Arcadia Discussion Zone

Now in view of the evidence set forth in the last chapter, is it not clear that this was a locality in which these semi-Pagan, semi-Christian, rites, might, prima facie, be expected to linger on? It is up here, along the Northern border, that the Roman legionaries were stationed; it is here that we find monuments and memorials of their heathen cults; obviously this was a locality where the demon-hunting activities of the Saint might find full scope for action. I would submit that there is at least presumptive evidence that we may here be dealing with the survival of a genuine tradition.

And should any of my readers find it difficult to believe that, even did initiations take place, and even were they of a character that involved a stern test of mental and physical endurance--and I imagine most scholars would admit that there was, possibly, more in the original institutions, than, let us say, in a modern admission to Free-Masonry--yet it is 'a far cry' from pre-Christian initiations to Medieval Romance, and a connection between the two is a rash postulate, I would draw their attention to the fact that,

p. 174

quite apart from our Grail texts, we possess a romance which is, plainly, and blatantly, nothing more or less than such a record. I refer, of course, to Owain Miles, or The Purgatory of Saint Patrick, where we have an account of the hero, after purification by fasting and prayer, descending into the Nether World, passing through the abodes of the Lost, finally reaching Paradise, and returning to earth after Three Days, a reformed and regenerated character 1.

"Then with his monks the Prior anon,
With Crosses and with Gonfanon
Went to that hole forthright,
Thro' which Knight Owain went below,
There, as of burning fire the glow,
They saw a gleam of light;
And right amidst that beam of light
He came up, Owain, God's own knight,
By this knew every man
That he in Paradise had been,
And Purgatory's pains had seen,
And was a holy man."

Now if we turn to Bousset's article Himmelfahrt der Seele, to which I have previously referred (p. 157), we shall find abundant evidence that such a journey to the Worlds beyond was held to be a high spiritual adventure of actual possibility--a venture to be undertaken by those who, greatly daring, felt that the attainment of actual knowledge of the Future Life was worth all the risks, and they were great and terrible, which such an enterprise involved.

Bousset comments fully on Saint Paul's claim to have been 'caught up into the Third Heaven' and points out


p. 175

that such an experience was the property of the Rabbinical school to which Saul of Tarsus had belonged, and was brought over by him from his Jewish past; such experiences were rare in Orthodox Christianity 1. According to Jewish classical tradition but one Rabbi had successfully passed the test, other aspirants either failing at a preliminary stage, or, if they persevered, losing their senses permanently. The practice of this ecstatic ascent ceased among Jews in the second century A.D.

Bousset also gives instances of the soul leaving the body for three days, and wandering through other worlds, both good and evil, and also discusses the origin of the bridge which must be crossed to reach Paradise, both features characteristic of the Owain poem 2. In fact the whole study is of immense importance for a critical analysis of the sources of the romance in question.

And here I would venture to beg the adherents of the 'Celtic' school to use a little more judgment in their attribution of sources. Visits to the Otherworld are not always derivations from Celtic Fairy-lore. Unless I am mistaken the root of this theme is far more deeply imbedded than in the shifting sands of Folk and Fairy tale. I believe it to be essentially a Mystery tradition; the Otherworld is not a myth, but a reality, and in all ages there have been souls who have been willing to brave the great adventure, and to risk all for the chance of bringing back with them some assurance of the future life. Naturally these ventures passed into tradition with the men who risked them. The early races of men became semi-mythic, their beliefs, their experiences, receded into a land of mist, where their figures assumed fantastic outlines, and the record of their deeds departed more and more widely from historic accuracy.

The poets and dreamers wove their magic webs, and a



p. 176

world apart from the world of actual experience came to life. But it was not all myth, nor all fantasy; there was a basis of truth and reality at the foundation of the mystic growth, and a true criticism will not rest content with wandering in these enchanted lands, and holding all it meets with for the outcome of human imagination.

The truth may lie very deep down, but it is there, and it is worth seeking, and Celtic fairy-tales, charming as they are, can never afford a satisfactory, or abiding, resting place. I, for one, utterly refuse to accept such as an adequate goal for a life's research. A path that leads but into a Celtic Twilight can only be a by-path, and not the King's Highway!

Double initiation

We are thus confronted with the image of a double initiation. Such a journey to the Worlds beyond was held to be a high spiritual adventure of actual possibility – a venture to be undertaken by those who, greatly daring, felt that the attainment of actual knowledge of the Future Life was worth all the risks, and they were great and terrible, which such an enterprise involved.
The double initiation is also referenced in Christian literature, though most often in Gnostic or apocryphal documents. The first initiation was baptism by water, done by John the Baptist. But throughout the Bible, there are oblique references to a baptism by fire. This is the spiritual baptism – the second initiation. In the Gospel of John, a Gnostic Document, we read: “In order to attain the kingdom of god, one must be born again. This necessitates a double initiation of water and Spirit.” It is the latter that is symbolised by the “perilous test”.

Structure

The epigraph and dedication to The Waste Land showing some of the languages that Eliot used in the poem: Latin, Greek, English and Italian.The poem is preceded by a Latin and Greek epigraph from The Satyricon of Petronius. In English, it reads: "I saw with my own eyes the Sibyl of Cumae hanging in a jar, and when the boys said to her, Sibyl, what do you want? she replied I want to die."

Following the epigraph is a dedication (added in a 1925 republication) that reads "For Ezra Pound: il miglior fabbro" Here Eliot is both quoting line 117 of Canto XXVI of Dante's Purgatorio, the second cantica of The Divine Comedy, where Dante defines the troubadour Arnaut Daniel as "the best smith of the mother tongue" and also Pound's title of chapter 2 of his The Spirit of Romance (1910) where he translated the phrase as "the better craftsman."[19] This dedication was originally written in ink by Eliot in the 1922 Boni & Liveright paperback edition of the poem presented to Pound; it was subsequently included in future editions.[20]

The five parts of The Waste Land are entitled:

1.The Burial of the Dead
2.A Game of Chess
3.The Fire Sermon
4.Death by Water
5.What the Thunder Said
The text of the poem is followed by several pages of notes, purporting to explain his metaphors, references, and allusions. Some of these notes are helpful in interpreting the poem, but some are arguably even more puzzling, and many of the most opaque passages are left unannotated. The notes were added after Eliot's publisher requested something longer to justify printing The Waste Land in a separate book.[G]

There is some question as to whether Eliot originally intended The Waste Land to be a collection of individual poems (additional poems were supplied to Pound for his comments on including them) or to be considered one poem with five sections.

Hans Dieter Betz: The "Mithras Liturgy". Text, Translation and Commentary. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2003 (Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum 18). 274 pp. Euro 69. ISBN 3-16-148128-3.




When the motif of the so called Himmelsreise der Seele was investigated at the beginning of the twentieth century by the most important representatives of the Religionsgeschichtliche Schule, and by Wilhelm Bousset and Richard Reitzenstein in particular, they sought the origins of this doctrine in Iranian religion. Bousset, in a well-known article published in 1901,1 inferred from eschatological Middle-Persian or Pahlavi texts that they reflected an ancient Iranian lore, which had influenced Greek culture too. Of course, the Religionsgeschichtliche position must in some way be shaded (e.g. in considering possible Mesopotamian borrowings), as Carsten Colpe and, more recently, Ioan Petru Couliano have shown.2 However, though we possess only late documents concerning Iranian eschatology, it seems very likely that ancient ecstatic or initiatory experiences, sometimes obtained by means of narcotics or hallucinogens, were further developed into ritualistic practices, so that a voyage in an extraordinary dimension or a vision of spiritual realms became a symbolic representation or a devotional liturgy. For this reason a text like the Arda Wiraz Namag, the so called "Iranian Divine Comedy", (probably written in the ninth century AD)3 cannot be simply regarded as a product from post-Sasanian times, its relative antiquity of contents being not concealed by the long development of Zoroastrian cultic practice and liturgy.

At the same time it is nevertheless true that in the second half of the first millennium BC the Greeks were acquainted with the initiatory and mystical-ecstatic aspects of Iranian religious doctrines, which are partly reflected, among other sources, also in the Platonic accounts about Zoroaster or in the eschatological section at the end of the Republic.4 This doctrine became more and more fashionable during the Hellenistic and imperial period, when manifold sources conflated together: not to mention philosophical interpretations, like Cicero's Dream of Scipio or Virgil's doctrine of the immortal souls in Aeneid 6, or the Plutarchean eschatological dialogues, which were influenced by Stoicism as well as Platonism and Pythagorism, the doctrine of the heavenly ascent of the soul through the spheres is a central tenet in Hermetism and Gnosticism too. Moreover, the heavenly journey is a constant pattern of Jewish and, later, Christian apocalypses, which we cannot here discuss in further detail.5

Therefore, according to many religious traditions, such a heavenly ascent involves a journey into the divine realms from which the soul become initiated into a new, sacred status, reaping spiritual knowledge and even assimilation to the gods.6

1 Die Himmelsreise der Seele. ARW 4, 1901, pp.136–169.
2 Carsten Colpe: Die "Himmelsreise der Seele" ausserhalb und innerhalb der Gnosis, in: Le Origini dello Gnosticismo, ed. by U. Bianchi. Leiden 1967, pp. 429–445; Die "Himmelsreise der Seele" als philosophie- und religionsgeschichtliche Problem, in: Festschrift für Joseph Klein, ed. by E. Fries. Göttingen 1967. pp. 85–104; I. P. Culianu: Psychanodia I: A Survey of the Evidence Concerning the Ascension of the Soul and Its Relevance. Leiden 1983; Expériences de l’extase: Extase, ascension, et récit visionnaire de l’hellénisme au Moyen Age. Paris 1984.

