It is also mentioned in Nehemiah 11:30; Jeremiah 19:2: Because of their worshiping other gods in it, God made it a place of destruction and death, not torment. Topheth (Gehenna in the New Testament) literally means a place of burning, and a place of death, "The valley of slaughter" (Jeremiah 7:31).
Every reference to Gehenna in the Old Testament was to a place on this earth; not one of them says anything about eternal torment after the judgment. It is admitted by all that Gehenna in the Old Testament was not a place of eternal torment, and it was not changed to "Hell" in any Old Testament passage, not even in the King James Version which is sometimes called "Hell's Bible."
HENRY THAYER: "Gehenna, the name of a valley on the S. and E. of Jerusalem...The Jews so abolished the place after these horrible sacrifices had been abolished by king Josiah (2 k.xxiii, 10) that they cast into it not only all manner of refuses, but even the dead bodies of animals and unburied criminals who had been executed. And since fires were always needed to consume the dead bodies, that the air might not become tainted by the putrefaction, it came to pass that the place was called (Gehenna)." "A Greek-English Lexicon Of the New Testament" page 111. He also said in "Theology," "Our inquiry shows that it is employed in the Old Testament in its literal or geographical sense only, as the name of the valley lying on the south of Jerusalem-that the Septuagint proves it retained this meaning as late as B. C. 150-that it is not found at all in the Apocrypha; neither of Philo, nor in Josephus, whose writings cover the very times of the Savior and the New Testament, thus leaving us without a single example of contemporary usage to determine its meaning at this period-that from A. D. 150-159, we find in two Greek authors, Justin and Clement of Alexandria, the first resident in Italy and the last in Egypt that Gehenna began to be used to designate a place of punishment after death, but not endless punishment since Clement was a believer in universal restoration-that the first time we find Gehenna used in this sense in any Jewish writing is near the beginning of the third century, in the Targum of Jonathan Ben Uzziel, two hundred years too late to be of any service in the argument-and lastly, that the New Testament usage shows that while it had not wholly lost its literal sense, it was also employed in the time of Christ as a symbol of moral corruption and wickedness; but more especially as a figure of the terrible judgments of God on the rebellious and sinful nation of the Jews," Henry Thayer, "Theology."
CANON FARRAR: "In the Old Testament it is merely the pleasant valley of Hinnom (GeHinnom), subsequently desecrated by idolatry, and especially by Moloch worship, and defiled by Josiah on this account. (See 1 Kings 11:7; 2 Kings 23:10; Jer 7:31; 19:10-14; Isa. 30:33; Tophet). Used according to Jewish tradition, as the common sewage of the city, the corpses of the worst criminals were flung into it unburied, and fires were lit to purify the contaminated air. It then became a word which secondarily implied (1) the severest judgment which a Jewish court could pass upon a criminal-the casting forth of his unburied corpse amid the fire and worms of this polluted valley; and (2) a punishment-which to the Jews a body never meant an end-less punishment beyond the grave. Whatever may be the meaning of the entire passages in which the word occurs, 'Hell' must be a complete mistranslation, since it attributes to the term used by Christ a sense entirely differently from that in which it was understood by our Lord's hearers, and therefore, entirely different from the sense in which He could have used it." From the preface to "Eternal Hope."
"Gehenna, the Greek word translated hell in the common version, occurs twelve times. It is the Grecian mode of spelling the Hebrew words, which are translated, 'The Valley of Hinnom.' This valley was also called Tophet, a detestation, and an abomination. Into this place were cast all kinds of filth, with the carcasses of beasts and unburied bodies of criminals, who had been executed. Continual fires were kept to consume these. Sennacherib's army of 185,000 men was slain there in one night. Here, children were burnt to death in sacrifice to Moloch. Gehenna, then, as occurring in the New Testament, symbolizes death and utter destruction, but in no place symbolizes a place of eternal torment" From the Emphatic Diaglot.
GEORGE LEMASTERS said Gehenna is said to have been a receptacle of bones, bodies of beasts and criminals, and all unclean things. Page 265, Florida College Annual Lectures, 1975.
RON HALBROOK said Gehenna became a common refuse dump for the dead bodies of criminals, animal carcasses, and other kind of filth. Page 123, Florida College Annual Lectures 1986.
“Hell” From Iron Chariots Wiki “The accurate use of the word ‘Hell’ as a translation of Gehenna is open to interpretation. The subjects about which Jesus speaks, when referring to Gehenna, have no less significance when referring to that literal valley of the damned (as opposed to the eternal concept of punishment and torture interpreted after the fact). There is no suggestion that Gehenna need to be translated to ‘Hell’ any more than any other proper noun for a place or region. Similarly there is no reason to believe that Hell as a concept even occurred to the Jewish prophet or his followers.” At: http://wiki.ironchariots.org/index.php?title=Hell.
JAMES CORAM, "The meaning of Gehenna must be established from facts furnished by the Scripture, not by falsehoods foisted by human tradition. To the reader of the Hebrew Scriptures themselves, Gehenna can only mean a verdict, which, besides condemning a man to death, also ordains that, after death, his body should be cast into the loathsome valley of Hinnom. This being the sense of Gehenna in the Hebrew Scriptures, we may be sure that this is the sense in which Christ used it."
