Gehenna

Music Home >> Music Genres >> Undetermined Music



< < < < < > > > > > More Info on Gehenna Similar Undetermined Music Search Artistopia

Biography

Gehenna (Greek ), Gehinnom (Rabbinical Hebrew : /) and Yiddish Gehinnam , are terms derived from a place outside ancient Jerusalem known in the Hebrew Bible as the Valley of the Son of Hinnom (Hebrew: or ); one of the two principal valleys surrounding the Old City (Jerusalem)|Old City .

In the Hebrew Bible, the site was initially where apostate Israelites and followers of various Ba'al s and Caananite gods, including Moloch , sacrificed their children by fire (, ; , ).

In Jewish, Christian and Islamic scripture, Gehenna is a destination of the wicked.: "However, in the New Testament the term Gehenna is used more frequently in preference to hades, as a name for the place of punishment of the damned. ... held in abomination by the Jews, who, accordingly, used the name of this valley to designate the abode of the damned (Targ. Jon., Gen., iii, 24; Henoch, c. xxvi). And Christ adopted this usage of the term." : "It is frequently said that certain sins will lead man into Gehenna. The name "Gehenna" itself is explained to mean that unchastity will lead to Gehenna (; 'Er. 19a); so also will adultery, idolatry, pride, mockery, hypocrisy, anger, etc. (So?ah 4b, 41b; Ta'an. 5a; B. B. 10b, 78b; 'Ab. Zarah 18b; Ned. 22a)." This is different from the more neutral Sheol / Hades , the Realm of the dead|abode of the dead , though the King James version of the Bible translates both with the Anglo-Saxon word Hell .

Etymology

English "Gehenna" represents the Greek Geenna () found in the New Testament , a phonetic transcription of Aramaic language|Aramaic Gehanna (????), equivalent to the Hebrew Ge Hinnom , literally "Valley of Hinnom".

This was known in the Old Testament as Gai Ben-Hinnom , literally the "Valley of the son of Hinnom", and in the Talmud as Gehinnam or Gehinnom .

In the Qur'an , Jahannam (????) is a place of torment for sinners or the Islamic equivalent of Hell .Cyril Glassé, translated Huston Smith The new encyclopedia of Islam 2003 p175 "Hell. The place of torment where the damned undergo suffering most often described as fire, a fire whose fuel is stones and men. Names of hell used in the Koran are An-Nar ("the fire"), Jahannam ("Gehenna"), .."

Geography

The exact location of the Valley of Hinnom is disputed. Older commentaries give the location as below the southern wall of ancient Jerusalem, stretching from the foot of Mount Zion eastward past the Tyropoeon Valley|Tyropoeon to the Kidron Valley . However the Tyropoeon Valley is usually no longer associated with the Valley of Hinnom because during the period of Ahaz and Manasseh of Judah|Manasseh , the Tyropoeon lay within the city walls and child sacrifice would have been practiced outside the walls of the city. Smith (1907),Smith, G. A. 1907. Jerusalem: The Topography, Economics and History from the Earliest Times to A.D. 70. London. Dalman (1930),Dalman, G. 1930. Jerusalem und sein Gelande. Schriften des Deutschen Palastina-Instituts 4 Bailey (1986)Bailey, L. R. 1986. Gehenna: The Topography of Hell. BA 49: 187 and Watson (1992)Watson, Duane F. Hinnom. In Freedman, David Noel, ed., The Anchor Bible Dictionary, New York Doubleday 1997, 1992. identify the Wadi er-Rababi, which fits the data of Joshua that Hinnom ran East to West and lay outside the city walls. According to Joshua, the valley began in En-rogel. If the modern Bir Ayyub is En-rogel then the Wadi er-Rababi which begins there is Hinnom.Geoffrey W. Bromiley International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: E-J - 1982

In the King James Version of the Bible, the term appears 13 times in 11 different verses as "valley of Hinnom," "valley of the son of Hinnom" or "valley of the children of Hinnom."

The Valley of Hinnom is at the base of Mount Zion.

The concept of Gehenna

Hebrew Bible

The oldest historical reference to the valley is found in , which describe tribal boundaries.

