Footnote

“GEHENNA, the Greek word translated hell in the common version, occurs 12 times. It is the Grecian mode of spelling the Hebrew words which are translated, ‘The valley of Hinnom.’ This valley was also called Tophet, a detestation, an abomination. Into this place were cast all kinds of filth, with the carcasses of beasts, and the unburied bodies of criminals who had been executed. Continual fires were kept to consume these. . . . Gehenna, then, as occurring in the New Testament, symbolizes death and utter destruction, but in no place signifies a place of eternal torment.”

Under HINNOM the Cyclopædia by M’Clintock and Strong says:

“We learn from Josephus that the last terrible struggle between the Jews and Romans took place here (War, VI, 8, 5), and here, too, it appears the dead bodies were thrown out of the city after the siege (V, 12, 7). . . . Most commentators follow Buxtorf, Lightfoot, and others, in asserting that perpetual fires were kept up for the consumption of the bodies of criminals, carcasses of animals, and whatever else was combustible; but the combined authorities usually brought forward in support of this idea appear insufficient. . . . ”—Volume 4 (edition of 1891), page 266.