God Beyond Religion: How Jesus was Misunderstood by His Gehenna References

 The doctrine of eternal conscious torture is really unnecessary in Christian doctrine. It stems from a misunderstanding of Jesus references to Gehenna. It is my opinion that all of Jesus references to Gehenna refers to the impending destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. First of all, the idea of Gehenna as a punishment for not adhering to the Torah and Tanakh is fairly recent and was not in the Old Testament writings. According to Ariela Pelaia, Gehenna - Jewish Views of the Afterlife (learnreligions.com) It did not appear in any Jewish writings before the sixth century BCE. She went on to explain that in rabbinic teaching the punishment of Genhinnom lasted for 12 months. It was assigned to those who willfully disobeyed the Torah.

It seems obvious to me that Jesus used the term metaphorically and when he said it was eternal was actually making fun of the fact that it was only for twelve months. What he was really doing with the reference was referring to the impending destruction of the temple by Rome that would result from their erroneous view of the Messiah and his mission. It is very clear in the reference from Mark’s gospel. “And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.” (Mar 9:47-48) This is a Midrashic reference to Isaiah 66:24 and the entire chapter is about the temple, how it will be destroyed in anticipation of the New Jerusalem. It is not about an event future to the first century and it is a gross error in interpretation to believe it is. The word translated hell is Gehenna and is the main referent word that Jesus used in all of his hell proclamations. They were all meant for the first century occasion.  This is for all those who believe as orthodoxy that the scripture is the inerrant, infallible word of God. It is certainly not if one cannot properly understand and interpret it. Jesus’ reference would have had meaning to the first century Jewish people, and after all, it was to them he said it.

There is absolutely no mention of Gehenna in John’s gospel. Why you may ask? Well, if it was written at the late date, it would likely be because the occasion had already occurred, and if John was written before the destruction of the temple as some believe, it would be because, John’s gospel explained to the Gentile believers where the Jews missed Jesus universal message. I should add here that Paul did not mention Gehenna/hell at all in any of his writings. It is obvious to me that this points out how extremely erroneous orthodoxy’s take was on understanding the Christian scripture.

Let’s look at the facts. It was not written in the Torah at all. It was not mentioned in the rest of the old testament writings. It was developed after the Jews went into Babylonian captivity. It was mentioned ten times in the synoptic gospels, mostly in Matthew written to Jews and one time each in James and 2 Peter, both letters written to a strictly Jewish audience. It was not mentioned in John, any of Paul’s writings, nor Hebrews. And yet, orthodoxy and subsequently protestant evangelical orthodoxy made it the main thrust of the Christian message. The preponderance of evidence shows that orthodoxy and evangelical orthodoxy are completely wrong, and if wrong on this, how much more are they wrong on other things?