GEHENNA
While nearly all "orthodox" authorities of
eminence concede that Sheol and Hadees do not denote a place of torment in
the future world, most of those who accept the doctrine of endless torment
claim that Gehenna does convey that meaning.
Campbell, in his "Four Gospels," says: "That
Gehenna is employed in the New Testament, to denote the place of future
punishment, prepared for the devil and his angels, is indisputable. This
is the sense, if I mistake not, in which Gehenna is always to be
understood in the New Testament, where it occurs just twelve times. It is
a word peculiar to the Jews, and was employed by them some time before the
coming of Christ, to denote that part of Sheol which was the habitation of
the wicked after death. This is proved by the fact of its familiar use in
the New Testament, and by the fact of its being found in the Apocrypha
books and Jewish Targunis, some of which were written before the time of
our Savior."
But no such force resides in the word, nor is
there a scintilla of evidence that it ever conveyed such an idea until
many years after Christ. It is not found in the Apocrypha, Campbell
mistakes.
Stuart says (Exeg. Ess.); "It is admitted
that the Jews of a later date used the word Gehenna to denote Tartarus,
that is, the place of infernal punishment."
In the second century Clemens Alexandrinus
says: "Does not Plato acknowledge both the rivers of fire, and that
profound depth of the earth which the barbarians call Gehenna? Does he not
mention prophetically, Tartarus, Cocytus, Acheron, the Phlegethon of fire,
and certain other places of punishment, which lead to correction and
discipline?" Univ. Ex.
But an examination of the Bible use of the
term will show us that the popular view is obtained by injecting the word
with pagan superstition. Its origin and the first references to it in the
Old Testament, are well stated by eminent critics and exegetes.
Says Campbell: "The word Gehenna is derived,
as all agree, from the Hebrew words ge hinnom; which, in process of time,
passing into other languages, assumed diverse forms; e.g., Chaldee
Gehennom, Arabic Gahannam, Greek Gehenna.
The valley of Hinnom is part of the pleasant
wadi or valley, which bounds Jerusalem on the south. Josh. 15: 8; 18: 6.
Here, in ancient times and under some of the idolatrous kings, the worship
of Moloch, the horrid idol-god of the Ammonites, was practiced. To this
idol, children were offered in sacrifice. II Kings 23: 10; Ezek. 23: 37,
39; II Chron. 28: 3; Lev. 28: 21; 20: 2. If we may credit the Rabbins, the
head of the idol was like that of an ox; while the rest of the body
resembled that of a man. It was hollow within; and being heated by fire,
children were laid in its arms and were literally roasted alive. We cannot
wonder, then at the severe terms in which the worship of Moloch is
everywhere denounced in the Scriptures. Nor can we wonder that the place
itself should have been called Tophet, i.e., abomination, detestation,
(from toph, to vomit with loathing)." Jer. 8: 32; 19: 6; II Kings 23: 10;
Ezek. 23: 36, 39.
"After these sacrifices had ceased, the place
was desecrated, and made one of loathing and horror. The pious king Josiah
caused it to be polluted, i.e., he caused to be carried there the filth of
the city of Jerusalem. It would seem that the custom of desecrating this
place thus happily begun, was continued in after ages down to the period
when our Savior was on earth. Perpetual fires were kept up in order to
consume the offal which was deposited there. And as the same offal would
breed worms, (for so all putrefying meat does of course), hence came the
expression, 'Where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.' "
Stuart's Exegetical Ess., pp. 140-141.
"Gehenna, originally a Hebrew word, which
signifies the valley of Hinnom, is composed of the common noun, Gee,
valley, and the proper name Hinnom, the owner of this valley. The valley
of the sons of Hinnom was a delightful vale, planted with trees, watered
by fountains, and lying near Jerusalem, on the south-east, by the brook
Kedron. Here the Jews placed that brazen image of Moloch, which had the
face of a calf, and extended its hands as those of a man. It is said, on
the authority of the ancient Rabbins, that, to this image, the idolatrous
Jews were wont not only to sacrifice doves, pigeons, lambs, rams, calves
and bulls, but even to offer their children. I Kings 9: 7; II Kings 15: 3,
4. In the prophecy of Jeremiah, (Ch. 7: 31), this valley is called Tophet,
from Toph, a drum; because the administrators in these horrid rites, beat
drums, lest the cries and shrieks of the infants who were burned, should
be heard by the assembly. At length, these nefarious practices were
abolished by Josiah, and the Jews brought back to the pure worship of God.
II Kings 23: 10. After this, they held the
place in such abomination, it is said, that they cast into it all kinds of
filth, together with the carcasses of beasts, and the unburied bodies of
criminals who had been executed. Continual fires were necessary, in order
to consume these, lest the putrefaction should infect the air; and there
were always worms feeding on the remaining relics. Hence it came, that any
severe punishment, especially a shameful kind of death, was denominated
Gehenna." Schleusner.
