of vipers,” sons of the Devil as a religious father, offspring of the “original serpent, who is the Devil and Satan.”—John 8:44; Rev. 20:2.

28. From what is the Greek word Gehenna drawn, and what is the literal translation of the original expression?

²⁸ Just what is this place called Gehenna, or what does it symbolize? The Greek word “Gehenna” is a transliteration of the Hebrew expression Gei-Hinnom, meaning “the valley of Hinnom.” In the Greek word Gehenna the syllable “Ge” stands for the Hebrew word Gai (גיא) meaning “Valley,” and the addition “henna” stands for Hinnom, the name of a man in the days of Judge Joshua.

29. What was the original Gehenna, and what did it mark according to Joshua 15:8; 18:16?

²⁹ This Valley of Hinnom or Hinnom Valley is first mentioned in the Bible in Joshua 15:8 as marking the boundary between the territories of the tribes of Judah and of Benjamin, and it is associated with Jerusalem: “The boundary [of Judah] went up to the valley of the son of Hinnom to the slope of the Jebusite at the south, that is to say, Jerusalem; and the boundary went up to the top of the mountain that faces the valley of Hinnom [Gei-Hinnom, Hebrew; Ge-Ennom, Latin] to the west, which is at the extremity of the low plain of Rephaim to the north.” Here the Greek Septuagint translation calls it the Pharanx of Onom, that is to say, the Cleft (Chasm, Ravine, Gully) of Onom. Hinnom Valley or Valley of Hinnom is also mentioned in Joshua 18:16, in connection with the territorial boundary of the tribe of Benjamin.

30. How did Gehenna come to be misused by the Israelites, and how was it made unfit for such misuse?

³⁰ The Valley of Hinnom, lying to the west and southwest of ancient Jerusalem, came to be misused by the backsliding Jews. In 2 Chronicles 28:3 we read about King Ahaz of Jerusalem: “He himself made sacrificial smoke in the valley of the son of Hinnom [Gai-benenom, LXX] and proceeded to burn up his sons in the fire.” (Also, 2 Chron. 33:6; Jer. 7:31, 32; 32:35) Faithful King Josiah saw good to defile this Valley of Hinnom because it had been used for the idol worship of Baal and for offering human sacrifices to this false god. In 2 Kings 23:10 it says of Josiah: “And he made unfit for worship Topheth, which is in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, that no one might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to [the false god] Molech.”d The modern name of the valley is Wadi el-Rababi.

Part Two

1. In Jesus’ day, what was Gehenna, and of what punishment was it used as a symbol?

GEHENNA, or the Valley of Hinnom, is mentioned twelve times in the Christian Greek Scriptures. In the days of Jesus Christ on earth it was a fiery place and, being a valley outside the walls of Jerusalem, it was on earth. It became a symbol of the worst punishment that could befall a person. For instance, in Matthew 5:22, in his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said: “Everyone who continues wrathful with his brother will be accountable to the court of justice; but whoever addresses his brother with an unspeakable word of contempt [Raca] will be accountable to the Supreme Court; whereas whoever says, ‘You despicable fool!’ will be liable to the fiery Gehenna.” Thus Jesus grades the “fiery Gehenna” as third and worst. Why? Because the one who called another a despicable fool and who was sentenced to the fiery Gehenna is put to death and not given a burial. His corpse is burned up in the fires of Gehenna and the ashes are never collected for preserving in an urn. So he was pictured as not going to Haʹdes.

2, 3. What does Matthew 5:29, 30 show as to a sinner’s corpse?

² A few verses later on in the same Sermon on the Mount Jesus shows that the sinner’s corpse is thrown into Gehenna as a crematory. In Matthew 5:29, 30 Jesus says:

³ “If, now, that right eye of yours is making you stumble, tear it out and throw it away from you. For it is more beneficial to you for one of your members to be lost to you than for your whole body to be pitched into Gehenna. Also, if your right hand is making you stumble, cut it off and throw it away from you [not, torment it]. For it is more beneficial for one of your members to be lost to you than for your whole body to land in Gehenna.”

4. In what sense did Jesus there use Gehenna, and how is this shown?

⁴ From this language we see that Jesus used in a symbolical manner the ancient Gehenna that was located outside the walls of Jerusalem. Jesus did not mean that his followers should pluck out a literal eye or chop off a literal right hand. Rather, Jesus was talking about something precious that causes us to sin with the right eye or the right hand. Accordingly, then, as the eye and right hand were spoken of symbolically, Gehenna must also have been spoken of in a symbolical way, not literally.

