Gehenna

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Gehenna \Ge*hen"na\ (g[-e]*h[e^]n"n[.a]), prop. n. [L. Gehenna,
     Gr. Ge`enna, Heb. G[=e] Hinn[=o]m.] (Jewish Hist.)
     The valley of Hinnom, near Jerusalem, where some of the
     Israelites sacrificed their children to Moloch, which, on
     this account, was afterward regarded as a place of
     abomination, and made a receptacle for all the refuse of the


     city, perpetual fires being kept up in order to prevent
     pestilential effluvia. In the New Testament the name is
     transferred, by an easy metaphor, to Hell.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           The pleasant valley of Hinnom. Tophet thence
           And black Gehenna called, the type of Hell. --Milton.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  Gehenna
       n : a place where the wicked are punished after death [syn: {Tartarus}]

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Gehenna
     (originally Ge bene Hinnom; i.e., "the valley of the sons of
     Hinnom"), a deep, narrow glen to the south of Jerusalem, where
     the idolatrous Jews offered their children in sacrifice to
     Molech (2 Chr. 28:3; 33:6; Jer. 7:31; 19:2-6). This valley
     afterwards became the common receptacle for all the refuse of
     the city. Here the dead bodies of animals and of criminals, and
     all kinds of filth, were cast and consumed by fire kept always
     burning. It thus in process of time became the image of the
     place of everlasting destruction. In this sense it is used by
     our Lord in Matt. 5:22, 29, 30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15, 33; Mark
     9:43, 45, 47; Luke 12:5. In these passages, and also in James
     3:6, the word is uniformly rendered "hell," the Revised Version
     placing "Gehenna" in the margin. (See {HELL}; {HINNOM}.)