The next chronological reference to the valley is at the time of King Ahaz of Judah who sacrificed his sons there according to . Since his legitimate son by the daughter of the High Priest Hezekiah succeeded him as king, this, if literal, is assumed to mean children by unrecorded pagan wives or concubines. The same is recorded of Ahaz' grandson Manasseh in . There remains debate about whether the phrase "cause his children to pass through the fire" meant a simple ceremony or the literal child sacrifice .

The Book of Isaiah does not mention Gehenna by name, but the "burning place" in which the Assyrian army is to be destroyed, may be read "Topheth", and the final verse of Isaiah which concerns the corpses of the same or a similar battle, , "where their worm does not die" is cited by Jesus in reference to Gehenna in , , and .

In the reign of Josiah a call came from Jeremiah to destroy the shrines in Topheth and to end the practice , . It is recorded that King Josiah destroyed the shrine of Molech on Topheth, to prevent anyone sacrificing children there in . Despite Josiah's ending of the practice, Jeremiah also included a prophecy that Jerusalem itself would be made like Gehenna and Topheth (, ).

A final purely geographical reference is found in to the exiles returning from Babylon camping from Beersheba to Hinnom.

Targums

The ancient Aramaic paraphrase-translations of the Hebrew Bible supply the term Gehinnom frequently to verses touching upon resurrection, judgment, and the fate of the wicked. This may also include addition of the phrase " second death ", as in the final chapter of Isaiah, where the Hebrew version does not mention either Gehinnom or the Second Death, whereas the Targums add both. In this the Targums are parallel to the Gospel of Mark addition of "Gehenna" to the quotation of the Isaiah verses describing the corpses "where their worm does not die".McNamara Targums and Testament

Extra-Biblical documents

Aside from the Targums, there is a lack of direct references to Gehenna in the Apocrypha , Dead Sea Scrolls , Pseudepigrapha and Philo . Josephus does not deal with this aspect of the history of the Hinnom Valley in his descriptions of Jerusalem for a Roman audience. Nor does Josephus make any mention of the tradition commonly reported in older Christian commentaries that in Roman times fires were kept burning and the valley became the rubbish dump of the city, where the dead bodies of criminals, and the Carrion|carcasses of animals were thrown.
The southwestern gate of Jerusalem, overlooking the valley, came to be known as "The Gate of the Valley" ().

Rabbinical Judaism

The picture of Gehenna as the place of punishment or destruction of the wicked occurs frequently in the Mishnah in Nashim|Kiddushin 4.14, Avot 1.5; 5.19, 20, Tosefta t. Bereshith 6.15, and Babylonian Talmud b. Rosh Hashanah 16b:7a; b. Bereshith 28b. Gehenna is considered a Purgatory -like place where the wicked go to suffer until they have atoned for their sins. It is stated that the maximum amount of time a sinner can spend in Gehenna is one year, with the exception of five people who are there for all of eternity.Babylonian Talmud. Sanhedrin (Talmud)|Sanhedrin (7) Ch. 11 "Chelek"

Due to Jewish religious tradition regarding the bloodiness of its history, Gehenna became a metonym for "Hell" or any similar place of punishment in the afterlife .

The traditional explanation that a burning rubbish heap in the Valley of Hinnom south of Jerusalem gave rise to the idea of a fiery Gehenna of judgment is attributed to Rabbi David Kimhi 's commentary on Psalm 27:13 (ca. A.D. 1200). He maintained that in this loathsome valley fires were kept burning perpetually to consume the filth and cadavers thrown into it. However, Hermann Strack and Paul Billerbeck state that there is neither archaeological nor literary evidence in support of this claim, in either the earlier intertestamental or the later rabbinic sources. Hermann Strack|Hermann L. Strack and Paul Billerbeck, , 5 vols. , 4:2:1030 Also, Lloyd R. Bailey's "Gehenna: The Topography of Hell"Lloyd R. Bailey, "Gehenna: The Topography of Hell," Biblical Archeologist 49 : 189 from 1986 holds a similar view.

