20, 33, 36) Many scholars consider that Gederothaim is a scribal error for a similar Hebrew term meaning “and her sheepfolds,” that is, ‘the sheepfolds’ of the previously listed site, Gederah. This alteration would drop the total number of cities in the list from fifteen to the stated fourteen. (Vss. 33-36) Since such an expression would be unusual in such lists, others suggest that the text originally read “Gederah or Gederothaim” rather than “Gederah and Gederothaim.”

GEDOR

(Geʹdor) [warlike, wall, fortress, walled enclosure].

1. The son of Jeiel of the town of Gibeon. A member of the tribe of Benjamin, he was a great-uncle of King Saul.—1 Chron. 8:29-31; 9:35-39.

2. A son of Penuel of the tribe of Judah.—1 Chron. 4:4.

3. A son of Jered also of the tribe of Judah.—1 Chron. 4:18

4. A town in the mountainous region of Judah. (Josh. 15:48, 58) It is identified with Khirbet Gedur about seven miles (11.3 kilometers) N of Hebron. It may also be referred to at 1 Chronicles 4:18. The mention, in the same verse, of Soco and Zanoah, both of which appear elsewhere as names of towns, is thought by some to indicate that Gedor is likely also a town of which Jered was the founder or “father”; see, however, ATROTH-BETH-JOAB.

5. A town that apparently belonged to the tribe of Simeon. (1 Chron. 4:24, 39) The Septuagint Version here reads Geʹra·ra.

6. A place in Benjamin. (1 Chron. 12:1, 2, 7) The suggested location is Khirbet el-Gudeira, about ten miles (1.6 kilometers) NW of Jerusalem.

GE-HARASHIM

(Ge-harʹa·shim) [valley of craftsmen].

A valley named for the community of craftsmen living there. (1 Chron. 4:14) The community was ‘fathered’ or founded by Joab, though evidently not the Joab of David’s time. It was settled by Benjamites after the Babylonian exile. (Neh. 11:31, 35) The exact location of the site is uncertain. Some geographers tentatively locate it at Wadi esh-Shellal, a broad valley located a few miles SE of Jaffa; others prefer the identification with Sarafand el-Kharab to the SW of the former.—See ATROTH-BETH-JOAB.

GEHAZI

(Ge·haʹzi) [valley of vision].

The attendant of the prophet Elisha.

When Elisha wondered what could be done for a hospitable Shunammite woman, it was Gehazi who called to his master’s attention that she was childless and that her husband was old. Accordingly, Elisha told her that she would be rewarded with a son. Years later the miraculously given boy became ill and died. The Shunammite thereupon came riding to see Elisha at Mount Carmel, and took hold of his feet. On seeing this, Gehazi tried to push her away but was admonished to let her alone. After she finished speaking Elisha at once sent Gehazi ahead to the boy, while Elisha and the woman followed. On their way there Gehazi met them, bringing back the report that, although he had placed Elisha’s staff on the boy’s face, “the boy did not wake up.” But shortly after arriving, Elisha resurrected the Shunammite’s son.—2 Ki. 4:12-37.

Later, because a seven-year famine was due to come, Elisha recommended that the Shunammite and her household take up alien residence wherever possible. After the famine she returned from Philistia to Israel and approached the king with a plea to have her house and field restored to her. It so happened that at this time Gehazi was relating to the king how Elisha had resurrected this woman’s son. On hearing the Shunammite’s own account of this, the king instructed that everything be returned to her, including all that her field had produced during her absence.—2 Ki. 8:1-6.

Greed for selfish gain proved to be the downfall of Gehazi. This was in connection with the healing of Naaman the Syrian. Though Elisha had refused to accept a gift from Naaman for the healing of his leprosy (2 Ki. 5:14-16), Gehazi coveted a gift and reasoned that it was only proper to receive this. Therefore, he ran after Naaman and, in the name of Elisha, asked for a talent of silver and two changes of garments, on the pretense that this was for two young men of the sons of the prophets who had just arrived from the mountainous region of Ephraim. Naaman gladly gave him, not just one, but two talents of silver, as well as the two changes of garments, and had two of his attendants carry the gift for Gehazi. At Ophel, Gehazi took the gift from the hands of the attendants, dismissed them, deposited the gift in his house and then presented himself empty-handed before Elisha, even denying that he had gone anywhere when asked: “Where did you come from, Gehazi?” As a result Gehazi was stricken with leprosy. So his greed, coupled with his deceptiveness, cost Gehazi his privilege of continuing to serve as Elisha’s attendant, besides bringing leprosy on his offspring.—2 Ki. 5:20-27.

GEHENNA

(Ge·henʹna) [Greek form of the Hebrew Geh Hin·nomʹ, Valley of Hinnom].

