Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Luke 12:5

τίνα φοβηθῆτε. The indirect interrogative is sometimes expressed by the subjunctive, as in Matthew 8:20, οὐκ ἔχει ποῦ κλίνῃ: Romans 8:26, οὐκ οἴδαμεν τί προσευξώμεθα. Comp. Luke 19:48; Luke 22:2.

φοβήθητε τὸν μετὰ τὸ�, κ.τ.λ. Many commentators have understood this expression of the devil, and one of the Fathers goes so far as to say that it is the only passage in the Bible in which we cannot be certain whether God or Satan is intended. There can, however, be no doubt that the reference is to God. If “fear” ever meant ‘be on your guard against,’ the other view might be tenable, but there is no instance of such a meaning, and we are bidden to defy and resist the devil, but never to fear him; nor are we ever told that he has any power to cast into Gehenna.

εἰς τὴν γέενναν. ‘Into Gehenna.’ It is a deep misfortune that our English Version has made no consistent difference of rendering between ‘the place of the dead,’ ‘the intermediate state between death and resurrection’ (Hades, Sheol), and Gehenna, which is sometimes metaphorically used (as here) for a place of punishment after death. Gehenna was a purely Hebrew word, and corresponded primarily to purely Hebrew conceptions. Our Lord (if He spoke Greek) did not attempt to represent it by any analogous, but imperfectly equivalent, Greek term, like Tartarus (see 2 Peter 2:4), and certainly the Apostles and Evangelists did not. They simply transliterated the Hebrew term (גי הנם, Gê Hinnom, Valley of Hinnom) into Greek letters. It is surely a plain positive duty to follow so clear an example, and not to render Gehenna by English terms which cannot connote exactly the same conceptions. The Valley of Hinnom, or of the Sons of Hinnom (Joshua 15:8; Joshua 18:16; 2 Kings 23:10; Jeremiah 7:31), was a pleasant valley outside Jerusalem, which had first been rendered infamous by Moloch worship; then defiled by Josiah with corpses; and lastly kept from putrefaction by large fires to consume the corpses and prevent pestilence. Milton describes it with his usual learned accuracy:

“First Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood
Of human sacrifice, and parents’ tears;
Though for the noise of drums and timbrels loud
Their children’s cries unheard that passed through fire
To his grim idol …

and made his grove

The pleasant Valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence
And black Gehenna called, the type of Hell.”

Par. Lost, I. 392.

Tophet is derived from the word Toph, ‘a drum’ (compare τύπτω, dub, thump, &c.).

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Luke 12:5

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