Gehenna

“ Greenfield defines the word thus:--
“Gehenna, the valley of Hinnom, south of Jerusalem, once celebrated for the horrid worship of Moloch and afterward polluted with every species of filth, as well as the carcasses of animals and dead bodies of malefactors; to consume which, in order to avert the pestilence which such a mass of corruption would occasion, constant fires were kept burning.”
Such was the fire of Gehenna; not a fire into which people were cast to be kept alive and tortured, but one into which they were cast to be consumed ”

“ Now, dear reader, you have only to take heed to one word in this verse to see that since the soul here is not the supposed immortal, indestructible soul of popular belief. That word is destroy. "Fear him that is able to destroy both body and soul in hell" (Gehenna) . Please notice that the one word destroy is used to describe what God will do with the body in Gehenna and what He will do with the soul in the same place. Gehenna was known by the Jews to be a place of destruction--destruction of life and destruction of carcasses or bodies after, they had been deprived of life. ”

“ Gehenna is one word used for Hell. It comes from the Hebrew Gey-Hinnom, literally "valley of Hinnom." This word originated as the name for a place south of the old city of Jerusalem where the city's rubbish was burned. At one time, live babies were thrown crying into the fire under the arms of the idol, Moloch, to die there. This place was so despised by the people after the righteous King Josiah abolished this hideous practice that it was made into a garbage heap. Bodies of diseased animals and executed criminals were thrown there and burned. ”

“ One is finishing his doze, another yawns loudly. But all of a sudden, when it comes to the right moment, when there is talk of the other world, of Gehenna, where the wicked are scourged with iron rods, of the lightsome Garden of Eden, where the just sit with golden crowns on their heads and study the Torah, then they come to life again! The mouths open, the cheeks flush, they listen breathlessly to be told what the next world will be like. Chaïm usually stands near the stove. ”

“ As there are seven heavens according to degree of integrity of believers even so there are seven hells. Gehenna is beneath the lowest part of the earth and the seas of darkness. It is a place of fire, as a great ocean without limits. It burns with brimstone and like materials. There are thousands of terrible flames and bad smells. Satan is there with all infidels, Christians, Jews, fire-worshipers and apostate Mohammedans. The torture of the latter will be worse than the torture of others. There are in hell thousands of wild animals, as lions, tigers, vipers and serpents. ”

“ It were long to tell all the points of interest grouped around that hill; for the present purpose, enough that its feet are planted in the veritable orthodox Hell of the moderns—the Hell of brimstone and fire—in the old nomenclature Gehenna; and that now, as in the days of Christ, its bluff face opposite the city on the south and southeast is seamed and pitted with tombs which have been immemorially the dwelling-places of lepers, not singly, but collectively. ”

“ Yeoland, with her poniard bare in her hand, stood and watched the tragic despair of that last fight, the struggling press of figures at the door--the few holding for a while a mob at bay. Her eyes followed the man in the black harness; she saw him before the tossing thicket of pikes and partisans; she saw his sword dealing out death in that Gehenna of blasphemy and blood.
A crash of shattered glass came unheard in the uproar. Men had planted ladders against the wall, and broken in by the oriel ”

“ Among those who received a similar punishment in the Teutonic Gehenna were partly those who in a secret manner had committed murder and tried to conceal their crime (such were called mordvorgr) , partly debauchees who had violated the sacredness of matrimony. ”

“ From this horrible Gehenna, with its perpetual fire, its loathsome worm, its cruelties, has been derived the picture of a never-ending Hell prepared for the majority of human beings by One who, while they live on earth, sends the rain and sunshine alike on the evil and the good. Wo Chang, a Chinaman in London, has written to a journal6 his surprise that our religious teachers should be seized with such concern for the victims of Turkish atrocities in Bulgaria, while they are so calm in view of the millions burning, and destined to burn endlessly, in the flames of hell. ”

