Greek · Strong's G1067
γέεννα
Géenna (GHEH-en-nah)
noun, feminine
Gehenna, the place of final, conscious judgment for the wicked, named after the valley south of Jerusalem where pagan child sacrifice and later refuse-burning took place.
Gehenna is a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew ge-hinnom, "the Valley of Hinnom," a ravine south of Jerusalem. Under Ahaz and Manasseh it was the site where Judah burned children alive in worship of Molech (2 Kings 23:10; Jeremiah 7:31; 32:35). Josiah desecrated the valley, and later Jewish tradition associated the site with continual burning of refuse, making it a vivid figure for the place of God's final judgment on the wicked.
Nearly every New Testament use of geenna is on the lips of Jesus. He warns that an angry word can make one "liable to the Gehenna of fire" (Matthew 5:22), that it is better to lose a hand or eye than to be cast into Gehenna (Matthew 5:29-30; Mark 9:43-48), and that one should fear the One "who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna" (Matthew 10:28). The picture is of conscious, unending judgment—"where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9:48, echoing Isaiah 66:24).
Gehenna is not the same as Hades (G86). Hades is the present, intermediate state of the dead; Gehenna is the final destiny of the unrighteous after resurrection and judgment (cf. Revelation 20:14-15). The terror of the doctrine is matched only by the urgency of the gospel: Jesus speaks of Gehenna more often than anyone else in Scripture precisely because He came to rescue people from it.
Common English renderings
- hell
- Gehenna
- hell fire
Key verses
"but I say unto you, that every one who is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council; and whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of the hell of fire."
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"And be not afraid of them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."
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"Ye serpents, ye offspring of vipers, how shall ye escape the judgment of hell?"
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"And if thy hand cause thee to stumble, cut it off: it is good for thee to enter into life maimed, rather than having thy two hands to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire."
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"And the tongue is a fire: the world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the wheel of nature, and is set on fire by hell."
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