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79-690: The valley surrounds the Old City of Jerusalem and the adjacent Mount Zion from the west and south. It meets and merges with the Kidron Valley , the other principal valley around the Old City, near the Pool of Siloam which lies to the southeastern corner of Ancient Jerusalem. The northwestern part of the valley is now an urban park . The place is first mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as part of

158-713: A building belonging to the Kathros priestly family, which was found nearby. In 1968, the Trumpeting Place inscription was found at the southwest corner of Temple Mount, and is believed to mark the site where the priests used to declare the advent of Shabbat and other Jewish holidays. In the 1970s, while excavating the remains of the Nea Church (the New Church of the Theotokos) , a Greek inscription

237-458: A burning rubbish heap in the Valley of Hinnom south of Jerusalem gave rise to the idea of a fiery Gehenna of judgment is attributed to Rabbi David Kimhi 's commentary on Psalms 27:13 ( c.  1200 CE ). He maintained that in this loathsome valley fires were kept burning perpetually to consume the filth and cadavers thrown into it. However, Hermann Strack and Paul Billerbeck state that there

316-461: A figurative name for the place of spiritual purification for the wicked dead in Judaism. According to most Jewish sources, the period of purification or punishment is limited to only 12 months and every Sabbath day is excluded from punishment, while the fires of Gehinnom are banked and its tortures are suspended. For the duration of Shabbat, the spirits who are serving time there are released to roam

395-768: A ram's head around 200 meters south of the Temple Mount . The Israel Antiquities Authority said it was consistent with jewelry from the early Hellenistic period (3rd or early 2nd century BCE). Adding that it was the first time somebody finds a golden earring from the Hellenistic times in Jerusalem. Many structures dated to the Herodian period were discovered in the Jewish Quarter during archaeological excavations carried out between 1967 and 1983. Among them

474-496: A salvage excavation was carried out on the hill near St. Andrew's Church in Jerusalem, between the road leading up to the church and the road descending to the Valley of Hinnom. This is an important strategic point on the ancient watershed road through the Judean hills, where two natural roads meet, one from the Valley of Hinnom in the west and one from the Valley of Rephaim in the east... A large block of stone 2.80 m. long, belonging to

553-617: A series of museums and outdoor parks, which tourists can visit by descending two or three stories beneath the level of the current city. Its population was 3,240 in 2020. There was previously a small Mughrabi Quarter in the Old City. Within a week of the Six-Day War 's end, the quarter was largely destroyed in order to give visitors better access to the Western Wall by creating the Western Wall Plaza . The parts of

632-527: A seventh, the New Gate, was added in 1887; several other, older gates, have been walled up over the centuries. The Golden Gate was at first rebuilt and left open by Suleiman's architects, only to be walled up a short while later. The New Gate was opened in the wall surrounding the Christian Quarter during the 19th century. Two secondary gates were reopened in recent times on the southeastern side of

711-445: A threshold originally some 5 m. wide, was visible on the surface. Excavation revealed that the threshold stone is in situ, and that it is part of a monumental architectural complex. According to the preeminent biblical scholar Dr. James D. Tabor , Ketef Hinnom could possibly be the site of the historical Golgotha where Jesus Christ was crucified two thousand years ago. In 1979, two tiny silver scrolls , inscribed with portions of

790-401: Is minim (lit. 'kinds [of belief]'; the singular min , for "heretic" or "Gnostic," is coined idiomatically, like goy and am ha'aretz ; see Gnosticism ). The law "You shall not cut yourselves" (לא תתגדדו) is interpreted by the rabbis: "You shall not form divisions [לא תעשו אגודות אגודות], but shall form one bond" (after Amos 9:6 , A. V. "troop"). Besides the term min (מין) for "heretic,"