3 The text has recently been edited by Ph. Gignoux: Le livre d’Arda Viraz. Paris 1984, and by F. Vahman: Arda Wiraz Namag: The Iranian “Divina Commedia”. London-Malmo 1986.

4 Seminal hints can be found in J. Duchesne-Guillemin: Fire in Iran and Greece. East and West 13, 1962, pp. 198–206; they are further developed by Gh. Gnoli: Asavan. Contributo allo studio del Libro di Arda Viraz, in: Iranica, Napoli 1979, pp. 387–452.

5 Among the huge mass of secondary literature see I. Gruenwald: Apocalyptic and Merkavah Mysticism. Leiden 1980; M. Himmelfarb: Ascent to Heaven in Jewish and Christian Apocalypses. Oxford 1993; J. R. Davila: Descenders to the Chariot. The People behind the Hekhalot Literature. Leiden/Boston-Köln 2001.

I
The Initiation into the Ancient Persian Magi, and a Curious Legend of Hiram Abif, Solomon, and the Queen of Sheba.

Thousands of years ago there was a wonderful secret organization in Persian whose underground quarters and equipment for the cermonial admission of men who sought membership in it were on so large a scale, and involved so much time, thought, skill and expense theat compared with it, the most elaborate and costly spectacular productions on the modern stage seem paltry.

A man applied for initiation into this society. To test his sincerity and fitness he was subjected to a period of probation which continued through several months, and was undergone in utter solitude in the silence & darkness of a subteranean cave. This ordeal had dethroned the reason of more than one who had undertaken it: and was concluded with a fast of Fifty days' duration.
This is what happened to the candidate when finally admitted to the Mysteries: He was led by a grotesque figure to a dangerous precipice, from which he felt his way to the deep interior of a gloomy cavern, where he was confronted by a hideous object which directed him toward a place whence came the howls of ravenous wild beasts. Suddenly seized by unseen hands he was thrust into the faintly lighted den of animals and instantly attacked by what seemed to be lions, tigers , wolves and other vicious beasts, but were in fact members of the society cunningly made up to resemble them.
Through this horrible place he had been directed to make his way, and was tossed, pulled, trampled upon and buffeted before he escaped, covered with bruises and genuine wounds, into another cavern in which sounded loud peals of thunder, and through which shot constantly terrifying bursts of flame. If he fainted from exhaustion and horror, his senses returned in a comfortable chamber where delightful music and soothing perfumes quieted to some extent his agitation.

Then three venerable priests approached him. One of them threw a Squirming Snake into his bosom, and with the loathsome reptile chilling his skin he was conducted to a door from which issued awful cries of lamentation and despair. There he beheld a dreadful represetation of men enduring the torments of Helll.

this was followed by seven subteranean journeys to the scenes of as many appalling perils, each likely to disturb the stoutest heart and arouse the most rying emotions. Then if his strength hel out, he entered the Holy of Holies. It was a spendid apartment in which a brilliant sun and beautiful stars moved in a miniature sky, while most ravishing music was heard. In the East, seated upon a golden throne, was presence before whom the candidate bowed and took the oath of the Order. Such was the initiation of the Persian Magi, the society founded by Zoaraster, whose extreme antiquity is certified by both Aristotle & Plato. There were other Mysteries in other lands, in the times of antiquity --those of Isis in Egypt, of Cabiri in Phoenicia, of Sabazian in Rome, and the Eleusinian in Greece. And from among them all, Freemasonry alone has emerged as a living influence on modern civilized society and is richest in legend, tradition, and historic facts.
One very curious tale is told by an English author and student of antiquites, whose description of the initiation of the Persian Magi has already been rehearsed. It is a legend of Hiram Abif, the master architect and engineer at the building of King Solomon's Temple, who according to tradition, assisted Solomon in founding the Masonic Order.

When the queen of Sheba visited solomon that Prince of Riches and Glory, who had an appreciative eye for beauty in Women, as well as in Architecture, fell a victim to the seductive charms of his visitor, and sought her hand in marriage. After consideration she accepted the proposal.. Later, when repeated requests had secured the presentation to her of Hiram Abif, whose work on the Temple was a revelation to her of extraordinary ability, the son of the tribe of Naphthali cast a look into her eyes which drew her heart to him.. Solomon, wise in the ways of women, instatly became aware of the impression made on the Queen by his great architect, and was stirred by jealousy. Chargrined, he set about to destroy his friend.

Hans Dieter Betz: The "Mithras Liturgy". Text, Translation and Commentary. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2003 (Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum 18). 274 pp. Euro 69. ISBN 3-16-148128-3.




When the motif of the so called Himmelsreise der Seele was investigated at the beginning of the twentieth century by the most important representatives of the Religionsgeschichtliche Schule, and by Wilhelm Bousset and Richard Reitzenstein in particular, they sought the origins of this doctrine in Iranian religion. Bousset, in a well-known article published in 1901,1 inferred from eschatological Middle-Persian or Pahlavi texts that they reflected an ancient Iranian lore, which had influenced Greek culture too. Of course, the Religionsgeschichtliche position must in some way be shaded (e.g. in considering possible Mesopotamian borrowings), as Carsten Colpe and, more recently, Ioan Petru Couliano have shown.2 However, though we possess only late documents concerning Iranian eschatology, it seems very likely that ancient ecstatic or initiatory experiences, sometimes obtained by means of narcotics or hallucinogens, were further developed into ritualistic practices, so that a voyage in an extraordinary dimension or a vision of spiritual realms became a symbolic representation or a devotional liturgy. For this reason a text like the Arda Wiraz Namag, the so called "Iranian Divine Comedy", (probably written in the ninth century AD)3 cannot be simply regarded as a product from post-Sasanian times, its relative antiquity of contents being not concealed by the long development of Zoroastrian cultic practice and liturgy.

At the same time it is nevertheless true that in the second half of the first millennium BC the Greeks were acquainted with the initiatory and mystical-ecstatic aspects of Iranian religious doctrines, which are partly reflected, among other sources, also in the Platonic accounts about Zoroaster or in the eschatological section at the end of the Republic.4 This doctrine became more and more fashionable during the Hellenistic and imperial period, when manifold sources conflated together: not to mention philosophical interpretations, like Cicero's Dream of Scipio or Virgil's doctrine of the immortal souls in Aeneid 6, or the Plutarchean eschatological dialogues, which were influenced by Stoicism as well as Platonism and Pythagorism, the doctrine of the heavenly ascent of the soul through the spheres is a central tenet in Hermetism and Gnosticism too. Moreover, the heavenly journey is a constant pattern of Jewish and, later, Christian apocalypses, which we cannot here discuss in further detail.5

Therefore, according to many religious traditions, such a heavenly ascent involves a journey into the divine realms from which the soul become initiated into a new, sacred status, reaping spiritual knowledge and even assimilation to the gods.6

This is particularly evident when considering the various religious streams which constituted the motley universe of the imperial and late antique age. It is worth noting also the dialectic and sometimes polemic attitude shown towards astrology, so that a strict relationship was established between the seven planets and the levels that the soul had to transverse in its heavenly ascent. For example, according to a very influential Hermetic doctrine, during its ascent, the soul had to put off the concretions previously acquired when descending into the material world. Gnostic systems presented a far more complicated doctrine, where the soul had to transverse an enormous number of archontic levels, which represented the planets, the signs, the decans, and the 360 degrees of the zodiacal circle or the 365 days of the solar year. They also developed ritual performances or "mysteries" intended to assure the soul an easy and safe passage through the spheres. The adept was supposed to learn by heart the formidable names of the aeons and of the watchers, together with a series of mots de passe, magic numbers and seals or protective talismans corresponding to each aeon. What's more, the techniques intended to assure the gnostic's soul a safe passage through the spheres of the hostile archons up to the pleroma actually form the most important part of gnosis, if we consider, with Hans Jonas, that gnosis, insofar as it is a kind of saving knowledge, led to an Entweltlichung, that is "a shedding of one's cosmic nature". Furthermore, accounts of an heavenly ascent are often recorded in the form of an apocalyptic vision, that is one of the most productive and meaningful literary genres of Gnostic writings.7

Bousset (to come back where we started from) argued that the belief in the ascent of the soul and Gnostic dualism originated in Iran and were propagated in late antiquity by means of the so-called mysteries of Mithra. It is well known how this Persian god gained an increasing favour during late antiquity and his original facies was largely reshaped to suit the changed religious attitude of Hellenism, so that Mithraism became a totally different religion if compared to the role played by Mithra in early Zoroastrian literature.8 This view can be in some way still maintained. The second-century Platonic writer Celsus, for example, provides an important testimony, which offers a partial confirmation of Bousset's theory. In a long fragment9 Celsus offers an extensive description of a ritual object consisting of a ladder with seven steps or "gates", which represent the planets and shares many similarities with the ones depicted in Mithraic temples. According to the philosopher, this object symbolized the passage of the adept's soul through the planetary spheres and could be paralleled to a similar diagram ascribed to the Gnostic sect of the Ophites. Recent interpreters argued that these rituals represent a meditative technique to obtain the inner knowledge of the self and they are structured as an interior journey.

