The Bible Hell
Part 6
GEHENNA
While nearly all
"orthodox" authorities of eminence concede that Sheol and Hades do
not denote a place of torment in the future world, most of those who accept
the doctrine of endless torment claim that Gehenna does convey that meaning.
Campbell, in his "Four
Gospels," says: "That Gehenna is employed in the New Testament, to
denote the place of future punishment, prepared for the devil and his angels,
is indisputable. This is the sense, if I mistake not, in which Gehenna is
always to be understood in the New Testament, where it occurs just twelve
times. It is a word peculiar to the Jews, and was employed by them some time
before the coming of Christ, to denote that part of Sheol which was the
habitation of the wicked after death. This is proved by the fact of its
familiar use in the New Testament, and by the fact of its being found in the
Apocrypha books and Jewish Targunis, some of which were written before the
time of our Savior."
But no such force resides in the
word, nor is there a scintilla of evidence that it ever conveyed such an idea
until many years after Christ. It is not found in the Apocrypha, Campbell
mistakes.
Stuart says (Exeg. Ess.); "It
is admitted that the Jews of a later date used the word Gehenna to denote Tartarus, that is, the place of infernal punishment."
In the second century Clemens
Alexandrinus says: "Does not Plato acknowledge both the rivers of fire,
and that profound depth of the earth which the barbarians call Gehenna? Does
he not mention prophetically, Tartarus, Cocytus, Acheron, the Phlegethon of
fire, and certain other places of punishment, which lead to correction and
discipline?" Univ. Ex.
But an examination of the Bible use
of the term will show us that the popular view is obtained by injecting the
word with pagan superstition. Its origin and the first references to it in the
Old Testament, are well stated by eminent critics and exegetes.
OPINION OF
SCHOLARS
Says Campbell: "The word
Gehenna is derived, as all agree, from the Hebrew words ge hinnom; which, in
process of time, passing into other languages, assumed diverse forms; e.g.,
Chaldee Gehennom, Arabic Gahannam, Greek Gehenna.
The valley of Hinnom is part of the
pleasant wadi or valley, which bounds Jerusalem on the south. Josh. 15:8;
18:6. Here, in ancient times and under some of the idolatrous kings, the
worship of Moloch, the horrid idol-god of the Ammonites, was practiced. To
this idol, children were offered in sacrifice. II Kings 23:10; Ezek. 23:37,
39; II Chron. 28:3; Lev. 28:21; 20:2. If we may credit the Rabbins, the
head of the idol was like that of an ox; while the rest of the body resembled
that of a man. It was hollow within; and being heated by fire, children were
laid in its arms and were literally roasted alive. We cannot wonder, then at
the severe terms in which the worship of Moloch is everywhere denounced in the
Scriptures. Nor can we wonder that the place itself should have been called
Tophet, i.e., abomination, detestation, (from toph, to vomit with
loathing)." Jer. 8:32; 19:6; II Kings 23:10; Ezek. 23:36, 39.
"After these sacrifices had
ceased, the place was desecrated, and made one of loathing and horror. The
pious king Josiah caused it to be polluted, i.e., he caused to be carried
there the filth of the city of Jerusalem. It would seem that the custom of
desecrating this place thus happily begun, was continued in after ages down to
the period when our Savior was on earth. Perpetual fires were kept up in order
to consume the rubbish which was deposited there. And as the same rubbish
would breed worms, (for so all putrefying meat does of course), therefore came
the expression, 'Where the worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched.'
" Stuart's Exegetical Ess., pp. 140-141.
"Gehenna, originally a Hebrew
word, which signifies the valley of Hinnom, is composed of the common noun,
Gee, valley, and the proper name Hinnom, the owner of this valley. The valley
of the sons of Hinnom was a delightful vale, planted with trees, watered by
fountains, and lying near Jerusalem, on the south-east, by the brook Kedron.
Here the Jews placed that brazen image of Moloch, which had the face of a
calf, and extended its hands as those of a man. It is said, on the authority
of the ancient Rabbins, that, to this image, the idolatrous Jews were wont not
only to sacrifice doves, pigeons, lambs, rams, calves and bulls, but even to
offer their children. I Kings 9:7; II Kings 15:3, 4. In the prophecy of
Jeremiah, (Ch. 7:31), this valley is called Tophet, from Toph, a drum; because
the administrators in these horrid rites, beat drums, lest the cries and
shrieks of the infants who were burned, should be heard by the assembly. At
length, these wicked practices were abolished by Josiah, and the Jews brought
back to the pure worship of God.
