Paul Vieira

The first time that Jesus makes reference to Gehenna is in His famous Sermon on the Mount as recorded in the Gospel writings of Mathew, chapters 5-7. Jesus’ teaching was shocking and radical to his listeners. In contrast to the popular view of righteousness that was propagated by the religious leaders of the day, Jesus talked about going deeper than just maintaining appearances. The religious traditions of that time focused on keeping your image clean, but had no power to change the human heart. For example, I can probably go my whole life without murdering someone, but what about the rage I feel inside. Jesus’ words were radical because he talked about the heart. Religion tends to seek to control what is happening on the surface, but what about what lies beneath? Jesus takes up this theme of guarding the heart because the outward action is only the final stage in a process. The action of murder or adultery starts sometime earlier, perhaps even years before, as a simple seed.

“You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell.”
“So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God.”
“When you are on the way to court with your adversary, settle your differences quickly. Otherwise, your accuser may hand you over to the judge, who will hand you over to an officer, and you will be thrown into prison. And if that happens, you surely won’t be free again until you have paid the last penny.”
Matthew 5:21-26

As you can see, this translation of the passage uses the world “hell.” But you guessed it, the actual word is Gehenna. Was Jesus telling people that by cursing someone they were in danger of eternal suffering? Perhaps, a simpler message was intended here. Jesus is talking about murder. In Jesus` day, according to Roman law, murderers would end up in one place – Gehenna. They would be consumed by the fires that were burning constantly there. Sometimes these criminals would be burned alive. It was the final place of destruction for extreme lawbreakers.

I believe Jesus is warning us to catch murder early, before it gets to that extreme. It starts in the heart, when we harbor resentment or bitterness. Jesus cautions us to watch our anger and to not take it to the next step of uttering words that we`ll only regret. These are the first few steps on a path to destruction. Unlike some States in the U.S., in Canada we don`t have the death penalty, but murderers will get 25 years to life in prison. This is what I understand Jesus to being saying here (and how I would apply it to my context),

“You think not murdering someone is not so hard to do, but I tell you, we do it all the time in our hearts. Be careful you don`t start down a dangerous path that will eventually lead to destruction. I tell you, if you hate someone or if you curse another person, you are already in danger of getting 25 to life!”

Gehenna represents the death penalty or the final end to a long road of human aggression and violence. In fact, neither Jesus nor any of the apostles confirmed Gehenna to mean anything more than this. The first Christian writer to call hell “Gehenna” is Justin Martyr who wrote about A. D. 150. I guess the idea became more popular over time. However, if Jesus meant Gehenna to mean “hell,” then how do you explain these simple facts:

1. The Scripture only records “Gehenna” being spoken to Jews, who know of its location. If Gehenna is hell, a place of punishment after death for sinners, then wouldn`t it have been preached to Gentiles as well as Jews.

2. Only Jesus and James ever name it, twelve times in only 8 occasions in all the New Testament. Neither Paul, John, Peter nor Jude mention Gehenna. Would they not have warned sinners a lot more, if Gehenna was a place of torment after death? How do you explain such silence about it? You would think that it would have been used a hundred or a thousand times. The book of Acts tracks over thirty years of early church history as the Gospel spread throughout the Roman Empire. There are many recorded apostolic messages in Acts, and in all this history and preaching there is no mention of Gehenna. Simply, the early church did not talk about hell.

Let`s say for argument`s sake that Justin Martyr was right and Gehenna does represent hell. What if there was a deeper meaning here? Matthew 5 is not just about Jesus using the modern day equivalent to capital punishment as warning to guard the heart from anger and violent tendencies. What if Gehenna is a picture of eternal damnation and Jesus` audience just wasn`t aware of this reality?

As humans, we can all relate to the idea that crime must be punished. There should be a consequence to actions that hurt other people. Jesus also draws our attention to this idea in the passage above by quoting the law “an eye for an eye.” There is something about this that feels right. The punishment should match the crime. I think we all would agree that it would be unfair for someone guilty of shoplifting to be thrown into prison for the rest of their life. Yet, the current notion of hell ascribes infinite penalty to finite actions.

To be very honest with you, I can`t think of anything a person could do in this world that would equal the penalty of an eternity of utter terror, pain and extreme suffering. In the passage above, I find it very interesting that Jesus goes on to connect what He was saying about Gehenna to the image of a man being thrown into prison. Even in Jesus’ example, the man has a finite penalty that will only last as long as it takes to pay back every last penny. If hell does exist in the way that many imagine, it seems reasonable that a person`s time in this kind of place would be finite. The penalty should match the crime.

Let`s continue to look at the other “Gehenna” verses. Stay tuned!