WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THE GREEK WORD GEHENNA AND WHY DO SOME TRANSLATIONS RENDER THE WORD AS HELL ?
November 9th by byHell 
Category: By Hell Deities and Beings | Tags: gehenna, Greek Word, Hebrew, hell, Traces, Wikipedia, Word Translations
Related Posts
- Does the Christian concept of a 'rebellious' angel (ie.the Devil) come from Heathen mythology?
- was i attacked in my sleep by a incubus?!please help me?
- Hell is only mentioned in the New testament but not in the Hebrew Bible?
- symbols or objects that would represent hades the lord of the underworld?
- Mythologys?
12 Comments, Comment or Ping
primoa1970
It’s the place outside of the walls of Jerusalem where garbage used to be burned.
I’m assuming it means Place of burning
Jesus likened hell to there and said it would be a place Of weeping gnashing of teeth
Nov 10th, 2008
Kimon
The word might have a Greek origin but itself means nothing in Greek.
Nov 13th, 2008
xifomaxos1673
There is not such a word in Greek and surely there is not at the chapters you are refering.
Nov 14th, 2008
Outraged
It is the description Jesus used. It was a constantly burning trash heap outside the City, covered in carcases, vermin, flies, and maggots. He said it was unquenchable, and undying.
There is a good article in Wikipedia about Gehenna.
Nov 15th, 2008
trolling_for_fundies
It was a place where they used to burn garbage.
What Jesus actually said and what it is translated as nowadays is likely very mucked up; especially when you filter it through the various councils along the way.
Nov 18th, 2008
oldguy63
Most have it right, the garbge dump. The valley on the west side of Jerusalem is the Hinnon Valley, so in Greek the Valley of Hinnon is shorened to GeHenna, simple as that.
Nov 21st, 2008
sunpekes
Gehenna was a very literal dump. All trash was hauled there to be burned including the dead bodies no one wanted to bury.
It was the custom of the people to dispose of all trash and for a long time this method filled the cities needs.
It has been done away with now in favor of practices such as we now used, machines digging an burying.
Hell, is in the bible as the common grave of mankind, and thus, the confusion of the pastors who were ignorant of Gehenna’s use.
Nov 21st, 2008
X Angel
it means nothing in Greek because it’s not a Greek word
it’s Hebrew and the original word is Gehennom
it was a place outside Jerusalem , they used it to burn garbage
Jesus did not mean , when he used the word , a place for people to burn in , but he meant eternal pain
Mr. Muhammad , the false prophet of the false God Allah , borrowed the word from Christianity without even thinking about the original meaning of it
and Gehenna became jahannam in Arabic
or hell in English
Nov 23rd, 2008
Theresa B
Gehenna (or Gehenom or Gehinom), in Jewish eschatology, is a fiery place where the wicked are punished after they die or on Judgment Day. Gehenna also appears in the New Testament and early Christian writing, and appears in Islam as Jahannam.
The word traces to Greek, ultimately from Hebrew: ??(?)-?????? Gêhinnôm (also Guy ben-Hinnom (Hebrew: ??? ?? ??????) meaning the Valley of Hinnom’s son. The valley forms the southern border of ancient Jerusalem and stretches from the foot of Mt. Zion, eastward, to the Kidron Valley. It is first mentioned in Joshua 15:8. Originally it referred to a garbage dump in a deep narrow valley right outside the walls of Jerusalem (in modern-day Israel) where fires were kept burning to consume the refuse and keep down the stench. It is also the location where bodies of executed criminals, or individuals denied a proper burial, would be dumped. In addition, this valley was frequently not controlled by the Jewish authority within the city walls; it is traditionally held that this valley was used as a place of religious child-sacrifice to Moloch by the Canaanites outside the city.
Nov 27th, 2008
wannaknow
Sorry that this is so long, but after reading some of the other answers, I wanted to include all of this.
Ge·hen?na) [Gr. form of the Heb. Geh Hin·nom?, “Valley of Hinnom”].
This name appears 12 times in the Christian Greek Scriptures, and whereas many translators take the liberty to render it by the word “hell,” a number of modern translations transliterate the word from the Greek ge?en·na.—Mt 5:22, Ro, Mo, ED, NW, BC (Spanish), NC (Spanish), also the footnotes of Da and RS.
The deep, narrow Valley of Hinnom, later known by this Greek name, lay to the S and SW of ancient Jerusalem and is the modern-day Wadi er-Rababi (Ge Ben Hinnom). (Jos 15:8; 18:16; Jer 19:2, 6; see HINNOM, VALLEY OF.) Judean Kings Ahaz and Manasseh engaged in idolatrous worship there, which included the making of human sacrifices by fire to Baal. (2Ch 28:1, 3; 33:1, 6; Jer 7:31, 32; 32:35) Later, to prevent such activities there in the future, faithful King Josiah had the place of idolatrous worship polluted, particularly the section called Topheth.—2Ki 23:10.
