# G1067 - geenna **Strong's:** [G1067](https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g1067/) · BLB lookup **Pronunciation:** gheh'-en-nah **Part of speech:** noun, feminine **Root:** transliterated from Hebrew *gê ben-Hinnōm* (גֵּי בֶן הִנֹּם), "Valley of the Son of Hinnom," via Aramaic *gēhinnām* **NT occurrences:** 12, **11 of which come from the lips of Jesus**; 1 in [James 3:6](/codex/james-3-6/) ## Semantic range 1. **Geographic origin (OT)**, the Valley of Hinnom, a deep ravine running south-southwest of Jerusalem (now Wadi er-Rababi). Border between the tribal allotments of Judah and Benjamin ([Joshua 15:8](/codex/joshua-15-8/); 18:16). 2. **Site of child-sacrifice to Molech (OT)**, under apostate kings Ahaz ([2 Kings 16:3](/codex/2-kings-16-3/); 2 Chron 28:3) and Manasseh ([2 Kings 21:6](/codex/2-kings-21-6/); 2 Chron 33:6); cursed and renamed by Jeremiah "the Valley of Slaughter" ([Jer 7:30-32](/codex/jeremiah-7-30-32/); 19:1-13; 32:35) when YHWH judged it via Babylon. 3. **Intertestamental Jewish development**, *gēhinnām* becomes the standard Second-Temple Jewish locus of eschatological judgment of the wicked (1 Enoch 27:1-4; 54:1-6; 90:26-27; 2 Baruch 59:10; 4 [Ezra 7:36](/codex/ezra-7-36/); Sibylline Oracles 1.103; 4.186; Targum Isaiah; rabbinic tradition through *m. Eduyot* 2.10, *b. Eruvin* 19a, etc.). Jesus' audience already understood the term without explanation. 4. **NT use**, the final-judgment fate of the unrighteous; usually paired with "fire" (*to pyr tēs geennēs*, "the fire of gehenna," [Matt 5:22](/codex/matthew-5-22/); 18:9; *to pyr aionion*, "the eternal fire," in adjacent contexts). ## Theological force ### *Geenna* is Jesus' word for final judgment The first-order datum: of the 12 NT uses, 11 are spoken by Jesus himself; the only exception is [James 3:6](/codex/james-3-6/) (and James is the brother of Jesus, plausibly carrying his vocabulary). No other NT speaker uses the term, not Paul, not Peter, not John in his epistles, not Luke in Acts. The reigning NT word for "hell" comes from Jesus, not from later Hellenistic accretion. This is a substantive point against the popular thesis that Christian doctrine of hell is a Greek-philosophical or Augustinian invention. Lexically, the burden runs the other way: hell-language enters Christianity at the earliest possible point, Jesus' own ministry, and from the *most* Jewish vocabulary stratum (an Aramaic transliteration of a Hebrew place-name), not from Hellenistic-philosophical *Hades* or Greco-Roman *Tartaros*. ### Distinguished from Hades and Tartaros NT eschatological vocabulary is precise: - ***Hades*** (G0086, ᾅδης), the **intermediate state**, the realm of the dead between death and resurrection. Appears 10× in NT ([Matt 11:23](/codex/matthew-11-23/); 16:18; [Luke 10:15](/codex/luke-10-15/); 16:23; [Acts 2:27](/codex/acts-2-27/), [31](/codex/acts-2-31/); [Rev 1:18](/codex/revelation-1-18/); 6:8; 20:13, 14). At the final judgment, "death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire" ([Rev 20:14](/codex/revelation-20-14/)), Hades itself is judged, indicating Hades is not the *final* state. - ***Tartaros*** (verb form G5020, *tartaroō*; used once at [2 Peter 2:4](/codex/2-peter-2-4/)), a holding cell for fallen angels awaiting judgment. Greek mythological loan-word; Peter uses it once with no further development. - ***Geenna***, the **final state** of the wicked, post-resurrection-and-judgment. Distinct from the intermediate state. The lake-of-fire imagery in [Revelation 19:20](/codex/revelation-19-20/); 20:10, 14-15; 21:8 functions as a Johannine apocalyptic equivalent of the Synoptic *geenna*, same referent (final-state judgment), different vocabulary. ### Fire imagery, OT-rooted, not Greek The pairing of *geenna* with fire (*to pyr tēs geennēs*) is anchored in the OT memory of the valley itself: child-sacrifice involved burning ([Lev 18:21](/codex/leviticus-18-21/); 20:2-5; [Deut 12:31](/codex/deuteronomy-12-31/); 18:10). The valley's reputation for fire predates Jesus by centuries, it is *the* place of unholy burning in the canonical memory. The popular medieval tradition that "Gehenna was Jerusalem's garbage dump" (perpetually-burning trash heap) is post-rabbinic and unsupported by any first-century evidence (no archaeological or textual confirmation; the tradition appears first in David Kimchi, c. AD 1200). The biblical-theological fire imagery is the Molech-and-judgment imagery of Jeremiah, not municipal sanitation. ## Notable verses ### Sermon on the Mount block ([Matthew 5](/codex/matthew-5/)) - **[Matthew 5:22](/codex/matthew-5-22/)**, "whoever says, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery *geenna*" - **[Matthew 5:29](/codex/matthew-5-29/)**, "it is better for you that one of the parts of your body perish, than for your whole body to be thrown into *geenna*" - **[Matthew 5:30](/codex/matthew-5-30/)**, parallel to 5:29 with the right hand ### Body-and-soul