The most important example, however, is provided by a long section from the famous Parisian magical papyrus, edited by Preisendanz in volume one of his Papyri Graecae Magicae (PGM VI, 475-824 [820, according to Betz's proposal]), which is conventionally called Mithrasliturgie after the outstanding edition and commentary by Albrecht Dieterich, who recognized in this text not only a typical product of late antique religious syncretism, but, more specifically, a devotional formulary of the Mithraic mysteries. In this document it is described how to gain immortality by an elevation process. In addition, the already outlined motifs of ascension through celestial spheres, heavenly watchers, voces magicae, merge themselves with ritualistic and magic practice (of apparent Egyptian origin), and therefore demonstrate how often theoretical doctrine cannot be sharply divided form a lower level of knowledge, exampled by an often far-fetched magical praxis: it is the same opposition which features (though on a wider scale) the Hermetic writings.


Just hundred years after the first edition of Albrecht Dieterich's Eine Mithrasliturgie (Leipzig, 1903; 19233), the present book offers a new complete edition of so complex a text.10 It provides the Greek text, an English translation, a punctual introduction, an extensive commentary, an index of Greek words and of the various voces magicae, and, finally, also an appendix, with photographic reproductions of the papyrus. The introduction is divided into five sections, which deal respectively with the title of the work, a palaeographic description of the papyrus, including the circumstance of discovery and a possible date of composition (fourth century AD), a biographic section about Dieterich's life and works,11 a general discussion of the text and of its religio-historical context. Not only Hans-Dieter Betz is one of the most gifted scholars in the domain of primeval Christianity and Hellenistic religions,12 but he already devoted to the Mithras Liturgy a monographic essay,13 which is here enriched and largely supplemented. We particularly appreciated how Betz deals with the critical debate which spread from Dieterich's book (in particular the criticism put forward by one of the most important scholars of Mithraism, the Belgian Franz Cumont) and how he sets Dieterich in the historical and cultural milieu of his age. He also provides a thorough description of his career and of his conspicuous scientific production, which was abruptly interrupted by a premature death at the age of forty-two years in 1908. Dieterich had been a pupil and later became the son-in-law of the prominent Bonner philologist and historian Hermann Usener.14 Largely influenced by Usener's legacy, which treated as a whole both the problems of literary and religious history, Dieterich showed his concern not only for historical and linguistic comprehension of elements in marginal documents of the Greco-Roman religion, which at a first glance seemed 'irrational', but also aimed to disclose their inner strains. He thus investigated magical and astrological texts, showing also a remarkable mastery over Orphic, Hermetic and Gnostic literature, which were considered in some way the aberrant and disturbing fringes of Greco-Roman paganism and as such neglected by classical philologists. In doing so he wanted to stress the importance of beliefs of popular origin at the periphery of official cults or of Classical paganism. At the same time Dieterich was interested in the Hellenistic-Oriental religions and in early Christianity: such an interest is displayed in the well-known book Nekyia (1893), which was inspired by the discovery of the apocryphal Apocalypse of Peter and provides an in-depth study of the Greek tradition of descent to the underworld and of Judeo-Christian apocalyptic tradition. In the Mithrasliturgie Dieterich seems to recall these motifs, as well as those which featured his previous essay on magic literature, Abraxas (1891), since the text is explicitly described by its anonymous author as an apathanatismos, or ritual of immortalisation, and it provides the description of an heavenly ascent.

The final part of Betz's learned introduction deals with 'generic' and compositional questions (including an examination of the stylistic or literary texture and of the redaction phases, which seem to be accurate and intrinsically coherent, despite the different strata of the text) and, most of all, with the global historico-religious setting of the Mithras Liturgy. Dieterich's assumption that this magical prescription could suit the 'canonical' Mithraism of the Hellenistic age is of course to be rejected – as it was almost immediately demonstrated by Cumont. Dieterich's position can be, however, maintained in considering, as he did, the Mithras Liturgy as a prominent testimony of the syncretistic aura by which late antiquity was permeated: this includes a sort of mysticism and personal religiosity, according to the great fresco sketched out by Nock in his book on Conversion; a deep henotheistic tendency (here exampled in the almost coincident figure of Helios-Mithras-Aion), which features many late antique religious streams, and which the same Dieterich also seminally outlined in the 'artificial' god Sarapis;15 as well as an intermingling of magical practice or ritual and theoretical construction. Finally the text shows striking parallels with magic literature and, most of all, with well known Hermetic doctrines, the Egyptian background of which nowadays no one discards any more.16 These parallels were already put forward by Richard Reitzenstein (in his controversial essay on the Poimandres) and are profitably recalled by Betz in the conclusive part.

Therefore, the importance of the Mithras Liturgy for those who are interested in Graeco-Roman religion of the imperial age is – I think – undeniable, just because of the combination of such multifarious motifs and themes. Much more, then, it appears valuable the recovery of Dieterich's thesis, which is inserted in a long lignée and leads to examine thoroughly with erudition and critical insight a secular scholarly tradition. Dieterich's seminal inquiries were in fact very influential in orienting the subsequent scholarship, not only the members of the so-called Religionsgeschichtliche Schule in Göttingen, and Reitzenstein above all, but also their ideal fellows or heirs, like Weinreich or Norden,17 and, a generation or two later, Nock or Dodds. At the same time a massive part of their work still remains valuable and still stands out as an exemplar model for the present generation, which often seems to discard or forget their lesson.

The main body of Betz's book is undeniably the commentary. This is not displayed line to line, but offers a more general discussion of the many sections in which the text can be divided and which are well outlined in a recapitulative table (pp. 60 ff.): it is therefore easier to follow and to sketch out the different constitutive nucleuses of the text. Not only the commentary provides a detailed explanation of linguistic and textual questions (involving also the different readings of some controversial lessons or the various attempts at translating difficult passages), but it is especially rich and wide-ranging in discussing the historical and cultural context too. Such multifarious a context ranges from the Egyptian background of some magical formulas and of the practical instructions displayed at the end (concerning scarabs and plants with thaumaturgic properties) to the Greek style of the introductory prayer and invocation and the hymnic address to the god Aion in lines 587 ff. Therefore, the Mithras Liturgy represents one of the most interesting testimonies of the religious syncretism which features late antiquity. This is particularly palpable in the bulk of the ritual, which displays a long series of divine or angelic figures and culminates with a vision of grace and the immortalisation of the initiate, who had been sifted by the heavenly watchers and had to transverse the celestial spheres. We found of singular interest the section that displays the epiphany and provides also an iconography of the gods Helios in lines 634 ff. and Mithra in lines 696 ff. They are both followed by a self-presentation of the initiate, usual in magical texts, which, again, recalls some fixed patterns of the so-called (after Norden's Agnostos Theos) Ich-Stil, although they concern not a divine, but a human figure. Due to the various influences conflating in the text, which we tried here to sum up, a sheer drudgery was committed to the editor as far as the more and more increasing amount of secondary literature is concerned. Nonetheless, secondary literature is lavishly quoted and each question receives exhaustive discussion and extensive comment. However in so vast a domain it is possible that some bibliographic entries escaped to the author's attention, despite the richness of information provided and the huge material collected: for example, we strangely noticed the absence of Witte's monographic inquiry about Celsus and the diagrams of the Ophites, and likewise we regret that some important contributions by Italian scholars on the same subject are rather neglected (one name above all, Ugo Bianchi, with his various essays on some historico-religious problems involved in Mithraism, including the quest for ultramundane salvation)18. Finally, if I may conclude with a remark, it seems at least singular for a scientific book (written by a mother-speaking German author and printed by a German publisher) that all the German quotations or passages (for example Dieterich's ones), also in the footnotes, are translated into English, perhaps in order to suit the Anglophone audience and the non-German speakers. It is so bitter to notice how the German language, which had been characterizing the Altertumswissenschaft for the last two centuries and formed the backbone of classical studies, is now rather ignored ...

Zusammenfassung

Das Buch bietet eine neue Edition eines wichtigen Zeugnisses des spätantiken religiösen Synkretismus. Es handelt sich um einen Auszug aus einem bedeutenden magischen Papyrus, nämlich um die sogenannte Mithrasliturgie. Dank seiner Struktur, bestimmt durch Apokalypse und Himmelfahrt, bezieht sich der Text auf das Thema der Himmelsreise der Seele, er stellt aber zugleich auch ein konkretes Beispiel eines magischen Rituals zur Erlangung der Unsterblichkeit dar. Die verschiedenen Einflüsse (Hermetismus, magische Handlungen ägyptischer Herkunft, Mithraismus, henotheistische Lehren) werden durch die Einleitung und besonders durch den ausführlichen Kommentar klar herausgearbeitet; dabei kann der Leser auch ein Bild des Religionswissenschaftlers Albrecht Dieterich und seines Werkes gewinnen; ihm wird die erste bedeutende Exegese dieses schwierigen Texts verdankt.