As we trace the history of the locality as it
occurs in the Old Testament we learn that it should never have been
translated by the word Hell. It is a proper name of a well-known locality,
and ought to have stood Gehenna, as it does in the French Bible, in
Newcome's and Wakefield's translations. In the Improved Version, Emphatic
Diaglott, etc. Babylon might have been translated Hell with as much
propriety as Gehenna. It is fully described in numerous passages in the
Old Testament, and is exactly located.
"And the border went up by the valley of the
son of Hinnom unto the south side of the Jebusite; the same is Jerusalem,
and the border went up to the top of the mountain that lieth before the
valley of Hinnom westward." Joshua 15: 8. "And he (Josiah) defiled Tophet,
which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make
his son or daughter to pass through the fire to Moloch." II Kings 23: 10.
"Moreover, he (Ahaz) burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and
burnt his children in the fire, after the abominations of the heathen." II
Chron. 28: 3. "And they (the children of Judah) have built the high places
of Tophet which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons
and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came
it into my heart. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that
it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom,
but the valley of slaughter; for they shall bury in Tophet till there be
no place." Jer. 7: 31, 32. "And go forth into the valley of the son of
Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the
words that I shall tell thee. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the
Lord, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of
the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter." Jer 19: 2, 6.
These and other passages show that Gehenna
was a well-known valley, near Jerusalem, in which the Jews in their
idolatrous days had sacrificed their children to the idol Moloch, in
consequence of which it was condemned to receive the offal and refuse and
sewage of the city, and into which the bodies of malefactors were cast and
where to destroy the odor and pestilential influences, continual fires
were kept burning. Here fire, smoke, worms bred by the corruption, and
other repulsive features, rendered the place a horrible one, in the eyes
of the Jews. It was locality with which they were as well acquainted as
they were with any place in or around the city. The valley was sometimes
called Tophet, according to Schleusner, from Toph, a drum, because drums
were beat during the idolatrous rites, but Adam Clarke says in consequence
of the fact that Moloch was hollow, and heated, and children were placed
in its arms, and burn to death; the word Tophet he says, meaning fire
stove; but Prof. Stuart thinks the name derived from "Toph, to vomit the
loathing." After these horrible practices, King Josiah polluted the place
and rendered it repulsive.
"Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the
Lord, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of
Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter; for they shall bury in Tophet till
there be no place. And the carcasses of this people shall be meat for the
fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray
them away. Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from
the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness,
the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land
shall be desolate." Jer. 7: 32-34. "At that time, saith the Lord, they
shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of the
princes, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants
of Jerusalem, out of the graves: and they shall spread them before the
sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and
whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have
sought, and whom they have worshipped; they shall not be gathered, nor be
buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth. And death shall
be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this
evil family, which remain in all the places whither I have driven them,
saith the Lord of hosts. And I will make this city desolate, and a
hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss,
because of all the plagues thereof. And I will cause them to eat the flesh
of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every
one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their
enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them. And they
shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury. Thus will I do
unto this place, saith the Lord, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even
make the city as Tophet: and the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of
the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of
all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host
of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods. Then came
Jeremiah from Tophet, whither the Lord had sent him to prophesy; and he
stood in the court of the Lord's house, and said to all the people: Thus
saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold I will bring upon this
city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against
it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my
words." Jer. 19: 8-15.
These passages show that Gehenna or Tophet
was a horrible locality near Jerusalem, and that to be cast there
literally, was the doom threatened and executed originally. Every
reference is to this world, and to a literal casting into that place.
In Dr. Bailey's English Dictionary, Gehenna
is defined to be "a place in the valley of the tribe of Benjamin, terrible
for two sorts of fire in it, that wherein the Israelites sacrificed their
children to the idol Moloch, and also another kept continually burning to
consume the dead carcasses and filth of Jerusalem."
But in process of time Gehenna came to be an
emblem of the consequences of sin, and to be employed figuratively by the
Jews, to denote those consequences. But always in this world. The Jews
never used it to mean torment after death, until long after Christ. That
the word had not the meaning of post-mortem torment when our Savior used
it, is demonstrable:
Josephus was a Pharisee, and wrote at about
the time of Christ, and expressly says that the Jews at the time
(corrupted from the teaching of Moses) believed in punishment after death,
but he never employs Gehenna to denote the place of punishment. He uses
the word Hadees, which the Jews had then obtained from the heathen, but he
never uses Gehenna, as he would have done, had it possessed that meaning
then. This demonstrates that the word had no such meaning then. In
addition to this neither the Apocrypha, which was written from 280 to 150
years. B. C., nor Philo, ever uses the word. It was first used in the
modern sense of Hell by Justin Martyr, one hundred and fifty years after
Christ.
