The Valley, the Fire, and a Rubbish Dump That Was Never There

Ge-Hinnom is a real ravine running south and west of the old city of Jerusalem, and it can be walked today. Its reputation comes from the prophets: Jeremiah condemns what was done at Topheth in that valley, where children were passed through fire, and declares that it will be called the valley of slaughter. A place associated with the worst thing the prophets could name became, over the following centuries, the name for the place of judgement.

One very widely repeated explanation should be dropped. The claim that Gehenna was Jerusalem's burning refuse dump, which is why it stands for perpetual fire, appears first in a commentary by David Kimhi around the year 1200 and has no support in any ancient source, in the archaeology of the valley, or in rabbinic literature. It reached English readers through nineteenth century commentaries and is now in a great many study Bibles and sermons. There is no evidence for it.

The rabbinic material is also more temperate than the popular version. A standard position holds that the judgement of the wicked in Gehinnom lasts twelve months, which is one of the reasons the mourner's kaddish is recited for eleven, so as not to imply that the deceased needed the full term. Permanent punishment is a minority view in that literature rather than the default.