Valley of Hinnom (Gehenna)

The valley whose name became the New Testament word for hell, providing the geographical and historical background for Jesus's most severe warnings about divine judgment.

The Valley of Hinnom (Hebrew: Gei ben-Hinnom or Gei-Hinnom, shortened to Ge-Hinnom; Greek: Gehenna) is a narrow, rocky valley running along the south and southwest sides of the Old City of Jerusalem. It begins near the Jaffa Gate on the western side, curves south past Mount Zion, and then turns east to meet the Kidron Valley at the southeastern corner of the city. The valley is steep-sided in places, with rocky cliffs and caves in the limestone.

The name "Hinnom" (or "Ben-Hinnom," son of Hinnom) appears to be the name of a person or clan, though no other reference to this individual or family survives. The valley first appears in the Bible as a boundary marker between the tribes of Judah and Benjamin (Joshua 15:8; 18:16). Its sinister reputation begins with the monarchy.

The Bible records that apostate kings of Judah used a place in the valley called the Topheth for child sacrifice. Second Chronicles 28:3 states that King Ahaz "burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire, after the abominations of the heathen." Second Chronicles 33:6 records that King Manasseh "caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom." The deity to whom these sacrifices were offered is identified in 2 Kings 23:10 as Molech (or Molek).

The word "Topheth" (or Tophet) comes from a Hebrew root meaning "fireplace" or "hearth." Jeremiah 7:31-32 is the most explicit condemnation: "And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter." Jeremiah 19:1-6 describes the prophet going to the valley to pronounce judgment.

King Josiah's reforms (c. 622 BCE) included the defilement of the Topheth so that it could no longer be used for child sacrifice: "And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech" (2 Kings 23:10). The deliberate desecration of the site was intended to make it permanently unclean.

Archaeological evidence for child sacrifice in the Valley of Hinnom is limited but suggestive. Unlike the well-documented tophets at Carthage and other Phoenician-Punic sites, where urns containing the burned bones of infants have been found in large quantities, no clear tophet has been identified in the Hinnom Valley. However, the dense modern and historical construction in the area makes systematic excavation extremely difficult. Some scholars have suggested that the Topheth may have been located in the lower portion of the valley near its junction with the Kidron, an area that has been partially excavated.

The most significant archaeological discovery from the valley is the Ketef Hinnom silver scrolls, found in 1979 by Gabriel Barkay in burial caves on the shoulder of the valley. These tiny silver amulets, containing the Priestly Blessing of Numbers 6:24-26, are the oldest known biblical texts and demonstrate that the valley was used for elite burials in the late Iron Age.

By the Second Temple period, the Valley of Hinnom had undergone a profound transformation in Jewish thought. Its association with fire, child sacrifice, divine judgment, and deliberate defilement made it a natural metaphor for the place of eschatological punishment. In the intertestamental literature (such as 1 Enoch 27:1-2 and 90:26), Ge-Hinnom becomes a place where the wicked are punished after death. By the first century CE, the Greek form "Gehenna" (geenna) was the standard Jewish term for what English speakers call "hell."

Jesus uses the term Gehenna twelve times in the Synoptic Gospels (and it appears once in James 3:6). In Matthew 5:22, Jesus warns that "whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire" (geenna tou pyros). In Matthew 10:28, he counsels, "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell (geenna)." The most vivid passage is Mark 9:43-48, where Jesus warns that it is better to lose a hand or eye than to be cast "into hell (geenna), into the fire that never shall be quenched: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched."

A popular tradition holds that the Valley of Hinnom served as Jerusalem's garbage dump during the Second Temple period, with fires burning continuously to consume refuse. While this tradition is not confirmed by ancient sources and has been questioned by modern scholars, the valley's association with fire and desolation is well established in the biblical text.

• The valley's use for child sacrifice to Molech is attested in multiple biblical passages (2 Chronicles 28:3, 33:6; 2 Kings 23:10)
• King Josiah deliberately defiled the Topheth (c. 622 BCE) to prevent further sacrifices
• The Ketef Hinnom silver scrolls (1979) — the oldest biblical texts — were found in burial caves on the valley's shoulder
• By the Second Temple period, 'Ge-Hinnom' (Gehenna) had become the standard Jewish term for the place of final punishment
• Jesus uses the term Gehenna twelve times in the Synoptic Gospels as his primary term for eschatological judgment
• No definitive tophet (child sacrifice precinct) has been archaeologically identified in the valley, partly due to dense modern construction
• The valley served as a boundary between the tribes of Judah and Benjamin (Joshua 15:8; 18:16)
• Jeremiah pronounced that the valley would be renamed 'the valley of slaughter' in judgment (Jeremiah 7:32; 19:6)

The Valley of Hinnom is central to biblical theology because it provides the physical origin of the concept of Gehenna (hell). Jeremiah's pronouncements of judgment over the valley (Jeremiah 7:30-34; 19:1-15) established the pattern: a place of human wickedness becomes a place of divine judgment. The prophetic transformation of a geographical location into a theological concept is one of the most significant developments in biblical thought. Jesus's use of Gehenna draws directly on this Old Testament background. When he warns that the whole body may be "cast into hell" (Matthew 5:29-30), his audience understood the reference: not an abstract theological concept but a specific valley visible from the Temple Mount, with specific historical associations of fire, sacrifice, and divine judgment. The contrast between the Hinnom Valley (Gehenna) and the Kidron Valley (through which the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane are accessed) creates a theological geography around Jerusalem. Jesus spent his final evening praying in Gethsemane, across from the valley of judgment, accepting the suffering that would deliver humanity from the judgment that Gehenna represented.