Eternal Suffering or Destruction?

The idea that the wicked go to ‘hell’ has attained the status of underlying assumption in the minds of many. The Bible has no references to the realm referred to as ‘hell’, however. ‘Hell’ is the word that has been substituted for four Hebrew and Greek words which refer to other specific places (see Appendix – Heaven and Hell). Regardless, the question of whether the fate of the wicked is one of eternal suffering is informed by a knowledge of the true place their souls end up in (see Appendix – Sheōl). The question of the fate of the wicked, were it answered by Scripture, would be important to reckon with since it would elucidate YHVH’s character, and in particular His sense of justice and proportionality. When He says that the wicked face ‘everlasting/eternal punishment’, does this mean that the duration of the punishment is everlasting, or does it mean that the effects of the punishment are eternal, i.e., that their punishment is one that is everlasting in its finality?:

Matthew 25:46

46 “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into everlasting life.”

Were this the only statement on the punishment, reasonable men could hold either position as their conclusion on the matter since the term is imprecise enough to accommodate either interpretation. If we were told that the wicked face eternal punishing rather than eternal punishment the phrase would imply that the punishing endured eternally. A punishment that is eternal could be either. YHVH has however told us enough in the rest of Scripture to know which is true.

In Daniel 12 the fate of the wicked, and the righteous, is mentioned:

Daniel 12:1-3

1 “Now at that time Miḵa’ĕl shall stand up, the great head who is standing over the sons of your people. And there shall be a time of distress, such as never was since there was a nation, until that time. And at that time your people shall be saved/delivered, every one who is found written in the book,

2 and many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth wake up, some to everlasting life, and some to reproaches, everlasting abhorrence (d’ra’ōn).

3 “And those who have insight shall shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.

One’s assumptions regarding the nature of eternal punishment necessarily colours how one understands what this everlasting abhorrence/contempt is. ‘D’ra’ōn’ could be abhorrence at the memory of the wicked, how they are regarded posthumously, or it could be abhorrence because of their state of being punished eternally, i.e., how their status as those whom God has deemed worthy of such retribution is viewed. I tend to think that the former is suggested more by the phrase but we are not afforded any degree of certainty by it.

The means by which YHVH exacts the punishment gives us an insight into this question. ‘Eternal/everlasting fire’ could, conceptually at least, be fire that burns one eternally and when one has the traditional view of ‘hell’ in mind this suggests itself as the correct way to apprehend the phrase:

Matthew 18:8-9

8 “And if your hand or foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or crippled, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be thrown into the everlasting fire.

9 “And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it away from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be thrown into the fire of Gĕhenna.

If we scrupulously examine Scripture’s use of this term we see that it is used to describe the instrument used to destroy rather than as a description of a source of eternal burning:

Jude 7

7 Even as Seḏom and Amorah and the cities around them in a similar way to these, having given themselves over to whoring and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, undergoing judicial punishment of everlasting fire.

Sodom and Gomorrah are burning for eternity. The punishment of eternal fire was their destruction with a fire which burns eternally rather than being punished by themselves burning eternally. It is, perhaps, unreasonable therefore to expect that our eternal punishment would be of a different sort. The eternal fire, as a means of destruction, is unquenchable, unstoppable:

Mark 9:42-44

42 “And whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it is better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea.

43 “And if your hand makes you stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life crippled, than having two hands, to go into Gĕhenna, into the unquenchable fire,

44 where ‘their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’

This fire is what is used by YHVH to burn. The insinuation that its eternal nature is used as a method of torture, to burn souls for an eternal duration, is purely an imagination of man:

Luke 3:17

17 “His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He shall thoroughly cleanse His threshing-floor, and gather the wheat into His storehouse, but the chaff He shall burn with unquenchable fire.”

In order for eternal fire to burn something continuously for eternity, the thing being burnt would have to be eternal, itself. Our souls are never described as being immortal in the Bible. In fact, ‘immortality’ is only bestowed upon the righteous as their reward:

Revelation 2:7

7 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. To him who overcomes I shall give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of Elohim.”

1 Corinthians 15:54

54 And when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall come to be the word that has been written, “Death is swallowed up in overcoming.”

It is the defeat of death which has been accomplished by Yeshũa giving His life:

Hebrews 2:14-15

14 Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself similarly shared in the same, so that by means of His death He might destroy him having the power of death, that is, the devil,

15 and save/deliver those who throughout life were held in slavery by fear of death.

To suggest that one’s soul already possesses immortality, and can therefore burn eternally, is antithetical to the entire teaching of the Bible.

The Scriptures instruct us that the just repayment for the wickedness of the unjust is their destruction but this is habitually glossed over:

Matthew 7:23

13 “Enter in through the narrow gate! Because the gate is wide – and the way is broad – that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter in through it.

Romans 9:22

22 And if Elohim, desiring to show wrath, and to make His power known, with much patience tolerated the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,

Philemon 3:18-19

18 For many – of whom I have often told you, and now say to you even weeping – walk as enemies of the cross of Messiah.

19 Their end is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their esteem is in their shame – they mind the earthly.

One tends to read passages in Scripture through one’s preconceived theological lens, but if one reads the Bible for what it says, the inescapable conclusion which one reaches is that the end of the wicked is the death of the soul, the ‘second death’; destruction:

2 Thessalonians 1:5-9

5 clear evidence of the righteous judgment of Elohim, in order for you to be counted worthy of the kingdom of Elohim, for which you also suffer,

6 since Elohim shall rightly repay with affliction those who afflict you,

7 and to give you who are afflicted rest with us when the Master ישוע is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels,

8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know Elohim, and on those who do not obey the Good News of our Master ישוע Messiah,

9 who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Master and from the glory of His strength,

Whatever punishment YHVH chooses, one can be assured that it will be both judicious and just. It seems right, to me, that the just recompense for finite crimes is not infinite or eternal in duration. The punishment is called ‘the second death’, by YHVH, and it follows the death of one’s body. Scripture teaches that one’s soul goes to ‘Sheōl’ following this first death (see Appendix – Sheōl), and that those who are not redeemed will ‘go down to the pit’. That is also referred to as being ‘cast into the lake of fire’ or, idiomatically, as being cast into Gehenna (see Appendix – Heaven and Hell). ‘Going down to the pit’, or being cast into the lake of fire, is the second death:

Revelation 20:14

14 And the death and the grave (hades) were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

Those who are raised in the first resurrection (at Yeshũa’s return) are not subject to this:

Revelation 20:6

6 Blessed and holy/set-apart is the one having part in the first resurrection. The second death possesses no authority over these, but they shall be priests of Elohim and of Messiah, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.

If the death of the soul is the end of the wicked then what of the verses that some will say teach us of eternal suffering, or at least of a period of suffering, for the condemned? As one might expect, a careful consideration of these passages bears fruitful insight:

Luke 16:23-24

23 “And while suffering torment (basanos) in hell (Hades), having lifted up his eyes, he saw Aḇraham far away, and El‛azar in his bosom.

‘Basanos’ can refer to ‘physical torment’ or ‘torture’ so it is not unreasonable to think that this verse may describe such. We must, however, harmonise this passage with the rest of the Bible. Since this word also means ‘mental torment’, and since we know that those whose souls are not ‘saved/delivered’ from ‘Sheōl’ are condemned to ‘destruction/eternal suffering’, reading this as ‘mental torment’ recommends itself to us as correct:

Luke 16:23-24

23 “And while suffering torment (basanos) in hell (Hades), having lifted up his eyes, he saw Aḇraham far away, and El‛azar in his bosom.

24 “And crying out he said, ‘Father Aḇraham, have compassion on me, and send El‛azar to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering/tormented (odynaō) in/by (en) flame.’