869-730: Is a 0.9-square-kilometre (0.35 sq mi) walled area in East Jerusalem . In a tradition that may have begun with an 1840s British map of the city , the Old City is divided into four uneven quarters: the Muslim Quarter , the Christian Quarter , the Armenian Quarter , and the Jewish Quarter . A fifth area, the Temple Mount , known to Muslims as Al-Aqsa or Haram al-Sharif , is home to

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948-565: Is adjacent to St. Andrew's Church , now on the grounds of the Menachem Begin Heritage Center . It is located where the Valley of Rephaim and the Valley of Hinnom meet, on the old road from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. The site consists of a series of rock-hewn burial chambers based on natural caverns. The discovery was first reported in 1975 by Gabriel Barkay : St. Andrew's Church, Jerusalem: In August-September 1975

1027-459: Is an archaeological site discovered in the 1970s southwest of the Old City of Jerusalem . Archaeological excavations held at the site uncovered a series of Iron Age period Judahite burial chambers, dating to the 7th and 6th centuries BCE. It is famous for the Ketef Hinnom scrolls , which are the oldest surviving texts from the Hebrew Bible currently known, dated to 600 BC. Ketef Hinnom

1106-500: 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." (2 Kings 23). A minority of scholars have attempted to argue that the Bible does not portray actual child sacrifice, but only dedication to the god by fire; however, they are judged to have been "convincingly disproved" (Hay, 2011). There is evidence however that the southwest shoulder of this valley ( Ketef Hinnom )

1185-440: Is neither archaeological nor literary evidence in support of this claim, in either the earlier intertestamental or the later rabbinic sources. Also, Lloyd R. Bailey's "Gehenna: The Topography of Hell" from 1986 holds a similar view. Maimonides declares, in his 13 principles of faith , that the descriptions of Gehinnom as a place of punishment in rabbinic literature, were pedagogically motivated inventions to encourage respect of

1264-653: Is the largest and most populous of the four quarters and is situated in the northeastern corner of the Old City, extending from the Lions' Gate in the east, along the northern wall of the Temple Mount in the south, to the Western Wall – Damascus Gate route in the west. During the British Mandate, Sir Ronald Storrs embarked on a project to rehabilitate the Cotton Market, which was badly neglected under

1343-545: Is the only English translation in modern use to translate Sheol, Hades, Tartarus (Greek ταρταρώσας; lemma: ταρταρόω tartaroō ), and Gehenna as Hell. In the New Testament, the New International Version , New Living Translation, New American Standard Bible (among others) all reserve the term "hell" for the translation of Gehenna or Tartarus (see above), transliterating Hades as a term directly from

1422-475: The 1948 Arab–Israeli War . During the 1967 Six-Day War , Israel occupied East Jerusalem; since then, the entire city has been under Israeli control. Israel unilaterally asserted in its 1980 Jerusalem Law that the whole of Jerusalem was Israel's capital. In international law, East Jerusalem is defined as territory occupied by Israel . In 1967, the Old City contained 17,000 Muslims, 6,000 Christians (including Armenians) and no Jews. The current population of

1501-639: The Church in Jerusalem, "a poor, but just and powerful man" would rise to be a protector and ally to the Christians of Jerusalem. Sophronius believed that `Umar, a great warrior who led an austere life, was a fulfillment of this prophecy. In the account by the Patriarch of Alexandria , Eutychius , it is said that `Umar paid a visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and sat in its courtyard. When

1580-542: The Damascus Gate in the east, where it borders the Muslim Quarter . The quarter contains the Church of the Holy Sepulchre , viewed by many as Christianity's holiest place. Its population was 3,870 in 2020. The Armenian Quarter ( Armenian : Հայկական Թաղամաս , Haygagan T'aġamas, Arabic : حارة الأرمن , Ḩārat al-Arman) is the smallest of the four quarters of the Old City. Although the Armenians are Christian,

1659-819: The Dome of the Rock , the Al-Aqsa Mosque , and was once the site of the Jewish Temple . The Old City's current walls and city gates were built by the Ottoman Empire from 1535 to 1542 under Suleiman the Magnificent . The Old City is home to several sites of key importance and holiness to the three major Abrahamic religions : the Temple Mount and the Western Wall for Judaism , the Church of

