abode of the damned in the afterlife in Jewish and Christian eschatology (the doctrine of last things). Named in the New Testament in Greek form (from the Hebrew Ge Hinnom, meaning “valley of Hinnom”), Gehenna originally was a valley west and south of Jerusalem where children were burned as sacrifices to the Ammonite god Moloch. This practice was carried out by the Israelites during the reigns of King Solomon in the 10th century bc and King Manasseh in the 7th century bc and continued until the Babylonian Exile in the 6th century bc. Gehenna later was made a garbage centre to discourage a reintroduction of such sacrifices.
The imagery of the burning of humans supplied the concept of “hellfire” to Jewish and Christian eschatology. Mentioned several times in the New Testament (e.g., Matthew, Mark, Luke, and James) as a place in which fire will destroy the wicked, it also is noted in the Talmud, a compendium of Jewish law, lore, and commentary, as a place of purification, after which one is released from further torture.
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