This name appears twelve times in the Christian Greek Scriptures and, whereas many translators take the liberty to translate it by the word “hell,” a number of modern translations transliterate the word from the Greek geʹen·na.—Matt. 5:22, Ro, Mo, ED, NW, BC (Spanish), NC (Spanish), JB (French version), also the footnotes of Da and RS.

The deep, narrow Valley of Hinnom, later known by this Greek name, lay to the S and SW of Jerusalem and is the modern-day Wadi er-Rababi. (Josh. 15:8; 18:16; Jer. 19:2, 6; see HINNOM, VALLEY OF.) Judean Kings Ahaz and Manasseh engaged in idolatrous worship there, including the making of human sacrifices by fire to Baal. (2 Chron. 28:1, 3; 33:1, 6; Jer. 7:31, 32; 32:35) Later, faithful King Josiah had the place of idolatrous worship polluted, particularly the section called Topheth, to prevent further such activities there.—2 Ki. 23:10.

NO SYMBOL OF EVERLASTING TORMENT

Jesus Christ associated fire with Gehenna (Matt. 5:22; 18:9; Mark 9:47, 48), as did the disciple James, the only Biblical writer besides Matthew, Mark and Luke to use the word. (Jas. 3:6) Some commentators endeavor to link such fiery characteristic of Gehenna with the burning of human sacrifices that were carried on prior to Josiah’s reign, and, on this basis, hold that Gehenna was used by Jesus as a symbol of everlasting torment. However, since Jehovah God expressed repugnance for such practice, saying that it was “a thing that I had not commanded and that had not come up into my heart” (Jer. 7:31; 32:35), it seems most unlikely that God’s Son, in discussing divine judgment, would make such idolatrous practice the basis for the symbolic meaning of Gehenna. It may be noted that God prophetically decreed that the Valley of Hinnom would serve as a place for mass disposal of dead bodies rather than for the torture of live victims. (Jer. 7:32, 33; 19:2, 6, 7, 10, 11) Thus, at Jeremiah 31:40 the reference to the “low plain of the carcasses and of the fatty ashes” is generally accepted as designating the Valley of Hinnom, and a gate known as the “Gate of the Ash-heaps” evidently opened out onto the eastern extremity of the valley at its juncture with the ravine of the Kidron. (Neh. 3:13, 14) It seems obvious that such “carcasses” and “fatty ashes” are not related to the human sacrifices made there under Ahaz and Manasseh, since any bodies so offered would doubtless be viewed by the idolaters as “sacred” and would not be left lying in the valley.

Therefore, the Biblical evidence concerning Gehenna generally parallels the traditional view presented by rabbinical and other sources. That view is that the Valley of Hinnom was used as a place for the disposal of waste matter from the city of Jerusalem, including the bodies of animals and even of vile criminals not accorded a normal burial due to being thought unworthy of a resurrection. (At Matthew 5:30, The New Testament in Modern English by J. B. Philips translates geʹen·na as “rubbish heap.”)

SYMBOLIC OF COMPLETE DESTRUCTION

It is, at any rate, clear that Jesus used Gehenna as representative of utter destruction resulting from adverse judgment by God, hence with no resurrection to life as a soul being possible. (Matt. 10:28; Luke 12:4, 5) The scribes and Pharisees as a wicked class were denounced as ‘subjects for Gehenna.’ (Matt. 23:13-15, 33) So as to avoid such destruction, Jesus’ followers were to get rid of anything causing spiritual stumbling, the ‘cutting off of a hand or foot’ and the ‘tearing out of an eye’ figuratively representing the elimination of things that they prized or considered desirable and intimately close to them.—Matt. 18:9; Mark 9:43-47; compare Matthew 5:27-30.

Jesus also apparently alluded to Isaiah 66:24 in describing Gehenna as a place “where their maggot does not die and the fire is not put out.” (Mark 9:47, 48) That the symbolic picture here is not one of torture but, rather, of complete destruction is evident from the fact that the Isaiah text dealt, not with persons who were alive, but with the “carcasses of the men that were transgressing” against God. If, as the available evidence indicates, the Valley of Hinnom was a place for the disposal of garbage and carcasses, fire, perhaps increased in intensity by the addition of sulphur (compare Isaiah 30:33), would be the only suitable means to eliminate such refuse. Where the fire did not reach, worms or maggots would breed, consuming anything not destroyed by the fire. On this basis, Jesus’ words would mean that the destructive effect of God’s adverse judgment would not cease until complete destruction was attained.

FIGURATIVE USE

The disciple James’ use of the word Gehenna shows that an unruly tongue can inflame a whole world of people and that one’s whole round of living can be affected by fiery words that defile the speaker’s body, inflaming it to destructive action. Such one’s tongue, “full of death-dealing poison” and denoting a bad heart condition, can cause the user to be sentenced by God to go to the symbolic Gehenna.—Jas. 3:6, 8; compare Matthew 12:37; Psalm 5:9; 140:3; Romans 3:13.

