This essay is the
work of “Leolaia”
Taken from:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/
As
John Day discusses in his book on the god Moloch, it is well known that in
Jewish literature and in the NT, Gehenna is a term for the fiery portion of the
underworld where the resurrected dead are destined to be punished (e.g.
4 Ezra 7:36; 2 Baruch 59:10, 85:13; Mark 9:43, 45, 47), and Gehenna
itself derives from the Aramaic name for the valley of Hinnom, Gehinnam,
the valley to the southeast of Jerusalem. As an eschatological term, Gehenna is
constantly associated with fires that bring punishment to the wicked. What is
the origin of this concept?
There
is a popular notion (endorsed by the Watchtower Society) that Gehenna became
the term for Hell because there was a garbage dump there which was
constantly being burnt up by an incinerator and that corpses were thrown onto
it. However, besides the fact that cremation was unusual for the time, there is
no
archaeological support for this view and no ancient writer mentions it. It is
found for the first time only about A.D. 1200 in Kimhi's commentary on
Psalm 27:13:
"And it was a despised place where they
cast filth and corpses, and there was there perpetually a fire for the burning
of the filth and the bones of the corpses. On account of this, the judgment
place of the wicked is parabolically called Gehenna" (David Kimhi,
Commentary, Ps. 27:13)
Archaeological evidence however clearly
shows that the valley of Hinnom was instead utilized in the first century (and
for a thousand years before) as cemetary grounds, containing
thousands of tombs and graves (not exactly the most respectful place for a
garbage dump). The oldest biblical text (dating from before the Babylonian
Exile) in fact comes from a tomb in the Hinnom Valley. Jeremiah 7:32,
31:40 also appears to attest its use as burial grounds. In view
of the lack of any material evidence and historical evidence, Kimhi's claim
appears to have been a late medieval attempt to explain the meaning of Gehenna.
The
only fires that are certainly attested in connection with the valley of Hinnom
are those associated with the sacrifices offered to the god Molech. Jeremiah
32:35 thus refers to idolators who "have built the high places of
Baal in the Valley of ben-Hinnom, there to make their sons and daughters pass through fire in
honor of Molech," and King Josiah is said to have "desecrated the furnace in the Valley
of ben-Hinnom, so that no one could make his son or daughter pass through fire in
honor of Molech" (2 Kings 23:10; cf. Leviticus
18:21, 20:2-5; Isaiah 30:33, 57:9). We also read in Jeremiah:
"They have built the high place of
Topheth in the Valley of ben-Hinnom, to burn their sons and daughters; a thing I never commanded,
a thing that never entered my thoughts. So now days are coming -- it is Yahweh
who speaks -- when people will no longer talk to Topheth or the Valley of
ben-Hinnom, but of the Valley of Slaughter. Topheth will become a
burial ground, for lack of other space" (Jeremiah 7:31-33)
"They have filled this place with the blood of the
innocent....So now the days are coming -- it is Yahweh who speaks --
when people will no longer talk to Topheth or the Valley of ben-Hinnom, but of the Valley of Slaughter" (Jeremiah
19:4-6).
The name Topheth is cognate with Aramaic tapya
and Syriac tepaya meaning "place of fire", "oven",
and "furance", and this meaning is perfectly consistent with Isaiah
30:33, where Yahweh promises to "set fire" to Topheth,
"like a stream of brimestone". The idea in Jeremiah 7:32-34
that Topheth will be crammed with the bodies of the dead idolators anticipates
the later eschatological conception. The most important fact that contributed
to the eschatological conception is that the valleys running down from Mount
Zion were thought to represent Sheol. This was first pointed out by J. A.
