posed by either to be necessary. The Jews were always the persons addressed about Gehenna. The first time our Lord addressed his disciples about it, Matt. 5: 22, they had no more occasion to ask him what he meant by Gehenna, than what he meant by the judgment and council. And when he said to the unbelieving Jews, "How can ye escape the damnation of Gehenna?" they understood as well what punishment he meant, as if he had spoken of stoning to death. If all this be true, and we think it indisputable, the question arises, Did the Jews our Lord addressed understand Gehenna to mean a place of endless misery? As this is generally asserted, I have a right to ask, from what source of information did they learn this sense of the word? I can think of no other sources from which they could possibly derive it, except the following:

1st. From immediate inspiration. But no evidence of this can be produced; nor is it even alleged by those who contend that Gehenna in the New Testament means a place of endless punishment. No man will assert this, who has considered the subject.

can

2d. The preaching of John the Baptist. But this not be alleged, for John never said a word about Gehenna in his preaching, if a correct account is given of it in the New Testament.

3d. The instructions or explanations of the Saviour. This, no man will aver who has read the four gospels; for our Lord never explained Gehenna to mean the place of endless punishment.

4th. The Old Testament. All admit that Gehenna is not used in the Old Testament to designate a place of endless misery. Dr. Campbell declared that in this sense it is not found there.

This is the

5th. The assertions of uninspired men. source whence originated the sense now given to Gehenna. Indeed, no higher authority is quoted than this; no one contends that God first gave it such a sense. Dr. Campbell said, "Gehenna in process of time came to be used

in this sense, and at length came to be confined to it." And Professor Stuart refers us to Rabbinical writers as his authority that Gehenna in the New Testament means a place of endless punishment. In fact, he traces the origin of this sense given to Gehenna, to the silly superstition among the Jews, who thought demons dwelt in the valley of Hinnom.. Such is the way, the believers in endless hell torments say, Gehenna came to have such a sense attached to it. We presume no man can devise a better.

But let us suppose the Jews understood our Lord, by Gehenna, to mean a place of endless punishment. How were they likely to relish such a threatening? Not very well, for we shall see afterwards, from Dr. Whitby, that the Jews believed no Jew, however wicked, would go to hell. I ask, then, how was it possible for our Lord to say to the unbelieving Jews, "How can ye escape the damnation of hell?" without exciting their wrath and indignation against him? But nothing is said in the four gospels that this threatening excited their indignation, or that it was ever brought up as an accusation against him.

There is no evidence that the unbelieving Jews understood our Lord in one sense, and the disciples in another. No; nor have we ever seen or heard that this has been alleged by any one. How, then, did both understand him? I answer this question by asking, how ought they to have understood him according to the meaning of Gehenna in their own Scriptures? Certainly either as meaning the literal valley of Hinnom, or symbol of the punishment God had threatened their nation, as seen from Jeremiah. In no other sense was Gehenna used in their Scriptures. In the last of these senses they must have understood him; for when our Lord spoke to them of Gehenna, it was the punishment of Gehenna; and that such a punishment had been threatened by Jeremiah, no Jew could be ignorant who was acquainted with the Scriptures. If the Scriptures were the common source of information,

both to believing and unbelieving Jews, none of them could understand our Lord, by Gehenna punishment, to mean endless punishment in a future state; for they contained no such information. Those who contend that the Jews so understood our Lord, are bound to inform us how they came by this information, seeing it was not found in their Scriptures. Who taught them this doctrine? Was it from heaven or of men? These are the questions at issue. To assume that Gehenna means a place of endless punishment, will not satisfy candid inquirers after truth. And to refer them to Rabbinical authority for this sense of Gehenna, is plainly admitting that it cannot be supported by a fair appeal to the Bible.

We have some additional facts to produce, to show that Gehenna, in the New Testament, does not designate a place of endless misery to the wicked. But these will be more appropriately introduced, after we have considered all the texts in the New Testament where the word

occurs.

SECTION III.

ALL THE TEXTS IN WHICH GEHENNA OCCURS, CONSIDERED.

THAT the term Gehenna, in the New Testament, designates punishment, all admit, but the question is, What is that punishment? Is it endless punishment, as Dr. Campbell and others assert; or is it God's judgments on the Jewish nation, in the destruction of their city and temple?

Some have alleged that Gehenna in the New Testament might refer to "that dreadful doom of being burned alive in the valley of Hinnom." But this is far from being probable, for burning alive in the valley of Hinnom was not a Roman punishment; and in our Lord's

day the Jews had not power to put any man legally to death, by any mode of punishment whatever. Burning alive in the valley of Hinnom was, in our Lord's day, unknown among the Jews. To this horrid practice, then, I think he could not allude when he threatened them with the damnation of Gehenna.

Schleusner observes, that among the Jews "any severe punishment, especially a shameful kind of death, was denominated Gehenna." If this remark is correct, it well agrees with the prediction of Jeremiah. He had used Gehenna as imagery to describe the punishment to be inflicted on the Jewish nation, when on them came all the righteous blood shed on the earth. That this punishment was severe is certain. Our Lord declared, "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved." Matt. 24: 21, 22. Josephus said, six hundred thousand dead bodies were carried out of Jerusalem and suffered to lie unburied. Their punishment, then, was both severe and shameful, and might well be denominated Gehenna, for no place was more horrible to Jews than the valley of Hinnom. It was a fit emblem to describe their punishment.

It cannot be consistently objected by believers in endless misery, that the inspired writers made Gehenna an emblem of the temporal punishment which came on the Jewish nation, seeing they make it an emblem of endless punishment in a future state. To adopt the words of Mr. Stuart, "What could be a more appropriate term than this, when we consider the horrid cruelties and diabolical rites which had been there performed," to describe the carnage of the Jews in the destruction of their city and temple? But, let us attend to the passages, and see how they agree to this view of the subject.

Matt. 5: 22. "But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause, shall be in danger of the judgment; and whosoever shall say to his

brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council; but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell (Gehenna) fire." This is the first time Gehenna is mentioned in the New Testament and was addressed by our Lord to his own disciples. If it means hell, the world of woe, I ask, were they in so much more danger of going there than the unbelieving Jews, that he first warned them about it? Yea, was their condition so perilous that the chief thing said about Gehenna was addressed to them? But the passage or its context affords no proof that our Lord, by Gehenna, referred to a place of punishment in a future state. This sense of Gehenna is assumed, and in face of evidence to the contrary, as I shall now show.

1st. In the passage there are three crimes and three punishments mentioned. No one supposes the two first refer to a future state. Why, then, should the third? Is the crime of calling a brother a fool so much worse than the other two that it puts the person "in danger of hell," or endless punishment?

2d. The question then is, what did our Lord mean by Gehenna fire, or, as Mr. Stuart renders it, "the fire of the valley of Hinnom"? He says, "It is employed as a source of imagery, to describe the punishment of a future world, which the Judge of all hearts and intentions will inflict." But this is assuming the question in discussion, and deserves no regard. Schleusner says, "Any severe punishment, especially a shameful kind of death, was denominated Gehenna." Jeremiah, we have seen, describes the punishment of the Jews, as a nation, under the emblem of Gehenna. This punishment was at hand, when our Lord addressed his disciples in this passage. What, then, did he mean by "Gehenna fire"? I answer; nothing can be more obvious from the Bible, than that fire is a common figure to express God's judgments on men for their sins. No man can doubt this who consults the following among other passages: Deut. 32: 22-25; Isai. 66: 15, 16; 5: 24, 25; 30: 27-33; 9: 18, 19;