Hey there, welcome to my blog. Here’s where you read what’s in my head...
Gehenna - a place in time and space
8 commentsin: Spirituality..20/01/08, 12:24:02 PM
When you see the word “hell,” what do you picture? I picture a fiery place in the afterlife, where evil people are tormented for eternity. I`ve heard descriptions of hell as a dark and lonely plane of reality. It is a place completely void of the presence of God. You feel utterly abandon and hopeless, without any chance of escape. You live the rest of eternity in remorse and extreme regret, wishing you could have another chance at redemption, but it`s over for you. It is a place of suffering that is a billion times worse than any of the human suffering we experience here on earth. I`ve heard it described to be a place where its captives are tortured by demons and they wish to die and end their misery, but they can`t die. This may be the most terrible existence that human beings could ever imagine.
Our most popular translations of the Bible use the English word “hell” in several places of scripture. The most convincing words are spoken by Jesus Himself. However, when Jesus said “hell,” was he talking about the place that I just described? Is this what Jesus’ audience understood Him to be saying? Remember, the primary meaning of these verses should be interpreted in their context. It can`t mean something different than what it was intended to mean or than what the original audience would have understood it to mean. Actually, the people of Jesus’ day would have had a better understanding of Jesus’ words because they were part of the culture of the day. Jesus referenced things that they would have known about, things that we don`t know about because we are far removed from the historical context. The word “Gehenna” was one of those instances.
Our translators use “hell” to translate “Gehenna,” but the minute we see the word “hell,” we download all our preconceived ideas into Jesus’ words. We deposit our view of that “terrible underworld” into the meaning of these verses. However, as I`m about to show you, this is not what the original audience would have understood Jesus to be speaking of. Actually, this notion of “hell” didn`t exist in the Hebrew mind in Jesus’ day. This more modern view of eternal judgment came along later and had its source in Greek mythology. So, what is Gehenna?
First of all, Gehenna is the Greek name for the “Valley of Hinnon,” a valley to the south-west of Jerusalem. At the time that Jesus used this word, Gehenna was used as a garbage dump for the city of Jerusalem. It was the place where refuse was disposed of. We read “hell” and think eternal judgment. They hear Jesus say “Gehenna” and they know it as a real place in time and space. Even if Jesus used this word symbolically, the people would have understood it to mean that Gehenna represents the destruction of useless and evil things. But how far do you take this symbolism? In what ways does Gehenna represent the destruction of all that is accursed and filthy? To answer this question, we need to dig a little deeper into the history of this valley.
Several hundred years before Jesus came to Jerusalem something very terrible happened in that Valley of Hinnon. I believe Jesus’ words in the gospel writings referenced this period of history. The people of Judah were introduced to the pagan god Molech, who they began to worship with human sacrifice. They did the unthinkable and actually threw their own children into the fire to worship the false god. (2 Kings 23:10; 2 Chron. 28:3) Actually, this is one of the main reasons that God judged Jerusalem in 586 BC. This connects “Gehenna” to the exile. This is what the prophet Jeremiah said to the people of Jerusalem:
“The people of Judah have sinned before my very eyes,” says the LORD. “They have set up their abominable idols right in the Temple that bears my name, defiling it. They have built pagan shrines at Topheth, the garbage dump in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, and there they burn their sons and daughters in the fire. I have never commanded such a horrible deed; it never even crossed my mind to command such a thing! So beware, for the time is coming,” says the LORD, “when that garbage dump will no longer be called Topheth or the valley of Ben-Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. They will bury the bodies in Topheth until there is no more room for them. The bodies of my people will be food for the vultures and wild animals, and no one will be left to scare them away. I will put an end to the happy singing and laughter in the streets of Jerusalem. The joyful voices of bridegrooms and brides will no longer be heard in the towns of Judah. The land will lie in complete desolation.
Jeremiah 7:30-34
So Gehenna means more to the people of Jerusalem than just the place for garbage and human waste. Historically, it is the place that received all those who died in the attack on Jerusalem in 586 BC. This place has a memory to it. It symbolizes God`s judgment on the city of Jerusalem, for rejecting their God and turning to other gods. It`s ironic that this very place, where fathers threw their own children into fire – which God calls an abomination and something that would have never entered His own heart – is now being used to support the idea that God Himself would throw His children into the hell fire! Jesus is referencing “Gehenna” because, now 600 years later, the same thing is about to happen to Jerusalem. The people have come full circle. They have turned from God again. Gehenna symbolizes what happened in 586 BC and Jesus prophecies that Jerusalem will be destroyed again. This comes to pass in AD 70.
Also, in Jesus’ day, Gehenna was used as a form of capital punishment. Murderers and other criminals were thrown into Gehenna and they would often be burned alive, left there without ever receiving a proper burial and grave.
So here we have it. When Jesus used the word “Gehenna,” it referred to:
1) an actual place outside of Jerusalem where garbage and refuse was destroyed
2) a place that symbolized the historical event of the destruction of Jerusalem as an act of God`s judgment
3) the ultimate destination and punishment of criminals in Jesus’ day (the death penalty)
With this understanding, you can now read all the passages that Jesus speaks the word “Gehenna” and it makes complete sense. Every verse comes to life. However, we miss it all because our Bibles say “hell.” And we all know what “hell” is.
My next few posts will examine each “Gehenna” verse and will seek to uncover what Jesus is really saying.
Comments
“Hey Paul, I've always been a fan for your "methods." Taking scripture in context (Biblical and historical) to give it better meaning in the past, at the time of writing and also in the future. I think, for example, about your discussion regarding the Old Testament tabernacle and the symbolism the items therein represented during that time. Then later, how those same items applied to the New Testament church; and finally how they apply to us living in contemporary times.
