Matthew 5:29 ...and Figures of Speech

"And if thy right eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should be from-whole-loosed, and not thy whole body be cast into Hinnom-Ravine."

The genres of scripture are many and varied.  Even within Matthew's Account of Jesus' life, the reader must be aware of the various literary types. In this 29th verse of the fifth chapter, the Etymological New Testament remains very literal.  The ENT provides no additional clues to the figures of speech being used.  That is a limitation of ultra-literal translation.  Versions of scripture that tend toward paraphrase can be very helpful in passages such as these.  And, many good commentaries also make clear the hyperbole intentionally used by Jesus with his first century audience.

After his use of hyperbole to encourage us to pluck out our eye, Jesus speaks of what happens to us if we fail to live a disciplined life.  The end result is being cast  into Hinnom-Ravine.  Many translations that are known as being very literal, translate "Hinnom Ravine" as "hell" in this and related verses.  The problem is that translating as "hell" is actually a paraphrase rather than literal translation.  It could be that one might be able to demonstrate that Jesus' linguistic use of the Hinnom valley southwest of Jerusalem was figurative.  But, one would then need to go on to show what the specific literal concept was. But, if a translation is set forth as being a literal one, then it needs to fulfill that role.  The proper place for speculation or theological argumentation is in a commentary or at least in a paraphrase of the text.

The Aramaic word GEHENNA is thus rendered ultra-literally in the Etymological New Testament as Hinnom-Ravine. How to understand this expression, whether literally or as a figure of speech, is left to the research of the reader.