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1738-552: The Jerusalem Law of 1980, which effectively annexed East Jerusalem to Israel, was declared null and void by United Nations Security Council Resolution 478 . East Jerusalem is now regarded by the international community as part of occupied Palestinian territory. According to the Hebrew Bible , before King David 's conquest of Jerusalem in the 11th century BCE the city was home to the Jebusites . The Bible describes

1817-619: The Moloch cult took place in the valley of Hinnom at the Topheth. No archaeological evidence such as mass children's graves has been found; however, it has been suggested that such a find may be compromised by the heavy population history of the Jerusalem area compared to the Tophet found in Tunisia. The site would also have been disrupted by the actions of Josiah "And he defiled Topheth, which

1896-557: The Mughrabi Quarter , was demolished following the Six-Day War . This 19th-century cartographic partition into four quarters represented the historical development of the city that had previously been divided into many more harat ( Arabic : حارَة , romanized :  Hārat : "quarters", "neighborhoods", "districts" or "areas", see wikt:حارة ); the Christian and Jewish areas of the city had grown considerably over

1975-803: The Persian King Cyrus the Great invited the Jews of Babylon to return to Judah to rebuild the Temple. Construction of the Second Temple was completed in 516 BCE, during the reign of Darius the Great , 70 years after the destruction of the First Temple. In about 440 BCE, the city was rebuilt on a smaller scale during the Persian period, when, according to the Bible, Nehemiah led

2054-649: The Shuafat Refugee Camp , where many were shifted, leaving most of the properties empty of inhabitants. In 1968, after the Six Day War, Israel confiscated 12%, including the Jewish quarter and contiguous areas, of the Old City for public use. Some 80% of this confiscated infrastructure consisted of properties not owned by Jews. After reconstruction the parts of the quarter destroyed prior to 1967, these properties were then offered for sale exclusively to

2133-533: The Six-Day War of 1967. A few days later, Israeli authorities ordered the demolition of the adjacent Moroccan Quarter , forcibly relocating all of its inhabitants, in order to facilitate public access to the Western Wall. 195 properties – synagogues, yeshivas, and apartments – were registered as Jewish and fell under the control of Jordan's Custodian of Enemy Property . Most were occupied by Palestinian refugees expelled by Israeli forces from West Jerusalem and its contiguous villages until UNRWA and Jordan constructed

2212-458: The Talmud uses the words ḥitzonim (outsiders), apikoros , and kofer ba-Torah , or kofer ba-ikkar (he who denies the fundamentals of faith); also poresh mi-darke tzibbur (he who deviates from the customs of the community). It is said that all these groups are consigned to Gehinnom for all eternity and have no possibility of a portion in the world to come . The traditional explanation that

2291-476: The Temple Mount . The quarter has a rich history, with several long periods of Jewish presence covering much of the time since the eighth century BCE. In 1948, its population of about 2,000 Jews was besieged, and forced to leave en masse. The quarter was completely bombed during the Battle for Jerusalem . The Jewish quarter remained under Jordanian control until its recapture by Israeli paratroopers in

2370-653: The Torah commandments by mankind, which had been regarded as immature. Instead of being sent to Gehenna, the souls of the wicked would actually get annihilated. Frequent references to "Gehenna" are also made in the books of Meqabyan , which are considered canonical in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church . In the King James Version of the Bible, the term appears 13 times in 11 different verses as Valley of Hinnom , Valley of

2449-669: The Western Christian army of the First Crusade and it remained in their hands until recaptured by the Arab Muslims , led by Saladin , on October 2, 1187. He summoned the Jews and permitted them to resettle in the city. In 1219, the walls of the city were razed by Sultan Al-Mu'azzam of Damascus ; in 1229, by treaty with Egypt , Jerusalem came into the hands of Frederick II of Germany . In 1239 he began to rebuild

