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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Matthew 5:22 - 5:22
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Hell-fire (τήν γέενναν τοῦ πυρός)
Rev., more accurately, the hell of fire. The word Gehenna, rendered hell, occurs outside of the Gospels only at Jam 3:6. It is the Greek representative of the Hebrew Ge-Hinnom, or Valley of Hinnom, a deep, narrow glen to the south of Jerusalem, where, after the introduction of the worship of the fire-gods by Ahaz, the idolatrous Jews sacrificed their children to Molech. Josiah formally desecrated it, “that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to Molech” (2Ki 23:10). After this it became the common refuse-place of the city, into which the bodies of criminals, carcasses of animals, and all sorts of filth were cast. From its depth and narrowness, and its fire and ascending smoke, it became the symbol of the place of the future punishment of the wicked. So Milton:
“The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence
And black Gehenna called, the type of hell.”
As fire was the characteristic of the place, it was called the Gehenna of fire. It should be carefully distinguished from Hades (ᾅδης), which is never used for the place of punishment, but for the place of departed spirits, without reference to their moral condition. This distinction, ignored by the A. V., is made in the Rev.