I had a Catholic (wink wink) friend tell me that the idea of hell is based on a mistranslation. That the word in the Bible for hell is Gehenna, which was referring to an area outside of Jerusalem. He said the idea that hell was a literal place that dead people went is incorrect.
I haven’t been able to find this particular complaint anywhere else online and wonder if anyone knows more about this topic. I don’t know much of anything about translations and such.
The word
gehenna (Greek: γέεννα) comes from the Hebrew
ḡê’ Hinnōm ‘Valley of Hinnom’, originally denoting one of the two principal valleys surrounding the Old City of Jerusalem. The “Valley of (the son/s of) Hinnom,” (Joshua 15:18; 18:6; 2 Kings 23:10; 2 Chronicles 28:3, 33:6; Jeremiah 7:31; 19:2-6, 11; 32:35; Nehemiah 11:30) as it was called in the Old Testament, is infamous because it is the location where Israelites performed worship of other deities like Moloch. In the gospels, Gehenna is qualified twice by “of fire” (Matthew 5:22; 18:9) and once paralleled by “the unquenchable fire” (Mark 9:43); all in all, while various vivid images are used to describe Gehenna, the image of fire is predominant.
The later view of Gehenna as a place of punishment, especially by fire, is anticipated in a reference in Isaiah to a large
tōfeṯ (“burning place”) in Jerusalem, said to be lit by God as punishment for the Assyrians and their king (Isaiah 30:33). Isaiah’s contemporary king Ahaz of Judah (reigned ca. 735/31-715 BC?) is said to have sacrificed his sons in the
tōfeṯ of Hinnom Valley (2 Chronicles 28:3), and also his grandson Manasseh (reigned ca. 687-642 BC) according to 2 Chronicles 33:6. Josiah (ca. 640-609 BC), during his cultic reforms, is said to have “defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to Molech” (2 Kings 23:10), although this was apparently not entirely successful, since somewhat later Jeremiah was still attacking the
tōfeṯ and prophesied that the valley would become a general burial place (7:31; 19:11; 32:35).
Jewish apocalypticism would later adopt the template of the Valley of Hinnom and its “burning place” (perhaps under influence by parallelism with Persian ideas of a judgment in fire) for a place of punishment in an eschatological milieu. The
book of Enoch (ca. 4th/3rd to 1st century BC) describes a certain vision by Enoch into which the faithful Jews, gathered on the holy mountain, would look down upon a certain ravine to see the righteous judgment and eternal punishment of the damned dwelling there (1 Enoch 26:4; 27:2-3):
And I went from thence to the middle of the earth, and I saw a blessed place ⌈in which there were trees⌉ with branches abiding and blooming [of a dismembered tree]. And there I saw a holy mountain, ⌈⌈and⌉⌉ underneath the mountain to the east there was a stream and it flowed towards the south. And I saw towards the east another mountain higher than this, and between them a deep and narrow ravine: in it also ran a stream ⌈underneath⌉ the mountain. And to the west thereof there was another mountain, lower than the former and of small elevation, and a ravine ⌈deep and dry⌉ between them: and another deep and dry ravine was at the extremities of the three ⌈mountains⌉.And all the ravines were deep ⌈⌈and narrow⌉⌉, (being formed) of hard rock, and trees were not planted upon them. And I marveled ⌈⌈at the rocks, and I marveled⌉⌉ at the ravine, yea, I marveled very much.
Then said I: ‘For what object is this blessed land, which is entirely filled with trees, and this accursed valley ⌈⌈between⌉⌉?’ ⌈⌈Then Uriel, one of the holy angels who was with me, answered and said:
'This⌉⌉ accursed valley is for those who are accursed for ever: Here shall all ⌈the accursed⌉ be gathered together who utter with their lips against the Lord unseemly words and of His glory speak hard things.
(Ethiopian:
Here shall they be gathered together, and here shall be their place of judgement. In the last days there shall be upon them the spectacle of righteous judgement in the presence of the righteous for ever: here shall the merciful bless the Lord of glory, the Eternal King.)
(Greek:
Here shall they be gathered together, and here shall be the place of their habitation. In the last times, in the days of the true judgement in the presence of the righteous for ever: here shall the godly bless the Lord of Glory, the Eternal King.)
In the days of judgement over the former, they shall bless Him for the mercy in accordance with which He has assigned them (their lot).’ Then I blessed the Lord of Glory and set forth His ⌈glory⌉ and lauded Him gloriously.
The locales are not named, but since the details of the picture somewhat evoke the topography of Jerusalem, the valley in question must have been meant as the Hinnom Valley. The joining of the eschatological perspective to Jerusalem then led to an explicit use of the name Gehenna for that place of punishment, although surviving references calling that place of punishment by that name from the Second Temple period are very rare. (The gospels are in fact one of the first literary evidence to this.)
).