Gehenna
Gehenna or Gehinnom is a Biblical toponym that has acquired various theological connotations, including as a place of divine punishment, in Jewish eschatology.
The place is first mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as part of the border between the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. During the late First Temple period, it was the site of the Tophet, where some of the kings of Judah had sacrificed their children by fire. Thereafter, it was cursed by the biblical prophet Jeremiah.
In later rabbinic literature, "Gehinnom" became associated with divine punishment as the destination of the wicked for the atonement of their sins. The term is different from the more neutral term Sheol, the abode of the dead. The King James Version of the Bible translates both with the Anglo-Saxon word hell.
Etymology
The Hebrew Bible refers to the valley as the "Valley of the son of Hinnom", or "Valley of Hinnom". In Mishnaic Hebrew and Judeo-Aramaic languages, the name was contracted into Gēhīnnōm or Gēhīnnām meaning "hell".The English name "Gehenna" derives from the Koine Greek transliteration found in the New Testament.
Geography
The exact location of the Valley of Hinnom is disputed. George Adam Smith wrote in 1907 that there are three possible locations considered by historical writers:- East of the Old City
- Within the Old City : Many commentaries give the location as below the southern wall of ancient Jerusalem, stretching from the foot of Mount Zion eastward past the Tyropoeon Valley to the Kidron Valley. However, the Tyropoeon Valley is usually no longer associated with the Valley of Hinnom because during the period of Ahaz and Manasseh, the Tyropoeon lay within the city walls and child sacrifice would have been practiced outside the walls of the city.
- Wadi ar-Rababi: Dalman, Bailey and Watson identify the Wadi al-Rababi, which fits the description of Joshua that the Hinnom Valley ran east to west and lay outside the city walls. According to Joshua, the valley began at Ein Rogel. If the modern Bir Ayyub in Silwan is Ein Rogel, then Wadi ar-Rababi, which begins there, is Hinnom.
Archaeology
No archaeological evidence such as mass children's graves has been found; however, it has been suggested that such a find may be compromised by the heavy population history of the Jerusalem area compared to the Tophet found in Tunisia. The site would also have been disrupted by the actions of Josiah "And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.". A minority of scholars have attempted to argue that the Bible does not portray actual child sacrifice, but only dedication to the god by fire; however, they are judged to have been "convincingly disproved".
There is evidence however that the southwest shoulder of this valley was a burial location with numerous burial chambers that were reused by generations of families from as early as the seventh until the fifth century BC. The use of this area for tombs continued into the first centuries BC and AD. By 70 AD, the area was not only a burial site but also a place for cremation of the dead with the arrival of the Tenth Roman Legion, who were the only group known to practice cremation in this region.
The concept of Gehinnom
Judaism
Hebrew Bible
The oldest historical reference to “the Valley of the Son of Hinnom” is found in the Book of Joshua which describe tribal boundaries. The following reference to the valley is at the time of King Ahaz of Judah, who, according to, “burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire”. Later, in, it is said that Ahaz's grandson, king Manasseh of Judah, also “caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom”. Debate remains as to whether the phrase "cause his children to pass through the fire" referred to a religious ceremony in which the Moloch priest would walk the child between two lanes of fire, or to literal child sacrifice wherein the child is thrown into the fire.The Book of Isaiah does not mention Gehenna by name, but the "burning place" in which the Assyrian army is to be destroyed, may be read in Hebrew as "Topheth". Similarly, describes the bodies of sinners burning near Jerusalem.
During the reign of Josiah, Jeremiah condemned the Topheth worship which was conducted in the Hinnom valley. Josiah destroyed the shrine of Moloch on Topheth to prevent anyone sacrificing children there. Despite Josiah's ending of the practice, Jeremiah prophesied that Jerusalem itself would be made like Gehenna and Topheth.
A purely geographical reference appears in : the exiles returning from Babylon encamped from Beersheba to Hinnom.