5. In Matthew 18:8, 9, with what does Jesus contrast one’s being thrown into the symbolical Gehenna?

⁵ Notice how Jesus contrasts one’s being thrown into Gehenna with one’s entering into life. This indicates that the symbolical Gehenna is a place of no life at all. In Matthew 18:8, 9 Jesus said: “If, then, your hand or your foot is making you stumble, cut it off and throw it away from you; it is finer for you to enter into life maimed or lame than to be thrown with two hands or two feet into the everlasting fire. Also, if your eye is making you stumble, tear it out and throw it away from you [not, torment it]; it is finer for you to enter one-eyed into life than to be thrown with two eyes into the fiery Gehenna.” In this “fiery Gehenna” is where the “everlasting fire” burns, symbolically speaking.

6, 7. (a) Besides fire, what other destructive things were present in the Gehenna outside Jerusalem? (b) How did Jesus point this out in Mark 9:43-48?

⁶ Jesus reminds us that in the Gehenna outside Jerusalem there were also worms or maggots, not, of course, in the fire, but on decaying organic matter near the fire. These are, of course, not earthworms such as crawl through the ground and feed on human bodies buried in graves. They are like the worms from which King Herod Agrippa I died, according to these words of Acts 12:23: “Instantly the angel of Jehovah struck him, because he did not give the glory to God; and he became eaten up with worms and expired.” Using this same Greek word (skólex), Jesus said:

⁷ “If ever your hand makes you stumble, cut it off; it is finer for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go off into Gehenna, into the fire that cannot be put out. And if your foot makes you stumble, cut it off; it is finer for you to enter into life lame than with two feet to be pitched into Gehenna. And if your eye makes you stumble, throw it away; it is finer for you to enter one-eyed into the kingdom of God than with two eyes to be pitched into Gehenna, where their maggot [skólex] does not die and the fire is not put out.”—Mark 9:43-48; Isa. 66:24.

8. Thus Gehenna was pictured as a place of what, and how does M’Clintock and Strong’s Cyclopædia speak about Gehenna?

⁸ So, if the dead body pitched into the Gehenna outside Jerusalem did not land in the fire mingled with sulphur, it would be consumed anyhow. How? By the maggots from the eggs that flies would lay in the decaying corpse. Gehenna was thus a place of total destruction or consumption, into which the dead bodies of those persons who were considered unworthy of being buried in a marked grave or memorial tomb were pitched. Concerning Gehenna, page 764 of Volume 3 of the Cyclopædia by M’Clintock and Strong says:

In consequence of these abominations the valley was polluted by Josiah (2 Kings 23:10); subsequently to which it became the common lay-stall of the city, where the dead bodies of criminals, and the carcasses of animals, and every other kind of filth was cast, and, according to late and somewhat questionable authorities, the combustible portion consumed with fire. From the depth and narrowness of the gorge, and, perhaps, its ever-burning fires, as well as from its being the receptacle of all sorts of putrefying matter, and all that defiled the holy city, it became in later times the image of the place of everlasting punishment, “where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched;” in which the Talmudists placed the mouth of Hell: “There are two palm-trees in the valley of Hinnom, between which a smoke ariseth . . . and this is the door of Gehenna.”a

WHAT IT SYMBOLIZES

9. (a) What did Jesus say about Gehenna in Matthew 10:28 and Luke 12:4, 5? (b) When God destroys both body and soul, what results?

⁹ Regardless of what any reference authorities have to say regarding Gehenna, what did Jesus Christ, the Son of God, have to say about it? What did it mean for the person sentenced by God the Almighty to the symbolical Gehenna? Jesus plainly answered when he sent his twelve apostles out on missionary work and said: “And do not become fearful of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; but rather be in fear of him that can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.” (Matt. 10:28) On another occasion Jesus said to a crowd of thousands: “Moreover, I say to you, my friends, Do not fear those who kill the body and after this are not able to do anything more. But I will indicate to you whom to fear: Fear him who after killing has authority to throw into Gehenna. Yes, I tell you, fear this One.” (Luke 12:4, 5) When Almighty God destroys both body and soul of a human creature, what is left? There is complete destruction; and, because this destruction is everlasting, such destruction of human body and soul is an everlasting punishment. There is no resurrection out of such destruction.

10. What is to be understood by the “fire” of the symbolic Gehenna’s being an “everlasting fire”?

¹⁰ Jesus thus used Gehenna as a symbol of complete, endless destruction, just as fire is destructive. Because the destruction is everlasting, the fire of the symbolic Gehenna is said to be “everlasting fire.” This means that such a Gehenna will always exist; it will never give up those in it; it will never be emptied, never be wiped out as Adamic death and Haʹdes will be. (Rev. 20:13) Figuratively speaking, the symbolic Gehenna always burns and will always be available for executing any who rebel against God throughout everlasting time, all eternity.