It is often the case that translators choose to translate this as ‘tortured in this flame’, which is a possible translation of the text. However, ‘en’ is a general Greek preposition that means ‘in’, ‘by’ or ‘with’, among other possible meanings. If the destruction of the soul is achieved by means of an unquenchable, eternal fire, it would be entirely consistent to understand the rich man to be saying that such a flame torments him, if he knows that to be his end. The rich man’s suffering is perceived, by him, to be abated with the cooling of his tongue with water. Lazarus is also said to be comforted:

Luke 16:25

25 “But Aḇraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your life you received your good, and likewise El῾azar the evil, but now he is comforted and you are suffering.

A Scripture that may explain the rich man’s request for water is found in the book of Ezekiel:

Ezekiel 31:16

16 ‘I shall make the nations shake at the sound of its fall, when I bring it down to the grave (Sheōl) together with those who descend into the Pit. And all the trees of Ěḏen, the choice and best of Leḇanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the depths of the earth.

Some may, reasonably, point to Revelation 14 as intimating the ‘lake of fire‘ to be a place of ongoing torment:

Revelation 14:9-11

9 And a third messenger followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark upon his forehead or upon his hand,

10 he also shall drink of the wine of the wrath of Elohim, which is poured out undiluted into the cup of His wrath. And he shall be tormented with fire and sulphur before the holy/set-apart angels and before the Lamb.

11 “And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. And they have no rest day or night, those worshipping the beast and his image, also if anyone receives the mark of his name.”

I would point out, however, that the ‘smoke of their torment’ is what goes up forever and ever, which is what one would expect from an eternal fire. Them having no rest day or night because of the fire that causes them torment is in no way contrary to the idea that they will be destroyed by it.

It is certainly true that the devil and false prophet are tormented forever in the lake of fire:

Revelation 20:10

10 And the devil, who led them astray, was thrown into the lake of fire and sulphur where the beast and the false prophet are. And they shall be tormented (basanizo) day and night forever and ever.

The false prophet is seen in the lake of fire with the first beast. The ‘false prophet’ is actually the ‘second beast’ which comes up from the earth. The first beast comes up from ‘the sea’:

Revelation 13:1

1 And I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads names of blasphemy.

The ‘second beast’ is described in Revelation 13:

Revelation 13:11-14

11 And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon.

12 And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

13 And he does great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from the heaven on the earth before men.

14 And he leads astray those dwelling on the earth because of those signs which he was given to do before the beast, saying to those dwelling on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword, yet lived.

This description matches the description of the ‘false prophet’, in Revelation 19:

Revelation 19:20

20 And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he led astray those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped his image. The two were thrown alive into the lake of fire burning with sulphur.

‘False prophet’ is a name by which the ‘second beast’ is referred to.

As discussed in the commentary on Genesis 10, beasts are spiritual entities, rather than human beings and it is their ‘horns’ which constitute human rulers. No human is ever described as being tormented/tortured eternally in the everlasting fire. This punishment is reserved for the spiritual entities who may well already be immortal. We know that this is what the eternal fire was ‘prepared for’:

Matthew 25:41

41 “He shall then also say to those on the left hand, ‘Go away from Me, accursed ones, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels –

The fire is prepared for the devil and his angels and is also used to destroy the souls of the wicked.

Another verse which should be understood in the correct context is found in the book of Jude:

Jude 12-13

12 These are rocky reefs in your love feasts, feasting with you, feeding themselves without fear, waterless clouds borne about by the winds, late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots,

13 wild waves of the sea foaming up their own shame, straying stars for whom blackness of darkness is kept forever.

It is assumed, by some, that this ‘darkness’ refers to an eternal ‘afterlife’ but this is not suggested by the passage itself. The passage does refer to the fate of wicked men but not at all in the way popularly imagined. The description of these men as ‘twice dead’ refers to the fact that they suffer the first and second death. Rather than the oft presumed way of reading this, I would suggest that a better way would be to read it as saying, if one chooses ‘darkness’, then one is consigned to walk in ‘darkness forever’. I would suggest that it is an interpretation that is more consistent with other Scripture. The notion that this ‘darkness’ refers to one’s experience after the death of one’s body seems entirely unjustified.

A passage that is often misunderstood as alluding to the eternal demise of the wicked is found in the book of Isaiah:

Isaiah 66:22-24

22 “For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make stand before Me,” declares יהוה, “so your seed and your name shall stand.

