Hinnom Valley is a valley southwest of Jerusalem .
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Symbolic meaning
The Valley of Hinnom, the Valley of the Hinnoms ( Nav. 15: 8 ; Nav. 18:16 ), or the valley of the sons of Hinnom ( 4 Kings 23:10 ; 2 Chronicles 28: 3 ; Jer. 7:32 ) ( Hebrew גיא בן הִנֹּם ) - one of the two valleys (the second is the Kedron Valley ) near the old city of Jerusalem. The Arabic name is Wadi al-Rababi [1] [2] [3] .
The valley is a symbol of Judgment Day in Judaism . Initially, the name of this place was not associated with punishment and fire. This valley was located south of Jerusalem, not far from the so-called. "The solar gate." Eyewitnesses reported that garbage and dead animals were burned in this valley. On this basis, modern dictionaries associate this territory with the place of punishment - the place of accumulation of unusable, various refuse, burned by fire [4] . However, the symbolism of hell has deeper roots. It should be remembered that in ancient cultures, almost any action was a ritual, religious-magic action. Burning trash and dead animals is no exception.
The valley of Hinnom (or Hinn) was, respectively, the venue for various kinds of pagan rituals associated with fire. So, V.V. Emelyanov points out that “the famous“ Hinnom valley ”(Greek“ hell ”) was located near the southern Solar Gate of Jerusalem, and pagan rites that were organized here included carrying children through fire (in the early times, no doubt, human victims were scorching the sun). The Old Testament prophets, who threatened the valley of Hinn with God's punishment, curse and desolation, set the stage for angry evangelical and Quranic sermons promising the apostates and sinners eternal torment of fire ” [5] . I. Shifman in his book “The Old Testament and His Peace” also indicates: “Among the customs of the Syro-Palestinian region, a special place was occupied by sacrificing (burning alive) to the god the sons of the donor, which was usually practiced in a critical situation. Such sacrifices were called in Phoenician moss, in Hebrew younger ... The remains of such victims were buried in special cemeteries called tofet ... In the Hinnoy valley near Jerusalem, Jews sacrificed animals, since human sacrifice in Judaism is forbidden; from the Hebrew ge Hinnom (“Hinnom Valley”) the word “hell” arose ” [6] .
Notes
- ↑ Bailey, LR Gehenna: The Topography of Hell. Biblical Archaeologist 49, no. 3 9.1986 p187-191
- ↑ Dalman, Gustaf. Jerusalem und sein Gelände. Schriften des Deutschen Palästina-Institutes, 4. Gütersloh 1930 ISBN 3-487-04403-X
- ↑ Smith, GA Jerusalem: The Topography, Economics and History from the Earliest Times to AD 70. London 1907.
- ↑ Thayer, H. Greek Lexicon GEHENNA
- ↑ Emelyanov V.V. Nippurian calendar and the early history of the zodiac. - SPb., 1999. - S. 90, approx. one.
- ↑ Shifman I. Sh. The Old Testament and its peace. - M.: Politizdat, 1987. - S. 197-198.
Links
- Ennom, Ennomova Valley, Valley of the Sons of Ennomov // Biblical Encyclopedia of Archimandrite Nicephorus . - M. , 1891-1892.
- Article "Gehenna" in the Jewish Electronic Encyclopedia .