Dr. Thayer concludes a most thorough excursus
on the word ("Theology, etc.,") thus: "Our inquiry shows that it is
employed in the Old Testament in its literal or geographical sense only,
as the name of the valley lying on the south of Jerusalem-that the
Septuagint proves it retained this meaning at late as B. C. 150--that it
is not found at all in the Apocrypha; neither of Philo, nor in Josephus,
whose writings cover the very times of the Savior and the New Testament,
thus leaving us without a single example of contemporary usage to
determine its meaning at this period-that from A. D. 150-195, we find in
two Greek authors, Justin and Clement of Alexandria, the first resident in
Italy and the last in Egypt that Gehenna began to be used to designate a
place of punishment after death, but not endless punishment since Clement
was a believer in universal restoration-that the first time we find
Gehenna used in this sense in any Jewish writing is near the beginning of
the third century, in the Targum of Jonathan Ben Uzziel, two hundred years
too late to be of any service in the argument-and lastly, that the New
Testament usage shows that while it had not wholly lost its literal sense,
it was also employed in the time of Christ as a symbol of moral corruption
and wickedness; but more especially as a figure of the terrible judgments
of God on the rebellious and sinful nation of the Jews."
The Jewish talmuds and targums use the word
in the sense that the Christian Church has so long used it, though without
attributing endlessness to it, but none of them are probably older than A.
D. 200. The oldest is the targum (translation) of Jonathan Ben Uzziel,
which was written according to the best authorities between A. D. 200 and
A. D. 400.
"Most of the eminent critics now agree, that
it could not have been completed till some time between two and four
hundred years after Christ." Univ. Expos. Vol 2, p. 368. "Neither the
language nor the method of interpretation is the same in all the books. In
the historical works, the text is translated with greater accuracy than
elsewhere; in some of the Prophets, as in Zechariah, the interpretation
has more of the Rabbinical and Talmudical character. From this variety we
may properly infer, that the work is a collection of interpretations of
several learned men made toward the close of the third century, and
containing some of a much older date; for that some parts of it existed as
early as in the second century, appears from the additions which have been
transferred from some Chaldee paraphrase into the Hebrew text, and were
already in the text in the second century." Jahn Int. p. 66. Horne's
Intro. Vol. 2. p. 160.
Dr. T. B. Thayer in his "Theology," says:
"Dr. Jahn assigns it to the end of the third century after Christ;
Eichhorn decides for the fourth century; Bertholdt inclines to the second
or third century, and is confident that it 'cannot have attained its
present complete form, before the end of the second century.' Bauer
coincides generally in these views.
Some critics put the date even as low down as
the seventh or eighth century. See a full discussion of the question in
the Universalist Expositor, Vol. 2, p. 35l-368. See, also, Horne's
Introduction, Vol. 2, 157-163. Justin Martyr. A. D. 150, and Clement of
Alexandria, A. D. 195, both employ Gehenna to designate the place of
future punishment; but the first utters an opinion only of its meaning in
a certain text, and the last was a Universalist and did not, of course,
believe that Gehenna was the place of endless punishment. Augustine, A. D.
400, says Gehenna 'stagnum ignis el sulphuris corporeus ignis erit.' De
Civitate Dei, L. 21. C. 10."
At the time of Christ the Old Testament
existed in Hebrew. The Septuagint translation of it was made between two
hundred and four hundred years before his birth. In both Gehenna is never
used as the name of a place of future punishment. A writer in the
Universalist Expositor remarks, (Vol. 2): "Both the Apocrypha, and the
works of Philo, when compared together, afford circumstantial evidence
that the word cannot have been currently employed, during their age, to
denote a place of future torment. . . . From the few traces which remain
to us of this age, it seems that the idea of future punishment, such as it
was among the Jews, was associated with that of darkeness, and not of
fire; and that among those of Palestine, the misery of the wicked was
supposed to consist rather in privation, than in positive infliction. . .
. But we cannot discover, in Josephus, that either of these sects, the
Pharisees or the Essenes, both of which believed the doctrine of endless
misery, supposed it to be a state of fire, or that the Jews ever alluded
to it by that emblem."
Thus the Apocrypha, B. C. 150-500, Philo
Judaeus A. D. 40, and Josephus, A. D. 70-100, all refer to future
punishment, but none of them use Gehenna to describe it, which they would
have done, being Jews, had the word been then in use with that meaning.
Were it the name of a place of future torment, then, can any one doubt
that it would be found repeatedly in their writings? And does not the fact
that it is never found in their writings demonstrate that it had no such
use then, and if so, does it not follow that Christ used it in no such
sense?
Canon Farrar says of Gehenna (Preface to
"Eternal Hope): "In the Old Testament it is merely the pleasant valley of
Hinnom (Ge Hinnom), subsequently desecrated by idolatry, and especially by
Moloch worship, and defiled by Josiah on this account. (See I Kings 11: 7;
II Kings 23: 10.)(Jer. 7: 31; 19: 10-14; Isa. 30: 33; Tophet). Used
according to Jewish tradition, as the common sewage of the city, the
corpses of the worst criminals were flung into it unburied, and fires were
lit to purify the contaminated air. It then became a word which
secondarily implied (1) the severest judgment which a Jewish court could
pass upon a criminal-the casting forth of his unburied corpse amid the
fires and worms of this polluted valley; and (2) a punishment-which to the
Jews a body never meant an endless punishment beyond the grave. Whatever
may be the meaning of the entire passages in which the word occurs, 'Hell'
must be a complete mistranslation, since it attributes to the term used by
Christ a sense entirely different from that in which it was understood by
our Lord's hearers, and therefore entirely different from the sense in
which he could have used it. Origen says (c. Celsus 6: 25) that Gehenna
denotes (1) the vale of Hinnon; and (2) a purificatory fire (eis ten meta
basanon katharsin). He declares that Celsus was totally ignorant of the
meaning of Gehenna."