No Symbol of Everlasting Torment. Jesus Christ associated fire with Gehenna (Mt 5:22; 18:9; Mr 9:47, 48), as did the disciple James, the only Biblical writer besides Matthew, Mark, and Luke to use the word. (Jas 3:6) Some commentators endeavor to link such fiery characteristic of Gehenna with the burning of human sacrifices that was carried on prior to Josiah’s reign and, on this basis, hold that Gehenna was used by Jesus as a symbol of everlasting torment. However, since Jehovah 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” (Jer 7:31; 32:35), 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 may 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. (Jer 7:32, 33; 19:2, 6, 7, 10, 11) Thus, at Jeremiah 31:40 the reference to “the low plain of the carcasses and of the fatty ashes” is generally accepted as designating the Valley of Hinnom, and a gate known as “the Gate of the Ash-heaps” evidently opened out onto the eastern extremity of the valley at its juncture with the ravine of the Kidron. (Ne 3:13, 14) It seems obvious that such “carcasses” and “fatty ashes” are not related to the human sacrifices made there under Ahaz and Manasseh, since any bodies so offered would doubtless be viewed by the idolaters as “sacred” and would not be left lying in the valley.
Therefore, the Biblical evidence concerning Gehenna generally parallels the traditional view presented by rabbinic and other sources. That view is that the Valley of Hinnom was used as a place for the disposal of waste matter from the city of Jerusalem. (At Mt 5:30 Ph renders ge?en·na as “rubbish heap.”) Concerning “Gehinnom,” the Jewish commentator David Kimhi (1160-1235?), in his comment on Psalm 27:13, gives the following historical information: “And it is a place in the land adjoining Jerusalem, and it is a loathsome place, and they throw there unclean things and carcasses. Also there was a continual fire there to burn the unclean things and the bones of the carcasses. Hence, the judgment of the wicked ones is called parabolically Gehinnom.”
Symbolic of Complete Destruction. 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. (Mt 10:28; Lu 12:4, 5) The scribes and Pharisees as a wicked class were denounced as ‘subjects for Gehenna.’ (Mt 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.—Mt 18:9; Mr 9:43-47; Col 3:5; compare Mt 5:27-30.
Jesus also apparently alluded to Isaiah 66:24 in describing Gehenna as a place “where their maggot does not die and the fire is not put out.” (Mr 9:47, 48) That the symbolic picture here is not one of torture but, rather, of complete destruction is evident from the fact that the Isaiah text dealt, not with persons who were alive, but with “the carcasses of the men that were transgressing” against God. If, as the available evidence indicates, the Valley of Hinnom was a place for the disposal of garbage and carcasses, fire, perhaps increased in intensity by the addition of sulfur (compare Isa 30:33), would be the only suitable means to eliminate such refuse. Where the fire did not reach, worms, or maggots, would breed, consuming anything not destroyed by the fire. On this basis, Jesus’ words would mean that the destructive effect of God’s adverse judgment would not cease until complete destruction was attained.
Figurative Use. The disciple James’ use of the word “Gehenna” shows that an unruly tongue is itself a world of unrighteousness and that one’s whole round of living can be affected by fiery words that defile the speaker’s body. The tongue of such a one, “full of death-dealing poison” and so giving evidence of a bad heart condition, can cause the user to be sentenced by God to go to the symbolic Gehenna.—Jas 3:6, 8; compare Mt 12:37; Ps 5:9; 140:3; Ro 3:13.
The Biblical use of Gehenna as a symbol corresponds to that of “the lake of fire” in the book of Revelation.—Re 20:14, 15; see LAKE OF FIRE.
Nov 29th, 2008
pugwashjw
Gehenna = The Lake of fire.
Revelation 20;14
Hades and death [ Hades = Hell] are to be cast into it.
so Gehenna cannot be hell.
In the Bible, Hell is always associated with death.
so Hell is man’s grave.
Rev. 21;4. no death no sickness.
So no death = no grave.
Dec 1st, 2008
Melanie Mue
It’s originally Hebrew.
In one of prophetic books (I can’t remember which one, but it may be Isaiah or Ezekiel), there’s a reference to bodies being left to rot in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, or in Hebrew, Gei-Ben-Hinnom. The word eventually became gehinnom, and was used to mean hell.
The early Christians were Jews, so presumably they’d have used ‘gehinnom’ for hell, too. I don’t know why in Greek they dropped the final M.
Dec 4th, 2008
Reply to “WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THE GREEK WORD GEHENNA AND WHY DO SOME TRANSLATIONS RENDER THE WORD AS HELL ?”