Chiara O. Tommasi Moreschini, Pisa
c.tommasi@flcl.unipi.it



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 Die Himmelsreise der Seele. ARW 4, 1901, pp.136–169.

2 Carsten Colpe: Die "Himmelsreise der Seele" ausserhalb und innerhalb der Gnosis, in: Le Origini dello Gnosticismo, ed. by U. Bianchi. Leiden 1967, pp. 429–445; Die "Himmelsreise der Seele" als philosophie- und religionsgeschichtliche Problem, in: Festschrift für Joseph Klein, ed. by E. Fries. Göttingen 1967. pp. 85–104; I. P. Culianu: Psychanodia I: A Survey of the Evidence Concerning the Ascension of the Soul and Its Relevance. Leiden 1983; Expériences de l’extase: Extase, ascension, et récit visionnaire de l’hellénisme au Moyen Age. Paris 1984.

3 The text has recently been edited by Ph. Gignoux: Le livre d’Arda Viraz. Paris 1984, and by F. Vahman: Arda Wiraz Namag: The Iranian “Divina Commedia”. London-Malmo 1986.

4 Seminal hints can be found in J. Duchesne-Guillemin: Fire in Iran and Greece. East and West 13, 1962, pp. 198–206; they are further developed by Gh. Gnoli: Asavan. Contributo allo studio del Libro di Arda Viraz, in: Iranica, Napoli 1979, pp. 387–452.

5 Among the huge mass of secondary literature see I. Gruenwald: Apocalyptic and Merkavah Mysticism. Leiden 1980; M. Himmelfarb: Ascent to Heaven in Jewish and Christian Apocalypses. Oxford 1993; J. R. Davila: Descenders to the Chariot. The People behind the Hekhalot Literature. Leiden/Boston-Köln 2001.

6 For further information on this subject see my forthcoming entry "Ascension" in the Encyclopedia of Religion, Second Edition, ed. by L. Jones et alii.

7 On Gnostic visions see – after G. Casadio: La visione in Marco il Mago e nella gnosi di tipo sethiano. Augustinianum 29, 1989, pp. 123–146 – G. Quispel: Transformation through Vision in Jewish Gnosticism and the Cologna Mani Codex. VCh 49, 1995, pp. 189–191 (= From Poimandres to Jacob Böhme: Gnosis, Hermetism and the Christian Tradition, ed. by R. van den Broek, C. van Heertum, Amsterdam 2001, pp. 265–269); W. Attridge: Valentinian and Sethian Apocalyptic Tradition. JECS 8, 2000, pp. 173–211.

8 Among the most recent studies on Mithra and Mithraism it is worth citing the various contributions by R. Beck and R. Gordon.

9 Apud Origenes, Contra Celsum 6, 22 ff. This long passage is extensively discussed by B. Witte: Das Ophitendiagramm nach Origen, Contra Celsum 6, 22–38. Altenberge 1993.

10 Scholarship, however, paid already attention to the Mithras Liturgy from Dieterich's times onwards, the text being variously edited and commented (the present editor indeed gives a punctual discussion on the different critical perspectives).

11 Betz's information has now to be also supplemented by these essays, which were also published in 2003: S. Marchand: From Liberalism to Neoromanticism: Albrecht Dieterich, Richard Reitzenstein, and the religious turn in fin-de-siècle German Classical Studies, in: Out of Arcadia. Classics and Politics in Germany in the Age of Burckhardt, Nietzsche and Wilamowitz, ed. by I. Gildenhard and M. Ruehl, London 2003, pp. 129–160; A. Wessels: Ursprungszauber. Zur Rezeption von Hermann Useners Lehre von der religiösen Begriffsbildung. Berlin/New York 2003, pp. 96 ff.

12 See, for example, his manifold essays about Hellenism and early Christianity, which are collected in the four volumes of Gesammelte Aufsätze (Tübingen 1990–1998).

13 Gottesbegegnung und Menschwerdung. Zur religionsgeschichtlichen und theologischen Bedeutung der Mithrasliturgie (PGM IV, 475–820). Berlin/New York 2001.

14 There is a wide-ranging bibliography about Hermann Usener (a complete and detailed list is provided at the following website: http://www.bautz.de/bbkl/u/usener_h_c.shtml; among recent titles it is important for the present subject the miscellaneous volume Aspetti di Hermann Usener filologo della religione. Seminario della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, 17–20 febbraio 1982, preface by Arnaldo Momigliano, Pisa 1982).

15 For this particular kind of henotheism it is still worth quoting A.D. Nock: A vision of Mandulis Aion, in: Essays on Religion and ancient World, ed. by Z. Stewart, Oxford 1972, pp. 357–400, which must be supplemented with R. van den Broek: The Sarapis Oracle in Macrobius, Sat. I 20, 16–17, in: Hommage à M. J. Vermaseren. Recueil d’études offert par les auteurs de la Série Études Preliminaires aux Religions Orientales dans l’Empire Romain …, éd. par M. B. de Boer et T.A. Edridge, Leiden 1978, pp. 123–141. For a global consideration of late antique 'pagan' monotheism see, after the much-celebrated, but rather superficial (besides the essays by Mitchell and Liebeschuetz) miscellaneous book, edited by P. Athanassiadi and M. Frede: Pagan Monotheism in Late Antiquity, Oxford 1999 (Rec.: Markus Stein, Plekos 3, 2001, 21-32), some contributions in the forthcoming volume Monothéisme: exclusivisme, diversité ou dialogue?, edited by Charles Guittard, which is going to collect the Proceedings of the International EASR Conference held in Paris (Sept. 12th–14th 2002).

16 See E. Iversen: Egyptian and Hermetic Doctrine. Copenhagen 1986 and G. Fowden: The Egyptian Hermes. A Historical Approach to the Late Pagan Mind. Princeton 1986; 19932. J. Assmann's Moses the Egyptian, Harvard 1997 investigates the interesting survey of Hermetic writings and 'Egyptian' exoticism in Europe from the late Renaissance onwards, insofar as they represented a sort of intellectual fashion and characterized exoteric conventicles or intellectual circles (it is possible to ascribe to the same domain a masterpiece of European music, that is Mozart's Zauberflöte, on the sources of which see S. Morenz: Die Zauberföte. Eine Studie zum Lebenszusammenhang Ägypten – Antike – Abendland. Münster/Köln 1952).

17 On Eduard Norden, his life and cultural legacy together with as a balance of his research see now my Per un bilancio di Agnostos Theos, which appears as introduction to the Italian translation of Agnostos Theos, Brescia 2002, pp. 9–122.

18 The perspective adopted by this important Italian scholar is now investigated and discussed by P. Pachis: Ugo Bianchi e il Mitraismo, in: G. Casadio (ed.), Ugo Bianchi. Una vita per la storia delle religioni, Roma 2002, pp. 219–231, who also offers a detailed list of Bianchi's contributions on this subject.

Cosmology and eschatology in Jewish and Christian apocalypticism By Adela Yarbro Collins

P31-32 The Greek word ***** and its Hebrew equivalent come from an Old Persian word meaning "park" or "garden" without any particularly religious signifacance. The Hebrew form of the word does not occur in the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis 2-3. The Greek form, however, was used in the Septuagint version of these chapters. Where the idea of an abode of the righteous after death had developed, this dwelling was identified with Garden of Eden, that is, Paradise. This identification may be presupposed already in 1 Enoch 20:7 (third century BCE0 and probably in Ps Sol 14:3 (first century BCE.) The location of Paradise is not specified in these early texts. For Paul, it is apparently in the third heaven.

Persian analogues can also be found for the second type of apocalypes, which involves a heavenly journey. There is a full-blown apocalypse of the type in the Book of Arda Viraf, but it dates from the ninth century. Viraf was a priest who drugged himself to release his spirit to explore the fate of the dead. The book describes his visions of heaven and hell, attended by interpreting angels. The name Viraf occurs in the Avesta, and the book has been thought to hahave an old kernel: but, of course, any earlier form is hypothetical. The motif of the ascent of the soul is certainly old in Persian tradition. Here again the general outline of the this type of apocalypse may have had Persian precedents, but we cannot be certain, because of the dating problem.
P33

Many things are hidden under the cloak of christianity

Even the devil.

Prophecies of St. Malachy
Concerning Ireland

This prophecy, which is distinct from the prophecies attributed to St. Malachy concerning the popes, is to the effect that his beloved native isle would undergo at the hands of England oppression, persecution, and calamities of every kind, during a week of centuries; but that she would preserve her fidelity to God and to His Church amidst all her trials. At the end of seven centuries she would be delivered from her oppressors (or oppressions), who in their turn would be subjected to dreadful chastisements, and Catholic Ireland would be instrumental in bringing back the British nation to that Divine Faith which Protestant England had, during three hundred years, so rudely endeavoured to wrest from her. This prophecy is said to have been copied by the learned Dom Mabillon from an ancient manuscript preserved at Clairvaux, and transmitted by him to the martyred successor of Oliver Plunkett.

