*Editor’s Note: The views expressed in this series are not intended as an official statement of CBTS or a uniform position of its faculty. This material is offered in the spirit of faith seeking understanding and to encourage further theological reflection. As more installments of this series are released, they will be linked here.

Gehenna: the Eternal Hell for Those Resurrected to Damnation

The Old Testament Background

The Greek term gehenna comes from an Aramaic phrase (gehinnam) originally referring to the Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem. Because of the way this valley was used in the prophetic imagery of the Old Testament, its name came to designate the place of eternal death for the wicked.

Consider first the relevant texts in the Book of Jeremiah, where the valley’s infamous connection to idolatry and child sacrifice made it a fittingly unclean place for slaughter and corpses. When the Lord brought destruction to Jerusalem for her sins, the corpses of her idolaters would be flung into the place where they had burned their children as sacrifices to other gods. Notice also the alternate name of Topheth, which means something like a hearth, identifying this valley as a place of burning.

³⁰ “For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, declares the Lord. They have set their detestable things in the house that is called by my name, to defile it. ³¹ And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind. ³² Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it will no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; for they will bury in Topheth, because there is no room elsewhere. ³³ And the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the air, and for the beasts of the earth, and none will frighten them away.

(Jeremiah 7:30–33)

¹ Thus says the Lord, “Go, buy a potter’s earthenware flask, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests, ² and go out to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom at the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you. ³ You shall say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing such disaster upon this place that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. ⁴ Because the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known; and because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents, ⁵ and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind— ⁶ therefore, behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when this place shall no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. ⁷ And in this place I will make void the plans of Judah and Jerusalem, and will cause their people to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life. I will give their dead bodies for food to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the earth. ⁸ And I will make this city a horror, a thing to be hissed at. Everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its wounds. ⁹ And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his neighbor in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies and those who seek their life afflict them.’

¹⁰ “Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you, ¹¹ and shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: So will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel, so that it can never be mended. Men shall bury in Topheth because there will be no place else to bury. ¹² Thus will I do to this place, declares the Lord, and to its inhabitants, making this city like Topheth. ¹³ The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah—all the houses on whose roofs offerings have been offered to all the host of heaven, and drink offerings have been poured out to other gods—shall be defiled like the place of Topheth.’”

(Jeremiah 19:1–13)

The word tophteh, an alternate spelling of Topheth, appears in a somewhat different context in the Book of Isaiah. The historical context—a few generations before Jeremiah—is that of Assyrian invasion and the destruction of Sennacherib’s troops in Judah, but the apocalyptic imagery may also foreshadow a more distant future. In any case, the Lord’s climactic deliverance of his people is seen as he pours out his fury on their oppressors. The enemies of Zion are approaching their own blazing doom, ignited with fire and sulfur from God.

²⁵ And on every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. ²⁶ Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when the Lord binds up the brokenness of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.

²⁷ Behold, the name of the Lord comes from afar,
burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke;
his lips are full of fury,
and his tongue is like a devouring fire;
²⁸ his breath is like an overflowing stream
that reaches up to the neck;
to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction,
and to place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads astray.

²⁹ You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of the Lord, to the Rock of Israel. ³⁰ And the Lord will cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst and storm and hailstones. ³¹ The Assyrians will be terror-stricken at the voice of the Lord, when he strikes with his rod. ³² And every stroke of the appointed staff that the Lord lays on them will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres. Battling with brandished arm, he will fight with them. ³³ For a burning place [Tophteh, an alternate spelling for Topheth] has long been prepared; indeed, for the king it is made ready, its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.

(Isaiah 30:25–33)

Motyer describes the scene this way:

Little did the Assyrians know that their imperial progress to Zion (10:8–11) was their funeral procession with the pyre long since laid! The simple use of the definite article indicates that the king refers to the king of Assyria (36:14). For all that he may think of himself as ‘the’ king, he now meets a greater King than himself, the one whose predetermination built the pyre and whose breath will ignite it.[1]

The picture is of the invading Assyrian hosts (perhaps also prefiguring all the oppressors of God’s people in the end) arriving outside the walls of the Lord’s beloved city, only to find their camp become a burning funeral pyre, with the Lord breathing burning sulfur/brimstone upon it. The same imagery is basically repeated in John’s vision of the final siege against God’s people.

⁷ And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison ⁸ and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. ⁹ And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, ¹⁰ and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

(Revelation 20:7–10)

The final chapter of Isaiah not only agrees with this fire from heaven (which sets the stage for a new creation), but it also contains an important reference to hellfire which Jesus later connects to Gehenna:

¹⁵ For behold, the Lord will come in fire,
and his chariots like the whirlwind,
to render his anger in fury,
and his rebuke with flames of fire.
¹⁶ For by fire will the Lord enter into judgment,
and by his sword, with all flesh;
and those slain by the Lord shall be many.

¹⁷ Those who sanctify and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following one in the midst, eating pig’s flesh and the abomination and mice, shall come to an end together, declares the Lord.

²² For as the new heavens and the new earth
that I make
shall remain before me, says the Lord,
so shall your offspring and your name remain.
²³ From new moon to new moon,
and from Sabbath to Sabbath,
all flesh shall come to worship before me,
declares the Lord.

²⁴ And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.

