Gehenna ( ; ) or Gehinnom ( or ) is a Biblical toponym that has acquired various theological connotations, including as a place of divine punishment, in Jewish eschatology.
The place is first mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as part of the border between the tribes of Judah and Benjamin (Joshua 15:8). According to the Bible, during the late First Temple period, it was the site of the Tophet, where some of the kings of Judah had sacrificed their children by fire (Jeremiah 7:31).. Thereafter, it was cursed by the biblical prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 19:2–6).Kohler, Kaufmann; Ludwig Blau (1906). "Gehenna". Jewish Encyclopedia. "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 (Joshua 15:8, passim; ). For this reason the valley was deemed to be accursed, and 'Gehenna' therefore soon became a figurative equivalent for 'hell.'"
In later rabbinic literature, "Gehinnom" became associated with divine punishment as the destination of the wicked for the atonement of their sins.Kohler, Kaufmann; Ludwig Blau (1906). "Gehenna: Sin and Merit" Jewish Encyclopedia: "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. (Soṭah 4b, 41b; Ta'an. 5a; B. B. 10b, 78b; 'Ab. Zarah 18b; Ned. 22a).""Hell". Catholic Encyclopedia: "[I]n 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.... [The Valley of Hinnom was] 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." The term is different from the more neutral term Sheol, the abode of the dead. The King James Version of the Bible translates both with the Anglo-Saxon word hell.
Etymology The Hebrew Bible refers to the valley as the "Valley of the son of Hinnom" (), or "Valley of Hinnom" (). In Mishnaic Hebrew and Judeo-Aramaic languages, the name was contracted into () or () meaning "hell".
The English name "Gehenna" derives from the Koine Greek transliteration () found in the New Testament.Jones, Daniel; Roach, Peter, James Hartman and Jane Setter, eds. Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary. 17th edition. Cambridge UP, 2006.
Identification of biblical Valley of Hinnom
The exact location of the Valley of Hinnom is disputed. George Adam Smith wrote in 1907 that there are three possible locations considered by historical writers:Smith, G. A. 1907. Jerusalem: The Topography, Economics and History from the Earliest Times to A.D. 70, pages 170-180. London. East of the Old City (today identified as the Valley of Josaphat) Within the Old City (today identified as the Tyropoeon Valley): Many commentaries give the location as below the southern wall of ancient Jerusalem, stretching from the foot of Mount Zion eastward past the Tyropoeon Valley 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, the Tyropoeon lay within the city walls and child sacrifice would have been practiced outside the walls of the city. Wadi ar-Rababi: Dalman (1930),Dalman, G. 1930. Jerusalem und sein Gelände. Schriften des Deutschen Palästina-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 al-Rababi, which fits the description of Joshua that the Hinnom Valley ran west to east and lay outside the city walls. According to Joshua, the valley began at Ein Rogel. If the modern Bir Ayoub in Silwan is Ein Rogel, then Wadi ar-Rababi, which on most maps ends close to it, is Hinnom.Geoffrey W. Bromiley, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: "E–J." 1982. N.b.: on several maps, Wadi ar-Rababi is shown to correspond to the gorge on the Old City's southern side, while Bir Ayoub (the Ein Rogel candidate) is a touch further south in (modern) Kidron Valley, not adjacent to the city.
Modern "Hinnom Valley"
On modern maps, the Hinnom Valley (Heb. , lit. "Gorge/Valley of the Sons of Hinnom") is shown to start west of Jaffa Gate (where historical Jerusalem's Transversal Valley cuts on a west-east axis), run south, bend eastward around the Western Hill ("Mount Zion"), and continue east until it merges into the Kidron Valley south of the el-Bustan/King's Garden area (south of the "City of David" archaeological site/Wadi Hilweh neighbourhood of Silwan).
