Continued from a previous post.

What do these four words have in common? How are they different? How long will these words live on in the cultures from whence they came?

Waterloo, Belgium (Dome is War Memorial)

All four are connected to literal, geographical locations that you can find on a world map. Waterloo is small community in Belgium. Gehenna is a transliteration of the Valley of Hinnom located to the southwest of Jerusalem. Hiroshima is a large city in Japan. Armageddon is a transliteration of the mountain of Megiddo, which is located about two hours north of Jerusalem. If a person had no knowledge of the history surrounding these four locations and went for a quick visit, odds are that the visitor would have absolutely no sense of fear, dread or awe.

However, once one becomes intimate with either the historical or possible future implications of any one of these places, the whole complexion of the visit is quite likely to change. Even though all four places attest very little to the naked eye of the historical nature or possible futuristic events associated with them, in reality being quite pleasant places to visit, mere knowledge of the writings associated with them from a historical or possible prophetical viewpoint automatically puts the visitor in a position to look around the site with an attitude of “what if?”

Hiroshima Today

Hiroshima and Waterloo are of course significantly different than Gehenna and Armageddon in the sense that the prior are the scenes of crushing military defeats and the latter are viewed in the sense of God’s judgment.  However, for someone to have “met one’s Waterloo” remains a popular aphorism nearly two hundred years after Napoleons humiliating defeat there, and simply is taken to mean complete, total defeat. Likewise, if a person was to make the threat to turn someplace into a “Hiroshima” anywhere around the world, the threat would immediately be perceived to indicate that a fiery, if not nuclear conflagration was perhaps eminent. What power lies in the use of a single word.

Jesus was known for His use of powerful wording to make a point, and He often used words that were in the common vernacular and changed them to make His points.  His use of the word “hypocrite” is a prime example.  ὑποκρίτης (Hypokrites) was the Greek word originally used for the stage actors that performed in the theaters, and Jesus’  re-appropriation of the term to denote those who were acting righteously but in fact had wicked hearts gave the word a whole new meaning. Gehenna is likely another example of Jesus adopting a word and giving it an entirely new meaning that has endured for two millenia.

So the question arises of “What did the the Jews of Jesus’ day think of when they heard Him use the term Gehenna?” Probably nothing close to what we think of Hell today. As we have seen from our studies on Gehenna in the Old Testament here and here, the First Century Jews primarily knew Gehenna as a place where a lot of bad things had happened in the history of their nation. For post-mortum experiences they were much more familiar with the use of Sheol and as the result of Hellenization, Hades and perhaps Abraham’s Bosom as well.

Concerning the Jewish memories of Gehenna (Valley of Hinnom), there was the centuries of idolatry and child-sacrifices to the god Moloch (or Baal) that had involved even the Kings of Judah. Then King Josiah ritually defiled the Valley during a short-lived reform of Israel.  Next was the slaughter of 185,000 Assyrian soldiers that had taken place during the time of King Hezekiah as had been prophesied by Isaiah. Not much more than a century later, Jeremiah went down into Gehenna and prophesied that pretty much the same fate was in store for the Israelites and Jerusalem. Shortly thereafter, Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and more than likely filled the valley with corpses as was prophesied in Jeremiah 19.

After the return from exile, some salient apocalyptic writings started circulating that seemed to indicate that this “accursed valley“  might have some after-death consequences as well ( see my post on Hell and 1 Enoch as well as Further Development of Hell in The Intertestamental Period). It seems rather likely that these texts were widely disseminated by Jesus time, and although the opinion on them was probably divided, most of Jesus’ audience would likely have been aware of them. That Jesus knew of these texts is almost certain as His half-brother Jude incorporated a portion of 1 Enoch into his homily and Peter alluded to 1 Enoch on a number of occasions in his epistles. Whether or not these writings attested to any eternal consequences of Gehenna is possible, but rather unlikely, although a post-mortum visit in Gehenna for the wicked seems likely in 1 Enoch particularly. With that said, I rather doubt that Jesus viewed 1 Enoch as an inspired piece of literature any more that He viewed the Greek mythologies concerning Hades as inspired writings.

The tradition that Gehenna had become a smoldering garbage dump where perpetual fires and worms consumed rubbish, carcasses and the bodies of criminals by the time of Jesus definitely adds flavor to the discussion, but should not be used to base our conclusions on.  I personally think that what we can confirm about Gehenna is sufficient to base our studies on, even if Gehenna in the time of Jesus was a relatively clean, peaceful valley as it exists today (although I am of the opinion that the garbage dump tradition is sustainable to some degree).

I get the definite feeling that when Jesus spoke about judgment in Gehenna that the average Jew would have gotten a feeling of dread and contempt simply based upon the history of the place. Add to that the prophecies concerning the valley as well as the picture painted by 1 Enoch, and I would tend to think that a certain degree of fear and foreboding would set in when  Jesus made his statements concerning judgment in Gehenna and Gehenna fire. The Jews knew their history and the fact that many bodies, both Jewish and otherwise, had been deposited there before by the hand of God was firmly in their memories, and the possibility of it happening again would likely be horrifying. I would tend to think that the Scribes and Pharisees in Jesus listening audience would have gone back to their scrolls of Isaiah and Jeremiah (not to mention the other prophets) to try to determine which prophecies in them might not yet be completely fulfilled.  However, considering how dense they had been in missing the prophecies concerning their Messiah, the majority quite possibly read right over the prophecies without any real sense of comprehension of what Jesus was referring to.

Tel Megiddo

I think that it is important to remember that nearly 600 years had passed since the events that we read about in the Old Testament concerning Gehenna had occurred when Jesus started using it in His homilies. However, nearly 200 years have passed since Napoleon had his Waterloo, and that word lives on. I imagine that Hiroshima will still bring to mind the nuclear devastation suffered there for centuries to come. And, although the word Armageddon is used only once in the New Testament (Revelation 16:16), that single word has brought a sense of impending calamity to those hearing it for nearly two millenia.

Valley of Hinnom (coutesy Biblewalk)

While Israel was waiting for a prophesied Messiah to deliver them from the hands of Rome, would they really have received Jesus words about judgment and Gehenna fire in terms that preterists assert that they should have; that is as a soon coming judgment on Israel (by God) with the Valley of Hinnom filled with the corpses of dead Jews to the point that they would have to be burned since there was no place left for burial?  Or would they lean more in understanding Gehenna in the terms of 1 Enoch, that is a post-mortum place where they would face God’s wrathful judgment? And leaving aside for a moment what Jesus’ audience might have understood at the time that He was speaking, what was Jesus’ intent when He spoke about the judgment of Gehenna?

These are very important questions that I want to start dealing with as soon as I am finished with my next post concerning the Fall of Jerusalem in 70 C.E.  I want to examine exactly what did happen in 70 C.E. in and around Jerusalem, especially as it might relate to the judgment of Gehenna.  Until I recently read Josephus War of the Jews, I really did not have any idea just how complete the destruction was nor how dire the situation became in the weeks and months just prior to the Fall of Jerusalem. I am going to primarily draw from Josephus’ works, although I am going to try and use the Roman historian Tacitus if possible for corroboration of Josephus’ histories. I have come to the opinion that a good understanding of the historical events of 66-70 C.E are necessary to understand some of the possible implications of Jesus’ usage of Gehenna in the Gospels. What Jesus’ audience might not have understood we can see much more clearly looking at the entire picture. After all, hindsight is said to be 20/20 (okay, maybe 30/60).

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