What the Hell is Hell? Book Summary Part 1

This will be a series of short blogs that summarize my book What the Hell is Hell?  We will delve into specific questions raised in it, including the answer to the title question. I would like you to know that the answer will not be based on my personal opinion, but based on what Jesus says in the Bible. And you might find, as I once did, that what so many of us have been taught about this, may not concur with what scripture actually says.

Today I will cover the first question we need to ask on the path to knowing whether or not Jesus believed in hell, and that is, what is hell? In most modern English translations of the New Testament, which was originally written in Greek, for example the NIV Bible, the NRSV Bible, and the New King James Bible, every time you see the word hell you will find a footnote next to it telling you it is a translation of the Greek word Gehenna.

Gehenna is the Greek version of a Hebrew word Ge-Hinnom, which means simply the valley of Hinnom. This is a valley that is just outside Jerusalem, which was owned by the family of Hinnom. The valley is mentioned several times in the Old Testament. It is called either the valley of Hinnom, or the Valley of the son of Hinnom. 

We first see the valley mentioned in the book of Joshua. It is referenced there simply as a location in a couple of passages describing the geography of the area. Once we get into Second Kings, Second Chronicles, and Jeremiah, we find out that it is a place where people used to sacrifice children by fire in cultic worship to the Canaanite god Molech. God curses the place and threatens great vengeance and death to all who continues to partake in the abominable practice. And so, in Jewish culture, and in the scripture, Gehenna becomes the most desecrated and accursed land there is. 

We then see Gehenna mentioned 12 times in the Gospels, and 11 of those time it is Jesus who uses the word. 

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