23 “And it shall be that from month to month, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before Me,” declares יהוה.

24 “And they shall go forth and look upon the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me. For their worm shall not die, and their fire not be quenched. And they shall be repulsive to all flesh!”

This passage does not once mention ‘souls’ being eternally tormented. It refers to the corpses of YHVH’s enemies. The reference to the undying worm and unquenchable fire both refer to the fact that the method of their consumption and destruction is implacable and unstoppable, akin to other descriptions of the fire being ‘eternal’.

YHVH has made a way for the souls of the righteous to be ‘saved/delivered’ from ‘Sheōl’, and for the corruptible (that which dies) to put on incorruption or the mortal to put on immortality:

Psalm 16:10

10 For You do not leave my soul in hell (Sheōl), Neither let Your Holy/Set-Apart One see corruption (shaḥath).

Such people are spared from the ‘destruction’ of the soul, which awaits the wicked when they are cast into the pit and ‘destroyed’:

Psalm 55:23

23 For You, O Elohim, do bring them down to the pit of destruction (shaḥath); Men of blood and deceit do not reach half their days; But I, I trust in You.

The ‘shaḥath’ which comes of being cast into the pit is an eradication, as can be understood from the word’s usage elsewhere:

Genesis 13:10

10 And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of the Yardĕn, that it was well watered everywhere – before יהוה destroyed (shaḥath) Seḏom and Amorah – like the garden of יהוה, like the land of Mitsrayim as you go toward Tso‛ar.

Sodom and Gomorrah were ‘destroyed’ by means of ‘eternal fire’, and they are an example of YHVH’s punishment:

Jude 7

7 Even as Seḏom and Amorah and the cities around them in a similar way to these, having given themselves over to whoring and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, undergoing judicial punishment of everlasting fire.

‘Shaḥath’ is used to describe the ‘destruction’ of the people of the earth in the flood:

Genesis 6:13

13 and Elohim said to Noaḥ, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them. And see, I am going to destroy (shaḥath) them from the earth.

When this ‘destruction’ is discussed in Peter’s second letter, we see the corresponding Greek word used:

2 Peter 3:6-7

6 through which the world at that time was destroyed (apollymi), being flooded with water.

7 And the present heavens and the earth are treasured up by the same Word, being kept for fire, to a day of judgment and destruction (apōleia) of wicked men.

This is the word that Paul uses to describe the end of the wicked:

Romans 9:21-22

21 Does not the potter have authority over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for value and another not for value?

22 And if Elohim, desiring to show wrath, and to make His power known, with much patience tolerated the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction (apōleia),

It is also the word used by the author of the book of Hebrews where it is contrasted with ‘eternal life’:

Hebrews 10:39-39

38 “But the righteous shall live by faith/belief, but if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him.”

39 But we are not of those who draw back to destruction (apōleia), but of faith/belief to the preservation of life.

Paul says that this ‘destruction’ will be the end of ‘the enemies of the cross of Messiah’:

Philippians 3:19

19 Their end is destruction (apōleia), their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame – they mind the earthly.

The ‘bottomless pit’ has an angel over it whose name corresponds with this word. The ‘bottomless pit’ is the ‘pit of destruction’ to which the Tanakh refers:

Revelation 9:11

11 And they have over them a king, the angel of the pit of the deep (phrear teys abyssos), whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apolluon (apollyōn).

We see the Hebrew name for this angel is ‘Abaddon’, which corresponds with a Hebrew word which means ‘to destroy’, ‘’abad’:

Deuteronomy 7:23-24

23 “But יהוה your Elohim shall save/deliver them over to you and destroy them with a great destruction until they are consumed.

24 “And He shall give their kings into your hand, and you shall destroy (‘abad) their name from under the heavens. No one is going to be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them.

Similar to His destruction of Israel’s enemies, when they came to the land, YHVH will destroy His enemies in the pit. Their punishment is commensurate with their offences. YHVH’s just and equitable name is seen in His handling of those who oppose Him.