Gehenna?

Though most Christians tend to forget it, Jesus was a Jew and so were most of the people he was teaching.

In the time of Jesus, the Jews believed that a Messiah (Mašíah) would be coming on earth to judge the wicked and restore righteousness.

It was part of the Jewish tradition that the prophet, Elijah, would return to earth before the Messiah to prepare the way. “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” (Malachi 4:5) So, when people began to wonder whether Jesus was the Messiah, the question also came up, if Jesus is the Messiah, who's Elijah?

It was in this context that Jesus told his disciples that Elijah had already come, and he was John the Baptist. “For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. … and if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come.” (Matthew 11:10, 13-14)

Most of us have heard all this before, of course, but consider for a minute what it means.

It means that Jesus and his disciples all expected and believed that someone who had died hundreds of years before could come back on earth in a new body.

In other words, they believed in reincarnation.

Or take Jesus’ conversation with his disciples on the way to Caesarea Philippi. Jesus asks them, “Who do people say I am?” And they say “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” (Mark 8: 27-30). This conversation is incomprehensible unless the disciples all believed in reincarnation.

So let’s assume for the moment that Jesus and the disciples believed in reincarnation.

That doctrine, as commonly taught, includes the notion that rebirth works in furtherance of the law of cause and effect as applied to human actions. In other words, the things that happen to us in this life are a result of what we did before.

That the disciples of Christ believed this is suggested by the episode recounted in John, Chapter 9, where Jesus heals a blind man on the Sabbath. “And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?” In other words, the disciples clearly believed a man who had been blind since birth could have brought the situation upon himself by sinning before.

To those who believe in reincarnation, the “judgment” one receives at the end of life comes not by way of a permanent assignment to heaven or hell, but through rebirth in relatively favorable or unfavorable circumstances. Certainly this isn’t what most people who call themselves Christian believe. They believe that those who receive Jesus Christ will ascend to everlasting life, and everyone else will be condemned to burn in hell forever.

But did Jesus ever say that?

Actually, Jesus never used the word “hell” at all. In fact, that concept didn't exist in Jewish theology at the time. The word Jesus used that is translated in the Gospels as "hell" is “Gehenna”.

Gehenna is derived from “Ge Hinnom”, which meant literally, “Valley of Hinnom”. This valley is an actual place outside the south wall of the ancient city of Jerusalem, stretching from the foot of Mountain Zion eastward to the Kidron Valley. It is mentioned a number of times in the Old Testament, and has extremely unsavory associations. Jeremiah refers to it as the site where “high places” were built to Baal, and children were burned in sacrifice to the pagan god, Molech. (Jeremiah 32:35). After King Josiah forbid these practices, the area was turned into a dump where refuse was burned, and that’s what it was in Jesus’s day: a garbage dump.

Jesus uses the word, Gehenna, eleven times, mostly to describe the consequences of improper actions (See, e.g. Matthew 5:22, 29, 30; 10:28, 18:9, 23:15, 33c; Mark 9:43,45; Luke 12:5.) Without going through all these references, it’s fair to say that virtually none of them requires or even suggests Jesus meant anything other than “a gully where idols were once worshiped in barbaric fashion and where garbage (including the dead bodies of criminals) are now burned.”

Jesus wasn't a fan of this world. He warns his disciples, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.” (Matthew 6:9-20).

He made it plain, “My kingdom is not of this world.” (John 18: 36). When the Pharisees asked him when the kingdom of God would come, he answered: “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17: 20-21)

So if this isn’t the kingdom of God, what is it?


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The story goes that a woman once asked the great yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda, whether he believed in hell or not.

He hesitated a moment, then looked at the woman quizzically and said, “But Madam, where do you think you are?”

Maybe Gehenna?