Gehenna is the name given by Jews to Hell.
Rev. H. N. Adler, a Jewish Rabbi, says: "They do not teach endless
retributive suffering. They hold that it is not conceivable that a God of
mercy and justice would ordain infinite punishment for finite
wrong-doing." Dr. Dentsch declares: "There is not a word in the Talmud
that lends any support to that damnable dogma of endless torment." Dr.
Dewes in his "Plea for Rational Translation," says that Gehenna is alluded
to four or five times in the Mishna, thus: "The judgment of Gehenna is for
twelve months;" "Gehenna is a day in which the impious shall be burnt."
Bartolocci declares that "the Jews did not believe in a material fire, and
thought that such fire as they did believe in would one day be put out."
Rabbi Akiba, "the second Moses," said: "The duration of the punishment of
the wicked in Gehenna is twelve months." Adyoth 3: 10. some rabbis said
Gehenna only lasted from Passover to Pentecost. This was the prevalent
conception. (Abridged from Excursus 5, in Canon Farrar's "Eternal Hope."
He gives in a note these testimonies to prove that the Jews to whom Jesus
spoke, did not regard Gehenna as of endless duration). Asarath Maamaroth,
f. 35, 1: "There will hereafter be no Gehenna." Jalkuth Shimoni, f. 46, 1:
"Gabriel and Michael will open the eight thousand gates of Gehenna, and
let out Israelites and righteous Gentiles." A passage in Othoth,
(attributed to R. Akiba) declares that Gabriel and Michael will open the
forty thousand gates of Gehenna, and set free the damned, and in Emek
Hammelech, f. 138, 4, we read: "The wicked stay in Gehenna till the
resurrection, and then the Messiah, passing through it redeems them." See
Stephelius' Rabbinical Literature.
Rev. Dr. Wise, a learned Jewish Rabbi, says:
"That the ancient Hebrews had no knowledge of Hell is evident from the
fact that their language has no term for it. When they in after times
began to believe in a similar place they were obliged to borrow the word 'Gehinnom,'
the valley of Hinnom,' a place outside of Jerusalem, which was the
receptacle for the refuse of the city-a locality which by its offensive
smell and sickening miasma was shunned, until vulgar superstition
surrounded it with hob-goblins. Haunted places of that kind are not rare
in the vicinity of populous cities. In the Mishna of the latest origin the
word Gehinnom is used as a locality of punishment for evil-doers, and
hence had been so used at no time before the third century, A. D."
From the time of Josephus onwards, there is
an interval of about a century, from which no Jewish writings have
descended to us. It was a period of dreadful change with that ruined and
distracted people. The body politic was dissolved, the whole system of
their ceremonial religion had been crushed in the fall of their city and
temple; and they themselves scattered abroad were accursed on all the face
of the earth. Their sentiments underwent a rapid transformation, and when
next we see their writings, we find them filled with every extravagant
conceit that mad and visionary brains ever cherished. Expos. Vol. 2. Art,
Gehenna, II Ballou, 2d.
Before considering the passages of Scripture
containing the word, the reader should carefully read and remember the
following:
-
Gehenna
was a well-known locality near Jerusalem, and ought no more to be
translated Hell, than should Sodom or Gomorrah. See Josh. 15: 8; II
Kings 17: 10; II Chron. 28: 3; Jer. 7: 31, 32; 19: 2.
-
Gehenna
is never employed in the Old Testament to mean anything else than the
place with which every Jew was familiar.
-
The
word should have been left untranslated as it is in some versions, and
it would not be misunderstood. It was not misunderstood by the Jews to
whom Jesus addressed it. Walter Balfour well says: "What meaning would
the Jews who were familiar with this word, and knew it to signify the
valley of Hinnom, be likely to attach to it when they heard it used by
our Lord? Would they, contrary to all former usage, transfer its meaning
from a place with whose locality and history they had been familiar from
their infancy, to a place of misery in another world? This conclusion is
certainly inadmissible. By what rule of interpretation, then, can we
arrive at the conclusion that this word means a place of misery and
death?"
-
The
French Bible, the Emphatic Diaglott, Improved Version, Wakefield's
Translation and Newcomb's retain the proper noun, Gehenna, the name of a
place as well-known as Babylon.
-
Gehenna
is never mentioned in the Apocrypha as a place of future punishment as
it would have been had such been its meaning before and at the time of
Christ.
