one where the righteous rest, called Paradise, still, that
modification having been borrowed, as is historically evident,
from the Gentiles, or, if developed among themselves, at all
events unconnected with revelation, of course Christianity is not
involved with the truth or falsity of it, is not responsible for
it. It does not necessarily follow that Jesus gave precisely the
same meaning to the word Gehenna that his contemporaries or
successors did. He may have used it in a modified emblematic
sense, as he did many other current terms. In studying his
language, we should especially free our minds both from the
tyranny of pre Christian notions and dogmas and from the
associations and influences of modern creeds, and seek to
interpret it in the light of his own instructions and in the
spirit of his own mind.

We will now examine the cases in which Christ uses the term
Gehenna, and ask what it means.

First: "Whosoever shall say to his brother, Thou vile wretch!
shall be in danger of the fiery Gehenna." Interpret this
literally, and it teaches that whosoever calls his brother a

7 Gesenius, Hebrew Thesaurus, Ge Hinnom.

wicked apostate is in danger of being thrown into the filthy
flames in the Vale of Hinnom. But no one supposes that such was
its meaning. Jesus would say, as we understand him, "I am not come
to destroy, but to fulfil, the law; to show how at the culmination
of the old dispensation a higher and stricter one opens. I say
unto you, that, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the
Pharisees, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. The conditions
of acceptance under the new order are far more profound and
difficult than under the old. That said, Whosoever commits murder
shall be exposed to legal punishment from the public tribunal.
This says, An invisible inward punishment, as much to be dreaded
as the judgments of the Sanhedrim, shall be inflicted upon those
who harbor the secret passions that lead to crime; whosoever, out
of an angry heart, insults his brother, shall be exposed to
spiritual retributions typified by the horrors of yon flaming
valley. They of old time took cognizance of outward crimes by
outward penalties. I take cognizance of inward sins by inward
returns more sure and more fearful."

Second: "If thy right eye be a source of temptation to thee, pluck
it out and fling it away; for it is better for thee that one of
thy members perish than that thy whole body should be cast into
G