“ The prophet Helias bears witness that he saw: 'The angel of the Lord,' saith he, 'showed me a deep valley which is called Gehenna, burning with sulphur and pitch, and in that place are many souls of sinners, and thus are they tortured with divers torments. Some suffer hanging . . . by their tongues, some by their eyes, others hang head downward; women will be tormented by their breasts, and youths hanging by their hands; certain maidens are burned upon a gridiron and some souls are fixed (? pierced) with perpetual pain. Now by these divers torments is shown the act of every one. ”

“ The absurd conduct of the Evil Spirit on this occasion is held up to ridicule by the poet, but the idea, which is an old one, that demons were, by a superior power, obliged to frustrate their own designs, does not seem to have been taken into consideration by him. He depicts the Devil as a strange mixture of stupidity and remorseless animosity. But this, undoubtedly, was the then general opinion. The bard revels in harrowing descriptions of the tortures of the damned in Gehenna—the abode of the Arch-fiend and his angels. ”

“ Three persons will never come to Gehenna: He who suffers from extreme poverty, he who suffers with a diseased stomach and one who is oppressed by the government, and others add also the man who is afflicted with a bad wife. ”

“ There is no condition of being not a condition of relation in the wide universe which man does not contain in some department of his being; and just as he unfolds in his conscious nature, does he represent different spheres in the Spiritual world. If in self-lust, he registers his name in that department of the Spiritual universe called Gehenna, if in charity, he records his name in the sphere Paradise; and if in divine love—if the divine is so developed in him that it is a ruling love—he is registered in heaven ”

“ The Indivisible had been divided, and yet was not divided: it was divisible, and yet it was indivisible; black was white, and white was black; and yet there were not two colours but one colour; and whoever did not believe it would be damned.' The Arab quotation runs in the original—
'Ahsanu 'l-Makâni l' il-Falâ 'l-Jehannamu,
The best of places for (the generous) youth is Gehenna:'
Gehenna, alias Jahim, being the fiery place of eternal punishment. ”

“ Legend credits him with the performance of miracles. He founded a talmudic school, and among his pupils were Eleazar of Worms, author of the Rokeah, and Isaac of Vienna, author of the Or Zarua‘. He is said to have had social intercourse with the bishop of Salzburg and the duke of Regensburg. His principal work is the Sefer Hasidim (Book of the Pious) . He is also the author of some liturgic poems.]
Certain Forms of Virtue Lead to Sin [160] There is a kind of humility which inherits Gehenna, and causes the heirs of the humble to inherit a burning fire in Gehenna. ”

“ The time was enough to allow her to slip her arms out of the coat and unfasten her skirt; she had knickerbockers underneath.
When the perturbed Germans grunted gruffly and discussed their difficulty, Gheena sprang.
She dived very prettily to the accompaniment of muffled bad language, and as she came up, heard hoarse whispers concerning immediate death if she did not return.
The threats were nothing, but the sound of a splash made the girl shudder. They dared not show a light or fire a shot, but a strong swimmer would catch her easily. ”

“ The bard and the two druids were the only ones left. The three rushed together in a final embrace, they raised their faces and their hands towards heaven, and intoned in a loud voice the song of Hena, the virgin of the isle of Sen, uttered at the hour of her voluntary sacrifice on the rocks of Karnak, that song which had been the signal for the rising of Brittany against the Romans:
"Hesus, Hesus! By the blood which is about to flow, clemency for Gaul!" ”

“ Hena! The moon is rising above the horizon...."
"You are right, Stumpy; this is the hour," she said, unwillingly taking her eyes from the faces of her beloved family. An instant later she added:
"Let my father and mother and all the members of my family accompany me to the sacred stones of the forest of Karnak.... The hour of the sacrifice has come."
Walking between Joel and Margarid, and followed by all the members of the tribe, Hena walked serenely to the forest of Karnak. ”

