Gehenna, what it means?

Question

where I got my information:

The place where children were sacrificed to the god Moloch was originally in the "valley of the son of Hinnom," to the south of Jerusalem (Josh. xv. 8, passim; II Kings xxiii. 10; Jer. ii. 23; vii. 31-32

http://gospelthemes.com/hell.htm

Christians can you read this and tell me your thoughts? please?

Answer 1

I cheated. I went to your profile, so I could see your original "Gehenna" question. The "Hahahahaha" question intrigued me.

The article you posted was very interesting, and informative.
I learned some things I didn't already know...
It's hard, sometimes, for us to separate what we were taught as children, from the truth as taught by Jesus. Usage of words changes over time, and we have a serious problem trying to put ourselves in the place of those ancient people who actually saw and heard Jesus.
I want to thank you for posting this article...I'm saving it to my favorites so I can look it over more thoroughly later on.

OH, and...try not to get too upset with Christians who have a problem accepting that hell is not a real place of everlasting torture.
Yeah, I know...some of them almost seem happy to think that other folks might be tortured through an eternity...but think of this..
These will most likely be the ones who hear Jesus say "go away from Me, I never knew you." Can you imagine their shock and horror when they find themselves being held by one ankle over the "incinerator"...about to be "disposed of"??

Let's try to warn them ahead of time.
Jesus never taught hate, or joy in punishment...
Let's not indulge our sadistic sides by imagining people we don't like screaming in a burning pit...it's not only nasty...it just ain't so!

Answer 2

Gehenna was used by Jesus and his disciples to symbolize everlasting destruction, annihilation from God’s universe, or ‘second death’, an eternal punishment. Hence to be sentenced to have one’s dead body cast into Gehenna was considered the worst kind of punishment. From the literal Gehenna and from its significance the symbol of the ‘lake burning with fire and sulphur’ was drawn, at Revelation 19:20; 20:10, 14, 15; 21:8.”

Answer 3

I will read it and get back to you. I didn't like one thing that I read in the first paragraph...............................
I printed and read the article. Gehenna does represent the "burning garbage pit" . I can see why the translators called it Hell, as it was fiery and stunk. As far as people going to Hell, I believe the scene of the rich man and Lazarus. Up to Jesus resurrection, Paradise, Abraham's Bosom, and Hell were considered to be hidden in the earth. After the ascension, Heaven was "up".
In RE to Matthew 24:34 I believe he is out of context. He implies that this generation is the one Jesus is talking to. But if you study the text, it tells of the signs of the second coming and the tribulation, not when Jesus was there.
So, I can see Gehenna being used as a comparison for Hell. But even if it isn't, you still have the problem of the Lake of Fire. Death, Hell, the Devil, and those whose names aren't written in the Book of Life are thrown in. So maybe "hell" isn't Gehenna, the Lake of Fire is real.

Answer 4

Jesus used actual real life circumstances and places to explain what spiritual realities are like.

Gehenna, or the valley of Hinnom, was a place that they burned the refuse on the back of the city. It is quite literally the place they took rotting carcasses, all their trash and refuse and burned it, outside Jerusalem.

The fires were kept burning day and night, to prevent disease and pestilence from spreading. The smoke of it was particularly bad after feast days, but it never stopped burning during those times.

This, Jesus says, is what hell is like: a fetid stench of burning trash and waste.

When I was a kid, my dad used to take me to the city dump every so often. It made me want to vomit from the stink. But, we had sewer systems to handle the most revolting stuff. In the case of old Jerusalem - the sewage went to G'henna with the old food and the rags.

Hell? Not a place you should go. I think that's what Jesus was saying.
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Iron Serpent - You are wrong and do not know the scriptures. God warns repeatedly. Jesus could not make it more clear: judgement is for un-believers. When does that happen then? After the resurrection! How can unbelievers be judged if they don't become resurrected?

Rev 20:11-15 "Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire."

Answer 5

Gehenna is the name of a giant burning trash pit outside of Jerusalem. The Bible speaks of pagans sacrificing children in the fires. The bodies of criminals were also disposed of at Gehenna.

Answer 6

Gehenna is just a place that was located in the outskirt of Jerusalem. They just to burn all kinds of ungodly stuff there. The Bible uses this place to describe the Lake of Fire to indicate perpetual destruction.

Answer 7

Gehenna was the place where the Israelites burned their trash and the bodies of criminals considered unfit for burial. Since the fire completely consumed, Gehenna is used to symbolize everlasting destruction, not a fiery torment.

