Chapter Eighteen - Quick Notes and Facts

• Gehenna was the Jerusalem garbage dump, and fires burned there almost continuously to get rid of the refuse. No one chose to live there, since it had been the site of Canaanite human sacrifices (usually of young children.) That reluctance to live there continued into the twentieth century. However, in modern Jerusalem, it is now a residential neighborhood.


• Observant Jews tried to avoid all conversation with Gentiles and public sinners like tax collectors. They would certainly avoid touching them and never eat with them.


• The number seven is one signifying completion, not a quota. Jesus’ multiplication of that number is a kind of hyperbole, and a reflection of God’s endless mercy.


• Being sold into slavery was a very common way to settle debts.