Gehenna is translated 'hell' and 'hell fire' in Matthew (A.V.), as

'Shall be in danger of hell fire' (Matt. 5:22).

'Thy whole body ... cast into hell' (5:29,30).

'Able to destroy both soul and body in hell' (10:28).

'Having two eyes to be cast into hell fire' (18:9).

'Twofold more the child of hell than yourselves' (23:15).

'How can ye escape the damnation of hell?' (23:33).

It is evident that gehenna is not an English word, and before we can

rightly understand any of these references to it we must have some knowledge

of the place intended.  Gehenna is the name of the 'valley of the son of

Hinnom' that lay W. and SW. of Jerusalem.  We learn from 2 Kings 23:10 that

'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'.

Speaking of this awful practice, God said:

'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' (Jer.

In passing, we might note the strong figure used by God, 'neither came

it into My heart', and also realize that the teaching concerning the eternal

conscious suffering of human beings necessarily places in the heart of God

something infinitely more terrible than Tophet.  Is God a trifler?  Tophet,

however, means destruction, as a reference to Isaiah 30:33 will show, and the

statement that 'the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth

kindle it', links it with 2 Thessalonians 1:8,9, which results in

'everlasting destruction' and not 'everlasting torment'.

In order to stop the abominable rites of Molech, Josiah 'defiled

Tophet' by filling it 'with the bones of men' (2 Kings 23:10,14).  From that

time forward it became the common cesspool and rubbish heap of the city.

Into this valley were cast the carcases of animals, and of criminals who had

been denied burial.  Fires were kept burning to prevent pestilence from

spreading, and what escaped the destruction of fire and brimstone was eaten

of worms.  To this the prophet Isaiah refers in 66:24:

'And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that

have transgressed against Me: for their worm shall not die, neither

shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all

It is common knowledge that the advocates of 'everlasting conscious

punishment' do not fail to emphasize the words their worm, and their fire,

and draw from these words arguments to prove that they who are thus described

must be conscious.  The presence of the word 'carcases' in Isaiah, chapter 66

is a complete refutation of this interpretation.  That the word here rendered

'carcases' means a lifeless corpse, the following quotations from the same

Prophecy will prove: