Valley of Hinnom

This place looks bucolic and peaceful, no? Hard to believe it’s in a place called hell.

This warrants an explanation. What you see here is a photo of part of the Valley of Hinnom, which is located outside of modern Jerusalem. Translated into the Aramaic language, that reads “Gehenna,” which does in fact refer to a place of fiery torment where sinners are either tortured or destroyed in Jewish and Christian traditions.

The place earned its association with the land of the damned during the time the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible was written, when it came to be associated with the sacrificial slaughter of human children.

Thus, the prophet Jeremiah (c. 650-570 BCE) expresses God’s condemnation for some Jews who “have done evil in my sight . . . They have set their abominations in the house over which my name is invoked, defiling it. They build the shrines of Topheth (places where child-sacrifice occurred) which is in the Valley of Hinnom to burn the sons and daughters in the fire – which I did not command, nor did it arise in my mind (Jeremiah 7:30-31).

As time went on, Gehenna got associated with hell, and it is mentioned that way in some of the New Testament Gospels. Jewish tradition also developed the same meaning, and that’s the connotation still remaining.