Concerning the Popes

The most famous and best known prophecies about the popes are those attributed to St. Malachy. In 1139 he went to Rome to give an account of the affairs of his diocese to the pope, Innocent II, who promised him two palliums for the metropolitan Sees of Armagh and Cashel. While at Rome, he received (according to the Abbé Cucherat) the strange vision of the future wherein was unfolded before his mind the long list of illustrious pontiffs who were to rule the Church until the end of time. The same author tells us that St. Malachy gave his manuscript to Innocent II to console him in the midst of his tribulations, and that the document remained unknown in the Roman Archives until its discovery in 1590 (Cucherat, "Proph. de la succession des papes", ch. xv). They were first published by Arnold de Wyon, and ever since there has been much discussion as to whether they are genuine predictions of St. Malachy or forgeries. The silence of 400 years on the part of so many learned authors who had written about the popes, and the silence of St. Bernard especially, who wrote the "Life of St. Malachy", is a strong argument against their authenticity, but it is not conclusive if we adopt Cucherat's theory that they were hidden in the Archives during those 400 years.
These short prophetical announcements, in number 112, indicate some noticeable trait of all future popes from Celestine II, who was elected in the year 1143, until the end of the world. They are enunciated under mystical titles. Those who have undertaken to interpret and explain these symbolical prophecies have succeeded in discovering some trait, allusion, point, or similitude in their application to the individual popes, either as to their country, their name, their coat of arms or insignia, their birth-place, their talent or learning, the title of their cardinalate, the dignities which they held etc. For example, the prophecy concerning Urban VIII is Lilium et Rosa (the lily and the rose); he was a native of Florence and on the arms of Florence figured a fleur-de-lis; he had three bees emblazoned on his escutcheon, and the bees gather honey from the lilies and roses. Again, the name accords often with some remarkable and rare circumstance in the pope's career; thus Peregrinus apostolicus (pilgrim pope), which designates Pius VI, appears to be verified by his journey when pope into Germany, by his long career as pope, and by his expatriation from Rome at the end of his pontificate. Those who have lived and followed the course of events in an intelligent manner during the pontificates of Pius IX, Leo XIII, and Pius X cannot fail to be impressed with the titles given to each by the prophecies of St. Malachy and their wonderful appropriateness: Crux de Cruce (Cross from a Cross) Pius IX; Lumen in caelo (Light in the Sky) Leo XIII; Ignis ardens (Burning Fire) Pius X. There is something more than coincidence in the designations given to these three popes so many hundred years before their time. We need not have recourse either to the family names, armorial bearings or cardinalatial titles, to see the fitness of their designations as given in the prophecies. The afflictions and crosses of Pius IX were more than fell to the lot of his predecessors; and the more aggravating of these crosses were brought on by the House of Savoy whose emblem was a cross. Leo XIII was a veritable luminary of the papacy. The present pope is truly a burning fire of zeal for the restoration of all things to Christ.

The last of these prophecies concerns the end of the world and is as follows: "In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church there will reign Peter the Roman, who will feed his flock amid many tribulations, after which the seven-hilled city will be destroyed and the dreadful Judge will judge the people. The End." It has been noticed concerning Petrus Romanus, who according to St. Malachy's list is to be the last pope, that the prophecy does not say that no popes will intervene between him and his predecessor designated Gloria olivæ. It merely says that he is to be the last, so that we may suppose as many popes as we please before "Peter the Roman". Cornelius a Lapide refers to this prophecy in his commentary "On the Gospel of St. John" (C. xvi) and "On the Apocalypse" (cc. xvii-xx), and he endeavours to calculate according to it the remaining years of time.

BOOK I.
BEGINNING with the generation first
Of mortal men down to the very last
I'll prophesy each thing: what erst has been,
And what is now, and what shall yet befall
5 The world through the impiety of men.
First now God urges on me to relate
Truly how into being came the world.
And thou, shrewd mortal, prudently make known,
Lest ever thou should'st my commands neglect,
10 The King most high, who brought into existence
The whole world, saying, "Let there be," and there was.
For he the earth established, placing it
Round about Tartarus, and he himself

[1. This book appears to be one of the latest in composition of this entire collection of oracles, but it was placed first on account of its contents, which relate to the creation and the earliest races of mankind. It is evidently of Christian origin, and was written probably as late as the third century.

13. Tartartus, the prison of the Titans, is here conceived as encompassed by the earth and forming its interior. Hesiod (Theog., 720, ff) represents it as surrounded by a brazen fence and situated as far beneath the earth as earth is beneath the heaven; it would require nine days and nights, he says, for an anvil to fall from heaven to earth, and as many more for it to fall from earth to Tartarus. Comp. Homer, Il., viii, 13-16. Verg., Æn., vi, 577-581. It will be seen in line 127 and elsewhere that Gehenna is regarded as a part of Tartarus or identical with it, while Hades (line 106) comprehends the abode of all the dead.]

Gehenna

Valley of Hinnom, c. 1900Gehenna, gehinnam, or gehinnom (Hebrew: גהנום, גהנם, Greek γέεννα) are terms derived from a geographical site in Jerusalem known as the Valley of Hinnom, one of the two principal valleys surrounding the Old City. Due to Jewish religious tradition regarding the bloodiness of its history, Gehenna has become a metonym for "Hell" or any similar place of punishment in the afterlife.

According to parts of the Bible, the site was initially where apostate Israelites and followers of various Ba'als and false gods, including Moloch, sacrificed their children by fire (2 Chr. 28:3, 33:6; Jer. 7:31, 19:2-6 The traditional explanation that 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 Psalm 27:13 (ca. A.D. 1200). 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 is neither archaeological nor literary evidence in support of this claim, in either the earlier intertestamental or the later rabbinic sources[1]. Also, Lloyd R. Bailey's "Gehenna: The Topography of Hell"[2] from 1986 holds a similar view.

In time it became deemed to be accursed and an image of the place of destruction in Jewish folklore[3][4]. However, Jewish folklore suggests the valley had a 'gate' which led down to a molten lake of fire.

Eventually the Hebrew term Gehinnom[5] became a figurative name for the place of spiritual purification for the wicked dead in Judaism, a site at the greatest possible distance from heaven. According to most Jewish sources, the period of purification or punishment is limited to only 12 months and every shabbath day is excluded from punishment.[6] After this the soul will ascend to Olam Ha-Ba, the world to come, or will be destroyed if it is severely wicked.[7]

Gehenna is cited in the New Testament and in early Christian writing to represent the final place where the wicked will be punished or destroyed after resurrection.

In both Rabbinical Jewish and Christian writing, Gehenna as a destination of the wicked is different from Hades, the abode of the dead, and is but loosely analogous to the concept of Hell.

Contents [hide]
1 Etymology
2 Geography
3 The concept of Gehenna
3.1 In the Hebrew Bible
3.2 In extra-Biblical Documents
3.3 In Rabbinical Judaism
3.4 In the New Testament
3.4.1 Translations in Christian Bibles
3.5 In Islam
4 Literary references
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Etymology
English "Gehenna" represents the Greek Geenna (γεεννα) found in the New Testament, a phonetic transcription of Aramaic Gēhannā (ܓܗܢܐ), equivalent to the Hebrew Ge Hinnom, literally "Valley of Hinnom". This was known in the Old Testament as Gai Ben-Hinnom, literally the "Valley of the son of Hinnom", and in the Talmud as Gehinnam (גהנם) or Gehinnom (גהנום). In the Qur'an, Gehenna (Gehennem, Jahannam, جهنم) is a place of torment for sinners or the Islamic equivalent of Hell.

[edit] Geography

Tombs in the Valley of HinnomThe exact location of the Valley of Hinnom is disputed. Older commentaries give the location as below the southern wall of ancient Jerusalem, stretching from the foot of Mount Zion eastward past the Tyropoeon to the Kidron Valley. However the Tyropoeon Valley is usually no longer associated with the Valley of Hinnom because during the period of Ahaz and Manasseh, the Tyropoeon lay within the city walls and child sacrifice would have been practiced outside the walls of the city. Smith (1907),[8] Dalman (1930),[9] Bailey (1986)[10] and Watson (1992)[11] identify the Wadi er-Rababi, which fits the data of Joshua that Hinnom ran East to West and lay outside the city walls. According to Joshua, the valley began in En-rogel. If the modern Bir Ayyub is En-rogel then the Wadi er-Rababi which begins there is Hinnom.[12]

In the King James Version of the Bible, the term appears 13 times in 11 different verses as "valley of Hinnom," "valley of the son of Hinnom" or "valley of the children of Hinnom."

[edit] The concept of Gehenna
[edit] In the Hebrew Bible
The oldest historical reference to the valley is found in Joshua 15:8, 18:16 which describe tribal boundaries.

The next chronological reference to the valley is at the time of King Ahaz of Judah who sacrificed his sons there according to 2 Chron. 28:3. Since his legitimate son by the daughter of the High Priest Hezekiah succeeded him as king, this, if literal, is assumed to mean children by unrecorded pagan wives or concubines. The same is recorded of Ahaz' grandson Manasseh in 33:6. There remains debate about whether the phrase "cause his children to pass through the fire" meant a simple ceremony or the literal child sacrifice.