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2528-554: The Armenian Quarter is distinct from the Christian Quarter . Despite the small size and population of this quarter, the Armenians and their Patriarchate remain staunchly independent and form a vigorous presence in the Old City. After the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the four quarters of the city came under Jordanian control. According to a 2007 study, the quarter housed 2,424 people (6.55% of Old City's total). Its population

2607-522: The Assyrian army is to be destroyed, may be read "Topheth", and the final verse of Isaiah which concerns those that have rebelled against God ( Isaiah 66:24 ). In the reign of Josiah a call came from Jeremiah to destroy the shrines in Topheth and to end the practice ( Jeremiah 7:31–32 , 32:35 ). It is recorded that Josiah destroyed the shrine of Moloch on Topheth to prevent anyone sacrificing children there ( 2 Kings 23:10 ). Despite Josiah's ending of

2686-563: The Bible accounts (700–600 BCE) of the reigns of Ahaz and Manasseh have been established, such as the bones of children sacrificed at the Tophet to the goddess Tanit in Phoenician Carthage , and also child sacrifice in ancient Syria-Palestine. Scholars such as Mosca (1975) have concluded that the sacrifice recorded in the Hebrew Bible, such as Jeremiah's comment that the worshippers of Baal had "filled this place with

2765-682: The Emperor Hadrian around 130, under the name Aelia Capitolina. In the Byzantine period Jerusalem was extended southwards and again enclosed by city walls. Muslims occupied Byzantine Jerusalem in the 7th century (637 CE) under the second caliph, ` Umar Ibn al-Khattab who annexed it to the Islamic Arab Empire . He granted its inhabitants an assurance treaty. After the siege of Jerusalem, Sophronius welcomed `Umar, allegedly because, according to biblical prophecies known to

2844-1084: The Essenes on Mount Zion , the gate of Herod's royal palace south of the citadel , and the vague remains of what 19th-century explorers identified as the Gate of the Funerals (Bab al-Jana'iz) or of al-Buraq (Bab al-Buraq) south of the Golden Gate ). Until 1887, each gate was closed before sunset and opened at sunrise. These gates have been known by a variety of names used in different historical periods and by different communities. Gates 1. Jaffa 2. Zion 3. Dung 4. Golden 5. Lions 6. Herod 7. Damascus 8. New ( Double, Single, Tanners ' ) Al-Mawazin 31°46′36″N 35°14′03″E  /  31.77667°N 35.23417°E  / 31.77667; 35.23417 Ketef Hinnom Ketef Hinnom ( Hebrew : כתף הינום , romanized :  ketef hinom , lit.   'Shoulder of Hinnom ')

2923-579: The Holy Sepulchre for Christianity , and the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque for Islam . The Old City, along with its walls, was added to the World Heritage Site list of UNESCO in 1981. In spite of its name, the Old City of Jerusalem's current layout is different from that of ancient times. Most archeologists believe that the City of David , an archaeological site on a rocky spur south of

3002-522: The Israeli and Jewish public. The prior owners mostly refused compensation, often because their properties were part of Islamic or family waqfs , which cannot be put up for sale. As of 2005 , the population stood at 2,348. Many large educational institutions have taken up residence. Before being rebuilt, the quarter was carefully excavated under the supervision of Hebrew University archaeologist Nahman Avigad . The archaeological remains are on display in

3081-530: The Jews who returned from the Babylonian Exile. An additional, so-called Second Wall, was built by King Herod the Great , who also expanded the Temple Mount and rebuilt the Temple. In 41–44 CE, Agrippa , king of Judea , started building the so-called "Third Wall" around the northern suburbs. The entire city was totally destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. The northern part of the city was rebuilt by

