was Gehenna ever a garbage dumping area

[patmokgoko]

Hi family, I am struggling to get biblical support that the valley of Gehenna was then used as a dumping place by Israel.Perhaps Ray had discussed it somewhere, please help.

[Kat]

Hi patmokgoko,

Yes Ray has mentioned Gehenna as being the city dump back in the days Jesus walked the earth in a number of places, here are the excerpts that I found.

http://bible-truths.com/lake16-D2.htm ---------------------------

How do the Rabbis and Orthodox Jews view GeHinnom/Gehenna? Are their traditions different from Christians seeing that they place no real authority on the New Testament Scriptures? Their view is a bit foggy, but let's look at it.

RABBINIC DOGMA, TRADITION, AND FABLES ON GEHENNA

"Needless to say the rubbish dumps of Christ's day were a far cry from the sanitary landfills we engineer today. Gehenna was an open pit, infested with rats and reeking with decaying food and human excrement. The bodies of executed criminals and other undesirables were also dumped there. When the pestilence that fed on the dump began getting out of hand, the entire thing was set on fire. But even the fires of Gehenna didn't purify - they sent billows of reeking smoke over the entire city, spreading disease and death." (Kaufman Koehler).

"Gehinom (Gehenna), according to rabbinic literature, is a place or state where the wicked are temporarily punished after death. The godly, meanwhile, await Judgment Day in the bosom of Abraham." Gehenna" is sometimes translated as "hell," but the Christian view of hell differs from the Jewish view of Gehenna. Most sinners are said to suffer in Gehenna no longer than twelve months, but those who commit certain sins are punished forever."


http://bible-truths.com/fulltext/fulltext.htm ------------------------

The fact, Mr. Hagee, is that the word "hell" is used in the Authorized Version of the Gospels fourteen (14) times, while the word "heaven" is used in the Gospels one hundred and fifty (150) some times. Maybe you meant to say it the other way around. You owe your listeners a correction.

Tell me, do you men ever listen to each other on T.B.N.? Dr. Kennedy says the Scriptures speak of eternity in Heaven some 300 times and eternity in Hell only 60 times.

Both of your figures are in gross error, and they grossly contradict each other.

What are the facts? "Hell" is not a proper translation for one single word in the whole of Scripture. Spending an eternity in pain and suffering is mentioned nowhere in the Scriptures. The fire in the Valley of Hinnom, South of Jerusalem, is the city garbage dump during Christ's millennial reign only; it is not a place of eternal torture. The Lake of Fire is clearly stated to be: "The second death," not a place of eternal torture (which would be "life").


http://bible-truths.com/hagee1.htm -----------------------------

Jesus never even said the word "hell" so how could He believe in it? Mark 9:46-- " ... to be cast into Gehenna, into the unextinguished fire, where their worm is not deceasing and the fire is not going out." This is not "hell." This is "Gehenna." So why call it "hell?" The exact Greek word is Ge'enna (in Hebrew it is: RAVINE-of-HINNOM). It is a ravine just below Jerusalem where the city waste was incinerated.

What justification is there in translating this ravine into the English word "hell?"

You're not " ... distinguishing the things that differ" (Phil. 1:10).

You are not " ... having a pattern of sound words" (II Tim. 1:13-14).

You are "adding to" the Word of God" (Rev. 22:18-19).

You are following the "traditions of men" (Col. 2:08).

The "ravine of hinnom" (Gehenna) was the city garbage dump in Jerusalem where the garbage was burned. And just like all garbage dumps, there were worms. The reason they didn't die out was because there was a constant supply of refuge being fed them.  Gehenna is a real place. This place existed at the time Jesus spoke these very words. It was burning with fire, with a daily supply of garbage, and a daily supply of worms to eat it. But if you go there today, it is not burning and there are no worms. This Gehenna is not eternal

How is it that learned men can so pervert and corrupt God's Word? There is not one word in either the Greek or Hebrew languages that means "a place where evil dead people suffer in fire for all eternity." What "exact" Greek or Hebrew word has such a meaning


http://bible-truths.com/23-minutes-in-hell.html --------------------

The first place that "hell fire" appears in the Greek New Testament is in Matt. 5:22. Virtually all Bibles with a center reference will refer you to the marginal note on "hell" where it says, "Greek: Gehenna." And Gehenna is Greek for the Hebrew word "Hinnom" or "Valley of Hinnom," which is found outside the city walls of Jerusalem on the south side.