Valley of Hinnom, 2007.The Book of Isaiah does not mention Gehenna by name, but the "burning place" 30:33 in which the Assyrian army are to be destroyed, may be read "Topheth", and the final verse of Isaiah which concerns the corpses of the same or a similar battle, Isaiah 66:24, "where their worm does not die" is cited by Jesus in reference to Gehenna in Mark 9:48.

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 King Josiah destroyed the shrine of Molech on Topheth, to prevent anyone sacrificing children there in 2 Kings 23:10. Despite Josaiah's ending of the practice, Jeremiah also included a prophecy that Jerusalem itself would be made like Gehenna and Topheth (19:2-6, 11-14).

A final purely geographical reference is found in Neh. 11:30 to the exiles returning from Babylon camping from Beersheba to Hinnom.

[edit] In extra-Biblical Documents
There is a lack of direct references to Gehenna in the Apocrypha, Dead Sea Scrolls, Pseudepigrapha and Philo.

Josephus does not deal with this aspect of the history of the Hinnom Valley in his descriptions of Jerusalem for a Roman audience. Nor does Josephus make any mention of the tradition commonly reported in older Christian commentaries that in Roman times fires were kept burning and the valley became the garbage dump of the city, where the dead bodies of criminals, and the carcasses of animals were thrown. Source references for this tradition seem to be lacking.

The southwestern gate of Jerusalem, overlooking the valley, came to be known as "The Gate of the Valley" (Hebrew: שער הגיא‎).

[edit] In Rabbinical Judaism
The picture of Gehenna as the place of punishment or destruction of the wicked occurs frequently in the Mishnah in Kiddushin 4.14, Avot 1.5; 5.19, 20, Tosefta t.Bereshith 6.15, and Babylonian Talmud b.Rosh Hashanah 16b:7a; b.Bereshith 28b. Gehenna is considered a Purgatory-like place where the wicked go to suffer until they have atoned for their sins. It is stated that the maximum amount of time a sinner can spend in Gehenna is one year, with the exception of five people who are there for all of eternity[13].

[edit] In the New Testament
In the synoptic gospels Jesus uses the word Gehenna 11 times to describe the opposite to life in the promised, coming Kingdom (Mark 9:43-48).[14] It is a place where both soul and body could be destroyed (Matthew 10:28) in "unquenchable fire" (Mark 9:43).

Gehenna is also mentioned in the Epistle of James 3:6, where it is said to set the tongue on fire, and the tongue in turn sets on fire the entire "course" or "wheel" of life.

The complete list of references is as follows:

Matt.5:22 whoever calls someone "you fool" will be liable to Gehenna.
Matt.5:29 better to lose one of your members than that your whole body go into Gehenna.
Matt.5:30 better to lose one of your members than that your whole body go into Gehenna.
Matt.10:28 rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.
Matt.18:9 better to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna.
Matt.23:15 Pharisees make a convert twice as much a child of Gehenna as themselves.
Matt.23:33 to Pharisees: you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to Gehenna?
Mark 9:43 better to enter life with one hand than with two hands to go to Gehenna.
Mark 9:45 better to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna.
Mark 9:47 better to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna
Luke 12:5 Fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into Gehenna
James 3:6 the tongue is set on fire by Gehenna.
[edit] Translations in Christian Bibles
The New Testament also refers to Hades as a temporary destination of the dead. Hades is portrayed as a different place from the final judgement of the damned in Gehenna. The Book of Revelation describes Hades being cast into the Lake of Fire (Gehenna) (Revelation 20:14). Hades the temporary place of the dead is said to be removed for ever and cast into the Lake of Fire commonly understood to be synonymous with Gehenna or the final Hell of the unsaved. This indicating that any who die after this would never go to a temporary place, Hades, just instead a final judgement of saved or condemned. The King James Version is the only English translation in modern use to translate Sheol, Hades, and Gehenna as Hell. The New International Version, New Living Translation, New American Standard Bible (among others) all reserve the term hell only for when Gehenna is used.

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:

The 4th century Ulfilas (Wulfila) or Gothic Bible is the first Bible to use Hell's Proto-Germanic form Halja, and maintains a distinction between Hades and Gehenna. However, unlike later translations, Halja(Matt 11:23) is reserved for Hades[15], and Gehenna is transliterated to Gaiainnan(Matt 5:30) , which surprisingly is the opposite to modern translations that translate Gehenna into Hell and leave Hades untranslated (see below).
The 19th century Young's Literal Translation and Rotherham's Emphasized Bible both try to be as literal a translation as possible and do not use the word Hell at all, keeping the words Hades and Gehenna untranslated.
The 19th century Arabic Van Dyck distinguishes Gehenna from Sheol.
The 20th century New International Version, New Living Translation and New American Standard Bible reserve the term Hell only for when Gehenna is used. All translate Sheol and Hades in a different fashion. The exception to this is the New International Version's translation in Luke 16:23, which is its singular rendering of Hades as Hell.
In texts in Greek, and consistently in the Orthodox Church, the distinctions present in the originals were often maintained. The Russian Synodal Bible (and one translation by the Old Church Slavonic)also maintain the distinction.
The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures maintains a distinction between Gehenna and Hades by rendering each term appropriately. The term "hell" is not used in place of Gehenna (Matthew 5:22) or Hades (Acts 2:31).
Translations without a distinction:

The late 4th century Latin Vulgate does not distinguish between Gehenna and Sheol/Hades rendering both as inferno, but also predates the concept of Purgatory
The Old English of Ælfric and then the English of the 14th century Wycliffe Bible render the Latin inferno as Hell.
The 16th century Tyndale and later translators had access to the Greek, but Tyndale translated both Gehenna and Hades as same English word, Hell.
The 17th century King James Version of the bible is the only English translation in modern use to translate Sheol, Hades, and Gehenna as Hell.
Many modern Christians understand Gehenna to be a place of eternal punishment called hell.[16]

On the other hand, annihilationists understand Gehenna to be a place where sinners are utterly destroyed, not tormented forever. Christian Universalists, who believe that God will eventually save all souls, interpret the New Testament references to Gehenna in the context of the Old Testament and conclude that it always refers to the imminent divine judgment of Israel and not to eternal torment for the unsaved.

The Valley of Hinnom is also the traditional location of the Potter's Field bought by priests after Judas' suicide with the "blood money" with which Judas was paid for betraying Jesus.

[edit] In Islam
The name given to Hell in Islam, Jahannam, directly correlates with Gehenna as well. The Quran contains 76 or 77 references to Gehenna (جهنم), but no references to Hades (هيدز).

[edit] Literary references
John Milton, "Paradise Lost", Book I
[Moloch] made his Grove
The pleasant Vally of HINNOM, TOPHET thence
And black GEHENNA call'd, the Type of Hell.

Edgar Allan Poe, "Morella"
And thus, joy suddenly faded into horror, and the most beautiful became the most hideous, as Hinnom became Gehenna.

Rudyard Kipling, "Story of Gadsby"
Down to Gehenna or up to the Throne,
He travels the fastest who travels alone.

Gehennom is the bottom underworld set of 20–24 dungeon levels of the roguelike game NetHack. Within bide sundry demons, Orcus, Vlad, Moloch, and the Wizard of Yendor.

Vocalist Randy Blythe of the band Lamb of God mentions Gehenna in the song "Hourglass" from the album Ashes of the Wake.

God forbid you read the signs,
Watch for meaning between the lines.
Gehenna has now arrived,
No hindsight for the blind.
Your trust has been misplaced,
believed the lies told to your face.
Became another casualty,
And now it's too late.
"Gehenna" is also a song by metal band Slipknot from their album All Hope Is Gone. Gehenna is also the name of the second episode of the television series, "Millennium".

The band Fields of the Nephilim released their second EP titled "Returning to Gehenna" in 1986 featuring a song of the same name. In 2001, the band released the album "From Gehanna to Here" which also featured the song "Returning to Gehanna".

The video game Homeworld 2 has two levels, Gehenna Outskirts and Gehenna in which the object is to retrieve the 'Oracle', a small Progenitor relic buried in an asteroid with massive information storage instrumental in recovering the Keeper of Sajuuk

The TV series Kings, a modern-day retelling of the story of the Biblical King David, features several scenes set at a prison called Gehenna, which seems to have only one prisoner: the deposed former King of Carmel, Vesper Abaddon.

