Hell (part III)

We have seen that the writer of Hebrews seems not to believe in an eternal punishment for the unrighteous, unless by “eternal” we mean no chance for reprieve, no going back, no grace. He (or she) does indeed believe that those who refuse the grace of God will one day be consumed (or eaten) by God’s fire, violently shaken, and completely annihilated: they will cease to exist, vanish. Here there is no mention of everlasting fire or a torturous existence. Here too there is no more grace beyond a certain threshold, be it in the next life, or perhaps even in this one (Esau was an interesting case in point, though I won’t be too dogmatic here).

Rather than continue by summing up a particular author, I will instead consider that other view of Hell found in the Christian NT, the one in agreement with the previously mentioned councils: eternal punishment without end.

I have already indicated that the notion of a hell began some time before the writing of the NT scriptures or the ministry of Jesus. I think perhaps the earliest one can find it in the scriptures as a whole, (and this is only the idea of hell, not a formal designation) would be the book of Daniel. This is one of our post-Persian era writings (see my post on the devil) so perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising. The passage I have in mind is Daniel 12:1-2:

“At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.”

Here, as one can see, there is no specific mention of hell, but the notion of “everlasting contempt” is present. It is the sapling of what would become a horrible tree. Skipping the apocryphal books of the intertestamental period, we come to the NT itself. It is John the Baptist who first speaks of Jesus separating the wheat from the chaff, the latter being burned up with “unquenchable fire.” Jesus himself does not hesitate to use the imagery of everlasting fire and punishment:

Matthew 18:8: If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire.

Matthew 25: 41, 46: Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.

Mark 9:48: It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where “‘the worms that eat them do not die, and the fire is not quenched.’

I’ve chosen these references specifically because they seem to indicate a sense of eternal punishment. There are many more which merely mention fire or some other horrible kind of fate, but which do not specifically hold this quality of everlastingness. One counter-example from Matthew 10, which could even be construed in an annihilationist way (does the attempt to harmonize these accounts for the sake of maintaining "one Author" not do violence to the texts themselves, not to mention the dishonesty involved, no matter how well intentioned):

"Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell." (10:28).

It should be said here that if Jesus actually said these things his words would have been unambiguous to his listeners. By this time there is already a hell tradition, and part of this tradition includes a sense of its eternity. Against modern writers who seem to want us to believe that his listeners would somehow “interpret” this differently I’m afraid that based on the overwhelming evidence they’re merely wishful thinkers (Nietzsche would refer to them as “abusers of history”).

While it is true that Jesus certainly believed in the existence of hell and its eternal nature (both its existence and, quite likely, its nature as eternal punishment), he also certainly didn’t make this the main focus of his teaching. This seems obvious even with a quick glance at the gospels. Those people who portray Christianity as a religion obsessed with hellfire are not basing their assumptions on the gospel record.

Once again we shall have to continue in another post.