Gates of Gehenna

Saturday, April 15, 2006

What is this place?

Due to lack of understanding on your part, I am obligated to share with you the meaning of this title, "Gates of Gehenna." Believe it or not, at one point in my life, I had no idea what the term "Gehenna" meant, but nearly twenty-one years later, I am fully versed. Soon, you too, will be a learned individual. Here it goes:

'"Gehenna" is a word tracing to Greek, ultimately from Hebrew Gai-Ben-Hinnom meaning Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and is still called Gai Ben Hinnom in Modern Hebrew (גיא בן הינום), though this is sometimes shortened to Gai-Hinnom in rabbinical texts. An alternate way to transliterate this word is Gehinnom. Originally it referred to a garbage dump in a deep narrow valley right outside the walls of Jerusalem (in modern-day Israel) where fires were kept burning to consume the refuse and keep down the stench. It is also the location where bodies of executed criminals, or individuals denied a proper burial, would be dumped. Today, "Gehenna" is often used as a synonym for Hell.

According to Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible Volume I, “It [Gehenna] became the common lay-stall garbage dump of the city, where the dead bodies of criminals, and the carcasses of animals, and every other kind of filth was cast.”

So, with much pleasure, I extend an invitation to the Gates of Gehenna. Enjoy!

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