(Isaiah 66:15–17, 22–24)

Robert Peterson helpfully pulls together much of what we have seen so far:

Isaiah envisioned worshipers leaving the temple and gazing upon the corpses of the Lord’s enemies, probably in the Valley of Hinnom, as a comparison with Jeremiah 7:32–8:3 suggests. In this valley, another name for which is Topheth, human sacrifices were offered to the Ammonite god Molech during the reigns of Ahaz and Manasseh (2 Kings 16:3; 21:6). It was eventually desecrated by Josiah (2 Kings 23:10) but gained an evil reputation that continued into the first century a.d. when it was used as a designation for hell….

For exposed corpses to be eaten by worms or burned was a disgrace. Here was the ultimate disgrace. In all other cases the maggots would die when they had finished their foul work (cf. Isa. 14:11), and the fire would go out once its fuel was consumed. But in the prophet’s picture of God’s judgment of those who rebel, the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched! The punishment and shame of the wicked have no end; their fate is eternal. It is no wonder that “they will be loathsome to all mankind.”[2]

Now that we have examined the Old Testament concepts surrounding the Valley of Hinnom (gehinnam) or Topheth, we can proceed to the New Testament doctrine of Gehenna with greater clarity.

The New Testament Teaching

Connecting the New Testament name Gehenna with its Old Testament roots, Geerhardus Vos provides his thoughts regarding the name’s significance.

In the name itself two elements can be distinguished:

1. It portrays the place of the damned as an unclean, cursed location, over which the fire of the divine wrath burns. Indeed, the fire that glowed in the Moloch-furnace was already a lingering trace in paganism of the unadulterated concept of divine righteousness that exercises punishment. And the fire that later consumed carrion and other impure things was even more an image of the burning that causes God’s holiness to break out against all sin.
2. It portrays the place of the damned as a location where the fire of hostile hate against God in the heart of the lost is never extinguished. As in Topheth the Moloch-oven burned, so in Gehenna does the furnace of sin.[3]

Jesus’ use of the term gehenna certainly emphasizes the fire of divine wrath. Consider the following texts in which gehenna is translated hell.

²¹ “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ ²² But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”

(Matthew 5:21–22)

²⁷ “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ ²⁸ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. ²⁹ If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. ³⁰ And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.”

(Matthew 5:27–30)

In Matthew 10:28, Jesus warns, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”

⁵ “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, ⁶ but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

⁷ “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes! ⁸ And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. ⁹ And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.”

(Matthew 18:5–9)

Jesus accuses the Jewish teachers of the law of making disciples who deserve Gehenna twice as much as they themselves do: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.” (Matthew 23:15) Likewise in verse 33 of the same chapter, Jesus exclaims, “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?”

The Gospel of Mark contains a parallel text to Matthew 18, but with an important difference. Mark 9:48 includes Jesus’ quotation of the prophet Isaiah, which supports Christ’s doctrine of eternal damnation.

⁴² “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. ⁴³ And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. ⁴⁵ And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. ⁴⁷ And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, ⁴⁸ ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’”

(Mark 9:42–48)

Notice Christ’s quotation here of Isaiah 66:24, which describes unending shame, corruption, destruction, and horror for rebels slain by the Lord at the end of history. As long as the everlasting new creation endures, so long shall damnation endure. That is the message of Isaiah from which Jesus quotes.

Two more New Testament texts wrap up the scriptural appearances of the term gehenna. The first, in the Gospel of Luke, is another parallel with the two preceding synoptic gospels.

⁴ “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. ⁵ But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!

(Luke 12:4–5)

James the Lord’s brother strikingly speaks of the destructive tongue as a hellish instrument, burning with the fire which will forever devour sinners but never be satisfied.

⁵ So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.

How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! ⁶ And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.

(James 3:5–6)

Conclusion

One feature of Jesus’ warnings about Gehenna must not be missed, though it easily could be. Jesus warned about both body and soul being cast into Gehenna. His words in Matthew 10:28 are quite clear: “fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” Thus Gehenna is not equivalent to the torment of the disembodied dead in Hades. Rather, Gehenna speaks of the second death which awaits the impenitent when they are resurrected to damnation. Death and Hades will be cast into Gehenna, which the apostle John calls the lake of fire and sulfur. That which God rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah and which Isaiah saw igniting the invading Assyrians’ death pyre now is shown to have foreshadowed God’s eternal, blazing wrath upon the wicked.

¹⁰ And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. ¹¹ Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. ¹² And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. ¹³ And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. ¹⁴ Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. ¹⁵ And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

(Revelation 20:10–15)

Now that we have examined the major scriptural terms translated hell, we will proceed to notice how a couple more terms should further inform our doctrine of hell.

[1] J. Alec Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction and Commentary (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 253.

[2] Robert A. Peterson, Hell on Trial: The Case for Eternal Punishment (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 1995), 31–32

[3] Geerhardus Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, translated and edited by Richard B. Gaffin, Jr. (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2020), 1144.

Ben Habegger

Ben Habegger first served in full-time pastoral ministry near Detroit, Michigan from 2013-2017 and has now been vocational pastor at Hope Reformed Baptist Church of Aloha, Oregon (formerly Glencullen Baptist Church of Portland, Oregon) since January of 2020. He has a Master of Divinity degree from Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary and a Master of Arts in Reformed Baptist Studies from Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary. Ben and his wife Theresa have four children.