3160-584: The Muslim Quarter. Its population was 21,850 in 2020. The Christian Quarter ( Arabic : حارة النصارى , Ḩārat an-Naşāra) is situated in the northwestern corner of the Old City, extending from the New Gate in the north, along the western wall of the Old City as far as the Jaffa Gate , along the Jaffa Gate – Western Wall route in the south, bordering the Jewish and Armenian Quarters, as far as

3239-469: The Old City resides mostly in the Muslim quarter. In 2007, the total population was 36,965; there were 27,500 Muslims (growing to over 30,000 by 2013); 5,681 non-Armenian Christians, 790 Armenians (who decreased in number to about 500 by 2013); and 3,089 Jews (with almost 3,000 plus some 1,500 yeshiva students by 2013). By 2020, Old City's population dropped to 31,120. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War ,

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3318-463: The Old City was captured by Jordan and all its Jewish residents were evicted. During the Six-Day War in 1967, which saw hand-to-hand fighting on the Temple Mount , Israeli forces captured the Old City along with the rest of East Jerusalem , subsequently annexing them as Israeli territory and reuniting them with the western part of the city. Today, the Israeli government controls the entire area, which it considers part of its national capital. However,

3397-400: The Ottoman Turkish sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. The walls stretch for approximately 4.5 km (2.8 miles), and rise to a height of between 5 and 15 metres (16.4–49 ft), with a thickness of 3 metres (10 feet) at the base of the wall. Altogether, the Old City walls contain 35 towers, of which 15 are concentrated in the more exposed northern wall. Suleiman's wall had six gates, to which

3476-430: The Son of Hinnom” is found in the Book of Joshua ( 15:8 and 18:16 ) which describe tribal boundaries. The following reference to the valley is at the time of King Ahaz of Judah, who, according to 2 Chronicles 28:3 , “burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire”. Later, in 33:6 , it is said that Ahaz's grandson, king Manasseh of Judah , also “caused his children to pass through

3555-539: The Temple Mount, was the original settlement core of Jerusalem during the Bronze and Iron Ages . At times, the ancient city spread to the east and north, covering Mount Zion and the Temple Mount. The Old City as defined by the walls of Suleiman is thus shifted a bit northwards compared to earlier periods of the city's history, and smaller than it had been in its peak, during the late Second Temple period . The Old City's current layout has been documented in significant detail, notably in old maps of Jerusalem over

3634-500: The Turks. He describes it as a public latrine with piles of debris up to five feet high. With the help of the Pro-Jerusalem Society , vaults, roofing and walls were restored, and looms were brought in to provide employment. Like the other three quarters of the Old City, until the riots of 1929 the Muslim quarter had a mixed population of Muslims, Christians, and also Jews. Today, there are "many Israeli settler homes" and "several yeshivas ", including Yeshivat Ateret Yerushalayim , in

3713-445: The area of the Israelite Tower , probably including parts of a gate where numerous projectiles were found, attesting to the Babylonian sack of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. Another part of the late 8th-century BCE fortification discovered was dubbed the "broad wall" , after the way it was described in the Book of Nehemiah , built to defend Jerusalem against the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem of 701 BCE. In 2015, archaeologists uncovered

3792-418: The blood of innocents", is literal. Yet, the biblical words in the Book of Jeremiah describe events taking place in the seventh century in the place of Ben-Hinnom: "Because they [the Israelites] have forsaken Me and have made this an alien place and have burned sacrifices in it to other gods, that neither they nor their forefathers nor the kings of Judah had ever known, and because they have filled this place with

3871-410: The blood of the innocent and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, a thing which I never commanded or spoke of, nor did it ever enter My mind; therefore, behold, days are coming", declares the Lord, "when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the valley of Ben-Hinnom, but rather the valley of Slaughter". J. Day, Heider, and Mosca believe that

3950-411: The border between the tribes of Judah and Benjamin ( Joshua 15:8 ). During the late First Temple period , it was the site of the Tophet , where some of the kings of Judah had sacrificed their children by fire ( Jeremiah 7:31 ). Thereafter, it was cursed by the biblical prophet Jeremiah ( Jeremiah 19:2 – 6 ). In later rabbinic literature , "Gehinnom" became associated with divine punishment as

