Topical Studies
Gehenna
(From Forerunner Commentary)
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In most of the passages of the New Testament where we see the word "hell," the original Greek word is not gehenna. Most often it is hades—which does not refer to fire at all, but to a grave—a hole in the ground. Yet the translators have confused and obliterated the two entirely separate meanings of these words by indiscriminately rendering them both by the same English word "hell."
What Is Hell?
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Psalms 55:15 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
Notice what A Dictionary of the Bible, edited by James Hastings, says about the use of the word "hell" in the Old and New Testaments. Keep in mind, as you read this, that the Old Testament was originally written in the Hebrew language, and that the New Testament was originally written in the Greek language. In our Authorized Version the word "hell" is unfortunately used as the rendering of three distinct words, with different ideas [or meanings]. It represents, 1) the sheol of the Hebrew Old Testament, and the hades in the New Testament. . . . It is now an entirely misleading rendering, especially in the New Testament passages. The English revisers, therefore, have substituted hades [going back to the original Greek word] for "hell" in the New Testament. . . . In the American revision the word "hell" is entirely discarded in this connection. . . . The word "hell" is used 2) as equivalent to [the Greek word] tartaros (II Peter 2:4) . . . and, 3) . . . as the equivalent of [the Greek word] gehenna. . . . So we see that the real meanings of three different Greek words—hades (equivalent to the Hebrew sheol of the Old Testament), tartaros, and gehenna—have been confused with each other because translators have attempted to make the one English word "hell" cover the definitions of all three words! No wonder confusion has reigned in the minds of millions. What do these words really mean? The original Old Testament Hebrew word sheol and the New Testament Greek word hades mean the same thing—simply the grave. These original words have been translated "grave" in many places in the Bible. "Hell" is an old English word, and over 350 years ago when the Authorized Version was translated, the people of England commonly talked of "putting their potatoes in hell for the winter"—a good way of preserving potatoes—for the word then meant merely a hole in the ground which was covered up—a dark and silent place—a grave! But pagan teachings gaining popular acceptance have caused people to misapply the old English word "hell" to the lurid imaginations of Dante. The second Greek word, tartaros, which has also been translated into the English word "hell," occurs only once in the New Testament (II Peter 2:4), and does not refer to humans, but to the restrained condition of fallen angels. Its meaning, translated into English, is "darkness of the material universe," or "dark abyss," or "prison." But what about gehenna? This Greek word, as all authorities admit, is derived from the name of the narrow, rocky Valley of Hinnom which lay just outside Jerusalem. It was the place where refuse was constantly burned up. Trash, filth, and the dead bodies of animals and despised criminals were thrown into the fires of gehenna, or the Valley of Hinnom. Ordinarily, everything thrown into this valley was destroyed by fire—completely burned up. Therefore, Christ used gehenna to picture the terrible fate of unrepentant sinners!
What Is Hell?
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Matthew 10:27-28 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
It is not unreasonable that we should fear God. Jesus Christ Himself says that we are to fear Him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell. Why? He is the only One who can revoke the judgment of Gehenna fire. The wages of sin is death in Gehenna fire. If we want to escape this punishment, we can see that it is closely connected to whether or not we actually fear God. Why? What does the fear of God have to do with escaping a judgment that would otherwise take us into the Lake of Fire? This series of verses in Matthew 10 contains some encouragement, indicating that, if one really fears God, then there is no need to be fearful of others. Proverbs 29:25 plainly tells us, "The fear of man is a snare." This is an attitude in which we do not want to be entrapped. It is obvious, in the context of Matthew 10:27, that He is talking about fear in the sense of "dread." We are not to fear men because the worst that they can do does not even begin to match the worst that God can do! The basis for this is what God is: omnipotent and omniscient, and in Him are the issues of life and death! The Christian life is our calling; this is our only chance for salvation. We have been personally chosen by God. The elect are an insignificant number, and we are even more insignificant personally. Yet, He has given us this calling. The world population is somewhere in the vicinity of six billion people, and out of this huge number are a miniscule few who are truly converted and have been given the Spirit of God. This is not something that we want to pass up! The fear of God is crucial to our salvation!
