CHAPTER 5
EXTRABIBLICAL STUDY
To have a better understanding of a meaning of a
passage one need to deal with that language and comparative studies of parallel words in the other
books or languages nearby of the scripture.
Gehenna in Intertestamental Period
Jewish sources in intertestamental period regarding the punishment
in gehenna, whether the wicked would
eventually be annihilated, continue to be detained or be released, are
unanimous. After the Exile in Babylon, the notion of punishment after death has
changed incisively.[1] Merrill
C. Tenney contends that even though the notion of eternal punishment after death
in the life of Jewish is unanimous; it emerged in the intertestamental period
after the exile.[2] However
according to Gerhard Kittel, the writers of the intertestamental period
such as Philo, and Josephus do not have the term of gehenna.[3] In
addition “the dead sea scroll” is also silent on this topic.
According
to Robert
Henry Charles that “a
thought of punishment by worms and fire had taken place in the intervening
period developed between the time when Ben-Sira wrote his book and the grandson
translated it.”[4]
Gehenna in Apocrypha and Pseudographa
The apocrypha is “a collection of fifteen books written
about 200 B.C. and A.D. 100.” The writings of Apocrypha and Pseudographa are collections of
some sixty five documents which are written by Jews but they are not part of
the Hebrew Bible.[5]
The word gehenna
appears in the book such as Assumption of
Moses, Enoch, Baruch, Fourth Book of Ezra, Sibylline Oracle, Pirke Aboth.
Meanwhile the expression of punishment by “undying worms” and “unquenched fire”
occur in Sirach and Judit. In addition there is an idea eternal
torment consciously in the book of 1
Enoch.
Gehenna in 2 Baruch
In the book of 2 Baruch, gehenna
occurs two times. They are in 59:10 and 85:13. In those passages gehenna are described as a “station of
vengeance and the way of fire.”
They read, “And the mouth of
Gehenna, and the station of vengeance, and the place of faith, and the region
of hope[6] and “There
there is the sentence of corruption, The way of fire, And the path which
bringeth to Gehenna.”[7]
Gehenna in 4 Ezra
The word gehenna
occurs in two times in 4 Ezra. They are in 2:29 and 7:36. The first occurrence it is described that the
hand God’s hand will protect his son that he will not see gehenna. The second
occurrence describes that in the day of judgment the pit of torment would
appear and the furnace should be made manifest.[8]
Gehenna in Enoch
Robert Henry Charles states that “the Book of Enoch, for
the history of theological development is the most important pseudepigraph of
the first two centuries b.c.”[9] In the book of Enoch, the word gehenna occurs twice. They are depicted as
“place of punishment with rods of burning coal.[10]
In Enoch 27.2 gehenna
is not mention, but the word “valley” which is a place for those who are
accursed forever refers to gehenna. Enoch 27.2 reads, “Then Uriel, one of the
holy angels who was with me, answered and said: ‘This accursed valley is for
those who are accursed for ever: here shall all the accursed be gathered
together who utter with their lips against the Lord unseemly words and of His
glory speak hard things.[11]
Robert Henry Charles states that the understanding of gehenna as a place of punishment grow in
two stages. First, it is “a place of the apostate Jews would be corporally and
spiritually punished for ever.”[12]
Second it is a place “where the wicked are to be swept away after awhile.”[13]
Gehenna in Assumption of Moses
In Assumption of Moses 10:10, gehenna is portrayed as
a place of punishment where the Most High will arise to punish the Gentiles.
The people of Israel shall look from the high place that their enemies in gehenna would be tortured and they shall
be happy.[14] Thus, in Assumption of Moses there is a
development idea of punishment in gehenna, that the enemies of Israel
experience of conscious torment.
Gehenna in Sibylline Oracle
In Sibylline Oracles 1:100
mentions gehenna and tartarus together. They are described as
a place of retribution, terrible, raging,
undying fire and the watchers who were
mighty and of great form, went to house of Tartarus and to gehenna.[15] It
seems that in Sibylline Oracles, both of them is the same place where people
watch the people are tortured by the undying fire.
Gehenna in Pirke Aboth
In Pirkē Aboth, the
term of gehenna occurs three times.