At: http://www.concordant.org/expohtml/DeathAndJudgment/TheGehennaOfFire.html
Whatever was cast into Gehenna (the city dump), if it were trash or the bodies of criminals were cast into the trash dump to be destroyed, both were destroyed, not tormented; trash or dead bodies cannot be tormented. The fire and worms soon consumed whatever was cast into Gehenna, nothing was cast into Gehenna to be preserved, and no Jew hearing Jesus could have understand it in any way but a place of total destruction. Gehenna was a real place they could walk out and look at, and literally see the smoke ascending out of it. If Christ had used their trash dump in a way that was different from what would have been understood by those hearing Him without any explanation of the new way He used it, they could not have known what He was saying to them. The fate of Israel is compared to trash and dead bodies that were cast into the city dump to be disposed of.
Both Christ and James used the name of the city dump (Gehenna). Although the translators have James using the word Hell, but when James wrote this, neither the English word “Hell,” did not exist, nor was there a Greek word for "Hell." Christ never used the word Hell, He used Gehenna, and He never said one thing about Hell. Even in Old English where the word Hell was first used, Hell did not have the meaning it has in today’s English; not the meaning it now has in today’s Protestant theology.
THE USE OF GEHENNA BY CHRIST
Gehenna was used on four occasions by Christ, and was used one time by James, the brother of the Lord (James 3:6). The name Gehenna is in three of the gospels eleven times, but as the three gospels repeat the same discourses, Jesus really used it in only four occasions (four sermons).
THE FIRST OCCASION
IN THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT
Gehenna is used 3 times in Christ’s sermon in Matthew 5. Christ is teaching those who that at that time were under the Law.
THE FIVE JUDGMENTS
Five judgments the disciples had heard that the Law said.
(1) THE FIRST JUDGMENT Matthew 5:21-26, "You have heard that the ancients were told, 'You shall not commit murder,' and 'whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.' But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever shall say to his brother, 'Raca,' shall be guilty before the Supreme Court; and whoever shall say, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell (Greek-Gehenna of fire)" New American Standard Bible. Gehenna, the city dump of Jerusalem was always burning, day and night, 24/7.
The three crimes that were judged by the courts: All three have to do with the way they felt toward their brother, all three were judged according to the Law by an earthly court; the Sermon on the Mount is not information about the fate of the unrighteous after death. "Murder shall be liable to the court: but I say to you everyone who is,"
DR. R. F. WEYMOUTH: “Gehenna of Fire Or ‘Hell,’ The severest punishment inflicted by the Jews upon any criminal. The corpse (after the man had been stoned to death) was thrown out into the Valley of Hennom (Ge Hinnom) and was devoured by the worm or the flame.” “New Testament in Modern Speech, Mark 3:29, page 10.
ALEXANDER CAMPBELL: “The fact is, that the allusions in this verse are all to human institutions or customs among the Jews; and the Judges, the Sanhedrim, and the hell-fire here introduced, and all human punishments…being burned alive in the valley Hinnom” “The Campbell Debate On Everlasting Punishment,” page 123, College Press, 1840.
ADAM CLARKE: “There are three kinds of offences here, which exceed each other in their degrees of guilt. 1st. Anger against a man, accompanied with some injurious act. 2dly. Contempt, expressed by the opprobrious epithet raka, or shallow brains. 3dly. Hatred and mortal enmity, expressed by the term moreh, or apostate, where such apostasy could not be proved. Now, proportioned to these three offences were three different degrees of punishment, each exceeding the other in its severity, as the offenses exceeded each other in their different degrees of guilt. 1st. The judgment, the council of twenty-three, which could inflict the punishment of strangling. 2dly. The Sanhedrin, or great council, which could inflict the punishment of stoning. And 3dly. The being burnt alive in the valley of the son of Hinnom. This appears to be the meaning of our Lord.” Notes on Matthew 5:22. (Note: Clarks says, “Burnt alive” but it was only the bodies of those who were thought to be unfit to be buried that were cast into Gehenna for their dead bodies to be burnt).
Matthew 5:23-26, A lesson on how to make your offering acceptable to God. "Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are with him in the way; lest haply the adversary deliver you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and you are cast into prison. Verily I say unto you, you shall by no means come out till you have paid the last farthing" (Matthew 5:25-26). "Make friends quickly with your opponent at law" New American Standard Version. When it is paid, then the person in prison shall come out. This is speaking of a judgment and punishment under the Law, not at the resurrection.
(2) THE SECOND JUDGMENT, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery'" Matthew 5:27-30. "And if your right eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from you: for it is profitable for you that one of your members should perish, and not your whole body be cast into hell (Greek-Gehenna). And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from you: for it is profitable for you that one of your members should perish, and not your whole body go into hell (Greek-Gehenna)." Jesus is saying to them that they had heard that it was said (in the Law), “You shall not commit adultery” for which they would be put to death under the Law of Moses (Leviticus 20:10), and their body cast into the valley of Gehenna.