Montgomery in a JBL article published in 1908. In the OT, Zion was
frequently equated with the mountain of Paradise (cf. Psalm 46:5; Isaiah
8:6; Ezekiel 47:1-12; Joel 4:18; Zecharaiah 14:8; Isaiah 11:6-9, 65:25;
compare Revelation 21:10-22:2), and note that Gihon is the name
of both the paradisiacal river in Genesis 2:13 and the spring
in Mount Zion; similarly the "mountain of God" is equated with Eden
in Ezekiel 28:12. According to Isaiah 14:12-15,
Sheol lies at the base of this divine cosmic mountain, and it is only natural
for the deep valley below it to be associated with the underworld. Note also
that a valley adjoining the Hinnom valley is called the Valley of the
Rephaim in Joshua 15:8, 18:16; 2 Samuel 5:18, 23:13; 1 Chronicles
11:15, 20:4 and the Rephaim were the ghosts of the dead residing in
Sheol (cf. Job 26:5-6; Isaiah 14:4-5, 9-11, 26:14). The earthly
valleys associated with the underworld also evoke the "valleys of
Sheol" where the Rephaim are found:
"The fellow does not realize that here the Rephaim are
gathered, that her guests are heading for the valleys of Sheol" (Proverbs
9:18; cf. 2:18, 9:18)
This close association with the valleys near
Jerusalem and Sheol explains why the Molech cult was practiced in this locale.
As John Day explains with textual and archaeological evidence, Molech was a god
of the underworld and was identified with the Akkadian god Nergal. This is why
we read in Isaiah 57:9 that "with oil you made yourself look your best for
Molech,
lavishing your scents; you sent your envoys far afield, down to Sheol itself". The
association with Molech and the underworld is even preserved in the Quran,
where we encounter Malik as an angel of hell, to whom the damned appeal in
order that he intercede with Allah (Quran, sura 43:77). Since
Molech was a god of the underworld (Sheol), it is not too difficult to
understand how fiery sacrifices associated with him in the Hinnom valley
developed into the notion of the fires of the hellish Gehenna.
The
notion of a fiery judgment developed not as a doctrine of an immortal,
disembodied soul, but as part of the doctrine of the resurrection, as
immortality, in a post-exilic Jewish context, was tied to the hope of a
resurrection (cf. Wisdom 3:4; 2 Maccabees 7:9, 16-17; Daniel 12).
The earliest reference to eternal fire, in Isaiah 66:22-24
refers only to "the corpses of men who have rebelled against
[Yahweh]," so initially the belief was apparently centered only on the
everlasting destruction of the dead body. When the belief in the resurrection
began to take hold, some (such as the writers of 2 Maccabees
and the Testament of Job 4:7-11) limited the resurrection as a
reward to the righteous. But most viewed the resurrection as twofold; the
eschatological belief was that at the time of the end (e.g. Judgment Day), the
resurrection would bring "some to everlasting life and some to shame and
everlasting disgrace." (Daniel 12:2). The Testament
of Benjamin (second century B.C.) similarly foretold:
"And then you will see Enoch and Seth
and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob being raised up at the right hand in great joy.
Then shall we be raised, each of us over our tribe, and we shall prostrate
ourselves before the heavenly King. Then all shall be changed, some
destined for glory, others for dishonor, for the Lord first judges
Israel for the wrong she has committed and then he shall do the same for all
the nations." (Testament of Benjamin 10:6-11)
According to 2 Baruch 50:2-54:21,
the righteous would be changed "into the splendor of angels" but the
wicked would be resurrected in grotesque, "horrible shapes" and
"shall suffer the torment of judgment" so that "a retribution
will be demanded with regard to those who have done wicked deeds". Again,
the concept of hell is part of the belief in the final resurrection. Similarly,
Matthew 25:46 refers to the wicked going "away to eternal punishment and
the virtuous to eternal life," and John 5:27-29
says that "the Son of Man has been appointed supreme judge, for the
hour is coming when the dead will leave their graves at the sound of his
voice: those
who did good will rise again to life and those who did evil to condemnation". Revelation
20:11-15 gives an extended vision of the resurrection of the dead,
Hades being emptied of its dead, followed by the judgment of dead, and the
eternal punishment of the resurrected wicked in the lake of fire.
