁר-אֲדַבֵּר אֵלֶיךָ: וְאָמַרְתָּ שִׁמְעוּ דְבַר-יְהוָה מַלְכֵי יְהוּדָה וְיֹשְׁבֵי יְרוּשָׁלִָם כֹּה-אָמַר יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל הִנְנִי מֵבִיא רָעָה עַל-הַמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה אֲשֶׁר כָּל-שֹׁמְעָהּ, תִּצַּלְנָה אָזְנָיו: יַעַן אֲשֶׁר עֲזָבֻנִי וַיְנַכְּרוּ אֶת-הַמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה וַיְקַטְּרוּ-בוֹ לֵאלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים, אֲשֶׁר לֹא-יְדָעוּם הֵמָּה וַאֲבוֹתֵיהֶם וּמַלְכֵי יְהוּדָה וּמָלְאוּ אֶת-הַמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה דַּם נְקִיִּם: וּבָנוּ אֶת-בָּמוֹת הַבַּעַל לִשְׂרֹף אֶת-בְּנֵיהֶם בָּאֵשׁ עֹלוֹת לַבָּעַל אֲשֶׁר לֹא-צִוִּיתִי וְלֹא דִבַּרְתִּי וְלֹא עָלְתָה עַל-לִבִּי: לָכֵן הִנֵּה-יָמִים בָּאִים, נְאֻם-יְהוָה וְלֹא-יִקָּרֵא לַמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה עוֹד הַתֹּפֶת וְגֵיא בֶן-הִנֹּם כִּי אִם-גֵּיא הַהֲרֵגָה:
Pagans once sacrificed their
children to pagan idols in the fires in Gehenna, and this was an abomination; in 2 Kings, 23:10, King Josiah forbade the sacrificing of children to Moloch at Gehenna (though Baal is not mentioned in this particular verse).
Rashi claims that the Tophet (תופת) was the Molech. Since priests would bang on drums (תופים) so that the father would not hear the groans of the child when he would be burned by the hands of the pagan image, Molech, they called it Topheth.
There are stories of
fires that were kept burning via the adding of brimstone (
sulfur).
Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible Volume I, explains,
“It became the common lay-stall garbage dump of the city, where the dead bodies of Crimes, and the carcasses of animals, and every other kind of filth was cast.”
The dump was full of rotting garbage which sent up a stench that could be smelled for
miles.
Pharisaic tradition
The Pharisees taught that the dead in sheol would be resurrected for reward or punishment on
Judgment Day.In this teaching they contradicted the Sadducees, whose stricter interpretation of scripture excluded the resurrection.Gehenna was the place where the wicked awaited judgment day in fiery torment. The godly, meanwhile, were said to await
Judgment Day in the
bosom of Abraham. Bosom of Abraham entry in
Catholic Encyclopedia
Rabbinic tradition
The Rabbinic tradition arose from the Pharisaic tradition after the destruction of the Second Temple in AD 70. In general, it moved away from traditional Judaism's emphasis on an earthly future for Israel toward the concept of reward in the life to come. Heaven and Hell in Jewish Tradition
Gehinom (Gehenna), according to rabbinic literature, is a place or state where the wicked are temporarily punished after death. “Gehenna” is sometimes translated as "hell", but the
Hell in Christian beliefs differs from the Jewish view of Gehenna. Most sinners are said to suffer in Gehenna no longer than twelve months. Those who are too wicked to reach paradise are sometimes said to be punished forever. Gehenna in Jewish Encyclopedia, 1901-1906 Other accounts reject the idea that a merciful God would punish anyone forever, Sheol/Hell/Gehenna in which case those too wicked for purification are destroyed (see annihilationism).
New Testament
In the synoptic gospels Jesus uses the word
Gehenna to refer to the place where
sinners are punished after death.Metzger & Coogan (1993)
Oxford Companion to the Bible’’, p243. It is a place where both soul and body will be destroyed (Matthew 10:28), a place of "unquenchable fire" (Mark 9:43).In the Gospel of Matthew 23:33, Jesus observes,
"Ye Serpent (symbolism), ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the Damnation#Religious of 'gehenna
?”
The word
gehenna is also found in the
epistle of James, where it is said to set the tongue on fire.
Most Christians understand
gehenna (hell) to be a place of eternal punishment. On the other hand,
annihilationists, such as
Jehovah's Witnesses, understand
gehenna to be a place where sinners are utterly destroyed (like garbage in a burning dump), not tormented forever.
The New Testament also refers to
hades in Christianity as a destination of the dead and of those who will not be exalted in heaven (Gospel of Matthew 11:23). However,
hades is portrayed as a different place from
gehenna.
Islam
The word
gehenna (Gehennem,
Jahannam) also occurs in the
Muslim holy book, the
Qur'an, as a place of torment for sinners or Islamic equivalent to hell.
