GEHENNA (Gk. riEvva, or reivva, Geenna). A term used in the New Testament as a desig nation of the place of punishment of the wicked after death. The word is a transliteration of the Aramaic Gehennam or Gehinnam, which is an equivalent of the Hebrew Ge Hinnom. (On the origin of this name, see HiNisrom.) In the New Testament it never refers to the valley south of Jerusalem. It occurs twelve times. Outside of the Synoptic Gospels it is found only in James iii. 6, where the tongue is said to be set on fire by Gehenna. In Luke it is used only once—viz. xii. 5, where God is said to have the power of casting into Gehenna after He has killed. In the corresponding passage in Matthew (x. 28) the disciples are warned to fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. The only passage in Mark that has the word is ix. 43-47, where it occurs three times, the sacrifice of a head, a foot, or an eye being recommended in preference to Gehenna (cf. Matt. v. 29, 30; xviii. 8, 9). In addition to the parallels to the passages quoted from Mark and Luke, Matthew records three sayings of Jesus, in which He de clares that the man who says more, i.e. 'thou fool,' is liable to the Gehenna of fire (v. 22) ; that the Pharisees make their proselyte twice as much a son of Gehenna as they are themselves (xxiii. 15) ; and that the Pharisees are a brood of vipers not likely to escape the judgment of Gehenna (xxiii. 33). Whether Jesus actually used the language ascribed to Him upon these occasions, and, if so. what meaning He attached to the term, are questions that have been serious ly discussed without any definite agreement hav ing been reached. It will be noted that all of these statements are found only in Matthew; that xxiii. 23-33 seems to be a duplicate of the
words of John the Baptist; and that Luke (xvii. 1, 2) records the saying as to offenses that must come, without the amplifications of Matthew and Mark. It is also manifest that in some instances the word is used in a figurative sense. The counsel to sacrifice hand, foot, or eye can certain ly not be taken literally, and there is no valid reason for supposing that Gehenna is, in the same connection, to be understood more literal ly. Manifestly Jesus cannot have intended to draw such a distinction between an angry dis position and a contemptuous epithet like raka, `empty head,' on the one hand, and a similar epithet, more, 'fool,' on the other hand, as to affix temporal penalties for the former and eter nal punishment for the second. As He cannot have desired the local courts to take cognizance of the feelings of a man's heart, or the supreme court to make a capital case of a hasty word, but must have used beth din, and Sanhedrin figuratively, so He is likely to have employed Gehenna in a similar way. 'Son of Hell' as a characterization of a hypocrite and formalist is also to be understood as a figure of speech. But in Matt. x. 28 (Luke xii. 5) Gehenna is evidently meant to be taken more literally, of man's fate after death. The most natural interpretation of this passage is that the destruction of both body and soul in Gehenna means complete cessa tion of being. But the evangelical tradition scarcely permits any definite conclusions on this point. See HADES; HELL.