II Kings 23:10. After this, they
held the place in such abomination, it is said, that they cast into it all
kinds of filth, together with the carcasses of beasts, and the unburied bodies
of criminals who had been executed. Continual fires were necessary, in order
to consume these, lest the putrefaction should infect the air; and there were
always worms feeding on the remaining relics. Therefore it came, that any
severe punishment, especially a shameful kind of death, was denominated
Gehenna." Schleusner.
As we trace the history of the
locality as it occurs in the Old Testament we learn that it should never have
been translated by the word Hell. It is a proper name of a well-known
locality, and ought to have stood Gehenna, as it does in the French Bible, in
Newcome's and Wakefield's translations. In the Improved Version, Emphatic
Diaglott, etc. Babylon might have been translated Hell with as much propriety
as Gehenna. It is fully described in numerous passages in the Old Testament,
and is exactly located.
GEHENNA LOCATED
IN THIS WORLD
"And the border went up
by the valley of the son of Hinnom unto the south side of the Jebusite; the
same is Jerusalem, and the border went up to the top of the mountain that
lieth before the valley of Hinnom westward." Joshua 15:8. "And he
(Josiah) defiled Tophet, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom,
that no man might make his son or daughter to pass through the fire to
Moloch." II Kings 23:10. "Moreover, he (Ahaz) burnt incense in the
valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire, after the
abominations of the heathen." II Chron. 28:3. "And they (the
children of Judah) have built the high places of Tophet which is in the valley
of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire;
which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart. Therefore, behold,
the days come, says the Lord, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the
valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter; for they shall bury
in Tophet till there be no place." Jer. 7:31, 32. "And go forth into
the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and
proclaim there the words that I shall tell you. Therefore, behold, the days
come, says the Lord, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor the
valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter." Jer 19:2, 6.
These and other passages show that
Gehenna was a well-known valley, near Jerusalem, in which the Jews in their
idolatrous days had sacrificed their children to the idol Moloch, in
consequence of which it was condemned to receive the rubbish and refuse and
sewage of the city, and into which the bodies of criminals were cast and where
to destroy the odor and poisonous-toxic influences, continual fires were kept
burning. Here fire, smoke, worms bred by the corruption, and other repulsive
features, rendered the place a horrible one, in the eyes of the Jews. It was
locality with which they were as well acquainted as they were with any place
in or around the city. The valley was sometimes called Tophet, according to
Schleusner, from Toph, a drum, because drums were beat during the idolatrous
rites, but Adam Clarke says in consequence of the fact that Moloch was hollow,
and heated, and children were placed in its arms, and burn to death; the word
Tophet he says, meaning fire stove; but Prof. Stuart thinks the name derived
from "Toph, to vomit the loathing." After these horrible practices,
King Josiah polluted the place and rendered it repulsive.
"Therefore, behold, the days
come, says the Lord, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of
the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter; for they shall bury in Tophet
till there be no place. And the carcasses of this people shall be meat for the
fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them
away. Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the
streets of Jerusalem, the voice of merriment, and the voice of gladness, the
voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be
desolate." Jer. 7:32-34. "At that time, says the Lord, they shall
bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of the princes, and
the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out
of the graves: and they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and
all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and
after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have
worshipped; they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung
upon the face of the earth. And death shall be chosen rather than life by all
the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the
places whither I have driven them, says the Lord of hosts. And I will make
this city desolate, and a hissing; every one that passes thereby shall be
astonished and hiss, because of all the plagues thereof. And I will cause them
to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they
shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness,
whereas their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall confine them. And
they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury. Thus will I do
unto this place, says the Lord, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make
the city as Tophet: and the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings
of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses
upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and
have poured out drink offerings unto other gods. Then came Jeremiah from
Tophet, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of
the Lord's house, and said to all the people: Thus saith the Lord of hosts,
the God of Israel: Behold I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns
all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened
their necks, that they might not hear my words." Jer. 19:8-15.