4029-421: The city as heavily fortified with a strong city wall , a fact confirmed by archaeology. The Bible names the city ruled by King David as the City of David , in Hebrew Ir David, which was identified southeast of the Old City walls, outside the Dung Gate . In the Bible, David's son, King Solomon , extended the city walls to include the Temple and Temple Mount. After the partition of the United Kingdom of Israel ,

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4108-401: The city from a spring outside its walls. He made at least two major preparations that would help Jerusalem to resist conquest: the construction of the Siloam Tunnel , and construction of the Broad Wall . The First Temple period ended around 586 BCE, as Nebuchadnezzar's Neo-Babylonian Empire conquered Judah and Jerusalem , and laid waste to Solomon's Temple and the city. In 538 BCE,

4187-406: The city walls as a result of archaeological work. In 1980, Jordan proposed that the Old City be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site . It was added to the List in 1981. In 1982, Jordan requested that it be added to the List of World Heritage in Danger . The United States government opposed the request, noting that the Jordanian government had no standing to make such a nomination and that

4266-429: The consent of the Israeli government would be required since it effectively controlled Jerusalem. In 2011, UNESCO issued a statement reiterating its view that East Jerusalem is "part of the occupied Palestinian territory , and that the status of Jerusalem must be resolved in permanent status negotiations." Among the Israelite period finds in the Old City are two portions of the 8th and 7th century BCE city walls, in

4345-441: The destination of the wicked for the atonement of their sins. The term is different from the more neutral term Sheol , the abode of the dead . The King James Version of the Bible translates both with the Anglo-Saxon word hell . The Hebrew Bible refers to the valley as the "Valley of the son of Hinnom" (Hebrew: גֵּיא בֶן־הִנֹּם ), or "Valley of Hinnom" ( גֵי־הִנֹּם ). In Mishnaic Hebrew and Judeo-Aramaic languages ,

4424-496: The earth. At Motza'ei Shabbat , the angel Dumah, who has charge over the souls of the wicked, herds them back for another week of torment. After this the soul will move on to Olam Ha-Ba (the world to come), be destroyed, or continue to exist in a state of consciousness of remorse. In classic rabbinic sources, Gehinnom occasionally occurs as a place of punishment or destruction of the wicked. The specific rabbinical term for heresies, or religious divisions due to an unlawful spirit,

4503-572: The equivalent Greek term. Treatment of Gehenna in Christianity is significantly affected by whether the distinction in Hebrew and Greek between Gehenna and Hades was maintained: Translations with a distinction: Translations without a distinction: Many modern Christians consider Gehenna to be a place of eternal punishment. Annihilationist Christians, however, imagine Gehenna to be a place where sinners are tormented until they are eventually destroyed, soul and all. Some Christian scholars, however, have suggested that Gehenna may not be synonymous with

4582-457: The era of the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem for instance, Jerusalem had four gates, one on each side. The current walls were built by Suleiman the Magnificent , who provided them with six gates; several older gates, which had been walled up before the arrival of the Ottomans, were left as they were. As to the previously sealed Golden Gate, Suleiman at first opened and rebuilt it, but then walled it up again as well. The number of operational gates

4661-436: The fate of the wicked. This may also include addition of the phrase " second death ", as in the final chapter of the Book of Isaiah , where the Hebrew version does not mention either Gehinnom or the Second Death, whereas the Targums add both. In this the Targums are parallel to the Gospel of Mark addition of "Gehenna" to the quotation of the Isaiah verses describing the corpses "where their worm does not die". Gehinnom became

4740-414: The fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom”. Debate remains as to whether the phrase "cause his children to pass through the fire" referred to a religious ceremony in which the Moloch priest would walk the child between two lanes of fire, or to literal child sacrifice wherein the child is thrown into the fire. The Book of Isaiah does not mention Gehenna by name, but the "burning place" ( 30:33 ) in which

