Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Mark 9:43

"And if thy hand cause thee to stumble, cut it off: it is good for thee to enter into life maimed, rather than having thy two hands to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire." — Mark 9:43 (ASV)

The main point of these verses is that it is so important to enter into eternal life that radical means must be taken to remove whatever can prevent it (i.e., sin). Here sin is connected with the physical self—the hand, foot, and eye. Jesus is not demanding the literal excision of our bodily members; he is rather demanding the cessation of the sinful activities of these members.

The word translated “hell” is gehenna (GK 1147), a Greek form of the Hebrew words ge hinnom (“Valley of Hinnom”). This was the valley along the south side of the city of Jerusalem, which was used in OT times for human sacrifices to the pagan god Molech (cf. Jeremiah 7:31; 19:5–6; 32:35). King Josiah put a stop to this dreadful practice (2 Kings 23:10), and the Valley of Hinnom came to be used as a place where human excrement and rubbish were disposed of and burned. The fire of gehenna never went out, and the worms never died. So it came to be used symbolically of the place of divine punishment.