From the Valley of Hinnom to Hell: The Rhetorical Function of Gehenna

Date

4-29-2026

Department

Rawlings School of Divinity

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Bible Exposition (PhD)

Chair

Jennifer Brown Jones

Keywords

Hell, Gehenna, Valley of Hinnom, Rhetoric, SRI, eternal torment, annihilation, annihilationism, traditional, universalism, views of hell, eternal punishment, eternal torment

Disciplines

Christianity | Religion

Abstract

The Greek term γέεννα is generally understood as a literary symbol for “hell.” However, the social and rhetorical dimensions of how New Testament audiences would have understood Gehenna’s symbolism are often overlooked. Many assume that because child sacrifice by fire occurred in the Valley of Hinnom in the Old Testament, this event uniquely contributed to Gehenna’s symbolism, producing imagery associated with fire and death. Yet many neglect Jeremiah’s rhetorical renaming and reframing of the valley as the Valley of Slaughter, where Judahite corpses were disposed of following the Babylonian siege. This neglect has led scholars to interpret Gehenna primarily through the lens of child sacrifice rather than through the memory of Judahite corpses being cast into the valley, which is an event that left a trauma-inducing imprint on Jewish religious memory. This study argues that the memory of corpse exposure in the Valley of Slaughter provides a more relevant cultural background for understanding how Gehenna’s symbolism functions in the New Testament. Using Vernon Robbins’ Socio-Rhetorical Interpretation (SRI) methodology, with particular attention to rhetography, this study examines the social and rhetorical imagery associated with the Valley of Slaughter and explores how those events shaped Gehenna’s New Testament symbolism. Jeremiah’s Valley of Hinnom oracles (Jer 7; 19) serve as the foundational texts for understanding both the development and rhetorical function of Gehenna’s imagery. This study contends that γέεννα did not symbolize hell but instead functioned as a rhetorical image drawn from Jeremiah’s Valley of Slaughter oracles, where Israelite corpses were left exposed as punishment for a city that failed to uphold its covenantal responsibilities. New Testament authors later appropriated this symbol and applied it within the context of the New Covenant to distinguish the “insiders” from the “outsiders” of the newly developing Jesus-movement. Ultimately, γέεννα functioned as a culturally embedded rhetorical symbol rooted in the traumatic memory of the Babylonian siege when their corpses were cast into the Valley of Slaughter, which New Testament authors employed to warn communities against behavior threatening their collective identity.

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