11. Why is there no resurrection from the symbolic Gehenna?

¹¹ Since the symbolic Gehenna is the place of everlasting destruction, Jesus correctly set a person’s entering into Gehenna as the opposite of one’s entering into life. Hence if anyone enters into the symbolic Gehenna, in which God destroys both body and soul, how can anyone have a resurrection to an opportunity for everlasting life in God’s heavenly kingdom or in Paradise restored here on earth under God’s kingdom? There is no resurrection from the symbolic Gehenna.

12, 13. (a) The uncontrolled tongue can inflame how many and spot up what? (b) Like Gehenna, what can it cause?

¹² Because fiery Gehenna is destructive, the disciple James ties it in with the uncontrolled human tongue, in these words: “Well, [like the little fire setting aflame a great woodland] the tongue is a fire. The tongue is constituted a world of unrighteousness among our members, for it spots up all the body and sets the wheel of natural life aflame and it is set aflame by Gehenna.”—Jas. 3:6.

¹³ Hence, all the world of mankind, not one particular person, has to watch the tongue, for all the world is born in unrighteousness. The tongue, by its propaganda that spreads from tongue to tongue, can inflame a whole world of people and incite them to unrighteousness. It spots up not just the mouth in which it wags, but all the human body; so that, if one has a beautiful body but an uncontrolled tongue, it takes away from the fine impression made by the attractive body. This is especially so before God, because, as Jesus tells us, by our words we shall be declared righteous and by our words we shall be condemned. (Matt. 12:37) Like Gehenna, the tongue can cause destruction that is beyond repair.

14. To what can the tongue, when “set aflame by Gehenna,” cause one to be sentenced?

¹⁴ One’s whole round of living can be affected by fiery words that defile the speaker’s body, inflaming it to destructive action. James 3:8 well says: “But the tongue, not one of mankind can get it tamed. An unruly injurious thing, it is full of death-dealing poison.” The tongue, when “set aflame by Gehenna,” can cause the user to be sentenced by God to go to the symbolic Gehenna, as it denotes a bad heart condition.—See Psalm 5:9; Romans 3:13.

THE “LAND OF NO RETURN”

15. (a) How is what Gehenna stands for symbolized in Revelation? (b) How did fire and sulphur from heaven affect Sodom and Gomorrah?

¹⁵ In the last book of the Bible, A Revelation to John, the word “Gehenna” does not occur. However, what Gehenna stands for is there symbolized by “the fiery lake that burns with sulphur,” or, “the lake of fire and sulphur, “the lake of fire,” “the lake that burns with fire and sulphur.” (Rev. 19:20; 20:10, 14, 15; 21:8) We know what the effect of fire mingled with sulphur is upon combustible things. In the days of Abraham and his nephew Lot, as Genesis 19:24 tells us, “then Jehovah made it rain sulphur and fire from Jehovah, from the heavens, upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah.” How this affected Sodom and Gomorrah Jesus tells us, saying: “On the day that Lot came out of Sodom it rained fire and sulphur from heaven and destroyed them all.”—Luke 17:29.

16. (a) In Sodom’s case, how was a lake associated with fire and sulphur? (b) What was the temporary effect and the final effect of the fire and sulphur rained down on the people?

¹⁶ Moreover, Sodom was close to the Dead Sea or Sea of Salt. This is a big inland lake in which nothing alive exists; which fact adds to the thought of the complete deadness caused by the literal fire and sulphur that rained down upon the cities of that district. Thus, too, as in Revelation, we have a deadly lake associated with fire and sulphur (brimstone). The people upon whom the fire and sulphur rained may have been tormented for the time that they continued conscious, but the final effect of the fire and sulphur together was to destroy them.b This destruction preceded by torment is the thought conveyed in Revelation 14:10, 11, and also in Psalm 11:5, 6, where fire and sulphur are mentioned together, evidently in a symbolic sense.

17. What will be rained down upon the army of Gog of Magog, and what will be the effect of this?

¹⁷ Among the destructive forces that God will pour down upon the army of Gog of the land of Magog when it attacks Jehovah’s restored people, “fire and sulphur” are included, in Ezekiel 38:22. While these elements may torment and agonize the army of Gog for a while, they at last destroy the enemy army, killing them off. That this is the case is shown in the next chapter, in Ezekiel 39:11-20, which describes how the dead bodies of the army of Gog of Magog are disposed of down to the very last bone.

18. In Revelation 20:14, how is the difference between Haʹdes or Sheol and the lake of fire and sulphur shown?

¹⁸ From all the foregoing it is unmistakably evident that Haʹdes or Sheol is different from Gehenna and the “lake that burns with fire and sulphur.” Otherwise, how could Revelation 20:14 state: “Death and Haʹdes were hurled into the lake of fire”? This verse also shows the meaning of the “lake of fire,” saying: “This means the second death, the lake of fire.”

19. (a) Does the “second death” (“lake of fire”) deliver up those hurled into it? (b) Hence of what is Gehenna or the lake of fire and sulphur a symbol?

