Some Rabbis seem to have held (as did certain of the Fathers) the final annihilation of the wicked
Most significant is it that in the original of the New Testament, the horrors of unending agony, which these terms conjure up for so many, vanish when we come to know that by “damnation” is simply meant “judgment,” or at most “condemnation,” as our Revisers now fully admit in their version; and by “hell” is only meant, either the place of disembodied souls, Hades, (as our Revisers now render it) or the Jewish Gehenna (see Revised Version), a place of temporary punishment in its literal sense, where the worms fed continually, it is true, and the fire for ever burned; but in both cases purifying, and causing no pain (for the bodies were those of the dead); and where both “undying ” worm, and “unquenchable” fire, have long since, in their literal sense, passed away. 180-215), by COX, Salv. Mundi, p. 70-5, and by an Article in the XIX. Century, August, 1890, (see, too, PFAFF, quoted p. 8o,) seems to make it clear that, normally, at least, Gehenna was not believed to involve endless punishment. It was certainly a place from which deliverance was possible, and probably one from which deliverance was the rule. Jewish opinion was by no means fixed, but fluctuated much as to the details and the duration of future punishment.
True it is that Gehenna was by the Jews used, symbolically, of the place of future punishment- a fact to be fully admitted
True it is, most true, that while no unending torment is threatened by our Lord, yet His words do convey most solemn warning to the sinner – warning that gains in real weight when its true import is discerned, because the conscience recognizes its justice. I accept, then, heartily – as their true natural sense, every warning, however terrible, and every penalty threatened against sinners in Scripture; but that true natural sense is not, as I hope to show, in any case that of endless evil and torment. Ler mais