Gehenna/Gehinnom – A Latin word from the post-biblical Hebrew word ge’henom, which simply means “Valley of Hinnom”.
This word never appears in Scripture.
According to Scripture, Hinnom is a person of the tribe of Judah that was granted a parcel of land on the southwest side of the place where Jerusalem would later be built. That person had a son that inherited that parcel of land. On the land owned by the son of Hinnom, there was a valley and the city of Tophet. Beginning with Ahaz, located in that valley, there were dedicated places for the temples of Baal and other gods, one of which was to their god Molech. That temple was used to burn the eldest children as a sacrifice.
The word Gehenna or Gehinnom was introduced by the late first century Catholic Church. Using a newly coined Hebrew word of the Jews, ge’henom, Christianity introduced their false doctrine. In justification of their new false doctrine, they associated it with Israel’s Masoretic Text Old Testament Scripture regarding the Baal worship practice of the apostate Israelites of Judah.
Christianity’s false doctrine regarding Gehenna is based on the teaching of some Jewish sects, which claim that ge’henom is the same as hell, and the burning is about God’s judgement. But the truth of Scripture declares that this place has nothing at all to do with God or hell.
Jeremiah 32:35 And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.
According to Scripture, in the future, that valley will be referred to as “The Valley of Slaughter”, not hell. People don’t go there when they die, it is a place that the Jews took their eldest children to be burned in worship of false gods.
This abomination of the gentiles, the practice of burning their first-born children in the fire of Molech, began with the children of Israel while in Egyptian captivity. After their liberation by God through Moses, God addressed this practice in their Law (Leviticus 18:21, 20:1-5), which carried the penalty of death.
Beginning with Solomon (I Kings 11:1-8), the worship of Molech was openly reintroduced to Israel, but there is no mention of any burning of children.
The reintroduction of the practice of burning children was by the 20-year-old king of Judah, Ahaz (II Chronicles 28), in the valley of Hinnom. After 16-years, those of Israel that were trying to serve Jehovah put an end to this practice.
After skipping one generation, Israel’s 12-year-old king of Judah, Manasseh, revived the practices of his grandfather, Judah’s king Ahaz (II Chronicles 33). And after 55 years, the practice was again eradicated by the faithful Israelites.
See also Abomination, Christian, Doctrine, God, Hades, Hell, Jew, Purgatory, Sheol, Star of David, Ye