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Fear of God
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Matthew 25:41 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
The word "everlasting" is aionion in the Greek. Aionion comes from the root aion which often means "age." In this case, the correct translation into the English language should be "age-lasting fire." This "Lake of Fire" is going to be burning all during the Millennium—the "age" of Christ's rule. During the Millennial reign of Christ and His saints, the Valley of Hinnom will once more be kept perpetually burning—and the incorrigibly wicked ones who set their will to persist in rebellion against God's laws will be thrown into this fire as a stern witness to all the rest of the world (Isaiah 66:24)!
What Is Hell?
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Mark 9:43 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
Here Jesus plainly states that the unrighteous will be punished by being put into "hell," which He describes as a fire that will not be quenched (see also Jeremiah 17:27). In this scripture, the word "hell" is translated from the Greek Gehenna. This word means "Valley of Hinnom," a valley on the south side of Jerusalem where refuse was continually burned. Jesus used this area as a type of the place where the wicked will receive their final punishment.
Earl L. Henn (1934-1997)
Basic Doctrines: The Fate of the Wicked
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Mark 9:43 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
"Hell" is an English word. When Mark recorded Christ's words, he wrote them in the Greek language. The Greek word translated "hell," which Mark was inspired to write down, is gehenna. Since in this verse Christ says the sinner is "to go into hell, into the fire," it follows that those who go to gehenna will receive punishment by fire.
What Is Hell?
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Mark 9:45 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
Mark wrote down the same Greek word gehenna here in verse 45 that he used in verse 43. The translators of the Authorized or King James Version of the Bible of AD 1611 selected the English word "hell" to represent this Greek word gehenna.
What Is Hell?
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Luke 12:5 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
If one were to look up the original Creek word translated here into the English word "hell," he would find it is gehenna. Gehenna, then, is plainly a place where bodies are thrown and, as Christ indicated, destroyed by fire!
What Is Hell?
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Luke 16:19-31 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
In the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man, the latter, a heartless person, speaks to Lazarus while being "tormented in this flame." This alludes to the wicked being cremated when God burns up the earth, turning it into the final Gehenna, called elsewhere "the Lake of Fire." The rich man is raised out of his grave at the end of God's plan for humanity on earth. Because the dead know nothing, he does not realize the passage of time, but he certainly realizes that he has failed to receive salvation. He sees "a great gulf fixed" between him and those who are with Abraham in the Kingdom of God. At this point, it is impossible for anyone to change his fate.
Martin G. Collins
Basic Doctrines: The Third Resurrection
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Luke 16:19-31 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
In Luke 16:19-31 appears the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man, which Jesus spoke to those who would not repent. Jesus uses it to help them understand His earlier words: "Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out" (Luke 13:27-28). In the parable, the rich man—representing all workers of iniquity, all sinners—illustrates what is to befall the unrepentant. The wicked will be raised to physical life in their resurrection, and then, immediately knowing that they are doomed, they will be cast into the Lake of Fire designed by God to consume them. The Lake of Fire will burn them up completely and finally. Jesus pictures the rich man crying out for help because of his mental and physical anguish at this time, but he is not burning eternally in hell fire. He is soon consumed while Lazarus the beggar dwells safely in immortality.
Martin G. Collins
Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man (Part One)
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Luke 16:19-31 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
In the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man (Luke 16:19-31), Jesus illustrates death—total unconsciousness—as being followed by a resurrection from the dead and a restoration to consciousness. Secondly, Jesus describes the second death, eternal death, in the Lake of Fire that will totally destroy the wicked. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), not endless torment. Jesus shows that the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear the voice of God and come forth—those who have lived righteously to the resurrection of life, and those who have lived wickedly (including the rich man) to the resurrection of condemnation (John 5:28-29). We need to understand how vital it is to hear and submit to God's voice now.