They appear in Pirkē Aboth 1:5; 5:22 and 5:24.
In the first instances (Ch. 1:5), gehenna and garden of Eden is mentioned
together. It is described that gehenna
would be inherited by those who talks much with the wife and causes evil to
himself as well as desists from Torah.[16] In
this first instance of gehenna, there no description of torment.
In the second instance
(Ch.5:22), Pirke Aboth depicts gehenna
as a place of punishment and a pit of destruction for the wicked. The wicked
people are the disciples of Balaam who have “an evil eye, and a boastful
soul and a haughty spirit.”[17] In
addition, it is described the difference between Balaam’s disciples and
Abraham’s disciples. Balaam’s disciples will inherit gehenna and Abraham’s
disciples will inherit the garden of Eden..
In the third instance
(Ch. 5:24), it is a direct quotation from R. Judah b. Tema who states that gehenna will be for the “bold-faced
man” and heaven is for the “shame-faced man.” This statement causes Pirke Aboth exhort people to do the will of God.
The use of the Expression in Sirach
In Sirach 7:17, there is an expression of punishment
where the wicked is tormented worms and fire. Sirach exhorts people to humble
soul greatly because the ungodly would be rewarded by worms and fire. It reads
“Humble thy soul greatly: for the vengeance of the ungodly is fire and worms.”[18]
The use of the Expression in Judith
In Judith there is an expression of punishment by worms and fire as in Isaiah. However their descriptions regarding the fire and worms are different. In Judith it is portrayed that people are tortured consciously and he refers the undying worms that torment people forever, meanwhile in Isaiah there is no description of conscious tormented people. In Judith there is a depiction of weeping forever.
[1]Theological
Dictionary of the New Testament, Vols. 5-9 Edited by Gerhard Friedrich.
Vol. 10 Compiled by Ronald Pitkin., ed. Gerhard Kittel, Geoffrey William
Bromiley and Gerhard Friedrich, electronic ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans,
1964-c1976), 1:147.
[2]
Merrill C. Tenney, The Zondervan
Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan
Publishing House, 1977), 114-115.
[3]Gerhard
Kittel, Gerhard Friedrich and Geoffrey William Bromiley, Theological
Dictionary of the New Testament, Translation of: Theologisches Worterbuch
Zum Neuen Testament. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans, 1995, c1985), 113.
[4]Commentary
on the Apocrypha of the Old Testament, ed. Robert Henry Charles
(Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2004), 1:340.
[5]Paul
J. Acthtemeier, Bible Dictionary (New
York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1996), 894-895.
[6]Pseudepigrapha
of the Old Testament, ed. Robert Henry Charles (Bellingham, WA: Logos
Research Systems, Inc., 2004), 2:514.
[7]Ibid, 2:526.
[8]
James Charlesworth, The Old Testament
Pseudepigrapha (New York: Doubley & Company, Inc. 1983), 252.
[9]Pseudepigrapha
of the Old Testament, ed. Robert Henry Charles (Bellingham, WA: Logos
Research Systems, Inc., 2004), 2:163.
[10]
James Charlesworth, The Old Testament
Pseudepigrapha (New York: Doubley & Company, Inc. 1983), 295.
[11]Pseudepigrapha
of the Old Testament, ed. Robert Henry Charles (Bellingham, WA: Logos
Research Systems, Inc., 2004), 2:205-206.
[12]Commentary
on the Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, ed. Robert Henry Charles
(Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2004), 2:205.
[13]Ibid.
[14]Pseudepigrapha
of the Old Testament, ed. Robert Henry Charles (Bellingham, WA: Logos
Research Systems, Inc., 2004), 2:422.
[15]
James Charlesworth, The Old Testament
Pseudepigrapha (New York: Doubley & Company, Inc. 1983), 337.
[16]Pseudepigrapha
of the Old Testament, ed. Robert Henry Charles (Bellingham, WA: Logos
Research Systems, Inc., 2004), 2:692.
[17]Pseudepigrapha
of the Old Testament, ed. Robert Henry Charles (Bellingham, WA: Logos
Research Systems, Inc., 2004), 2:709.
[18]The
Apocrypha : King James Version. (Bellingham WA: Logos Research Systems,
Inc., 1995), Sir 7:17.
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