¹⁹ Thus the death that spread to all men by birth from Adam will be put to death in the “second death.” Death will be destroyed in the “second death” and will not be tormented there forever. Neither will Haʹdes be forever tormented in the “second death,” but it will be destroyed forever in this symbolic “lake of fire.” This “lake of fire” or “second death” never delivers up “death and Haʹdes” that are hurled into it. Hence Gehenna or the lake that burns with fire and sulphur is a Bible picture of eternal or absolute destruction from which there is no resurrection. That is why resurrected persons who have been given up by inherited death and by Haʹdes can later be “hurled into the lake of fire” and undergo the “second death,” because they do not get their names written on the scroll of life.—Rev. 20:15.

20. (a) Into what are the “wild beast” and the “false prophet” hurled, when, and for how long? (b) What is symbolized thereby?

²⁰ According to Revelation 19:20, the symbolic “wild beast” and the “false prophet” are to be “hurled into the fiery lake that burns with sulphur” during the coming “war of the great day of God the Almighty.” This occurs just before the Devil, Satan, and his demons are bound and cast into the abyss for the thousand years of Christ’s reign. At the end of the thousand years the symbolic “wild beast” and the “false prophet” are still in that symbolic “lake of fire and sulphur” and are not released from it even when Satan and his demons are released from the abyss to try to mislead mankind. The symbolic “wild beast” and the “false prophet” are never released from that place of destruction, “the second death,” but they are still there when they are joined by all those who are later on hurled into the “lake of fire.” (Rev. 20:10, 15) Thus in the coming “war of the great day” at Armageddon the symbolic “wild beast” and the “false prophet” are to be destroyed for all time, with no hope of resurrection ever.

21. (a) Where is Satan the Devil hurled after his brief release from the abyss, and how is Hebrews 2:14 thus completely fulfilled? (b) How is his place of everlasting punishment symbolized in Matthew 25:41?

²¹ At the end of the thousand years of Christ’s successful rule over redeemed mankind, Satan and his demons will be released from the abyss. Thus, in effect, that abyss will cease to exist, being emptied of them. During their little time of freedom they try to mislead into destruction as many of the earthly subjects of God’s kingdom as they can. After that they are hurled into the “second death,” where the “wild beast” and the “false prophet” have been all this time. (Rev. 20:1-3, 7-10) In this way it is that Jehovah God works out his glorious purpose through his self-sacrificing Son Jesus Christ, “that through his death he might bring to nothing the one having the means to cause death, that is, the Devil.” (Heb. 2:14) This punishment of “everlasting destruction” is what is symbolized by the “everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels,” to which also the cursed goatish people of the earth will be sent at Armageddon, according to Jesus’ words in Matthew 25:31-33, 41, 46.

UNDESERVING OF RESURRECTION

22, 23. (a) In what terms did Jesus warn the Jewish religious leaders, but with what effect? (b) How did Stephen’s words to the Jerusalem Sanhedrin show whether those judges had heeded Jesus’ warning?

²² Nineteen centuries ago, in his days as a man on earth, Jesus Christ warned the Jews of that generation of the danger of their going into everlasting destruction symbolized by Gehenna. He told the hypocritical religious leaders of the Jews that they made the Gentile people whom they proselytized a “subject for Gehenna twice as much so as yourselves.” He called the hypocritical Jewish scribes and Pharisees serpents and offspring of vipers, thus identifying them as children of Satan the Devil the “original Serpent.” Then he asked how they could “flee from the judgment of Gehenna” when they willfully kept on opposing God’s kingdom and the preachers of that kingdom. (Matt. 23:13-15, 29-36) They kept on in the lying, murderous deeds of their “father the Devil.” (John 8:44) And just before they killed Stephen, “a man full of faith and holy spirit,” he said to the Jewish judges in the courtroom:

²³ “Obstinate men and uncircumcised in hearts and ears, you are always resisting the holy spirit; as your forefathers did, so you do. Which one of the prophets did your forefathers not persecute? Yes, they killed those who made announcement in advance concerning the coming of the righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become, you who received the Law as transmitted by angels but have not kept it.”—Acts 6:5; 7:51-60.

24. (a) Into what did the unrepentant Jewish religious leaders go at death, and with what possibility of resurrection? (b) Who went there with them, according to Matthew 15:12-14?

²⁴ Any of such Jewish religious leaders as did not repent of this course of resisting the holy spirit and of opposing God’s Messianic kingdom and of persecuting the Kingdom preachers did not “flee from the judgment of Gehenna.” At their death, whenever this occurred, they went into Gehenna. For this reason they will have no resurrection on earth under God’s kingdom. They may have been honored with solemn funeral rites but they did not go to Haʹdes or Sheol. From God they suffered the “judgment of Gehenna.” They were