Christ is teaching them that if there is a danger that they may look on a woman to lust after her, if their eye causes them to stumble, pluck it out and cast it away. If taken literal a disfigurement of their body would have been unlawful by the Old Testament Law they were under. The lesson to them was that they were to remove anything from their lives, which would cause them to be judged unworthy to be buried, and their bodies to be cast into Gehenna. Under the Law adultery had a death penalty, and could cause their whole bodies to be cast into the fire and maggots in Gehenna (Leviticus 20:10-16). The lesson to them and to us is that if something in our life that would cause us to be lost, even if it is as dear to us as our eye or hand, it needs to be cut off unless the whole body be destroyed, the removal of anything in our life that would cause us to be destroyed by God as worthless trash was destroyed in Gehenna. Christ was saying to them anything in their life, adultery, or any other sin that would cause them to perish needed to be removed. Those that use this to prove Hell do not believe that to "cut off" any part of the body of a living person will keep the soul that they believe to be in a person out of Hell after the death of the person. To them the hand and the eye are a literal hand or eye, but according to their teaching "the whole body" is not a body at all, but a formless, no substance, invisible, deathless something in a person that has no body, no hand to cut off.
The loss of a hand or eye is contrasted with the lost of the whole body (of which the hand was a part) by the body being cast into Gehenna, not the loss of a hand being contrasted with the soul, of which the hand was not a part, the hand that was cut of was not the hand of the soul being cast into Hell. The "eye" and the "right hand" are a part of the "whole body." No one can cut off the hand of a soul, which they say has no substance, and Christ does not change from parts of the earthly body to something that most who believe in "it" says "it" has no body. No one that I know of who believes Hell is an eternal place of torment believes the human body, or any part of the body will be eternally tormented by God in that eternal place. In the same sentence, did Christ change from a literal physical hand to a "soul"? If the "whole body" is a formless no substance soul, then the "hand," which was cut off this body is a part of the "whole body," and would also be a formless no substance something that we could not cut off, and if we could cut the hand of a soul off, then the cut off hand of an immortal soul would be as immortal as the rest of the no substance formless soul from which it was cut off. In today's theology no one believes you can cut off the hand of a spirit so that the rest of the spirit will not go to Hell. No one that I know of believes the "soul" shall "enter into life," which he or she says is Heaven, with a cut off hand of that soul in Hell. The "soul" in Heaven, but its "hand" in Hell! They don't believe that a disfigurement of the earthly body, whether it is a self inflicted disfigurement, or any other disfigurement, will be passed onto the immaterial, invisible part of a person, which they believe is to be something that is now in a person and that only this “it” will be in Heaven. Neither do they believe any person has the power to cut of any part of his immaterial soul. Gehenna must be changed to Hell and be literal, but the cut off the hand that is cast into Hell cannot be literal.
"Perish" must be changed to mean, "preserve." God's word says He will destroy the soul, but many change this and make it say God will not let the soul perish, but will preserve it forever. There seems to be no end to the changes they are willing to make. "Destroy the body and soul" must be changed to "preserve the soul but destroy the body."
A dead body part, or a whole dead body being cast into the city dump (Gehenna) to be destroyed by fire or worms is not a picture of a living immortal soul being tormented forever in some place other then the valley of Gehenna. There is no suggestion of eternal torment in this. There is nothing, not one word about an immortal soul or an immortal spirit in this passage. It was their "whole body" that would be cast into the valley of Gehenna; nothing is said about an immaterial, invisible something in a person that will be cast into "Hell, nothing about eternal torment." Instead of saying that immortal souls will burn forever in the valley of Gehenna, it says the body will be cast into Gehenna and destroyed in Gehenna. Nothing is said about an immaterial something that is in a person in Matthew 5:22, 29 or 30. "Soul" is not in Matthew 5; it has been added, and is preached today that the "soul" will be cast into "Hell," not the “whole body” cast into the Gehenna that those hearing Christ would know about. This passage is one of the most used passages to prove a person has in immaterial something that is in them that will be in an eternal place of torment after the death of the person it is in, but neither (1) an immaterial, deathless something that is now in a person, but leaves the person at their death (2) or a place of eternal torment is not in Matthew 18:8-9. Everything that Christ said is changed, and that by those that say they do not change the Bible (“whole body” cast into the Gehenna, must be changed to “soul” cast into the Hell).
In Matthew 18:8-9:
· Being “Cast into the everlasting (aionios-age lasting) fire” (18:8) and being
· Being “Cast into the Gehenna fire” (18:9) are used interchangeable.
It is the fire that is said to be age lasting, not one thing is said about how lone a person or how long a soul that had been in a person unto the death of the person would or would not last in the fire although it is repeatedly used to teach that a soul that is now in you will be tormented in Hell after you are dead if you do not save “it,” whatever “it” is. The aionios (age lasting) fire of Gehenna went out in A. D. 70; today there is no fire in Gehenna and no dead bodies are being cast into it; Gehenna is now a place for tourist.
(3) The third, "You have heard you shall not forswear yourself" (Matthew 5:33).
(4) The fourth, "You have heard…an eye for an eye” (Matthew 5:38).
(5) The fifth, "You have heard…love your neighbor” (Matthew 5:43).