And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire [Gehenna that fire].
-Matthew 18:9b
Here the Greek for “hell fire” is γεενναν του πυρος = géenna ho pŷr = "Gehenna that fire"
While Hades is “the grave, the place of the dead” [Stong’s #86]; Gehenna is “Valley of Hinnom” [Strong’s #1067]. The Valley of Hinnom is a very real place in Israel and a very prophetic place.
The Valley of Hinnom is where great wickedness and idolatry (including child sacrifices) took place. It was turned into a trash dump which continually burned. This was the "lake of fire" where "the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched."
It is not a metaphor for God's afterlife torture chamber, it is a real place. We see it in Isaiah 66 after the events of the Revelation. This is how the Book of Isaiah ends:
“For as the new heavens and the new earth
Which I will make shall remain before Me,” says the Lord,
“So shall your descendants and your name remain.
And it shall come to pass
That from one New Moon to another,
And from one Sabbath to another,
All flesh shall come to worship before Me,” says the Lord.
“And they shall go forth and look
Upon the CORPSES of the men
Who have transgressed against Me.
For their worm does not die,
And their fire is not quenched.
They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”
-Isaiah 66:22-24
Corpses = פֶּגֶר
Strong's: corpses, carcasses, dead bodies
All that is future and involves the land (Israel).
You cannot get torture of bodliess "souls" out of that.
And remember, no matter how you want to spin it, the traditional doctrine of "hell" must have God doing the torturing... by fire... without hope... without end.
That is not only unbiblical, it is slander against the Lord.