There is evidence however that the southwest shoulder of this valley ( Ketef Hinnom ) was a burial location with numerous burial chambers that were reused by generations of families from as early as the seventh until the fifth century BCE. The use of this area for tombs continued into the first centuries BCE and CE. By 70 CE, the area was not only a burial site but also a place for cremation of the dead with the arrival of the Tenth Roman Legion , who were the only group known to practice cremation in this region.Gabriel Barkay, "The Riches of Ketef Hinnom." Biblical Archaeological Review 35:4-5 (2005): 22–35, 122–26.

In time it became deemed to be accursed and an image of the place of destruction in Jewish folklore."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; xix. 6, 13-14). For this reason the valley was deemed to be accursed, and "Gehenna" therefore soon became a figurative equivalent for 'hell'." By : Kaufmann Kohler, Ludwig Blau; web-sourced: 02-11-2010."gehenna." Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary. 27 Aug. 2009. . However, Jewish folklore suggests the valley had a 'gate' which led down to a molten lake of fire.
Eventually the Hebrew term Gehinnom"Gehinnom is the Hebrew name; Gehenna is Yiddish." websourced 02-10-2010. became a figurative name for the place of spiritual purification for the wicked dead in Judaism. According to most Jewish sources, the period of purification or punishment is limited to only 12 months and every Biblical Sabbath|Sabbath day is excluded from punishment."The place of spiritual punishment and/or purification for the wicked dead in Judaism is not referred to as Hell, but as Gehinnom or She'ol." websourced 02-10-2010. After this the soul will ascend to Olam Ha-Ba , the world to come, or will be destroyed if it is severely wicked.

New Testament

Gehenna is cited in the New Testament . In early Christian writing it represents the final place where the wicked will be punished or destroyed after the Resurrection of the Dead .

In the synoptic gospels Jesus uses the word Gehenna 11 times to describe the opposite to life in the Kingdom of God|Kingdom (). It is a place where both soul and body could be destroyed () in "unquenchable fire" ().

Gehenna is also mentioned in the Epistle of James , where it is said to set the tongue on fire, and the tongue in turn sets on fire the entire "course" or "wheel" of life.

The complete list of references is as follows:

Matthew 5:22 whoever calls someone "you fool" will be liable to Gehenna.

Matthew 5:29 better to lose one of your members than that your whole body go into Gehenna.

Matthew 5:30 better to lose one of your members than that your whole body go into Gehenna.

Matthew 10 :28 rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.

Matthew 18 :9 better to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna.

Matthew 23 :15 Pharisees make a convert twice as much a child of Gehenna as themselves.

Matthew 23:33 to Pharisees: you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to Gehenna?

Mark 9 :43 better to enter life with one hand than with two hands to go to Gehenna.

Mark 9:45 better to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna.

Mark 9:47 better to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna

Luke 12 :5 Fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into Gehenna

Epistle of James|James 3:6 the tongue is set on fire by Gehenna.

Translations in Christian Bibles

The New Testament also refers to Hades in Christianity|Hades as a temporary destination of the dead. Hades is portrayed as a different place from the Last judgment|final judgement of the damned in Gehenna. The Book of Revelation describes Hades being cast into the Lake of Fire (). Hades the temporary place of the dead is said to be removed for ever and cast into the Lake of Fire commonly understood to be synonymous with Gehenna or the final Hell of the Christian salvation|unsaved . This indicating that any who die after this would never go to a temporary place, Hades, just instead a final judgement of saved or condemned. The King James Version is the only English translation in modern use to translate Sheol , Hades , and Gehenna as Hell. The New International Version, New Living Translation, New American Standard Bible (among others) all reserve the term hell only for when Gehenna is used.

Treatment of Gehenna in Christianity is significantly affected by whether the distinction in Hebrew and Greek between Gehenna and Hades was maintained:

Translations with a distinction:

The 4th century Codex Argenteus|Ulfilas ( Ulfilas|Wulfila ) or Gothic Bible is the first Bible to use Hell's Proto-Germanic form Hell#Etymology_and_Germanic_mythology|Halja , and maintains a distinction between Hades and Gehenna. However, unlike later translations, Halja () is reserved for Hades,Murdoch & Read (2004) Early Germanic literature and culture’’, p. 160. and Gehenna is transliterated to Gaiainnan (), which surprisingly is the opposite to modern translations that translate Gehenna into Hell and leave Hades untranslated (see below).