Archaeology The search for the site of child sacrifice
Child sacrifice at other Tophets contemporary with the Bible accounts (700–600 BC) of the reigns of Ahaz and Manasseh has been established, such as the bones of children sacrificed at the Tophet to the goddess Tanit in Phoenician Carthage,Geoffrey W. Bromiley International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: Q–Z, 1995 p. 259 "Stager and Wolff have convincingly demonstrated that child sacrifice was practiced in Phoenecian Carthage (Biblical Archaeology Review, 10 , 30–51). At the sanctuary called Tophet, children were sacrificed to the goddess Tank and her .." and also child sacrifice in ancient Syria-Palestine.Hays 2011 "..(Lev 18:21–27; Deut 12:31; 2 Kgs 16:3; 21:2), and there is indeed evidence for child sacrifice in ancient Syria-Palestine." [Footnote:] "Day, Molech, 18, esp. n. 11. See also A. R. W. Green, The Role of Human Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East (SBLDS 1; Missoula, Mont.: Scholars Press, 1975)." Scholars such as Mosca (1975) have concluded that the sacrifice recorded in the Hebrew Bible, such as Jeremiah's comment that the worshippers of Baal had "filled this place with the blood of innocents", is literal.P. Mosca, 'Child Sacrifice in Canaanite and Israelite Religion: A Study on Mulk and "pa' (PhD dissertation. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 1975)Susan Niditch War in the Hebrew Bible: A Study in the Ethics of Violence 1995 p. 48 "An ancient Near Eastern parallel for the cult of Molech is provided by Punic epigraphic and archaeological evidence (Heider:203) Yet, the biblical words in the Book of Jeremiah describe events taking place in the seventh century in the place of Ben-Hinnom: "Because they [the Israelites] have forsaken Me and have made this an alien place and have burned sacrifices in it to other gods, that neither they nor their forefathers nor the kings of Judah had ever known, and because they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, a thing which I never commanded or spoke of, nor did it ever enter My mind; therefore, behold, days are coming", declares the Lord, "when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the valley of Ben-Hinnom, but rather the valley of Slaughter". J. Day, Heider, and Mosca believe that the Moloch cult took place in the valley of Hinnom at the Topheth.(J. Day:83; Heider:405; Mosca: 220, 228), ... Many no doubt did as Heider allows (269, 272, 406) though J. Day denies it (85). ... Heider and Mosca conclude, in fact, that a form of child sacrifice was a part of state-sponsored ritual until the reform of the ..."
No archaeological evidence such as mass children's graves has been found; however, it has been suggested that such a find may be compromised by the heavy population history of the Jerusalem area compared to the Tophet found in Tunisia.Richard S. Hess, Gordon J. Wenham Zion, City of Our God. 1999, p. 182 "The sacrifices of children and the cult of Molech are associated with no other place than the Hinnom Valley. ... of Jerusalem, the Jebusites (brackets mine). As yet, no trace has been located through archaeological search in Ben- Hinnom or in the Kidron Valley. ... Carthage was found in an area of Tunis that has had little occupation on the site to eradicate the evidence left of a cult of child sacrifice there." The site would also have been disrupted by the actions of Josiah "And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech." (2 Kings 23). A minority of scholars have attempted to argue that the Bible does not portray actual child sacrifice, but only dedication to the god by fire; however, they are judged to have been "convincingly disproved" (Hay, 2011).Christopher B. Hays Death in the Iron Age II & in First Isaiah 2011 p. 181 "Efforts to show that the Bible does not portray actual child sacrifice in the Molek cult, but rather dedication to the god by fire, have been convincingly disproved. Child sacrifice is well attested in the ancient world, especially in times of crisis."
Ketef Hinnom burials The southwest shoulder of this valley, at the point where the valley turns east, dubbed Ketef Hinnom (Hebrew for "Hinnom Shoulder") by archaeologist Gabriel Barkay, 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 BC. The use of this area for tombs continued into the first centuries BC and AD. By 70 AD, 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.
Crusader remains
The Crusader-period remains of a partially underground charnel vault, once part of the medieval Chapel of St Mary of Akeldama, stand on a terrace on the southern slope of the west-east section, adjacent to the modern Greek Orthodox Monastery of St Onuphrius.
Second Temple period necropolis
There are a number of rock-cut Second Temple period burial caves known as the Akeldama tombs on the southern slope of the west-east section.
Lower Pool of Siloam At the end of the west–east section of the valley, on its northern slope, at the site known as el-Bustan and King's Garden, archaeologists have unearthed the remains of the "Lower Pool" of Siloam (Birket el-Ḥamrah in Arabic), dating from the First Temple period at c. 800 BC in its first iteration, and from the Second Temple period in its second.
The concept of Gehinnom Judaism Hebrew Bible The oldest historical reference to "the Valley of the Son of Hinnom" is found in the Book of Joshua ( and ) which describe tribal boundaries. The following reference to the valley is at the time of King Ahaz of Judah, who, according to , "burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire". Later, in , it is said that Ahaz's grandson, king Manasseh of Judah, also "caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom". Debate remains as to whether the phrase "cause his children to pass through the fire" referred to a religious ceremony in which the Moloch priest would walk the child between two lanes of fire, or to literal child sacrifice wherein the child is thrown into the fire.
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 in Hebrew as "Topheth". Similarly, describes the bodies of sinners burning near Jerusalem.
During the reign of Josiah, Jeremiah condemned the Topheth worship which was conducted in the Hinnom valley (, ). Josiah destroyed the shrine of Moloch on Topheth to prevent anyone sacrificing children there (). Despite Josiah's ending of the practice, Jeremiah prophesied that Jerusalem itself would be made like Gehenna and Topheth (, ).