4819-418: The importance of the Nea complex at the time. The Old City is currently divided into four uneven quarters: the Muslim Quarter, the Christian Quarter, the Armenian Quarter and the Jewish Quarter. Matthew Teller writes that this four-quarter convention may have originated in the 1841 British Royal Engineers map of Jerusalem , or at least Reverend George Williams ' subsequent labelling of it. A fifth quarter,

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4898-650: The lake of fire, but a prophetic metaphor for the horrible fate that awaited the many civilians killed in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE. The name given to Hell in Islam, Jahannam , directly derives from Gehenna. The Quran contains 77 references to the Islamic interpretation of Gehenna (جهنم), but does not mention Sheol / Hades as the "abode of the dead", and instead uses the word "Qabr" (قبر, meaning grave). Old City of Jerusalem The Old City of Jerusalem ( Hebrew : הָעִיר הָעַתִּיקָה , romanized :  Ha'ír Ha'atiká ; Arabic : المدينة القديمة , romanized :  al-Madīna al-Qadīma )

4977-435: The last 1,500 years. Until the mid-19th century, the entire city of Jerusalem, with the exception of David's Tomb complex , was enclosed within the Old City walls. The departure from the walls began in the 19th century, when the city's municipal borders were expanded to include Arab villages such as Silwan and new Jewish neighborhoods such as Mishkenot Sha'ananim . The Old City came under Jordanian control following

5056-432: The name was contracted into Gēhīnnōm ( גֵיהִינֹּם ) or Gēhīnnām ( גֵיהִינָּם ) meaning "hell". The name "Gehenna" derives from the Koine Greek transliteration ( Γέεννα ) found in the New Testament . The exact location of the Valley of Hinnom is disputed. George Adam Smith wrote in 1907 that there are three possible locations considered by historical writers: Child sacrifice at other Tophets contemporary with

5135-445: The practice, Jeremiah also included a prophecy that Jerusalem itself would be made like Gehenna and Topheth ( 19:2–6 , 19:11–14 ). A final purely geographical reference is found in Neh. 11:30 to the exiles returning from Babylon camping from Beersheba to Hinnom. The ancient Aramaic paraphrase-translations of the Hebrew Bible known as Targums supply the term "Gehinnom" frequently to verses touching upon resurrection, judgment, and

5214-400: The preceding centuries. Despite the names, there was no governing principle of ethnic segregation: 30 percent of the houses in the Muslim quarter were rented out to Jews, and 70 percent of the Armenian quarter. Below is a table of the historically recorded quarters of the city, from 1495 up until the modern system: The Muslim Quarter ( Arabic : حارَة المُسلِمين , Hārat al-Muslimīn)

5293-415: The quarter that were not destroyed are now part of the Jewish Quarter. Simultaneously with the demolition, a new regulation was set into place by which the only access point for non-Muslims to the Temple Mount is through the Gate of the Moors , which is reached via the so-called Mughrabi Bridge . During different periods, the city walls followed different outlines and had a varying number of gates. During

5372-454: The religion to live righteous lives. Examples of Gehenna in the Christian New Testament include: Another book to use the word Gehenna in the New Testament is James: The New Testament also refers to Hades as a place distinct from Gehenna. Unlike Gehenna, Hades typically conveys neither fire nor punishment but forgetfulness. The Book of Revelation describes Hades being cast into the lake of fire ( Revelation 20:14 ). The King James Version

5451-420: The remnants of an impressive fort, built by Greeks in the center of old Jerusalem. It is believed that it is the remnants of the Acra fortress . The team also found coins that date from the time of Antiochus IV to the time of Antiochus VII . In addition, they found Greek arrowheads, slingshots, ballistic stones and amphorae . In 2018, archaeologists discovered a 4-centimeter-long filigree gold earring with