In popular culture
The term
gehenna appears often in popular culture, particularly in a number of popular
role-playing games, as well as rock and roll songs.
Notes
References
| last =Metzeger
| first =Bruce M. (ed)
| authorlink =
| coauthors = , Michael D. Coogan (ed)
| title = The Oxford Companion to the Bible
| publisher = [Oxford University Press
| date = 1993
| location = Oxford, UK
| pages =
| url =
| doi =
| isbn = 0-19-504645-5 -->
See also
External links and references
- Daily Bible Study page on the Valley of Hinnom
- Encyclopedia.com on Gehenna
- Columbia Encyclopedia on the Valley of Hinnom
- Biblical Proper Names on the Valley of Hinnom
- Gehenna from the 1901-1906 Jewish Encyclopedia
- The Jewish view of Hell on chabad.org
Note: Tanakh quotes are from the Judaica press Tanach. New Testament quotes from the Bible in this article are from the King James Bible.
.
Gehenna (or gehenom or gehinom (גהינום)) is the Jewish hell or purgatory. It has sometimes been described as a final punishment for the wicked and sometimes as a spiritual forge in which souls are purified
afterlife. In English, Jews commonly use the term "hell" in place of "gehenna." The name derived from the burning garbage dump near Jerusalem (the Hinnom gulch), metaphorically identified with the entrance to the underworld of punishment in the afterlife.
Gehenna also appears in the New Testament and in early Christian writing to represent the place where evil will be destroyed. It lends its name to Islam's hell, Jahannam.
In both Jewish and Christian writing, Gehenna as a destination of the wicked, is different from Tartarus (deepest sheol) and from
hades (
sheol) the abode of all the dead. In some accounts, the fiery punishment of Gehenna takes place in one level or section of hades.
Etymology
The word is derived from the
Greek (language), ultimately from
Gêhinnôm (also
Gai ben-Hinnom () meaning the
Valley of Hinnom's son. The valley forms the southern border of
City of David and stretches from the foot of Mt. Zion, eastward, to the Kidron Valley. It is first mentioned in Joshua 15:8. as a deep, narrow ravine at the foot of the walls of
Jerusalem where refuse was burned. It is here that the bodies of executed criminals or others deemed unworthy of a proper burial were dumped. The association with hell derives from the tradition that the Canaanites sacrificed children to their god
Moloch in this place.
Hebrew Bible observations
It is mentioned in the
Tanakh several places, notably 2
Books of Chronicles 28:3; 33:6; 2
Books of Kings 23:10; the southwestern gate of Jerusalem, overlooking the valley, came to be known as "The Gate of the Valley" ().
Book of Jeremiah 7:31; 19:2-6; 32:35; the Book of Jeremiah (2:23) speaks of Jerusalemites worshipping Moloch and committing Abomination (Bible)s, foreshadowing the destruction of Jerusalem:
"19:2.
And you shall go out to the Ben-Hinnom Valley which is at the entrance of the Harsith Gate, and you shall call there the words that I will speak to you.19:3.
And you shall say; Hearken to the word of the Lord, O kings of Kingdom of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; so said the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel; Behold I am bringing evil upon this place, which whoever hears, his ears will tingle.19:4.
Because they forsook Me and they estranged this place and burnt incense therein to other gods, which they had not known, they, their forefathers, and the kings of Judah, and they filled this place with the blood of innocent people.19:5.
And they built the high places of Baal to burn their children with fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command, neither did I speak nor did it enter My mind.19:6.
Therefore, behold days are coming, says the Lord, when this place will no longer be called Topheth or Ben-Hinnom Valley, but the Valley of Slaughter."
In Hebrew:
וְיָצָאתָ אֶל-גֵּיא בֶן-הִנֹּם אֲשֶׁר פֶּתַח שַׁעַר החרסות (הַחַרְסִית) וְקָרָאתָ שָּׁם אֶת-הַדְּבָרִים אֲשֶׁר-אֲדַבֵּר אֵלֶיךָ: וְאָמַרְתָּ שִׁמְעוּ דְבַר-יְהוָה מַלְכֵי יְהוּדָה וְיֹשְׁבֵי יְרוּשָׁלִָם כֹּה-אָמַר יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל הִנְנִי מֵבִיא רָעָה עַל-הַמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה אֲשֶׁר כָּל-שֹׁמְעָהּ, תִּצַּלְנָה אָזְנָיו: יַעַן אֲשֶׁר עֲזָבֻנִי וַיְנַכְּרוּ אֶת-הַמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה וַיְקַטְּרוּ-בוֹ לֵאלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים, אֲשֶׁר לֹא-יְדָעוּם הֵמָּה וַאֲבוֹתֵיהֶם וּמַלְכֵי יְהוּדָה וּמָלְאוּ אֶת-הַמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה דַּם נְקִיִּם: וּבָנוּ אֶת-בָּמוֹת הַבַּעַל לִשְׂרֹף אֶת-בְּנֵיהֶם בָּאֵשׁ עֹלוֹת לַבָּעַל אֲשֶׁר לֹא-צִוִּיתִי וְלֹא דִבַּרְתִּי וְלֹא עָלְתָה עַל-לִבִּי: לָכֵן הִנֵּה-יָמִים בָּאִים, נְאֻם-יְהוָה וְלֹא-יִקָּרֵא לַמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה עוֹד הַתֹּפֶת וְגֵיא בֶן-הִנֹּם כִּי אִם-גֵּיא הַהֲרֵגָה:
Pagans once sacrificed their
children to pagan idols in the fires in Gehenna, and this was an abomination; in 2 Kings, 23:10,
King Josiah forbade the sacrificing of children to Moloch at Gehenna (though Baal is not mentioned in this particular verse).