-
No
Jewish writer, such as Josephus or Philo, ever uses it as the name of a
place of future punishment, as they would have done had such then been
its meaning.
-
No
classic Greek author ever alludes to it and therefore it was a Jewish
locality, purely.
-
The
first Jewish writer who ever names it as a place of future punishment is
Jonathan Ben Uzziel who wrote, according to various authorities, from
the second to the eighth century, A. D.
-
The
first Christian writer who calls Hell Gehenna is Justin Martyr who wrote
about A. D. 150.
-
Neither
Christ nor his apostles ever named it to Gentiles, but only to Jews
which proves it a locality only known to Jews, whereas, if it were a
place of punishment after death for sinners, it would have been preached
to Gentiles as well as Jews.
-
It was
only referred to twelve times on eight occasions in all the ministry of
Christ and the apostles, and in the Gospels and Epistles. Were they
faithful to their mission to say no more than this on so vital a theme
as an endless Hell, if they intended to teach it?
-
Only
Jesus and James ever named it. Neither Paul, John, Peter nor Jude ever
employ it. Would they not have warned sinners concerning it, if there
were a Gehenna of torment after death?
-
Paul
says he "shunned not to declare the whole counsel of God," and yet
though he was the great preacher of the Gospel to the Gentiles he never
told them that Gehenna is a place of after-death punishment. Would he
not have repeatedly warned sinners against it were there such a place?
;nbsp
Dr. Thayer significantly remarks: "The Savior and James are the only
persons in all the New Testament who use the word. John Baptist, who
preached to the most wicked of men did not use it once. Paul wrote
fourteen epistles and yet never once mentions it. Peter does not name
it, nor Jude; and John, who wrote the gospel, three epistles, and the
Book of Revelations, never employs it in a single instance. Now if
Gehenna or Hell really reveals the terrible fact of endless woe, how can
we account for this strange silence? How is it possible, if they knew
its meaning and believed it a part of Christ's teaching that they should
not have used it a hundred or a thousand times, instead of never using
it at all; especially when we consider the infinite interests involved?
The Book of Acts contains the record of the apostolic preaching,and the
history of the first planting of the church among the Jews and Gentiles,
and embraces a period of thirty years from the ascension of Christ. In
all this history, in all this preaching of the disciples and apostles of
Jesus there is no mention of Gehenna. In thirty years of missionary
effort these men of God, addressing people of all characters and nations
never under any circumstances threaten them with the torments of Gehenna
or allude to it in the most distant manner! In the face of such a fact
as this can any man believe that Gehenna signifies endless punishment
and that this is part of divine revelation, a part of the Gospel message
to the world? These considerations show how impossible it is to
establish the doctrine in review on the word Gehenna. All the facts are
against the supposition that the term was used by Christ or his
disciples in the sense of endless punishment. There is not the least
hint of any such meaning attached to it, nor the slightest preparatory
notice that any such new revelation was to be looked for in this old
familiar word."
-
Jesus
never uttered it to unbelieving Jews, nor to anybody but his disciples,
but twice (Matt. 23: 15-33) during his entire ministry, nor but four
times in all. If it were the final abode of unhappy millions, would not
his warnings abound with exhortations to avoid it?
-
Jesus
never warned unbelievers against it but once in all his ministry (Matt.
23: 33) and he immediately explained it as about to come in this life.
-
If
Gehenna is the name of Hell then men's bodies are burned there as well
as their souls. Matt. 5: 29; 18: 9.
-
If it
be the name of endless torment, then literal fire is the sinner's
punishment. Mark 9: 43-48.
-
Salvation is never said to be from Gehenna.
-
Gehenna
is never said to be of endless duration nor spoken of as destined to
last forever, so that even admitting the popular ideas of its existence
after death it gives no support to the idea of endless torment.
-
Clement, a Universalist, used Gehenna to describe his ideas of
punishment. He was one of the earliest of the Christian Fathers. The
word did not then denote endless punishment.
-
A
shameful death or severe punishment in this life was at the time of
Christ denominated Gehenna (Schleusner, Canon Farrar and others), and
there is no evidence that Gehenna meant anything else at the time of
Christ.
With these preliminaries let us consider the
twelve passages in which the word occurs.
"But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry
with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and
whosoever shall say to his brother, Raea, shall be in danger of the
council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of
Hell-fire." Matt. 5: 22. The purpose of Jesus here was to show how
exacting is Christianity. It judges the motives. This he affirms in the
last sentence of the verse, after referring to the legal penalties of
Judaism in the first two. The "judgment" here is the lower ecclesiastical
court of twenty-three judges: the "council" is the higher court, which
could condemn to death. But Christianity is so exacting, that if one is
contemptuous towards another, he will be adjudged by Christian principles
guilty of the worst crimes, as "he who hates his brother has already
committed murder in his heart." We can give the true meaning of this
passage in the words of "orthodox" commentators.