5530-533: The son of Hinnom or Valley of the children of Hinnom . In the synoptic Gospels the various authors describe Jesus , who was Jewish, as using the word Gehenna to describe the opposite to life in the Kingdom ( Mark 9:43–48 ). The term is used 11 times in these writings. In certain usage, the Christian Bible refers to it as a place where both soul (Greek: ψυχή, psyche) and body could be destroyed ( Matthew 10:28 ) in "unquenchable fire" ( Mark 9:43 ). Christian usage of Gehenna often serves to admonish adherents of

5609-426: The southern tribes remained in Jerusalem, with the city becoming the capital of the Kingdom of Judah . Jerusalem was largely extended westwards after the Neo-Assyrian destruction of the northern Kingdom of Israel and the resulting influx of refugees. King Hezekiah had been preparing for an Assyrian invasion by fortifying the walls of the capital, building towers, and constructing a tunnel to bring fresh water to

5688-457: The time for prayer arrived, however, he left the church and prayed outside the compound, in order to avoid having future generations of Muslims use his prayer there as a pretext for converting the church into a mosque. Eutychius adds that `Umar also wrote a decree which he handed to the Patriarch, in which he prohibited Muslims gathering in prayer at the site. In 1099, Jerusalem was captured by

5767-459: The walls, but they were demolished again by Da'ud , the emir of Kerak . In 1243, Jerusalem came again under the control of the Christians, and the walls were repaired. The Khwarazmian Turks took the city in 1244 and Sultan Malik al-Muazzam razed the walls, rendering it again defenseless and dealing a heavy blow to the city's status. The current walls of the Old City were built in 1535–42 by

5846-555: The well-known Priestly Blessing from the Book of Numbers and apparently once used as amulets , were found in one of the burial chambers. The delicate process of unrolling the scrolls while developing a method that would prevent them from disintegrating took three years. They contain what may be the oldest surviving texts from the Hebrew Bible , dating from the First Temple period around the late 7th to early 6th century BCE prior to

5925-572: Was 2,160 in 2020. The Jewish Quarter ( Hebrew : הרובע היהודי , HaRova HaYehudi , known colloquially to residents as HaRova , Arabic : حارة اليهود , Ḩārat al-Yahūd ) lies in the southeastern sector of the walled city, and stretches from the Zion Gate in the south, bordering the Armenian Quarter on the west, along the Cardo to Chain Street in the north and extends east to the Western Wall and

6004-557: Was a burial location with numerous burial chambers that were reused by generations of families from as early as the seventh until the fifth century BCE. The use of this area for tombs continued into the first centuries BCE and CE. By 70 CE, the area was not only a burial site but also a place for cremation of the dead with the arrival of the Tenth Roman Legion , who were the only group known to practice cremation in this region. The oldest historical reference to “the Valley of

6083-611: Was brought back to seven after the addition of the New Gate in 1887; a smaller one, popularly known as the Tanners' Gate , has been opened for visitors after being discovered and unsealed during excavations in the 1990s. The sealed historic gates comprise four that are at least partially preserved (the double Golden Gate in the eastern wall, and the Single, Triple, and Double Gates in the southern wall), with several other gates discovered by archaeologists of which only traces remain (the Gate of

6162-496: Was found. It reads: "This work too was donated by our most pious Emperor Flavius Justinian , through the provision and care of Constantine, most saintly priest and abbot, in the 13th year of the indiction ." A second dedicatory inscription bearing the names of Emperor Justinian and of the same abbot of the Nea Church was discovered in 2017 among the ruins of a pilgrim hostel about a kilometre north of Damascus Gate, which proves

6241-570: Was unearthed a palatial mansion from the Herodian period, believed to be the residence of Annas the High Priest . In its vicinity, a depiction of the Temple menorah was discovered, carved while its model still stood in the Temple, engraved in a plastered wall. The palace has been destroyed during the final days of the Roman siege of 70 CE , suffering the same fate as the so-called Burnt House ,

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