These most recent posts concern me only because I feel you have (thus far) only spoken regarding the interpretations for Old & New Testament times; neglecting the fact that there has to be an interpretation of Gehenna for our contemporary times. I look forward to hearing more on the topic.„
“I've been studying this for a while myself ... a most uncomfortable study... with my heart leaping, and my brain screaming "yeah-buts". I've found the same conclusions, Paul. I continue to pray that He will keep me from all deception, whether that deception is what I'm exploring, or what I was previously, traditionally, taught.
I already know that traditionalism has done a number on us in how we've been taught about "what is Church", and "what is God's view of women". Not a huge leap to me to consider that the same system of traditionalism has likewise convolluted the understanding of hell (the wages of sin/judgement/punishment), and God's plan for salvation.
I join you in being a seeker of Truth, trusting that the Spirit WILL lead us into all Truth, and that we, His sheep, will hear His voice.
You're hardlly alone in your daringness to question the given answers...!
Shalom, Dena
"The unanswered questions aren't nearly as dangerous as the unquestioned answers."„
“I was invited to read your blog by a friend and want to encourage you on this search for Truth
You have the right heart to find it.
I began my search, all alone, many a year ago before the Internet made information access such an integral part of our lives.
And from that time, I want you to know, have faith in this, that the Truth is knowable.
You will know it because it rings true and clear; it satisfies the heart hungry for it; it clears up confusion and answers the questions you ask of it, with a consistent and complete testimony in your conscience.
While lies ring hollow and keep the heart hungry, despite all it consumes; it muddies understanding with questions that have no answers and leaves a contradictory and circular testimony of incompletness in your conscience.
And know this also: It is not to be found in the theologies that drive Modern Medieval Christianity.
Trust then that you are doing it right and that you will arrive at the Truth for your diligence. And as you do come to Truth, you will find it remarkable how free the Truth will make you to be a good human being, exactly as you were created by your Father God to be.
You go.
We arrive at the truth, not by reason only, but by the heart.- Blaise Pascal
I searched through rebellion, drugs, diet, mysticisim, religion, intellectualism and much more, only to find that truth is basically simple and feels good, clear and right
-Armando "Chick" Corea.„
“Paul,
Someone I know from a discussion forum pointed me to your blog. As I read your thoughts, I could identify fully with the journey you're on, because it was the same road that I travelled a few years ago. The 'orthodox' evangelical Christian view of hell and eternal damnation simply makes no coherent sense - neither in logical, ethical or biblical terms.
Jesus talked so much about God as our Father and about how He loves and cares for all of us, even "the ungrateful and the wicked". Having a daughter of my own taught me, more than any theologizing ever could have, that no decent parent could think of banishing his child forever to a place of mental and physical torment...no matter what they had done. We might get angry with our children, even punish them, but would we ever write them off as beyond redemption?
How did we ever get to the point of imagining that God - the One who created this whole vast universe for a purpose - would simply write off billions of folk created in his image as so much trash? Surely an all-wise, all-powerful, all-loving Creator who sent his son to be the saviour of the world won't settle for anything less than a fully restored and redeemed creation?
I look forward to reading your thoughts, and may God continue to guide them.
Brian„
“A fellow poster in a forum I participate in provided a link to your blog. Several other points concerning Gehenna may interest you and your readers:
1. It operated as an above ground cemetery/open air crematorium and waste dump in Jesus' day. His listeners could look over their shoulders and into the image in their minds and see human and animal bodies alternatively being consumed by either fires that burned there perpetually for "pollution" control or by decomposition of bacteria, maggots and other scavenger species. The humans were criminals, or so judged by Rome, and to be cast into Gehenna was the most shameful end to life that a good Jew could imagine. Better to lose a hand or an eye than to subject one's family to that ignominy.
2. Greek mythology was not the only source of after-life belief that seeped into Judaism. The parable of the rich man and Hades is a Babylonian fable of Zoroastrian origin that diaspora Jews brought back to Israel. There are rich interpretations of the story, which is most definitely a parable/metaphor, as scripture repeatedly declares that by this point in his ministry Jesus spoke only in parables when teaching publicly with eneimies about (as evidenced by the sequence of parables recorded by Luke, the last three of which share nearly identical introductions: "there was a man", "there was a rich man", "there was a rich man"). So, while the concept of eternal damnation is entirely without even stretched interpretive support in the two-thirds of the Bible, and the thousands of years of history it represents (at minimum), there was both Greek and Zoroastrian influence mucking about in Jesus' day that might have been persuasive privately to a few Jews, contrary to the Judaism of their day).
3. Concerning the post by someone wondering about modern application, I would suggest that he consider the meaning of the massive destruction of Jerusalem and its inhabitants by the Romans. Some estimate that one million Jews died in the siege. All those stinking, typhoid-fertile bodies had to be dealt with somehow, and many understand that this produced the "lake of fire" spoken of by John: Gehenna-expanded, filled with up to a million burning bodies of those who didn't follow Jesus' admonitions is an image that captures the mind.
Rob„
“Thanks to everyone who commented. It sure helps to know that there are others out there who are asking similar questions.
peace.„
“Hi Dave,
Great to hear from you. I'm posting my thoughts about hell little by little, so I just haven't got to the application part. I really can't do that until I look at specific scripture verses. I wanted to lay a foundation of the meaning of the word Gehenna before I look at the occasions that Jesus used it. Stay tuned because it's coming.„
“"...and there they burn their sons and daughters in the fire. I have never commanded such a horrible deed; it never even crossed my mind to command such a thing!"
Interesting catch there. I don't think I've come across that passage before.„