Wynne correctly says: "This alludes to the
three degrees of punishment among the Jews, viz., civil punishment
inflicted by the judges or elders at the gates; excommunication pronounced
by the great Ecclesiastical Council or Sanhedrim; and burning to death,
like those who were sacrificed to devils in the valley of Hinnom or Tophet,
where the idolatrous Israelites used to offer their children to Moloch."
Note in loc. Dr. Adam Clarke says: "It is very probable that our Lord
means no more here than this: 'If a man charge another with apostasy from
the Jewish religion, or rebellion against God, and cannot prove his
charge, then he is exposed to that punishment (burning alive) which the
other must have suffered, if the charges had been substantiated. There are
three offenses here which exceed each other in their degrees of guilt. 1.
Anger against a man, accompanied with some injurious act. 2. Contempt,
expressed by the opprobrious epithet raea, or shallow brains. 3. Hatred
and mortal enmity, expressed by the term morch, or apostate, where such
apostasy could not be proved. Now proportioned to these three offenses
were three different degrees of punishment, each exceeding the other in
severity, as the offenses exceeded each other in their different degrees
of guilt. 1. The judgment, the council of twenty-three, which could
inflict the punishment of strangling. 2. The Sanhedrim, or great council,
which could inflict the punishment of stoning. 3. The being burnt in the
valley of the son of Hinnom. This appears to be the meaning of our Lord.
Our Lord here alludes to the valley of the son of Hinnom. This place was
near Jerusalem; and had been formerly used for these abominable sacrifices
in which the idolatrous Jews had caused their children to pass through the
fire to Moloch." Com. in loc.
We do not understand that a literal casting
into Gehenna is here inculcated-as Clarke and Wynne teach-but that the
severest of all punishments are due those who are contemptuous to others.
Gehenna fire is here figuratively and not literally used, but its torment
is in this life.
Barnes: "In this verse it denotes a degree of
suffering higher than the punishment inflicted by the court of seventy,
the Sanhedrim. And the whole verse may therefore mean, He that hates his
brother without a cause, is guilty of a violation of the sixth
commandment, and shall be punished with a severity similar to that
inflicted by the court of judgment. He that shall suffer his passions to
transport him to still greater extravagances, and shall make him an object
of derision and contempt, shall be exposed to still severer punishment,
corresponding to that which the Sanhedrim, or council, inflicts. But he
who shall load his brother with odious appellations and abusive language,
shall incur the severest degree of punishment, represented by being burnt
alive in the horrid and awful valley of Hinnom." (Com.)--A. A. Livermore,
D. D., says: "Three degrees of anger are specified, and three
corresponding gradations of punishment, proportioned to the different
degrees of guilt. Where these punishments will be inflicted, he does not
say, he need not say. The man, who indulges any wicked feelings against
his brother man, is in this world punished; his anger is the torture of
his soul and unless he repents of it and forsakes it, it must prove his
woe in all future states of his being."
Whether Jesus here means the literal Gehenna,
or makes these three degrees of punishment emblems of the severe spiritual
penalties inflicted by Christianity, there is no reference to the future
world in the language. "Unlike the teachings of Judaism, Jesus taught that
it was not absolutely necessary to commit the overt act, to be guilty
before God, but if a man wickedly gave way to temptation, and harbored
vile passions and purposes, he was guilty before God and amenable to the
divine law. He who hated his brother was a murderer. Jesus also taught
that punishment under his rule was proportioned to criminality, as under
the legal dispensation. He refers to three distinct modes of punishment
recognized by Jewish regulations. Each one of these exceeded the other in
severity. They were, first, strangling or beheading; second, stoning; and
third, burning alive. The lower tribunal or court, referred to in the
passage before us, by the term 'judgment,' was composed of twenty-three
judges, or as some learned men think, of seven judges and two scribes. The
higher tribunal, or 'council' was doubtless the Sanhedrim, the highest
ecclesiastical and civil tribunal of the Jews, composed of seventy judges,
whose prerogative it was to judge the greatest offenders of the law, and
could even condemn the guilty to death. They were often condemned to
Gehenna-fire or as it is translated Hell-fire. Jesus did not intend to
say, that under the Christian dispensation, men should be brought before
the different tribunals referred to in the text to be adjudicated but he
designed to show that under the new economy of grace and truth man was
still a subject of retributive justice, but was judged according to the
motives of the heart. 'But I say unto you, whosoever is angry with his
brother without a cause, shall be in danger of the judgment.' According to
the Christian principle, man is guilty if he designs to do wrong."
Livermore's "Proof Texts."
"And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it
out, and cast it from thee; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy
members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into
Hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from
thee; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish,
and not that thy whole body should be cast into Hell. Matt. 5: 28, 29.
"And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is
better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two
eyes to be cast into Hell-fire. Matt 18: 9: "And if thy hand offend thee,
cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having
two hands to go into Hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched. And
if thy foot offend thee, cut it off; it is better for thee to enter halt
into life, than having two feet to be cast into Hell, into the fire that
never shall be quenched. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is
better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having
two eyes to be cast into Hell-fire." Mark 9: 43, 49.
