On The Eagle's Wings

The King James Version and many newer Bibles translate the Greek word gehenna as 'hell'. All Old Testament references to this place are translated Valley of Hinnom.  There is no logical reason for these words to be translated "hell" since the Valley of Gehenna is a place outside the city of Jerusalem.  The Jews were all familiar with this place and Jesus named it when speaking to them.  The meaning that it has taken on in the English language cannot be derived from the original Greek word.  One can visit this valley today and see that there is no longer a fire burning there. The following quote will clarify some things concerning this valley and I encourage you to look up the scriptures for yourself and correct the translation in your own Bible if necessary.

Quoting from Analytical Study of Words by Louis Abbott:

"In Jeremiah, we hear Yahweh speaking to Jeremiah regarding this sacrifice, "And they have turned to Me the back, and not the face;though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not listened to receive instruction. but they set their abominations in the house which is called by My name, to defile it. And they built the high places of Baal which are in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and daughters to pass through the fire to Molech, which I did not command, nor did it come into My mind that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin." (Jer. 32:33-35) Jeremiah says this valley would one day be called the "Valley of slaughter." (Jer. 7:30-33) This Scripture had its literal fulfillment in 70 A.D. at the destruction of Jerusalem.

        King Josiah, in his days, desecrated this place by tearing down all the idols, crushing or burning them, and burning human bones on them (probably those of the priests who presided over these rituals). A Jew was not allowed to touch anything that touched a dead human being. Please note, it was God's own people who were doing the burning, not God, and He said such a thing never entered His mind. Also note, not one single time in the entire Old Testament was this word "Ge-hinnom" translated "hell."

        In Jesus' day, this valley was a city dump very much like modern dumps-always being filled, and therefore always having something for the fire to consume and worms to eat. ("where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.) It was a place fit only for waste. Should a Jew, God's "chosen" people ever be given a burial in "Gehenna," it would be the most humiliating thing that could ever happen to him. It would be like saying that one's life here on earth was completely worthless, fit only for the dump. For Jesus to tell a religious Jew, such as a Pharisee, that his life, his religious works, his devotion to God were fit only for the city dump, was to insult him in the worst possible way.

        Jews went to great efforts to make their funerals great events. Some even hired professional "mourners" to cry at their funeral. Herod was going to have the leaders of Israel killed on his day of death so that Israel would mourn on his death. This is the kind of mentality Jews had regarding their life and the way they should leave this world. Even today, one will hear Jews say that the most important thing a person owns is his name. They will go to great lengths to keep their name alive. They will name buildings, start foundations, etc., to keep their name alive. Many, who no longer believe in a resurrection feel this is the only way they can stay alive beyond the grave-to have their name remain in the minds of future generations.

        Returning to "Gehenna," one can walk through this valley even today and return unscathed by its fires and untouched by the worms which actually consumed a good part of the religious Priestly community of Israel in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Their bodies were piled up and their blood ran down into this very valley which Jesus prophesied would be the disgraceful burial place for hundreds of thousands of Jews of that very generation Jesus was speaking to. Please remember, it was not the heathen, not the street sinner, not the Roman who found themselves in this "hell" as the KJV wants to render it-it was God's own people-even more-it was those who thought they were closer to God than anyone else on the earth. 

        Whatever this valley represented in the Old Testament must be carried over to the New Testament. Nowhere in the Old Testament is this place translated "Hell" and nowhere in the Old Testament is there a hint that this place referred to a place of eternal punishment after death. The word which Jesus referred to most often which the King James Bible unfortunately chose to render "hell," in the New Testament, but did not do so in the Old Testament, is this word "Hinnom" or Ge-hinnom (valley of Hinnom) or "Ge-ben-hinnom" (valley of the sons of Hinnom) which was transliterated into the Greek as "gehenna." A thorough study of this place in the Old Testament will dispel much myth regarding its significance. The Scriptural references for such a study are: Josh. 15:8; 18:16; 2 Kings 9:7; 15:3,4; 23:10, 36, 39; Ez. 23:37,39; 2 Chr. 28:3; Lev. 18:21; 20:2; Jer. 7:30-32; 19:2-6; 32:35. Remember, this place is never referred to as "Hell" in the Old Testament. References to this very same place in the New Testament are: Matt. 5:22; 5:29, 30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15; 23:33; Mark 9:43; 9:45; 9:47; Luke 12:5; James 3:6. It should be mentioned that most of these references come from Jesus' mouth and every reference to this word "gehenna" was addressed to God's own people, not to the nations around Israel."

Although the doctrine of eternal damnation finds no credible roots in scripture it must be noted that God does spell out clearly many times what the consequences of sin are and were.  As far back as the garden of Eden, God speaks of temporal punishments and of death as the end result of sin.  If the doctrine of eternal torment were true wouldn't God at some point in 4,000 years of Old Testament history clearly warn His people of it?  And wouldn't Jesus explain this clearly to His disciples, if not the masses, in His teachings?  Paul, who wrote the majority of the New Testament, also never once mentions such a place.

Allow me to present one of the most bizarre renderings of the mistranslated word "hell' as well as another often mistranslated word "forever".

Jonah 2

¹Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish's belly,   ²And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.   ³For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.   ⁴Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.   ⁵The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.   ⁶I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.

I think we all know Jonah was in the belly of a whale, not in a place of eternal torment.  The Hebrew "sheol" means "grave" or "unseen place", and is used in some places to indicate a state of degradation and most often refers to it's literal meaning "grave".  We also know that he was in there for three days not forever!  Before I leave this subject to move on to the word "forever", there is one other word that is translated "hell" in one place in the New Testament giving us a total of 4 words that have been translated "hell" in the KJV.  "Tartarus" is a word borrowed from Greek mythology and in this case denotes a holding place for "messengers" (angels) until judgement. In Greek it means "to incarcerate".

Ok, so in summary we have 1. the Hebrew word (Old Testament) sheol which means "grave" or "unseen  place" , 2. the Greek word "hades" which means "grave" and "unseen place" but has other pagan meanings from Greek mythology attached to it that are of no concern to Christians, 3. the Greek word "Gehenna" which is the name of a place outside the city of Jerusalem, and 4. "tartarus" which means "to incarcerate". These four words have been translated "hell" in many places in the KJV and many other translations of the Bible.   The word "hell" has Anglo-Saxon roots and it original meaning is "a hidden place".  The word itself is not really the problem, but over time the meaning that has come to be attached to it, has come through the doctrines of men.  This where the problem lies as I have explained previously. 

Next, I will take a look at a couple of other words that have also contributed to the confusion--"aion" and "aionios" often translated everlasting, forever, eternal, and various other words.  I have given one example above of its mistranslation and we will look at many more.  One of the best ways to determine the accurate use of a word is to examine all the scriptures that employ the word. 

Along with this discussion it must be noted that God definitely corrects and disciplines His children, as a perfect Father must, but He has never, and will never, punish anyone endlessly.  It would contradict His character even as it contradicts His word.