It's June 2001 and I'm getting mail chastising me for not believing in a literal hell. One person even scolded me for doing a great dis-service to my readers. Those who think I don't believe in an actual place of final punishment are very mistaken. The Bible clearly teaches that unrepentant sinners will receive eternal punishment. Revelation 20:15 clearly states, "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." Maybe my critics formed their opinions based on my questioning the exact location of hell (which by strict definition I mean a place of fiery punishment). To date, no one seems to know where hell is. Few are willing even to speculate. So, let's ask the question again, and this time I'll provide a little background by repeating an article I wrote back in August 1998.
A reader writes: " I have been wondering about a place called Gehenna, my friend (who is a Muslim) said it was a place outside of Jerusalem, deep as the Grand Canyon, where they would throw trash. They say hell is 300 times hotter than earth, and he said when the trash would decompose it would heat up. People called this place hell. He said that is where hell derived from. Is this true?"
My response is that your Muslim friend is--correct, partly correct, mistaken and guessing. First, it is important to understand the Valley of Gehenna and the Valley of Hinnom are the same place. The word Gehenna is simply how the Hebrew word was spelled when translated into Greek, the language of the New Testament. Take for example the modern German city named Koln (pronounced kerln). In English we translate it as Cologne. Such is the case with Hinnom and Gehenna. You might say Gehenna is the Greekized version of Hinnom.
Now, back to your friend. He is correct in that there is a place outside of Jerusalem called Gehenna or the Valley of Hinnom. However, scholars say, "The tradition that makes the Valley of Gehenna a place of burning rubbish, and thus a type of the fires of hell, appears to have originated with Rabbi Kimchi, a Jewish scholar of the 12th and 13th centuries. Ancient Jewish literature knows nothing of such an idea." 5BC335.
As to the valley being deep as the Grand Canyon, your friend is mistaken. Geographic survey maps show that the valley varies from 620 meters above sea level at its lowest point to 713 meters at its highest point. This makes the valley about 300 feet deep and around a mile long.
As to the temperature of hell, this raises an interesting point. Some say that not all hells are hot. Descriptions of hell seem to be limited only by imagination. I understand that Hindus say there are twenty-one hells and Buddhists say there are eight hot and eight cold hells. Dante, a Roman Catholic poet of the Middle Ages, remarked after supposedly visiting in hell that he saw a thousand wretched faces twisted by the bitter cold--and he shuddered to think of the frozen areas there. After Dante's imaginary tour of hell, he described Satan as having three faces, one between white and yellow, one a dark brown, and the third as flaming red. Also, Dante described Satan as having wings like a bat which fanned the air and made chilling winds. He pictured Satan as standing in ice up to his chest while chomping on a sinner in each of his three mouths. So, is hell 300 times hotter than earth? Who knows, I don't, but I will agree, the Bible says its really really hot!
The Valley of Gehenna (Hinnom) is mentioned in both the Old and New Testaments. It became infamous because it was where an Israel king burned his children as an offering to a pagan god. 2 Chronicles 28:3, "Moreover he [Ahaz] burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire, after the abominations of the heathen . . ." Of Manasseh, another Israelite king, we read, "And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom. . ." It appears that it wasn't only the kings who engaged in this terrible act. We read in Jeremiah 7:31, "And they [the children of Judah] have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart."
However, a Divine warning was given. "Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: for they shall bury Tophet till there be no place. And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them away." Accordingly, the fires of Hinnom became a symbol of God's last day judgment of sinners in the ancient Jewish way of thinking. Therefore, when Jesus referred to the Valley of Hinnom three times in the Sermon on the Mount, his hearers knew exactly the point he was making.
Which brings us to the last and final point. The translators of the King James Version of the Bible chose to use the word "hell" as a substitute for longer phrase Valley of Hinnom. You can see this in Matthew 5:22, 29, 30 and other places. It appears that the translators felt that readers would be confused or not grasp the meaning if the text read, "cast into the Valley of Hinnom" as Matthew 5:29 might read.

Blessings in your study of God's Word!

Marvin Hunt

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Blessings!
Marvin Hunt

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