Martin G. Collins
Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man (Part Two)
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Luke 16:22-23 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
Jesus does not say the rich man is taken immediately to an eternally burning hell. He says the rich man dies and is buried. People are buried in a grave and covered with earth. Hades (verse 23) is the Greek word for "grave." The King James Version generically translates hades into "hell," as it also does the Greek words tartarus (the present condition of darkness and restraint of the fallen angels or demons) and gehenna (a place at the bottom of a high ledge at the south end of Jerusalem where garbage and dead bodies were dumped and burned). Other Bible translations correctly distinguish the different meaning in these words. The rich man went to the same kind of place Jesus did when He died—"hell" (KJV) or "Hades" (NKJV)—but the Father did not leave Him there (Acts 2:31-32). Daniel 12:2 speaks of those who will be resurrected to eternal life (the just) and of those who will be resurrected to damnation or judgment (the unjust). In the parable, Jesus speaks of two different, separate resurrections (John 5:28-29; Acts 24:15; Revelation 20:4-5, 11-12). Jesus pictures the rich man as wicked and lost, but even he will open his eyes and rise from his grave after the Millennium. Having passed up his opportunity for immortality by choosing this world's temporary, material riches and pleasures rather than eternal, spiritual riches, he is without hope, doomed to perish in the Lake of Fire. The Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man shows the resurrection from the dead, not an instantaneous going to heaven or hell. It is a resurrection from death, not from life. It depicts mortals who die and are dead, not immortals who never lose consciousness and live forever under punishment in a fiery hell. Jesus describes bringing back to life one who was dead, who had no conscious realization of the lapse of centuries and millennia since his death.
Martin G. Collins
Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man (Part One)
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Luke 16:23-25 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
The flame he sees and feels upon his resurrection is the ultimate fate of the wicked: being burned up—destroyed—in Gehenna fire, the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:14-15). The Lake of Fire represents the second death from which there is no return to life. This death is final and permanent; it is the absence of life for all eternity. It is eternal punishment, not eternal punishing. When the rich man opens his eyes in the resurrection, he sees the flame of fire that is about to destroy him permanently, and it paralyzes him with terror, making his mouth go dry. He complains that the flame is tormenting him. In these verses, the Greek word translated "tormented," odunomai, means "to cause pain; to pain, distress; pain of body, but also pain of mind, grief, distress." This rich man, resurrected to physical life, sees this Lake of Fire and realizes the terrible doom he is about to face. Sobbing, he suffers mental anguish and despair and begs for a little water from the tip of Lazarus' finger to cool his tongue. Nevertheless, he must reap what he sowed—death!
Martin G. Collins
Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man (Part Two)
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Jude 1:7 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
The expression "eternal fire" used in Jude 7 means a fire whose results are permanent or everlasting—obviously not a fire that burns forever! Sodom and Gomorrah were utterly destroyed centuries ago (Genesis 19:24)—they are not burning today. The fires which burned these cities simply died out after consuming all combustible material. These scriptures prove the "fire that shall not be quenched" will not torment people forever and ever! Christ often referred to the fires that burned in the Valley of Hinnom at the edge of Jerusalem to illustrate the final "hell fire" or gehenna which is to consume the wicked. But did those fires ever go out? The fact is, they were kept burning as long as there was refuse to burn. Then they burned themselves out! They were never quenched or put out prematurely by anyone! The flames merely died out when they had nothing more to consume. Even so it will be with the FINAL gehenna fire. It will be unquenched—but it will finally burn itself out!
What Is Hell?