[edit] See also
Hell in Christian beliefs
Outer darkness
Spirit prison
Tzoah Rotachat
[edit] References
1.^ Hermann L. Strack and Paul Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud and Midrasch, 5 vols. [Munich: Beck, 1922-56], 4:2:1030
2.^ Lloyd R. Bailey, "Gehenna: The Topography of Hell," Biblical Archeologist 49 [1986]: 189
3.^ "The place where children were sacrificed to the god Moloch was originally in the "valley of the son of Hinnom," to the south of Jerusalem (Josh. xv. 8, passim; II Kings xxiii. 10; Jer. ii. 23; vii. 31-32; xix. 6, 13-14). For this reason the valley was deemed to be accursed, and "Gehenna" therefore soon became a figurative equivalent for 'hell'." GEHENNA - Jewish Encyclopedia By : Kaufmann Kohler, Ludwig Blau; web-sourced: 02-11-2010.
4.^ "gehenna." Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary. 27 Aug. 2009. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/gehenna>.
5.^ "Gehinnom is the Hebrew name; Gehenna is Yiddish." Gehinnom - Judaism 101 websourced 02-10-2010.
6.^ "The place of spiritual punishment and/or purification for the wicked dead in Judaism is not referred to as Hell, but as Gehinnom or She'ol." HELL - Judaism 101 websourced 02-10-2010.
7.^ [1]
8.^ Smith, G. A. 1907. Jerusalem: The Topography, Economics and History from the Earliest Times to A.D. 70. London.
9.^ Dalman, G. 1930. Jerusalem und sein Gelande. Schriften des Deutschen Palastina-Instituts 4
10.^ Bailey, L. R. 1986. Gehenna: The Topography of Hell. BA 49: 187
11.^ Watson, Duane F. Hinnom. In Freedman, David Noel, ed., The Anchor Bible Dictionary, New York Doubleday 1997, 1992.
12.^ Geoffrey W. Bromiley International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: E-J - 1982
13.^ Babylonian Talmud. Sanhedrin (7) Ch. 11 "Chelek"
14.^ Blue Letter Bible. "Dictionary and Word Search for geenna (Strong's 1067)".
15.^ Murdoch & Read (2004) Early Germanic literature and culture’’, p. 160. [2]
16.^ Metzger & Coogan (1993) Oxford Companion to the Bible’’, p. 243.
[edit] External links

GEHENNA

By : Kaufmann Kohler Ludwig Blau

ARTICLE HEADINGS:
Nature and Situation.
Judgment.
Sin and Merit.


Nature and Situation.

The place where children were sacrificed to the god Moloch was originally in the "valley of the son of Hinnom," to the south of Jerusalem (Josh. xv. 8, passim; II Kings xxiii. 10; Jer. ii. 23; vii. 31-32; xix. 6, 13-14). For this reason the valley was deemed to be accursed, and "Gehenna" therefore soon became a figurative equivalent for "hell." Hell, like paradise, was created by God (Soṭah 22a); according to Gen. R. ix. 9, the words "very good" in Gen. i. 31 refer to hell; hence the latter must have been created on the sixth day. Yet opinions on this point vary. According to some sources, it was created on the second day; according to others, even before the world, only its fire being created on the second day (Gen. R. iv., end; Pes. 54a). The "fiery furnace" that Abraham saw (Gen. xv. 17, Hebr.) was Gehenna (Mek. xx. 18b, 71b; comp. Enoch, xcviii. 3, ciii. 8; Matt. xiii. 42, 50; 'Er. 19a, where the "fiery furnace" is also identified with the gate of Gehenna). Opinions also vary as to the situation, extent, and nature of hell. The statement that Gehenna is situated in the valley of Hinnom near Jerusalem, in the "accursed valley" (Enoch, xxvii. 1 et seq.), means simply that it has a gate there. It was in Zion, and had a gate in Jerusalem (Isa. xxxi. 9). It had three gates, one in the wilderness, one in the sea, and one in Jerusalem ('Er. 19a). The gate lies between two palm-trees in the valley of Hinnom, from which smoke is continually rising (ib.). The mouth is narrow, impeding the smoke, but below Gehenna extends indefinitely (Men. 99b). According to one opinion, it is above the firmament, and according to another, behind the dark mountains (Ta'an. 32b). An Arabian pointed out to a scholar the spot in the wilderness where the earth swallowed the sons of Korah (Num. xvi. 31-32), who descended into Gehenna (Sanh. 110b). It is situated deep down in the earth, and is immeasurably large. "The earth is one-sixtieth of the garden, the garden one-sixtieth of Eden [paradise], Eden one-sixtieth of Gehenna; hence the whole world is like a lid for Gehenna. Some say that Gehenna can not be measured" (Pes. 94a). It is divided into seven compartments (Soṭah 10b); a similar view was held by the Babylonians (Jeremias, "Hölle und Paradies bei den Babyloniern," pp. 16 et seq., Leipsic, 1901; Guthe, "Kurzes Bibel-wörterb." p. 272, Tübingen and Leipsic, 1903).

Because of the extent of Gehenna the sun, on setting in the evening, passes by it, and receives from it its own fire (evening glow; B. B. 84a). A fiery stream ("dinur") falls upon the head of the sinner in Gehenna (Ḥag. 13b). This is "the fire of the West, which every setting sun receives. I came to a fiery river, whose fire flows like water, and which empties into a large sea in the West" (Enoch, xvii. 4-6). Hell here is described exactly as in the Talmud. The Persians believed that glowing molten metal flowed under the feet of sinners (Schwally, "Das Leben nach dem Tode," p. 145, Giessen, 1892). The waters of the warm springs of Tiberias are heated while flowing past Gehenna (Shab. 39a). The fire of Gehenna never goes out (Tosef., Ber. 6, 7; Mark ix. 43 et seq.; Matt. xviii. 8, xxv. 41; comp. Schwally, l.c. p. 176); there is always plenty of wood there (Men. 100a). This fire is sixty times as hot as any earthly fire (Ber. 57b). There is a smell of sulfur in Gehenna (Enoch, lxvii. 6). This agrees with the Greek idea of hell (Lucian, Αληθεῖς Ιστορίαι, i. 29, in Dietrich, "Abraxas," p. 36). The sulfurous smell of the Tiberian medicinal springs was ascribed to their connection with Gehenna. In Isa. lxvi. 16, 24 it is said that God judges by means of fire. Gehenna is dark in spite of the immense masses of fire; it is like night (Yeb. 109b; comp. Job x. 22). The same idea also occurs in Enoch, x. 4, lxxxii. 2; Matt. viii. 12, xxii. 13, xxv. 30 (comp. Schwally, l.c. p. 176).

It is assumed that there is an angel-prince in charge of Gehenna. He says to God: "Put everything into my sea; nourish me with the seed of Seth; I am hungry." But God refuses his request, telling him to take the heathen peoples (Shab. 104). God says to the angel-prince: "I punish the slanderers from above, and I also punish them from below with glowing coals" ('Ar. 15b). The souls of the sons of Korah were burned, and the angel-prince gnashed his teeth at them on account of their flattery of Korah (Sanh. 52a). Gehenna cries: "Give me the heretics and the sinful [Roman] power" ('Ab. Zarah 17a).

Judgment.

It is assumed in general that sinners go to hell immediately after their death. The famous teacher Johanan b. Zakkai wept before his death because he did not know whether he would go to paradise or to hell (Ber. 28b). The pious go to paradise, and sinners to hell (B. M. 83b). To every individual is apportioned two shares, one in hell and one in paradise. At death, however, the righteous man's portion in hell is exchanged, so that he has two in heaven, while the reverse is true in the case of sinners (Ḥag. 15a). Hence it would have been better for the latter not to have lived at all (Yeb. 63b). They are cast into Gehenna to a depth commensurate with their sinfulness. They say: "Lord of the world, Thou hast done well; Paradise for the pious, Gehenna for the wicked" ('Er. 19a).

There are three categories of men; the wholly pious and the arch-sinners are not purified, but only those between these two classes (Ab. R. N. 41). A similar view is expressed in the Babylonian Talmud, which adds that those who have sinned themselves but have not led others into sin remain for twelve months in Gehenna; "after twelve months their bodies are destroyed, their souls are burned, and the wind strews the ashes under the feet of the pious. But as regards the heretics, etc., and Jeroboam, Nebat's son, hell shall pass away, but they shall not pass away" (R. H. 17a; comp. Shab. 33b). All that descend into Gehenna shall come up again, with the exception of three classes of men: those who have committed adultery, or shamed their neighbors, or vilified them (B. M. 58b). The felicity of the pious in paradise excites the wrath of the sinners who behold it when they come from hell (Lev. R. xxxii.). The Book of Enoch (xxvii. 3, xlviii. 9, lxii. 12) paraphrases this thought by saying that the pious rejoice in the pains of hell suffered by the sinners. Abraham takes the damned to his bosom ('Er. 19a; comp. Luke xvi. 19-31). The fire of Gehenna does not touch the Jewish sinners because they confess their sins before the gates of hell and return to God ('Er. 19a). As mentioned above, heretics and the Roman oppressors go to Gehenna, and the same fate awaits the Persians, the oppressors of the Babylonian Jews (Ber. 8b). When Nebuchadnezzar descended into hell, all its inhabitants were afraid that he was coming to rule over them (Shab. 149a; comp. Isa. xiv. 9-10). The Book of Enoch also says that it is chiefly the heathen who are to be cast into the fiery pool on the Day of Judgment (x. 6, xci. 9, et al.). "The Lord, the Almighty, will punish them on the Day of Judgment by putting fire and worms into their flesh, so that they cry out with pain unto all eternity" (Judith xvi. 17).
(see image) Valley of Ge-Hinnom.(From a photograph by Bonfils.)The sinners in Gehenna will be filled with pain when God puts back the souls into the dead bodies on the Day of Judgment, according to Isa. xxxiii. 11 (Sanh. 108b). Enoch also holds (xlviii. 9) that the sinners will disappear like chaff before the faces of the elect. There will be no Gehenna in the future world, however, for God will take the sun out of its case, and it will heal the pious with its rays and will punish the sinners (Ned. 8b).

