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The language of these passages does not accord with common belief; for it is believed that the soul only goes to Gehenna, or the place of endless misery, at death, and the body suffers not its punishment until the resurrection. But if soul means the spirit, or immortal part, and Gehenna means a place of endless misery, it is a plain case, that, soul and body being destroyed, or the whole body being cast into hell, both go there together. And if killed or destroyed, are they not annihilated?

But we think, if the contexts of these two passages are examined, and the occasion of what is said to the disciples considered, it very strongly confirms the view taken of them. It also confirms all that is said of Gehenna in other passages. Let us glance at this for a moment. By comparing Matth. x. and xxiv. all may see that many things stated are similar, or rather the same. No man can read them without seeing this. The sufferings the disciples were to endure, are similar. The sources from whence they should arise, are the same; and the directions given to them, how they should conduct themselves under them, are similar. But there is one thing mentioned in both, which deserves particular notice. It is said in Matth. x. 22. and xxiv. 13.-" but he that endureth to the end shall be saved." What end is meant in both passages? Evidently the end of the Jewish dispensation, or state, when all the tribulations mentioned, Matth. xxiv. should come on the Jewish nation. This evidently shows that in both chapters our Lord's discourse related to the same time and events. During the period which was to elapse before this end should come, the disciples were to be employed in publishing the gospel. In the two passages before us, our Lord warns them against the fear of man, and the fear of God is enforced on them in view of their labours and sufferings. See Matth. x. 26, 27. Luke xii.

1-3. He assures them of the protecting care of God, if they feared him, Matth. x. 29, 31. Luke xii. 6. The sufferings they were to endure would prove them, whether they feared God or man. Matth. x. 31-39. Luke xii. 8, 9. Should any one of them, being influenced by the fear of man, apostatize from the faith of Christ, seeking thereby to save his life, (psuhe) he should lose it. They should, with the rest of the Jewish nation, be involved in all the miseries coming on that generation. On the contrary, he that did endure to the end, should be saved from them, as we have seen that they were; for all the disciples left the city, and were saved. We have seen that Gehenna, or the valley of Hinnom, was made by the prophet Jeremiah an emblem of this very punishment coming on the Jewish nation. We see then, that in this passage, as well as in the preceding texts, that it is when our Lord was speaking in reference to the destruction of Jerusalem, that he says any thing about the punishment of Gehenna. Can it be accounted for, why our Lord never spoke of Gehenna or hell when preaching the gospel, but always in discourses which had a reference to the calamities at the end of the Jewish state? Besides, all he did say about hell, was chiefly spoken to his disciples, and neither by him nor any other inspired person, is a word said about it to the Gentiles.*

These are now all the passages where our Lord says any thing about hell or Gehenna. It must, I think, be allowed, that the views I have stated, are supported by facts, by the context of the places where Gehenna occurs, and confirmed by an appeal to the Old Testament Scriptures. May I not, then, be permitted to say, that, if I am in an error, it is very strange this error should have such a body of evi

In my answer to Mr. Sabine, about to be published, these two texts are again brought to view and we hope satisfactorily settled.

dence to support it. The sense I have given to Gehenna, is not assumed, but it is settled by divine authority. Can any man produce such facts and evidence in support of Gehenna's being a place of endless misery for the wicked? If this cannot be done, must it not be allowed, that either error has more evidence to support it than truth, or that my view of Gehenna is the true one? At any rate, with such weight of evidence pressing on my mind, how could I do otherwise than honestly avow the convictions which this evidence has produced, without violating my conscience and forfeiting all claim to an honest minded man? If indeed I am mistaken in my views of those passages, no man can more sincerely wish to see where the mistake lies, than I do. If this mistake can be pointed out, and if it can be proved that Gehenna, or hell, is a place of endless misery for all the wicked, we doubt not but this will be done. It is not to be expected, that a doctrine so popular, which has been so long believed, and supported by the learning and talents of so many good men, will be given up without a struggle. If it be true, we earnestly wish to see it established by an examination of all the passages where Gehenna occurs; and a rational and Scriptural account given of the facts which we have adduced, and have yet to produce on the subject.

The last place in the New Testament in which Gehenna is used, is James iii. 6. "And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell." This is one of the two places, in which Dr. Campbell thinks the word Gehenna is used figuratively. He observes, that it is "the intention of the writer to draw an illustration of the subject from that state of perfect wretchedness." It is rather surprising that Dr. Campbell should not have noticed, that

before any illustration could be drawn from Gehenna as a place of endless misery, by a Jew, or any one else, it must first be known as such to be a place of perfect wretchedness. Let me ask from what source could a Jew learn this? Not from the Old Testament; for Dr. Campbell himself assures us, that Gehenna is not found in the Old Testament in this sense. It is not found in the Septuagint, nor even in the Grecian classics. If James therefore knew all this to be true, how could he ever draw such an illustration? This was impossible, unless we suppose that James learned this doctrine from the Targums, or from our Lord's instructions. To suppose the first, is to say that James learned this doctrine from a source which is not very creditable to it, nor honourable to him. To suppose the last, is to make James use Gehenna in a sense it never was used by our Lord. This has been shown from an examination of all the places in which he did use this word. It should be recollected that James was a Jew, and that he wrote to believing Jews. No place, to a Jew, could afford such a view of perfect wretchedness as the valley of Hinnom or Gehenna. It is certainly then more rational to think that James drew an illustration of his subject from this place, well known, than from a place of endless misery, which was not known. If we understand this text literally, it is at least as difficult to understand how the tongue could be set on fire from a place of future endless misery, as how it could be set on fire from the valley of Hinnom. It is evident that James is speaking of the evils arising from an improper use of the tongue. What could be more natural, in speaking of the filthiness and abominations which proceed from it, than to draw an illustration from Gehenna or the valley of Hinnom, the most abominable place known to Jews? But if Gehenna here is understood figuratively, as Dr. Campbell thinks it ought to be, it

requires no further remark from me; for surely no one will attempt to prove the doctrine of endless misery from the mere figurative use of the term Gehenna.

Such are all the texts in which the word Gehenna is used by the New Testament writers, and such are the remarks which have occurred to me in my examination of them. According to every just rule of Scripture interpretation I am acquainted with, I do not see how I could have interpreted them differently. Indeed, to me it is surprising how the doctrine of eternal misery was ever founded on any of the texts which speak of Gehenna or hell. If I am correct, it also affords a striking example how far we may be misled, in a proper understanding of the Scriptures, by attaching to a single word a sense different from that given it by the inspired writers. How far I am correct, my readers must judge for themselves. I hope they will, on the one hand, guard against receiving my error, if it be one, and on the other, beware of rejecting my view, if true, from prejudices of education. Under the influences of these prejudices, I began to examine this subject, and have been obliged to relinquish my former views of Gehenna, from the force of the evidence I have already stated, and which I have yet to adduce on this subject. If my views of Gehenna are, upon examination, found correct, it is also a striking proof how far we may be misled, in a proper understanding of the New Testament, from our inattention to the Old. If the word Gehenna in the New, is used in a similar sense as in the Old Testament, all the false views we have had of the texts in which it occurs in the former, have arisen from our inattention to its usage in the latter. Whether I am right or wrong in my views of Gehenna in the New Testament, no man, we think, will deny, that there is a degree of plausibility in what I have stated between the Old and New Testa

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