Yesterday we saw that seven out of the eleven times we see Jesus use the word hell in the Gospels, which is our English translation of the Greek word Gehenna, an actual valley outside Jerusalem. We saw that the reasons he gives for you going there are not based on what you believed about him when the final judgment comes, but rather on if you were a sinner.
Today we will cover the remaining four verses in which Jesus uses the term Gehenna. Our two next verses are parallel verses. A parallel verse is one that is repeated and virtually the same in more than one gospel, although there may be slight variations. Jesus’ main message in these two verses is for you to fear God, the one who can send you to Gehenna. He is prepping his disciples to go out and spread his messages, and he encourages them to be unafraid if they are not accepted by people or towns or persecuted by religious authorities, because God is with them. He tells them in essence not to fear those who can only hurt them physically, but to fear only God.
In Matthew chapter 10: verse 28 Jesus says, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.” The message is similarly stated in Luke chapter 12 verses 4-5.
Our last two verses both come from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 23. Jesus uses the word Gehenna in passing, to indicate where the Pharisees and scribes deserve to go due to their hypocrisy. “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you cross sea and land to make a single convert and you make the new convert twice as much a child of Gehenna as yourselves” (Matthew 23:15). And “You snakes, you brood of Vipers! How can you escape being sentenced to Gehenna?”
As you can see, Jesus certainly gets into heated exchanges with the scribes and Pharisees, and he might be declaring they will go to Gehenna because of who they are (other variations of sinners), but the verses are not saying they, or you, will go there for not believing in him.
It is plain for anyone to see by just looking at the eleven verses where we see Jesus the word Gehenna (“hell”) that it has been a misconception for the ages to think he ever said believe in me or you will burn in hell for an eternity.
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When does the rest of the summary come out? I need to know more!
This is intriguing.
Can’t wait for part four!! Been following since the first one. =)