These passages show that Gehenna or
Tophet was a horrible locality near Jerusalem, and that to be cast there
literally, was the doom threatened and executed originally. Every reference is
to this world, and to a literal casting into that place.
In Dr. Bailey's English Dictionary,
Gehenna is defined to be "a place in the valley of the tribe of Benjamin,
terrible for two sorts of fire in it, that wherein the Israelites sacrificed
their children to the idol Moloch, and also another kept continually burning
to consume the dead carcasses and filth of Jerusalem."
But in process of time Gehenna came
to be an emblem of the consequences of sin, and to be employed figuratively by
the Jews, to denote those consequences. But always in this world. The Jews
never used it to mean torment after death, until long after Christ. That the
word had not the meaning of post-mortem torment when our Savior used it, is
demonstrable:
Josephus was a Pharisee, and wrote
at about the time of Christ, and expressly says that the Jews at the time
(corrupted from the teaching of Moses) believed in punishment after death, but
he never employs Gehenna to denote the place of punishment. He uses the word
Hades, which the Jews had then obtained from the heathen, but he never uses
Gehenna, as he would have done, had it possessed that meaning then. This
demonstrates that the word had no such meaning then. In addition to this
neither the Apocrypha, which was written from 280 to 150 years. B. C., nor
Philo, ever uses the word. It was first used in the modern sense of Hell by
Justin Martyr, one hundred and fifty years after Christ.
Dr. Thayer concludes a most thorough
exposition on the word ("Theology, etc.,") thus: "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 at 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. 150-195, 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."
The Jewish talmuds and targums
(Aramaic translations of the OT) use the word in the sense that the Christian
Church has so long used it, though without attributing endlessness to it, but
none of them are probably older than A. D. 200. The oldest is the targum of
Jonathan Ben Uzziel, which was written according to the best authorities
between A. D. 200 and A. D. 400.
Most of the eminent critics
now agree, that it could not have been completed till some time between two
and four hundred years after Christ. "Neither the language nor the method of interpretation is the same in all
the books. In the historical works, the text is translated with greater
accuracy than elsewhere; in some of the Prophets, as in Zechariah, the
interpretation has more of the Rabbinical and Talmudical character. From this
variety we may properly infer, that the work is a collection of
interpretations of several learned men made toward the close of the third
century, and containing some of a much older date; for that some parts of it
existed as early as in the second century, appears from the additions which
have been transferred from some Chaldee paraphrase into the Hebrew text, and
were already in the text in the second century." Jahn Int. p. 66. Horne's
Intro. Vol. 2. p. 160.
Dr. T. B. Thayer in his
"Theology," says: "Dr. Jahn assigns it to the end of the third
century after Christ; Eichhorn decides for the fourth century; Bertholdt
inclines to the second or third century, and is confident that it 'cannot have
attained its present complete form, before the end of the second century.'
Bauer coincides generally in these views.
Some critics put the date even as
low down as the seventh or eighth century. See Horne's
Introduction, Vol. 2, 157-163. Justin Martyr. A. D. 150, and Clement of
Alexandria, A. D. 195, both employ Gehenna to designate the place of future
punishment; but the first utters an opinion only of its meaning in a certain
text, and the last did not, of course, believe that
Gehenna was the place of endless punishment. Augustine, A. D. 400, says
Gehenna 'stagnum ignis el sulphuris corporeus ignis erit.' De Civitate Dei, L.
21. C. 10."
At the time of Christ the Old
Testament existed in Hebrew. The Septuagint translation of it was made between
two hundred and four hundred years before his birth. In both Gehenna is never
used as the name of a place of future punishment. Both the Apocrypha, and the works of Philo,
when compared together, afford circumstantial evidence that the word cannot
have been currently employed, during their age, to denote a place of future
torment. . . . From the few traces which remain to us of this age, it seems
that the idea of future punishment, such as it was among the Jews, was
associated with that of darkeness, and not of fire; and that among those of
Palestine, the misery of the wicked was supposed to consist rather in
privation, than in positive infliction. . . . But we cannot discover, in
Josephus, that either of these sects, the Pharisees or the Essenes, both of
which believed the doctrine of endless misery, supposed it to be a state of
fire, or that the Jews ever alluded to it by that emblem.