The
late Jewish and NT conception of Gehenna similarly drew on this notion of the
resurrection. Thus Jesus specifies that both "soul and body" and the "body" would go to
the "judgment" of Gehenna -- that is, after the resurrection (Matthew
5:29, 10:28, 23:33). This has nothing to do with punishment of a disembodied
immortal soul; it is punishment of a resurrected person, of both body and
spirit. Other Jewish apocalypses describe the Gehenna that the resurrected
wicked will face:
This accursed valley [e.g. Gehenna] is
for those accursed forever; here will gather together all those accursed ones,
those who speak with their mouths unbecoming words against the Lord and utter
hard words concerning his glory. Here shall they be gathered together, and here
shall be their judgment, in the last days. There will be upon them the spectacle of the
righteous judgment, in the presence of the righteous forever....There was
produced from that bronze and fire a smell of sulfur which blended with
those waters. This valley of the perversive angels shall continue to burn punitively underneath that
ground....The Most High will arise on that day of judgment in order to execute
a great judgment upon all the sinners...Woe unto you
sinners, when you oppress the righteous ones, in the day of hard anguish, and burn them with fire! You shall be
recompensed according to your deeds. On account of the deeds of your wicked
ones,
in blazing fires worse than fire it shall burn ....You yourselves
know that they will bring your souls down to Sheol and they shall experience
evil and great tribulation--in darkness, nets, and burning flame. Your souls shall
enter into the great judgment; it shall be a great judgment in all the
generations of the world. (1 Enoch 27:2-3, 100:4-9, 103:7-8; cf.
Jude 7, 14-15, which quotes 1 Enoch to specifically
refer to this judgment on the wicked)
I will burn with fire those who mocked them
and ruled over them in this age...I have prepared them to be food for the fire of Hades, and to be ceaseless
soaring in the air of the underworld regions of the uttermost depths, to the
contents of a wormy belly....For they shall putrefy in the belly of the crafty
worm Azazel, and be bburned by the fire of Azazel's tongue....And behold, in
this light a fiery Gehenna was enkindled, and a great crowd in the likeness of
men. They were all changing in aspect and shape, running and changing form and
prostrating themselves and crying aloud words I did not know. (Apocalypse
of Abraham 15:6-7, 31:2-6)
The souls of the wicked are brought down to Sheol by two angels of
destruction, Za'api'el and Samki'el....Za'api'el is appointed to bring down the
souls of the wicked from the presence of the Holy One, blessed be he, from the
judgment of the Sekinah, to Sheol, to punish them with the fire in Gehinnom, with rods of burning coal. (3 Enoch
44:2-3)
The Lord will come with his angels and with
the armies of the holy ones of the seventh heaven and with the glory of the
seventh heaven, and he will drag Beliar into Gehenna and also his armies,
... the Beloved will cause fire to go forth from him, and it will consume
all the godless. (Ascension of Isaiah 4:14, 18)
"And the earth shall give up
those who are asleep in it; and the chambers shall give up the souls
which have been committed to them. And the Most High shall be revealed upon the
seat
of judgment, and compassion shall pass away, and patience shall be
withdrawn, but judgment alone shall remain, truth shall stand, and faithfulness
shall grow strong.... Then the pit of torment shall appear, and
opposite it shall be the place of rest; and the furnace of Gehenna shall be disclosed,
and opposite it the Paradise of delight. Then the Most High will say to the
nations that have been raised from the dead, 'Look on this side and on that,
here are delight and rest, and there are fire and torments!' " (4
Ezra 7:32-38).
Gehenna is copiously described in rabbinical
literature. It was thought to have several gates, one in the valley of Hinnom
and other in Jerusalem ('Erubin 19a), likely drawing on Isaiah
31:9 which refers to Yahweh having "his furance in Jerusalem".
The entrance into Gehenna is narrow but underneath Gehenna extends infinitely (Menahot
99b), and "the whole world is like a lid for Gehenna" (Pesahim
94a). The fire in Gehenna is 60 times as hot as any terrestial
fire (Berakot 57b). Regarding the punative nature of Gehenna,
God declares: "I punish the slanderers from above, and I also punish them
from below with glowing coals" ('Ar. 15b). That the
Pharisees believed in such a concept of everlasting punishment is also evident
from Josephus, Antiquities 18.1.3, and eschatological Gehenna
appears in the synoptic Gospels as an already-established notion that Jesus
draws on in his teaching.