Wednesday, August 30, 2006

The Broadening of Horizons
I was talking to this Jewish man just the other day in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City. I entered into a discussion with him because I wanted to obtain a better understanding of Orthodox Jewish theology. I have become very interested in knowing what Jewish thoughts are, especially on particular subjects. Now, one might ask “why would you care what the Jews think” or “why are you interested in Jewish theology”. Well, God’s chosen people are the Jews, Jesus is Jewish, and 2/3’s of the Bible is the Tenakh (Old Testament). If one wants to know where they are going they first must look to where they’ve been. These are a couple of reasons why I want to know about the roots of the Bible and the roots of the Christian faith.

So, anyway, back to the discussion…

We where talking about prayer shawls (Numbers 15:37-41) for awhile and in the midst of this conversation I turned it toward another subject. I asked this man what the Jewish mindset was on the afterlife and I heard some very interesting things…

…But before I go any further I’d to share what started me on this whole journey in the first place. The following is the "claim" that had such an impact on my own thoughts and continues to do so...

It’s rather simple, actually, when you boil it all down, but it leads to so many other questions and thoughts. All it is, is a little Koine Greek word…geenna.

Chipped Teeth
In the entire Bible there are fourteen occurrences of the English translation of this Greek word. Twelve of the uses of this word appear in the Gospels. The Greek word geenna has been translated into the English word “hell”…

The Greek word geenna comes from the Hebrew word hinnōm.

And this is where things begin to get very interesting…

This word refers to a literal place called the Valley of Hinnom (Josh 15:8; 18:16) or the Gehenna Valley. The valley is located west and south of Jerusalem, which I currently live right next to. Actually, just the other day I played baseball down there. The origin of the name is unknown but is believed to almost certainly be the name of a person.
[1]

In the Old Testament, it was often the site where people of Judah sacrificed their children to the pagan god Baal (
2 Kgs 23:20; 2 Chr 28:3,4; Jer 7:31; 19:5, 6; 32:35). It also was the place where children were sacrificed during the time of King Ahab and Manasseh, where children were sacrificed to Molech.[2]

In ancient cities, usually a sewer canal ran under the streets. The designed purpose for these canals was probably to drain rain water from the town. However, people also used them as a means of disposing of any unwanted waste. In Jerusalem, these canals emptied into the Hinnom Valley, so the use of the valley was similar to that of a garbage dump. Trash and carcasses of unclean animals were constantly burning in this valley.
[3] Jesus quotes Isaiah 66:24 in Mark 9:48 in reference to the Hinnom Valley when He said “their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.”

When I first studied this it blew my mind. All sorts of questions began to surface in my thoughts…

The number one question I’ve been asking myself is, “how does this affect my theology?” Whether it means that hell is exactly what I was taught as a child or is something completely different, I’d like to know.

So, back to the conversation with the Jewish man. He stated that the Jewish mindset on hell is not eternal separation from God. For if an individual were to be completely separated from God then they would cease to exist. Hell and Heaven, in some ways, are the same place. The thing that makes something heaven or something hell is what ones life has been like. An individuals awareness before God is what will make his conscious difficult, painful…or blissful.

hell
"Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire," says the LORD Almighty. "Not a root or a branch will be left to them.

heaven
But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall (Malachi 4:1-2).

Same sun…to some it burns and to others it heals.

Very interesting…

So, that’s a little insight into what I’ve been thinking and trying to figure out. Why did Jesus refer to the Hinnom Valley in this way? How do I apply this? How does this compliment or supplement my theology? How should this affect my everyday life? So, many questions and such an interesting subject…



[1] D. R. W. Wood. New Bible Dictionary 3rd edition. Inter-varsity press, Leicester, England. 1996.
[2] W. Harris. The Complete Biblical Library Alpha-Gamma. Springfield, Missouri, U.S.A. 1990.
[3] Gehenna—A Picture of Hell. 1995-2005. That The World May Know Ministries. 12-4-05. <http://www.followtherabbi.com/Brix?pageID=1629>.

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