Thus the Apocrypha, B. C. 150-500,
Philo Judaeus A. D. 40, and Josephus, A. D. 70-100, all refer to future
punishment, but none of them use Gehenna to describe it, which they would have
done, being Jews, had the word been then in use with that meaning. Were it the
name of a place of future torment, then, can any one doubt that it would be
found repeatedly in their writings? And does not the fact that it is never
found in their writings demonstrate that it had no such use then, and if so,
does it not follow that Christ used it in no such sense?
Canon Farrar says of Gehenna
(Preface to "Eternal Hope): "In the Old Testament it is merely the
pleasant valley of Hinnom (Ge Hinnom), subsequently desecrated by idolatry,
and especially by Moloch worship, and defiled by Josiah on this account. (See
I Kings 11: 7; II 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 fires and worms of
this polluted valley; and (2) a punishment-which to the Jews a body never
meant an endless 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 different 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. Origen says (c. Celsus 6: 25) that Gehenna denotes (1) the vale of Hinnon;
and (2) a purificatory fire (eis ten meta basanon katharsin). He declares that
Celsus was totally ignorant of the meaning of Gehenna."
JEWISH
VIEWS OF GEHENNA
Gehenna is the name given by
Jews to Hell. Rev. H. N. Adler, a Jewish Rabbi, says: "They do not teach
endless retributive suffering. They hold that it is not conceivable that a God
of mercy and justice would ordain infinite punishment for finite
wrong-doing." Dr. Dentsch declares: "There is not a word in the
Talmud that lends any support to that damnable dogma of endless torment."
Dr. Dewes in his "Plea for Rational Translation," says that Gehenna
is alluded to four or five times in the Mishna (first section of the Talmud),
thus: "The judgment of Gehenna is for twelve months;" "Gehenna
is a day in which the impious shall be burnt." Bartolocci declares that
"the Jews did not believe in a material fire, and thought that such fire
as they did believe in would one day be put out." Rabbi Akiba, "the
second Moses," said: "The duration of the punishment of the wicked
in Gehenna is twelve months." Adyoth 3:10. some rabbis said Gehenna only
lasted from Passover to Pentecost. This was the prevalent conception.
(Abridged from Excursus 5, in Canon Farrar's "Eternal Hope." He
gives in a note these testimonies to prove that the Jews to whom Jesus spoke,
did not regard Gehenna as of endless duration). Asarath Maamaroth, f. 35, 1:
"There will hereafter be no Gehenna." Jalkuth Shimoni, f. 46, 1:
"Gabriel and Michael will open the eight thousand gates of Gehenna, and
let out Israelites and righteous Gentiles." A passage in Othoth,
(attributed to R. Akiba) declares that Gabriel and Michael will open the forty
thousand gates of Gehenna, and set free the damned, and in Emek Hammelech, f.
138, 4, we read: "The wicked stay in Gehenna till the resurrection, and
then the Messiah, passing through it redeems them." See Stephelius'
Rabbinical Literature.
Rev. Dr. Wise, a learned Jewish
Rabbi, says: "That the ancient Hebrews had no knowledge of Hell is
evident from the fact that their language has no term for it. When they in
after times began to believe in a similar place they were obliged to borrow
the word 'Gehinnom,' the valley of Hinnom,' a place outside of Jerusalem,
which was the receptacle for the refuse of the city-a locality which by its
offensive smell and sickening pollution was shunned, until vulgar superstition
surrounded it with hob-goblins. Haunted places of that kind are not rare in
the vicinity of populous cities. In the Mishna of the latest origin the word
Gehinnom is used as a locality of punishment for evil-doers, and hence had
been so used at no time before the third century, A. D."
From the time of Josephus onwards,
there is an interval of about a century, from which no Jewish writings have
descended to us. It was a period of dreadful change with that ruined and
distracted people. The body politic was dissolved, the whole system of their
ceremonial religion had been crushed in the fall of their city and temple; and
they themselves scattered abroad were accursed on all the face of the earth.
Their sentiments underwent a rapid transformation, and when next we see their
writings, we find them filled with every extravagant conceit that mad and
visionary brains ever cherished. Expos. Vol. 2. Art, Gehenna, II Ballou, 2d.