Answer 8

google it...

It's the jewish version of Hell/purgatory...

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For what the people below me said

"Gehenna (or gehenom or gehinom (גהינום)) is the Jewish hell or purgatory. It has sometimes been described as a final punishment for the wicked and sometimes as a spiritual forge in which souls are purified after death. In English, Jews commonly use the term "hell" in place of "gehenna." The name derived from the burning garbage dump near Jerusalem (the Hinnom gulch), metaphorically identified with the entrance to the underworld of punishment in the afterlife."

Answer 9

A valley in Israel used in ancient history by child sacrificers, but in more recent history as a garbage dump. And I think it's Gehinnom, not "Gehenna"

Answer 10

Gehenna was a dump outside Jerusalem, a constant burning fire. Into it was thrown rubbish, the bodies of dead animals and dead criminals. No living thing was thrown into it.

Jesus used Gehenna to illustrate death without a hope of a resurrection - nothing could be retreived from Gehenna once thrown in.

Gehenna is not to be confused with unscriptural teaching of Hellfire.

It is true that some did practice child sacrifice there. Apostate King Ahaz of Judah made sacrificial smoke and burned his son(s) in the fire in this valley. (2Ch 28:1-3) His grandson King Manasseh exceeded Ahaz, promoting wickedness on a grand scale, also making “his own sons pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom.” (2Ch 33:1, 6, 9)

However, it must be noted that God said at Jeremiah 7:31 "And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, in order to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, a thing that I had not commanded and that had not come up into my heart."

Since God expressed repugnance for such practice, saying that it was “a thing that I had not commanded and that had not come up into my heart” it seems most unlikely that God’s Son, in discussing divine judgment, would make such idolatrous practice the basis for the symbolic meaning of Gehenna.

It should be noted that God prophetically decreed that the Valley of Hinnom would serve as a place for mass disposal of dead bodies rather than for the torture of live victims. (Jeremiah 7:32, 33; 19:2, 6, 7, 10, 11).

It is evident that Jesus used Gehenna as representative of utter destruction resulting from adverse judgment by God, hence with no resurrection to life as a soul being possible. (Matthew 10:28; Luke 12:4, 5) The scribes and Pharisees as a wicked class were denounced as ‘subjects for Gehenna.’ (Matthew 23:13-15, 33) To avoid such destruction, Jesus’ followers were to get rid of anything causing spiritual stumbling, the ‘cutting off of a hand or foot’ and the ‘tearing out of an eye’ figuratively representing their deadening of these body members with reference to sin. (Matthew 5:27-30. Matthew 18:9; Mark 9:43-47; Colossians 3:5)

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Tek - As you may know from your study of the scriptures, Sheol (Hebrew) and Hades (Greek) are the words that are often translated as Hell.

It is interesting that you have highlighted Revelation 20 where it states that Hades will be thrown into the lake of fire. If Hades is a place of fiery torment, is it really being thrown into another place of fiery torment?

If there really is Hellfire then it must exist in the spirit realm, just as Heaven does, since the physical body is left in the grave. But verse 10 says that there is a wild beast and a false prophet in the lake of fire. Are these literal or figurative? If you say they are figurative, can it be stated for a certainty that the lake of fire is literal?

Also, does sulphur exist in the spirit realm? And how can the concept of death be thrown into a literal lake of fire?

If you take it literally at Mark 9:43 about being thrown into Gehenna and a fire that cannot be put out, then you must also take literally Jesus' encouragement to his followers to mutilate themselves by chopping off their own hands, feet and gorging out their eyes.

If Jesus is mentioning Gehenna in a literal sense at Matthew 23:33, was he really speaking to literal snakes?

At Jeremiah 7:31, it says: "They [apostate Judeans] have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, in order to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, a thing that I had not commanded and that had not come up into my heart.” If it never came into God’s heart, surely he would not do such a thing on a larger scale.

At Revelation 20:13 it says "death and Hades gave up those dead in them", but nowhere does it say this about the lake of fire.

When Jesus mentioned Gehenna it was in a figurative sense. Sheol, Hades and Hell simply mean the grave. For the dead there is the hope of a resurrection. Since nothing could be retreived from Gehenna once it was thrown in, it well describes the everlasting punishment and ultimate spiritual abasement of those unrepentant sinners, along with Satan and his demons, who God will not resurrect. The lake of fire means "the second death."

Ultimately, the Hellfire doctrine cannot be true if the doctrine of the immortal soul is not true. Ezekiel 18:4 says: "The soul that is sinning - it itself will die."