block - **[Matthew 10.28](/codex/matthew-10-28/)**, "Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in *geenna*." Cornerstone verse against pure-soul-only annihilationism and against the materialist "death is the end" thesis. Distinct from physical death. - **[Luke 12:5](/codex/luke-12-5/)**, synoptic parallel ### Severance imagery ([Matthew 18](/codex/matthew-18/) / [Mark 9](/codex/mark-9/)) - **[Matthew 18:9](/codex/matthew-18-9/)**, "It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be cast into the fiery *geenna*" - **[Mark 9:43](/codex/mark-9-43/)**, "to go into *geenna*, into the unquenchable fire" - **[Mark 9:45](/codex/mark-9-45/)**, "to be cast into *geenna*" - **[Mark 9:47](/codex/mark-9-47/)**, "to be cast into *geenna*", paired with [Isaiah 66:24](/codex/isaiah-66-24/) ("their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched") in 9:48, the closing OT echo ### Pharisee discourse ([Matthew 23](/codex/matthew-23/)) - **[Matthew 23:15](/codex/matthew-23-15/)**, "you make him twice as much a son of *geenna* as yourselves" - **[Matthew 23:33](/codex/matthew-23-33/)**, "You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of *geenna*?" ### Epistolary - **[James 3.6](/codex/james-3-6/)**, "the tongue … set on fire by *geenna*", the only non-Jesus NT use; uses *geenna* metaphorically of the destructive fire-source of the unsanctified tongue ## Patristic and scholarly note The early church reads *geenna* as referring to the unending post-judgment state of the wicked: - **Justin Martyr** *First Apology* 8: "Plato said that Rhadamanthus and Minos punish the wicked … we say the same thing, but the difference is, that Christ has said that punishment will be eternal." - **Tertullian** *Apology* 47-48: extended treatment; *geenna* as conscious, embodied (post-resurrection), and unending. - **Augustine** *City of God* 21, defends the doctrine extensively, especially the embodied-resurrection-of-the-wicked thesis (21.2-10) and the harmonization with [Matt 25:46](/codex/matthew-25-46/)'s parallel of *aiōnios kolasis* and *aiōnios zōē* (21.23). - **John Chrysostom** preaches *geenna* directly; his "fear of *geenna*" themes are pastorally famous. Modern conditionalist / annihilationist treatments (Fudge, *The Fire That Consumes*, 1982) argue that the imagery of fire is consummative (the wicked are *consumed* in *geenna*, not eternally tormented); modern universalist treatments (Robin Parry, David Bentley Hart) argue *geenna* is purgative-not-final. The traditional view replies that the [Matt 25:46](/codex/matthew-25-46/) parallel (*aiōnios* applied identically to punishment and life) and the embodied imagery (worm, fire that is not quenched) make the conditionalist / universalist readings difficult, see [G0166 - aionios](/codex/g0166-aionios/) for the lexical debate on duration. The *geenna* word itself is largely neutral on *duration*; the duration debate runs through the eternal-*aiōnios* adjective applied to *geenna*-adjacent imagery. ## Apologetic deployment - **Against "hell is Greek paganism imported into Christianity"**, the lexical data falsify the charge. The dominant NT term for hell is a Hebrew-Aramaic place-name, not a Greek mythological referent. Jesus' vocabulary is most-Jewish at exactly the point critics claim it is most-Hellenistic. - **Against "Jesus didn't really talk about hell"**, eleven of twelve NT *geenna* uses are from Jesus. The "loving Jesus vs. wrathful Paul" trope is reverse to the lexical data: Jesus is the source of the hell-vocabulary, not Paul (who never uses *geenna*). - **Against the garbage-dump myth**, the popular preacher-illustration that "Gehenna was just the trash dump" is post-12th-century (David Kimchi) and historically baseless. The biblical-theological backdrop is Molech-sacrifice and Jeremiah's judgment-fire, not municipal waste. The implication for teaching: don't preach the garbage-dump line; teach the Jeremiah-Hinnom line. ## Verses in this codex _See Obsidian's backlinks pane for every verse page linking here._ ## See also - [Hell](/codex/hell-and-eternal-punishment/), the concept hub on which this lexicon entry directly bears - [Hell as Eternal Torment Objection](/codex/hell-as-eternal-torment-objection/), atheist-objection concept; this lexicon entry supports the response that the doctrine's vocabulary is Jewish-Jesuanic, not Hellenistic accretion - [G0166 - aionios](/codex/g0166-aionios/), the adjective most often used with *geenna*-adjacent fire / punishment imagery; the locus of the duration debate - [H5769 - olam](/codex/h5769-olam/), the Hebrew "age / eternity" word; OT parallel to *aiōnios* - [H4191 - mut](/codex/h4191-mut/), the Hebrew "to die" verb; OT context for the death / judgment vocabulary that *geenna* completes - [Matthew 10.28](/codex/matthew-10-28/), body-and-soul destruction in *geenna*; cornerstone verse - [James 3.6](/codex/james-3-6/), the only non-Jesus NT *geenna* use; metaphorical-rhetorical