You can, if you wish, take a stroll through hell in Jerusalem - it is now part of a city park. In the time of Christ's ministry this valley was the Jerusalem city garbage dump, and for centuries, as long as garbage was thrown into it, the fires kept burning and the worms which ate the garbage didn't die out - they kept reproducing, year after year after year.

The only way ... the ONLY WAY, that any Christian can claim that hell, hell fire, immortal worms, never-ending fire, eternal torture, etc., can be literal is if we take everything literally that Jesus said regarding hell (Gehenna fire). You cannot separate what Jesus says MUST be done to avoid having, "...your whole body cast into hell [Gehenna], from what Christians say hell is. In other words, you cannot avoid a LITERAL HELL by performing a FIGURATIVE action.


http://bible-truths.com/email2.htm -------------------------------

Your knowledge of the word "hell" is quite lacking. Hell has NOTHING to do with fire. "Hell fire" mentioned in the KJV is from the Greek word "Gehenna."  It is a valley south of Jerusalem. It used to be the city garbage dump. As such it was on fire. As garbage and organic materials were constantly thrown into this fire, the worms there did not die out, but kept on multiplying until there was nothing left to eat. The valley is STILL in Jerusalem, Dan, but the fire is OUT and there are no WORMS there.

The word "hell" in the KJV is translated from the Greek word "Hades" which means the UNSEEN or etymologically, UN=PERCEIVE or IMPERCEPTIBLE.  There can NOT be feelings, torture, pain, etc., in a place that by its very name means to have NO PERCEPTION OF ANYTHING!! People must first be resurrected from Hades before they will have perception again.

Are you interested enough in the Word of God to study this word and see if I am correct?

In Luke 8, the demons did not fear going to "hell." Read it, Dan, they feared being put back into the "deep" as it is in KJV or more properly the "submerged chaos." It is the SAME word translated "bottomless pit" in Rev. where Satan is held for a thousand years, and THEN he is put into the "lake of fire" (Ver. 10). (He is held in the pit because God has one more dirty work for Satan to perform before he begins his purification in the lake of fire (not the pit).

There is NO WORD in either the Hebrew or Greek scriptures that means "eternal" or "everlasting" or "for ever and ever."  Since there is NO SUCH WORD IN THE BIBLE, all such translations are WRONG and misleading. 


http://bible-truths.com/lake16-D4.htm ----------------------------

THE FUNCTION OF SPIRITUAL JUDGMENT,
COUNCIL, GEHENNA FIRE, AND PRISON

In Jesus' Sermon recorded in Matt. 5:21-26, Jesus was not teaching His disciples on the mount that they would be brought before the Judgment of the nation of Israel if they hated a brother; or that they would be brought before the High Council of the Jewish Sanhedrin if they called a brother Raca; or that they would be burned at the Jerusalem garbage dumped in the valley of Gehenna if they called a brother a fool; or that they would be thrown into a prison of the Roman Empire if they did not quickly rectify a grievance with a brother. It is nonsense to think such a thing. These are Jesus' Judgments for His disciples and followers through all ages.
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mercy, peace and love
Kat

p.s. I found this interesting where Jesus spoke of gehenna and what Strong's definition was.

Mat 23:33  Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell (gehenna)?G1067

G1067
γέεννα
geenna
gheh'-en-nah
Of Hebrew origin ([H1516] and [H2011]); valley of (the son of) Hinnom; gehenna (or Ge-Hinnom), a valley of Jerusalem, used (figuratively) as a name for the place (or state) of everlasting punishment: - hell.

What else could this 'valley' have been except a place to dispose of waste (a dump) in Jesus' day, which He could have used to represent the temperary judgment in the lake of fire.