Targums (Aramaic translations)
The Targums frequently supply the term "Gehinnom" to verses touching upon resurrection, judgment, and the fate of the wicked. For example, Targum Jonathan to interprets the Biblical phrase "they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh" as "the evildoers shall be judged in Gehenna until the righteous say of them: We have seen enough".Rabbinical Judaism
Gehinnom became a figurative name for the place of spiritual purification for the wicked dead in Judaism. According to most Jewish sources, the period of purification or punishment is limited to only 12 months and every Sabbath day is excluded from punishment, while the fires of Gehinnom are banked and its tortures are suspended. For the duration of Shabbat, the spirits who are serving time there are released to roam the earth. At Motza'ei Shabbat, the angel Dumah, who has charge over the souls of the wicked, herds them back for another week of torment. After this the soul will move on to Olam Ha-Ba, be destroyed, or continue to exist in a state of consciousness of remorse.In classic rabbinic sources, Gehinnom occasionally occurs as a place of punishment or destruction of the wicked. Rabbi Joshua ben Levi is said to have wandered through Gehenna, like Dante, under the guidance of the angel Duma. Joshua describes seven chambers of Gehenna, each one presided over by a famous sinner from Jewish history, and populated by deceased sinners suffering brutal punishments. According to another rabbinic story, the ancient Israelite leader Jair once threatened to burn alive those individuals who refused to worship Baal. In response, God sent the angel Nathaniel, who rescued the individuals and declared to Jair that "you will die, and die by fire, a fire in which you will abide forever."
Rabbinic texts contain various answers to the questions of who suffers in Gehenna and for how long. According to the Tosefta, normal sinners are punished in Gehenna for 12 months, after which their souls leave Gehenna and turn into dust; while heretics, those who abandon the community, and those who cause the masses to sin, suffer in Gehenna eternally. The Talmud states that all who enter Gehenna eventually leave it, except for adulterers, those who humiliate others in public, and those who call others by derogatory names.
The traditional explanation that a burning rubbish heap in the Valley of Hinnom south of Jerusalem gave rise to the idea of a fiery Gehenna of judgment is attributed to Rabbi David Kimhi. He maintained that historically, in this valley fires were kept burning perpetually to consume the filth and cadavers thrown into it; therefore, the judgment of the evil after death was metaphorically named after the valley. While this claim is logically plausible, there is no direct archaeological nor literary evidence for it.
Maimonides declares, in his 13 principles of faith, that the descriptions of Gehinnom as a place of punishment in rabbinic literature, were pedagogically motivated inventions to encourage respect of the Torah commandments by mankind, which had been regarded as immature. Instead of being sent to Gehenna, the souls of the wicked would actually get annihilated.
Christianity
Ethiopian Orthodox Old Testament
Frequent references to "Gehenna" are also made in the books of Meqabyan, which are considered canonical in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.New Testament
In the King James Version of the Bible, the term appears 13 times in 11 different verses as Valley of Hinnom, Valley of the son of Hinnom or Valley of the children of Hinnom.In the synoptic Gospels the various authors describe Jesus, who was Jewish, as using the word Gehenna to describe the opposite to life in the Kingdom. The term is used 11 times in these writings. In certain usage, the Christian Bible refers to it as a place where both soul and body could be destroyed in "unquenchable fire".
Christian usage of Gehenna often serves to admonish adherents of the religion to live righteous lives. Examples of Gehenna in the Christian New Testament include:
- Matthew 5:22: "....whoever shall say, 'You fool', shall be guilty enough to go into Gehenna."
- Matthew 5:29: "....it is better for you that one of the parts of your body perish, than for your whole body to be thrown into Gehenna."
- Matthew 5:30: "....better for you that one of the parts of your body perish, than for your whole body to go into Gehenna."
- Matthew 10:28: "....rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna."
- Matthew 18:9: "It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than with two eyes to be thrown into the Gehenna...."
- Matthew 23:15: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you... make one proselyte...twice as much a child of Gehenna as yourselves."
- Matthew 23:33, to the Pharisees: "You serpents, you brood of vipers, how shall you escape the sentence of Gehenna?"
- Mark 9:43: "It is better for you to enter life crippled, than having your two hands, to go into Gehenna into the unquenchable fire."
- Mark 9:45: "It is better for you to enter life lame, than having your two feet, to be cast into Gehenna."
- Mark 9:47: "It is better for you to enter the Kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes, to be cast into Gehenna."
- Luke 12:5: "....fear the One who, after He has killed has authority to cast into Gehenna; yes, I tell you, fear Him."
- James 3:6: "And the tongue is a fire,...and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by Gehenna."