Sin and Merit.

It is frequently said that certain sins will lead man into Gehenna. The name "Gehenna" itself is explained to mean that unchastity will lead to Gehenna (; 'Er. 19a); so also will adultery, idolatry, pride, mockery, hypocrisy, anger, etc. (Soṭah 4b, 41b; Ta'an. 5a; B. B. 10b, 78b; 'Ab. Zarah 18b; Ned. 22a). Hell awaits one who indulges in unseemly speech (Shab. 33a; Enoch, xxvii.); who always follows the advice of his wife (B. M. 59a); who instructs an unworthy pupil (Ḥul. 133b); who turns away from the Torah (B. B. 79a; comp. Yoma 72b). For further details see 'Er. 18b, 101a; Sanh. 109b; Ḳid. 81a; Ned. 39b; B. M. 19a.

On the other hand, there are merits that preserve man from going to hell; e.g., philanthropy, fasting, visiting the sick, reading the Shema' and Hallel, and eating the three meals on the Sabbath (Giṭ. 7a; B. B. 10a; B. M. 85a; Ned. 40a; Ber. 15b; Pes. 118a; Shab. 118a). Israelites in general are less endangered (Ber. 10a) than heretics, or, according to B. B. 10a, than the heathen. Scholars (Ḥag. 27a; comp. Men. 99b and Yoma 87a), the poor, and the pious (Yeb. 102b) are especially protected. Three classes of men do not see the face of hell: those that live in penury, those suffering with intestinal catarrh, and those that are pressed by their creditors ('Er. 41b). It would seem that the expressions "doomed to hell" and "to be saved from hell" must be interpreted hyperbolically. A bad woman is compared to Gehenna in Yeb. 63b. On the names of Gehenna see 'Er. 19a; B. B. 79a; Sanh. 111b; et al.

Bibliography: Winer, B. R. i. 491;
Hamburger, R. B. T. i. 527-530;
Hastings, Dict. Bible, ii. 343-346;
H. Guthe, Kurzes Bibelwörterb. pp. 271-274, Tübingen and Leipsic, 1903;
G. Brecher, Das Transcendentale, etc. pp. 69-73, Vienna, 1850;
A. Hilgenfeld, Jüdische Apocalyptik, Index, Jena, 1857;
F. Weber, Jüdische Theologie, pp. 336 et seq.;
E. Stave, Der Einfluss des Parsismus auf das Judenthum, pp. 153-192 et seq., Haarlem, 1898;
James, Traditional Aspects of Hell, London, 1903.K. L. B.




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Hinnom Valley


All of the rubbish from the entire city of Jerusalem was dumped and burnt here.



Otherwise called "the valley of the son of Hinnom," or "the valley of Benhinnom"; a deep and narrow ravine with steep, rocky sides to the S and W of Jerusalem, separating Mt. Zion to the N from the "Hill of Evil Counsel," and the sloping rocky plateau of the "valley of Rephaim" to the S. The earliest mention of the valley of Hinnom is in Josh 15:8; 18:16, where the boundary line between the tribes of Judah and Benjamin is described as passing along the bed of the ravine. On the southern brow, overlooking the valley at its eastern extremity, Solomon erected high places for Molech (1 Kings 11:7), whose horrid rites were revived from time to time in the same vicinity by the later idolatrous kings. Ahaz and Manasseh made their children "pass through the fire" in this valley (2 Kings 16:3; 2 Chron 28:3; 33:6), and the fiendish custom of infant sacrifice to the fire-gods seems to have been kept up in Topheth at its southeast extremity for a considerable period (Jer 7:31; 2 Kings 23:10). To put an end to these abominations the place was polluted by Josiah, who rendered it ceremonially unclean by spreading over it human bones and other corruptions (2 Kings 23:10,13-14; 2 Chron 34:3-5). From that time it appears to have become the common cesspool of the city, into which its sewage was conducted to be carried off by the waters of the Kidron, as well as a laystall, where all its solid filth was collected. From its ceremonial defilement and from the detested and abominable fire of Molech, if not from the supposed everburning funeral piles, the later Jews applied the name of this valley Ge Hinnom, "Gehenna," to denote the place of eternal torment. The name by which it is now known is Wadi Jehennam, or Wadi er Rubeb. See Gehenna; Hell.



THE VALLEY OF HINNOM (GEHENNA)





All the rubbish of Jerusalem was burnt here. Its interesting to note that Aceldama (Field of Blood) was here in this valley.

Valley of Hinnom - Valley of History


A walk through the green and tranquil Valley of Hinnom, below Jerusalem’s Old City walls, reveals beautiful views of the Holy Land – and some dark tales, too.



It’s not easy to find something good to say about the Hinnom Valley in Jerusalem, whose bad press from biblical days has followed it down through the ages. After all, it was here, right around the corner from the First Temple, that the people of Judah offered their children to the fire god Molech and to Baal (Jeremiah 7:31; 32:35) – for which, Jeremiah warned them, they would pay with the destruction of the Temple and exile.



The full name of this low-lying land is the Valley of the Son of Hinnom – whoever that may have been. Knowing nothing about either son or father, we can only conjecture that Hinnom probably bequeathed his son some rather fertile farmland in this valley that surrounds old Jerusalem on the southwest. The valley’s name in Hebrew is Gei Ben-Hinnom or simply Gei-Hinnom. In light of the sacrifices to the fire god, the latter name gave rise to the word “Gehenna,” which over time became a synonym for hell.



Early Jewish sages saw Isaiah 31:9 – which says God’s “fire is in Zion” and “furnace in Jerusalem” – as a reference to this valley, which they described as the gates of hell. The valley’s other biblical name, Topheth, means inferno, adding to its image as a place of eternal torment.



On a more positive note, when the people of Judah returned from exile around 538 BC, according to Nehemiah they took up “living all the way from Beersheba to the Valley of Hinnom” (Nehemiah 11:30).



But, sadly, the bad news continued even after Old Testament times. In the New Testament, this was the place where the chief priests bought a potter’s field with Judas Iscariot’s infamous 30 pieces of silver. Not wanting to keep the money, they decided to use it to buy a burial place for foreigners. “That is why it has been called the Field of Blood to this day” (Matthew 27:6-8). The version of the story in Acts turns quite gory: “With the reward he got for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out. Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood” (Acts 1:18-19).



Bad press or not, the Valley of Hinnom is a big part of the history of Jerusalem. And despite what you may imagine from the grim description above, it also makes for one of the most picturesque walks you can take in the Holy City.



You can begin your journey at the Scottish Church overlooking the Hinnom Valley. The church, which has a lovely guesthouse, was built in 1927 as a memorial to Scottish soldiers who died fighting in this region during World War I. The church sits on a hill where one of the most amazing archaeological discoveries in Jerusalem was made: a series of nine burial caves that had escaped looters because their ceilings had collapsed. In the early 1980s, Bar-Ilan University Professor Gabi Barkay and his team discovered hundreds of items that had been buried along with the deceased, apparently after the First Temple was destroyed in 586 BC. Perhaps the most precious find was two tiny silver scrolls inscribed with the blessing from Numbers 6:24-26: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face to you and give you peace.”



The road down into the valley crosses a bridge built in the 16th century. To the left is Sultan’s Pool, a huge reservoir actually built by Herod the Great, but reconstructed in the early 16th century by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, who also built Jerusalem’s walls. A water fountain dating from 1536 boasts an inscription praising Suleiman for his generosity to thirsty Jerusalemites.



To continue your stroll through Gehenna, you head down into the depths of the valley past yawning caves that contain many tombs, some of which were inhabited by monks over the centuries. Interestingly, until recently when the Israel Nature and Parks Authority declared it off limits for extreme sports lovers, Jerusalemites could be found here testing their rappelling skills.



But going back to the monastic life, the centerpiece of a visit to the Valley of Hinnom is the Convent of Akeldema, which is the Aramaic word for “Field of Blood,” bringing us back to the New Testament story quoted above. According to tradition, the convent (open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to noon and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.) is built over the site where tradition says Judas hanged himself. Dedicated to the fourth-century monk St. Onuphrios, the convent’s sunny courtyards – rebuilt over earlier ruins in 1874 – have a wonderful view of the Mount of Olives and the Judean Desert.



Your visit to Gehenna will end on a note of healing: Just around the corner from the convent is the Pool of Siloam. There, archaeologists have uncovered the remains of the Second Temple pool where Jesus told a blind man to wash to restore his sight (John 9:1-11). Beyond it lies the City of David, with many more treasures to explore.



Filled with history, the Valley of Hinnom is truly a must-see on your life-changing visit to Israel!



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Then she [Liliane] started banging the bowl and the chime again took away all thought. It made my chest shake and body vibrate, as if I were engaged in a spiritual sexual act without drugs. I hung onto that chime as if it were the last intelligible thing in my world. I asked about the sound. "F-sharp sustained, of course [said Liliane]. It transforms matter." And I remembered that F-sharp had been the note made by the 'interesting bowl' in the Megalithic Dolmen de la Cova. I was hearing sounds from before known time, now forgotten.
(p.165)

The modern Martinists overlook (or deny) the time that

Pasqually was in Haiti.