“ Her looks were wild; famine had stamped its hollow prints in furrows on her cheeks; she clasped her 321 hands together; and fixing her eyes wildly upon Glenarvon, remained in silence.
Terrified, Calantha threw herself for safety at his feet; and he clasping her closely to his bosom saw but her. “Oh Glenarvon,” she cried, “look, look; it is not a human form: it is some dreadful vision, sent to us by the power of God, to warn us.” “My soul, my Calantha, fear not: no power shall harm you.” ”

“ Gheena flung propriety on one side. She drove back to the door and told Evelyn that she was going home, as she had forgotten to do something particular, and whispered "Go on" to the willing driver. The pace at which a high-powered car can go, even on narrow roads, was demonstrated to her in the next ten minutes, for to meet the Castle Freyne people would mean disaster. They reached the back gate safely, and Gheena, who had sat silent, could only ask her rescuer to tea, which, she explained, must be taken in the school-room, and that they must hide. ”

“ Gheena immediately thought of something brilliant. The neglected gardens of the Dower House stretched in melancholy confusion down to the water's edge. Box trees endeavoured to look forest-like as they stretched in unclipped luxuriance; spring bulbs made patches of colour here and there on the edges of the walks. The shuttered windows blinked blindly at the sunshiny world. They would have tea at Girtnamurragh—send Guinane to the village for provisions and have a picnic. ”

“ The easiness of rowing stores up the creek and putting them through was now completely apparent; and, at the same time, with a crisp chill not caused by the atmosphere, Gheena remembered that this meant war, and that the man who had put the petrol there would probably add Miss Freyne and Crabbit to his store if he found them. Which man? She slipped out of the cave, splashed through the pool, noticed how an overhanging rock almost completely hid the aperture, and bolted for sunlight with her shoes in her hands. ”

“ The old Professor spilt his fourth cup of tea as the remark reached him; then recovering, he observed that the marriage of a maid to her grandfather was forbidden in the prayer-books, and asked for more tea placidly.
"Well, someone," said Gheena. "Darby, how many wild things did the pack do to-day in the rain?"
"They just clung to the horses' heels," said Darby gruffly, his voice sounding hoarse and strained; "that was all, Gheena. By the time the war is over they will be a model pack. If one could breed a fox-hound with Grandjer's nose!" ”

“ Gheena and Mrs. Weston stood together in the doorway, talking earnestly.
"Why is he always upon those cliffs?" said Gheena. "Why always out alone?"
"These are things which make one thoughtful," said Violet. "But I can't believe in much real mischief down here. It's so out of the way."
The spring slipped on before Gheena went out again to the cliffs. She hurt her foot out hunting, knocking it against a gate, and was too lame to scramble over rough ground.
Psyche had learnt to sit on at her jumps now, but custom brought no abatement of her joy in the chase. ”

“ When Genevra wakens in the tomb, and touches in the darkness the human skeletons about her, and struggles to free herself from the entangling cerements, and beats with superhuman strength at the gratings until they yield to her hand, and to the outer stone until it unseals at her terrified touch,—there are dramatic materials which even history has infused with red blood ”

“ I still had Geneva deeply at heart; but said nothing of it to anybody, waiting for God to make known to me His all powerful will and fearing lest any stratagem of the Devil should be concealed therein, that might tend to draw me out of my proper place, or steal me out of my condition. The more I saw my own misery, incapacity and nothingness, the plainer it appeared that they rendered me fitter for the designs of God, whatever they might be. ”

“ To die fighting the Romans is a duty.... What shall I do?"
"Ask to-morrow one of the druids of Karnak."
"And our sister Hena," said Albinik the mariner to his mother. "It is nearly a year I have not seen her.... She is surely still the pearl of the Isle of Sen? My wife Meroë charged me to remember her to Hena."
"You will see her to-morrow," answered Mamm' Margarid; and laying down her distaff she arose. It was the signal for the family to retire. Mamm' Margarid looked around and said:
"Let us retire, my children; it is late; to-morrow at break of day we must begin our war preparations;" ”