These passages mean that it is better to
accept Christianity, and forego some worldly privilege, than to possess
all worldly advantages, and be overwhelmed in the destruction then about
to come upon the Jews, when multitudes were literally cast into Gehenna.
Or it may be figuratively used, as Jesus probably used it, thus: it is
better to enter the Christian life destitute of some great worldly
advantage, comparable to a right hand, than to live in sin, with all
worldly privileges, and experience that moral death which is a Gehenna of
the soul. In this sense it may be used of men now as then. But there is no
reference to an after-death suffering, in any proper use of the terms. The
true idea of the language is this: Embrace the Christian life, whatever
sacrifice it calls for. The latter clause carries out the idea, in
speaking of
"Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is
not quenched." Undoubtedly Jesus had reference to the language of the
prophet. "And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another,
and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before
me, saith the Lord. And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses
of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not
die, neither shall their fire be quenched: and they shall be an abhorring
unto all flesh." Isa. 66: 23, 24.
The prophet and the Savior both referred to
the overthrow of Jerusalem, though by accommodation we may apply the
language generally, understanding by Hell, or Gehenna, that condition
brought upon the soul in this world by sin. But the application by the
prophet and the Savior was to the day then soon to come. The undying worm
was in this world.
Strabo calls the lamp in the Parthenon, and
Plutarch calls the sacred fire of a temple "unquenchable," though they
were extinguished ages ago. Josephus says that the fire on the altar of
the temple at Jerusalem was "always unquenchable," asbeston aei, though
the fire had gone out and the temple was destroyed at the time of his
writing. Eusebius says that certain martyrs of Alexandria "were burned in
unquenchable fire," though it was extinguished in the course of an hour,
the very epithet in English, which Homer has in Greek, asbestos gelos,
(Iliad, 1: 599), unquenchable laughter.
Bloomfield says in his Notes: "Deny thyself
what is even the most desirable and alluring, and seems the most
necessary, when the sacrifice is demanded by the good of thy soul. Some
think that there is an allusion to the amputation of diseased members of
the body, to prevent the spread of any disorder." Dr. A. A. Livermore
adds: "The main idea here conveyed, is that of punishment, extreme
suffering, and no intimation is given as to its place, or its duration,
whatever may be said in other texts in relation to these points.
Wickedness is its own Hell. A wronged conscience, awakened to remorse, is
more terrible than fire or worm. In this life and in the next, sin and woe
are forever coupled together, God has joined them, and man cannot put them
asunder."
Says the Universalist Assistant: "Will any
one maintain that our Lord meant to contrast the life his gospel is
calculated to impart, and the kingdom he came to establish, with the
literal horrors of the valley of Hinnom? I think not. Every one it appears
to me must see the horrors of this place are used only as figures; and the
question at once arises-Figures of what? I answer-Figures of the
consequences of sin, of neglect of duty, of violation of God's law.
And these figures are not used so much to
represent the duration of punishment, as to indicate its intensity, and
its uninterrupted, unmitigated continuous character so long as it lasts,
which must be as long as its cause continues, i.e., sin in the soul."
Dr. Ballou says in Vol. 1, Universalist
Quarterly: "This passage is metaphorical. Jesus uses this well-known
example of a most painful sacrifice for the preservation of corporeal
life, only that he may the more strongly enforce a corresponding
solicitude to preserve the moral life of the soul.And if so, it naturally
follows that those prominent particulars in the passages which literally
relate to the body, are to be understood as figures, and interpreted
accordingly. If one's eye or hand become to him an offense, or cause of
danger, it is better to part with it than to let it corrupt the body fit
to be thrown into the valley of Hinnom. . . . It is better to deny
ourselves everything however innocent and even valuable in itself, if it
become an occasion of sin, lest it should be the means of bringing upon us
the most dreadful consequences-consequences that are aptly represented in
the figure by having one's dishonored and putrid corpse thrown into the
accursed valley of Hinnom."
"And fear not them which kill the body, but
are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him which is able to
destroy both soul and body in Hell. Matt. 10: 28. "But I will forewarn you
whom you shall fear: Fear him which, after he hath killed, hath power to
cast into Hell: yea, I say unto you, fear him." Luke 12: 5. The reader of
these verses and the accompanying language, will observe that Jesus is
exhorting his disciples to have entire faith in God. The most that men can
do is to destroy the body, but God "is able," "hath power" to destroy both
soul and body in Gehenna. It is not said that God has any disposition or
purpose of doing so. He is able to do it, as it is said (Matt. 3: 9) he is
"able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham." He never did and
never will raise up children to Abraham of the stones of the street, but
he is able to, just as he is able to destroy soul and body in Gehenna,
while men could only destroy the body there. Fear the might power of God
who could if he chose, annihilate man while the worst that men could do
would be to destroy the mere animal life. It is a forcible exhortation to
trust in God, and has no reference to torment after death. Fear not those
who can only torture you-man-but fear God who can annihilate (apokteino.)
