Gehenna Was Not A Smoldering Garbage Dump

You may have heard that the Valley of Himmon (Gehenna) was a place where garbage was continually burned. Turns out there isn't much evidence for that claim. The Baker Book House Church Connection blog quotes an article in Bibliotheca Sacra

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, Strack and Billerbeck state that there is neither archeological nor literary evidence in support of this claim, in either the earlier intertestamental or the later rabbinic sources.

You can read the rest here.