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Revelation 20:10 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
Before the explosion of modern translations, the final sentence of Revelation 20:10 roused no one's skepticism. But the newer versions bring out the fact that the verb here (basanisthesontai) is plural and is correctly rendered "they will be tormented." Who are "they"? Does this indeed include the Beast and False Prophet? Does God torment the wicked eternally? There are two ways to explain these questions: 1) The Bible denies any idea of men having an innate immortality. These wicked leaders of men in the last days will die and burn to ashes soon after being thrust into the Lake of Fire, their souls and bodies destroyed by Him who is able to do this in Gehenna fire (Matthew 10:28). This fact would exclude any human from being described as "tormented day and night forever and ever." The only group left is the fallen angels—Satan and his demons. Jesus says in Luke 20:36, "Nor can [a resurrected saint] die anymore, for they are equal to the angels." Created spirit beings, angels, cannot die! Earlier, Satan was bound in the bottomless pit, but after his subsequent rebellion, God decides that eternal torment in the Lake of Fire is a just punishment for one so evil. If men choose not to repent, God can mercifully snuff out their existence. Fallen angels, however, must live eternally with the consequences of their sins. But, one may counter, "the devil" in Revelation 20:10 is singular, and "they will be tormented" is plural. How is this reconciled? In this case, "the devil" is used in a figure of speech called metonymy. Technically, it is "the use of the name of one thing for that of another of which it is an attribute or with which it is associated." More simply, one part of a thing represents the whole. Thus, "the devil" represents in himself all of the group we call demons, devils, fallen angels, angels that sinned, etc. A parallel verse in Matthew 25:41 says that sinners will be cast into "the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels." This shows that the Lake of Fire's primary purpose is for the eternal torment of demons, but it will also be used as the means of execution for the wicked among humans. While men will be completely annihilated, the unkillable demons will simply suffer. 2) If we understand "they will be tormented" to include the Beast and the False Prophet, we must explain the phrase "forever and ever" (eis tous aionas ton aionon). Literally, this means "to the ages of the ages," and would seem to imply perpetuity. However, we must be careful with the word aion. Its range of meaning runs from "a space or period of time" to "a lifetime" to "an age" to "eternity." As in all such cases, the context must give the sense. Having rejected the immortality of the soul, we have no recourse but to understand aion here in the sense of "as long as conditions exist" or "as long as they live." Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words concurs: AION . . . signifies a period of indefinite duration, or time viewed in relation to what takes place in the period. . . . The phrases containing this word should not be rendered literally, but consistently with its sense of indefinite duration. (p. 43) Thus, the Beast and False Prophet will be tormented forever until they die, probably within a few minutes or a few hours. The demons, however, not able to die, will suffer torment without end, receiving a cruel fate that is just payment for their deceptions and murders throughout history.
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Eternal Torment?
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Revelation 20:10 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
What effect does fire have upon a spirit? It does not say exactly here, but does this mean that God, who created these spirit beings, also knows a way to destroy them utterly? Perhaps. In the Bible, fire is pictured as the final curse. It is used in the sense of being the symbol of complete purging, so that when something passes through fire, it is then clean. It is interesting to think about the possible ramifications of this verse.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Image and Likeness of God (Part 3)
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Revelation 20:10 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
Satan will be cast into the same conflagration that will destroy all incorrigible mortals. But since he is a spirit being, he will not be destroyed by the flames (see Luke 20:36). Notice that Satan himself will be in "hell fire." He will not play the role of torturing people as he is often represented by the doctrines of this world. Revelation 20:10 shows Satan himself is to be tormented unto the ages of the ages—"forever and ever"! His torment will last forever, but not this fire. It will last only as long as combustible material remains to be consumed. Satan's torment, however, will continue forever as a mental anguish resulting from seeing all that he has striven toward, worked for, plotted for, burned up as the earth is purified by fire!
What Is Hell?
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Revelation 21:8 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
All who stubbornly refuse to repent and persist in breaking God's commandments ultimately find themselves in a lake of "fire and brimstone." The fate of the wicked is gehenna fire (Matthew 7:15-19; 13:30; 23:33; Hebrews 10:26-27). So gehenna and the Lake of Fire are the same. A very large fire would have the appearance of a fiery lake, hence its description. Mortals naturally die once because we just "wear out" (Hebrews 9:27). But if anyone dies the second death, that individual will have been judged by God to be guilty of persistent disobedience and incorrigible rebellion. The second death will be for all eternity!
What Is Hell?
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