Rashi claims that the Tophet (תופת) was the Molech. Since priests would bang on drums (תופים) so that the father would not hear the groans of the child when he would be burned by the hands of the pagan image, Molech, they called it Topheth.
There are stories of fires that were kept burning via the adding of brimstone (sulfur).
Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible Volume I, explains,
“It became the common lay-stall garbage dump of the city, where the dead bodies of Crimes, and the carcasses of animals, and every other kind of filth was cast.”
The dump was full of rotting garbage which sent up a stench that could be smelled for
miles.
Pharisaic tradition
The Pharisees taught that the dead in
sheol would be resurrected for reward or punishment on
Judgment Day.In this teaching they contradicted the Sadducees, whose stricter interpretation of scripture excluded the resurrection.Gehenna was the place where the wicked awaited judgment day in fiery torment. The godly, meanwhile, were said to await
Judgment Day in the bosom of Abraham. Bosom of Abraham entry in
Catholic Encyclopedia
Rabbinic tradition
The Rabbinic tradition arose from the Pharisaic tradition after the destruction of the
Second Temple in AD 70. In general, it moved away from traditional Judaism's emphasis on an earthly future for Israel toward the concept of reward in the life to come. Heaven and Hell in Jewish Tradition
Gehinom (Gehenna), according to
rabbinic literature, is a place or state where the wicked are temporarily punished after death. “Gehenna” is sometimes translated as "
hell", but the Hell in Christian beliefs differs from the Jewish view of Gehenna. Most sinners are said to suffer in Gehenna no longer than twelve months. Those who are too wicked to reach paradise are sometimes said to be punished forever. Gehenna in Jewish Encyclopedia, 1901-1906 Other accounts reject the idea that a merciful God would punish anyone forever, Sheol/Hell/Gehenna in which case those too wicked for purification are destroyed (see annihilationism).
New Testament
In the synoptic gospels Jesus uses the word
Gehenna to refer to the place where sinners are punished after death.Metzger & Coogan (1993)
Oxford Companion to the Bible’’, p243. It is a place where both soul and body will be destroyed (Matthew 10:28), a place of "unquenchable fire" (Mark 9:43).In the Gospel of Matthew 23:33, Jesus observes,
"Ye Serpent (symbolism), ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the Damnation#Religious of 'gehenna
?”
The word
gehenna is also found in the epistle of James, where it is said to set the tongue on fire.
Most Christians understand
gehenna (hell) to be a place of eternal punishment. On the other hand, annihilationists, such as Jehovah's Witnesses, understand
gehenna to be a place where sinners are utterly destroyed (like garbage in a burning dump), not tormented forever.
The New Testament also refers to hades in Christianity as a destination of the dead and of those who will not be exalted in heaven (
Gospel of Matthew 11:23). However,
hades is portrayed as a different place from
gehenna.
Islam
The word
gehenna (Gehennem, Jahannam) also occurs in the
Muslim holy book, the
Qur'an, as a place of torment for sinners or Islamic equivalent to hell.
In popular culture
The term
gehenna appears often in popular culture, particularly in a number of popular role-playing games, as well as rock and roll songs.
Notes
References
| last =Metzeger
| first =Bruce M. (ed)
| authorlink =
| coauthors = , Michael D. Coogan (ed)
| title = The Oxford Companion to the Bible
| publisher = [Oxford University Press
| date = 1993
| location = Oxford, UK
| pages =
| url =
| doi =
| isbn = 0-19-504645-5 -->
See also
External links and references
- Daily Bible Study page on the Valley of Hinnom
- Encyclopedia.com on Gehenna
- Columbia Encyclopedia on the Valley of Hinnom
- Biblical Proper Names on the Valley of Hinnom
- Gehenna from the 1901-1906 Jewish Encyclopedia
- The Jewish view of Hell on chabad.org