1. This language was addressed by Christ to
his disciples, and not to sinners.
2. It proves God's ability to annihilate
(destroy) and not his purpose to torment. Donnegan defines apollumi, "to
destroy utterly."
Says a writer in the Universalist Expositor,
(Vol. 4): "That it was the design of Christ, to lead his disciples to
reverence the surpassing power of God, which he thus illustrated, and not
to make them fear an actual destruction of their souls and bodies in
Gehenna, seems evident from the words that immediately follow. For he
proceeds to show words that immediately follow. For he proceeds to show
them that that power was constantly exerted in their behalf- not against
them. See the following verses."
The word rendered soul is psuche, life, same
as in verse 39, "He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that
loseth his life for my sake shall find it." Also, John 13: 37, "I will lay
down my life for thy sake." The word psuche is translated "mind," "soul,"
"life," "hear," "minds," and "souls." "And made their minds (psuche)evil
affected against the brethren." Acts 14: 2: "Doing the will of God from
the heart," (psuche). Eph. 6: 6: "Learn of me. . . and ye shall find rest
unto your souls." (psuche). Matt. 11: 29: "Let every soul (psuche) be
subject unto the higher powers." Rom. 13: 1. The immortal soul is not
meant, but the life. As though Jesus had said: "Fear Not those who can
only kill the body, but rather him, who if he chose could annihilate the
whole being." Fear not man but God. "So much may suffice to show the
admitted fact, that the destruction of soul and body was a proverbial
phrase, indicating utter extinction or complete destruction." Paige.
Dr. W. E. Manley observes that the condition
threatened "Is one wherein the body can be killed. And no one has imagined
any such place, outside the present state of being. Nor can there be the
least doubt about the nature of this killing of the body; for the passage
is so constructed as to settle this question beyond all controversy. It is
taking away the natural life as was done by the persecutors of the
apostles. The Jews were in a condition of depravity properly represented
by Gehenna. The apostles had been in that condition, but had been
delivered from it. They were in danger, however, of apostasy which would
bring them again into the same condition in which they would lose their
natural lives and suffer moral death besides. By supposing the term Hell
to denote a condition now in the present life, there is no absurdity
involved. Sinful men may here suffer both natural death and moral death;
but in the future life natural death cannot be suffered; whatever may be
said of moral death. Add to this that the Jews used Gehenna as an emblem
of a temporal condition, at the time of Christ; but there is no evidence
that they used it to represent future punishment.
That they did has many times been asserted
but never proved. In conclusion, the meaning of this passage may be stated
in few words. Fear not men, your persecutors, who can inflict on you only
bodily suffering. But rather fear him who is able to inflict both bodily
suffering, and what is worse, mental and moral suffering, in that
condition of depravity represented by the foulest and most revolting
locality known to the Jewish people."
Dr. Parkhurst observes Hell-fire, literally
Gehenna of fire, does "in its outward and primary sense, relate to that
dreadful doom of being burnt alive in the valley of Hinnom." Schleusner:
"Any severe punishment, especially a shameful kind of death was
denominated Gehenna."
"Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he
is made, ye make him twofold more the child of Hell than yourselves."
Matt. 23: 15. Looking upon the smoking valley and thinking of its
corruptions and abominations to call a man a "child of "Gehenna" was to
say that his heart was corrupt and his character vile, but it no more
indicated a place of woe after death than a resident of New York would
imply such a place by calling a bad man a child of Five Points.
"Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers! how
can ye escape the damnation of Hell?" Matt. 23: 33. This verse undoubtedly
refers to the literal destruction that soon after befell the Jewish
nation, when six hundred thousand experienced literally the condemnation
of Gehenna, by perishing miserably by fire and sword. The next words
explain this damnation: "Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and
wise men, and scribes; and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and
some of them ye shall scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from
city to city: that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the
earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, son
of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say
unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation."
This was long before prophesied by Jeremiah,
(chapter 19): "Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither the Lord had sent
him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the Lord's house, and said
to all the people, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,
Behold, I will bring upon this city, and upon all her towns, all the evil
that I have pronounced against it; because they have hardened their necks,
that they might not hear my words." Isaiah has reference to the same in
chapter 66: 24: "And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses of
the men that have transgressed against me; for their worm shall not die,
neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto
all flesh." This explains the "unquenchable fire" and the "undying worm."
They are in this world.
"And the tongue is a fire, a world of
iniquity; so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole
body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of
Hell." James 3: 6. A tongue set on fire of Gehenna when James wrote was
understood just as in London a tongue inspired by Billingsgate, or in New
York by Five Points, or in Boston by Ann street, or in Chicago by
Fifth Avenue would be understood,
namely, a profane and vulgar tongue. No reference whatever was had to any
after-death place of torment but the allusion was solely to a locality
well-known to all Jews, as a place of corruption and it was figuratively
and properly applied to a vile tongue. |