The Biblical use of Gehenna as a symbol corresponds to that of the “lake of fire” in the book of Revelation.—Rev. 20:14, 15; see LAKE OF FIRE.

GELILOTH

(Gel·iʹloth) [circles of stones].

A site listed in connection with the boundary of Benjamin. (Josh. 18:17) Geliloth’s location, described as “in front of the ascent of Adummim,” matches that of Gilgal (Josh. 15:7), for which reason most scholars consider it a variant name for the Gilgal near Jericho.—See ADUMMIN; GILGAL No. 1.

GEMALLI

(Ge·malʹli) [camel owner].

A Danite whose son Ammiel represented his tribe as one of the spies sent into Canaan.—Num. 13:12, 16.

GEMARIAH

(Gem·a·riʹah) [Jehovah has perfected].

1. “The son of Shaphan the copyist”; one of the princes during the reign of Jehoiakim (628-618 B.C.E.). Gemariah had his own dining room in the upper courtyard of the temple, and it was here that Baruch read aloud the words of the book dictated to him by the prophet Jeremiah. Micaiah the son of Gemariah heard the initial reading of the book and then reported the word of Jehovah to the princes who, in turn, sent for Baruch to have the book read to them. Upon hearing the words of the book, they advised that Baruch and Jeremiah conceal themselves. Later, when the roll was read to King Jehoiakim, Gemariah was one of the princes who pleaded with the king not to burn the roll.—Jer. 36:10-25.

2. “The son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah the king of Judah sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar.” On this occasion Jeremiah sent a letter by the hand of Gemariah and of Elasah to the exiled Jews who had been taken to Babylon with Jehoiachin (Jeconiah) in 617 B.C.E.—Jer. 29:1-3.

GENEALOGY

An account of human family pedigrees of ancestors or relatives. Jehovah God is the great Genealogist or Keeper of records of creation, beginnings, birth and descent. He is “the Father, to whom every family in heaven and on earth owes its name.” (Eph. 3:14, 15) Accordingly, we may expect his Word the Bible to contain an accurate record of genealogies that play an important part in his purpose.

Man has an inborn desire to know his ancestry and to keep his family name alive. Many ancient nations kept extensive genealogical records, particularly of the lines of their priests and kings. The Egyptians kept such registers, as did the Arabs. Cuneiform tablets have been found of the genealogies of kings of Babylon and Assyria. More recent examples are the genealogical lists of the Greeks, the Celts, the Saxons and the Romans.

The apostle Matthew opens his Gospel account with the introduction: “The book of the history [ge·neʹse·os] of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham.” (Matt. 1:1) The Greek word ge·neʹse·os means, literally, “the book of source (generation).” This Greek term is used by the Septuagint to translate the Hebrew toh·le·dhohthʹ, which has the same basic meaning, and evidently denotes “history” in its numerous occurrences in the book of Genesis.

Matthew, of course, gives more than a genealogy of Christ. He goes on to relate the history of Jesus’ human birth, his ministry, death and resurrection. This practice was not uncommon then, for the earliest Greek histories had a genealogical framework. In those ancient times a history revolved around those persons contained in or introduced by its genealogy. Thus the genealogy was an important part of the history, in many cases forming the introduction to it.—See First Chronicles, chapters 1 to 9.

At the judgment in Eden, God gave the promise of the “woman’s” seed that was to crush the serpent’s head. (Gen. 3:15) This may have given rise to the idea of the seed’s having a human line of descent, although it was not specifically stated that the seed would travel an earthly course until Abraham was told that his seed would be the means for blessing all nations. (Gen. 22:17, 18) This made the family genealogy of Abraham’s line of surpassing importance. The Bible is the only record of Abraham’s origins, and not only of his, but also of all the nations descending from Noah’s sons Shem, Ham and Japheth.—Gen. 10:32.

As E. J. Hamlin comments in The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible (Vol. 3, p. 515), the Genesis table of nations is “unique in ancient literature. . . . Such preoccupation with history cannot be found in any other sacred literature of the world.”

PURPOSE OF GENEALOGICAL RECORDS

Over and above the natural inclination of man to keep a record of birth and relationships, genealogy was important to chronology, particularly in the earliest part of mankind’s history. But more than that, due to God’s promises, prophecies and dealings, a record of certain lines of descent became essential.

Following the flood, Noah’s blessing pointed out that Shem’s descendants would be divinely favored. (Gen. 9:26, 27) Later, God revealed to Abraham that what would be called his “seed” would be through Isaac. (Gen. 17:19; Rom. 9:7) It became obvious,