Bible Lexicons

γηννα (others would accent γηννα, deriving it through the Chaldee. In Mark 9:45 Rec.st γηνα), γηνης (Buttmann, 17 (15)), ἡ, (from הִנֹּם גֵּי, Nehemiah 11:30; more fully בֶּן־הִנֹּם גֵּיא, Joshua 15:8; Joshua 18:16; 2 Chronicles 28:3; Jeremiah 7:32; בְּנֵי־הִנֹּם גֵּי, 2 Kings 23:10 Kethibh; Chaldean גְּהִנָם, the valley of the son of lamentation, or of the sons of lamentation, the valley of lamentation, הִנֹּם being used for נִהֹם lamentation; see Hiller, Onomasticum; cf. Hitzig (and Graf) on Jeremiah 7:31; (Böttcher, De Inferis, i., p. 82ff); accusative to the common opinion הִנֹּם is the name of a man), Gehenna, the name of a valley on the south and east of Jerusalem (yet apparently beginning on the Winer's Grammar, cf. Joshua 15:8; Pressel in Herzog, under the word), which was so called from the cries of the little children who were thrown into the fiery arms of Moloch (which see), i. e. of an idol having the form of a bull. The Jews so abhorred the place after these horrible sacrifices had been abolished by king Josiah (2 Kings 23:10), that they cast into it not only all manner of refuse, but even the dead bodies of animals and of unburied criminals who had been executed. And since fires were always needed to consume the dead bodies, that the air might not become tainted by the putrefaction, it came to pass that the place was called γηννα τοῦ πυρός (this common explanation of the descriptive genitive τοῦ πυρός is found in Rabbi David Kimchi (fl. circa A.D. 1200) on Psalm 27:13. Some suppose the genitive to refer not to purifying fires but to the fires of Moloch; others regard it as the natural symbol of penalty (cf. Leviticus 10:2; Numbers 16:35; 2 Kings 1; Psalm 11:6; also Matthew 3:11; Matthew 13:42; 2 Thessalonians 1:8, etc.). See Böttcher, as above, p. 84; Meyer (Thol.) Wetstein (1752) on Matthew 5:22); and then this name was transferred to that place in Hades where the wicked after death will suffer punishment: Matthew 5:22, 29; Matthew 10:28; Luke 12:5; Mark 9:43, 45; James 3:6; γηννα τοῦ πυρός, Matthew 5:22; Matthew 18:9; Mark 9:47 (R G Tr marginal reading brackets); κρίσις τῆς γηννης, Matthew 23:33; υἱός τῆς γηννης, worthy of punishment in Gehenna, Matthew 23:15. Further, cf. Dillmann, Buch Henoch, 27, 1f, p. 131f; (B. D. American edition; Böttcher, as above, p. 80ff; Hamburger, Real-Encycl., Abth. I. under the word Hölle; Bartlett, Life and Death eternal, Appendix H.).