The late 4th century Latin Vulgate transliterates the Greek ??e??a "gehenna" with "gehennæ" (e.g. Matt 5:22) while using "infernus" ("coming from below, of the underworld") to translate ?d?? ( Hades ).

The 19th century Young's Literal Translation and Emphasized Bible|Rotherham's Emphasized Bible both try to be as literal a translation as possible and do not use the word Hell at all, keeping the words Hades and Gehenna untranslated.

The 19th century Arabic Bible translations (Arabic)|Van Dyck distinguishes Gehenna from Sheol .

The 20th century New International Version, New Living Translation and New American Standard Bible reserve the term Hell only for when Gehenna is used. All translate Sheol and Hades in a different fashion. The exception to this is the New International Version's translation in Luke 16:23, which is its singular rendering of Hades as Hell.

In texts in Greek, and consistently in the Eastern Orthodox Church , the distinctions present in the originals were often maintained. The Russian Synodal Bible (and one translation by the Old Church Slavonic )also maintain the distinction. In modern Russian, the concept of Hell (??) is directly derived from Hades (???), separate and independent of Gehenna. Fire imagery is attributed primarily to Gehenna, which is most commonly mentioned as Gehenna the Fiery (?????? ????????), and appears to be synonymous to the Lake of Fire.

The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures|New World Translation , used exclusively by Jehovah's Witnesses , maintains a distinction between Gehenna and Hades by transliterating them. The term "hell" is not used for Gehenna () or Hades ().

Translations without a distinction:

The late 10th century Wessex Gospels and the 14th century Wyclif's Bible|Wycliffe Bible render both the Latin inferno and gehenna as Hell .

The 16th century Tyndale and later translators had access to the Greek, but Tyndale translated both Gehenna and Hades as same English word, Hell.

The 17th century King James Version of the bible is the only English translation in modern use to translate Sheol , Hades , and Gehenna as Hell .

Many modern Christians understand Gehenna to be a place of eternal punishment called hell.Metzger & Coogan (1993) Oxford Companion to the Bible’’, p. 243.

On the other hand, annihilationist s understand Gehenna to be a place where sinners are eventually utterly destroyed, not tormented forever. Christian Universalist s, who believe that God will eventually reconcile all souls to himself, interpret the New Testament references to Gehenna in the context of the Old Testament and conclude that it always refers to the imminent divine judgment of Israel and not to everlasting torment for the unsaved.
The Valley of Hinnom is also the traditional location of the Potter's Field bought by priests after Judas' suicide with the "blood money" with which Judas was paid for betraying Jesus.

Quran

The name given to Hell in Islam, Jahannam , directly derives from Gehenna.Richard P. Taylor - Death and the afterlife: a cultural encyclopedia 2000 "JAHANNAM From the Hebrew ge-hinnom, which refers to a valley outside Jerusalem, Jahannam is the Islamic word for hell." The Quran contains 77 references to Gehenna (????), but no references to Hades (????).

Literary references

John Milton , "Paradise Lost", Book I

Moloch made his Grove
The pleasant Vally of HINNOM, TOPHET thence

And black GEHENNA call'd, the Type of Hell.

Shalom Aleichem , "The Bubble Bursts", (The Tevya Stories)

'The fires of hell,' I tell him, 'the tortures of Gehenna are too good for you.'

Edgar Allan Poe , "Morella"

And thus, joy suddenly faded into horror, and the most beautiful became the most hideous, as Hinnom became Gehenna .

Rudyard Kipling , "Story of Gadsby"

Down to Gehenna or up to the Throne,

He travels the fastest who travels alone.

Edgar Rice Burroughs , " A Princess of Mars "

...convinced me that I had but jumped from purgatory into gehenna.

Copyright Citations

This article is licensed under the GNU License
Click here for original article: Gehenna


1. Afterlife 2. Jerusalem 3. Abaddon 4. Damnation 5. Akeldama 6. Armageddon 7. Deadlights 8. Gorgoroth 9. Ismo Alanko 10. Keep Of Kalessin 11. Pilate 12. Rebekah 13. Sielun Veljet 14. Souls 15. Tartaros 16. Tsjuder 17. Hereafter

Undetermined Music Artists