Does the New Testament teach a doctrine of Hell?
INTRODUCTION
Until more
recent times, it had long been a commonplace in Christian thought that the New
Testament teaches unequivocally that there exists a place of eternal, conscious
bodily/spiritual torment where the lost will spend eternity, a.k.a. Hell.[1] However, there are many scholars who, albeit
out of no desire to belittle the testimony of Scripture, now question whether
the New Testament actually does affirm this traditional view of Hell. In this brief paper, I will examine two NT
expressions – “the Gehenna of fire” found in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark,
and “the lake of fire” of the book of Revelation – with the goal of determining
whether they do indeed teach what they have traditionally been understood to
teach, or whether a close examination of their language in its canonical,
historical and cultural context might reveal a different referent for their
“fiery imagery”.
MATTHEW & MARK: “THE GEHENNA OF FIRE”
“Gehenna”,
traditionally rendered “Hell” (cf. Mt. 5.22, 29-30) actually did not originally
denote a “bad place” the far side of death.
At the most basic level, this Greek word is simply a translation of the
Hebrew “Hinnom”, a valley situated to the south of Jerusalem (cf. Joshua
15.8). The threats of judgment uttered
over this sinister valley (cf. Jer. 7.30-33), a place of child sacrifice in
pre-exilic times, are the reason why the Valley of Hinnom came to be equated
with the “hell” of the last judgment in Jewish apocalyptic literature from the
2nd century B.C.[2] After Josiah defiled the valley to make it
unacceptable as a holy site (2 Kings 23.10), it was used as a garbage dump by
the inhabitants of Jerusalem. As a
result, the valley became known in Jewish tradition as the place of destruction
by fire.
The word
Gehenna, in the opinion of many scholars, is commonly used in the NT for
the place of final punishment. This
valley was regarded as an appropriate image of “hell” due to its association
with the place to deposit the bodies of those slain in battle by God’s judgment
(cf. Jer. 7.30ff). Besides Gehenna,
another biblical aspect of “hell” is that of fire and burning. Throughout the Scriptures the execution of
judgment is frequently portrayed with images of burning. Cp. the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
(Gn. 19) and that of Jericho (Joshua 6).
The point of burning seems to be that it destroys something offensive to
God’s holiness and that the smoke acts as a sign that the offensive thing is in
fact being destroyed.[3] Fiery images are used in the Gospels with
reference to divine judgment in the afterlife – according to J.B. Green
– including “fire” (Mt. 3.10; 7.12, etc.), “‘hell’ (Gehenna) of fire” (Mt.
5.22; 18.9), “unquenchable fire” (Mt. 3.12; Mk. 9.43, 48), “eternal fire” (Mt.
18.8; 25.41), and “eternal punishment” (Mt. 25.46).[4]
Burning is
not only an image of the satisfaction of God’s holiness, but also of the
suffering of those undergoing judgment.
Revelation 14.10 warns that worshippers of the “beast” will be
“tormented with burning sulfur”. Here we
have the image of bodies capable of feeling pain being subjected to the agony
of being burned. This is in keeping with
the traditional view that the NT teaches that “hell” is punishment experienced
as suffering in body and soul (Mt. 10.28; Jude 7). The impression the relevant texts (Lk. 16.
23-25; Mt. 13.42, 50; 22.13) give of unbearable heat, the noxious odor of
burning and the sound of weeping has inspired many a harrowing sermon and such
awful scenes in literature as the desert of burning sand and fiery rain in
Canto 14 of Dante’s Inferno. In
the NT the torment is described as continuous and eternal[5]
(Mt. 3.12; 25.41, etc.).
“Hell” is
also described with the image of darkness (Mt. 8.12). This image appears to indicate consignment to
chaos, being shut out of God’s favorable presence and his good creation, since
creation began with God calling light out of darkness (Gn. 1.1-3). Instead of getting hung up on the
contradictory imagery (fire and darkness), we must remember that biblical
images of “hell” leave many details to the imagination, perhaps because no
picture is capable of doing justice to the reality. As many have pointed out, Jesus speaks more
of “hell” than any other biblical figure, and proffers strident warnings to
avoid it (Mk. 9.42-48).[6]
However,
this raises an important question. When
Jesus uses the term “Gehenna”, is he referring to the post-mortem destiny of
individuals or is he making reference to a future historical judgment – or
perhaps both? More than the other
evangelists, Matthew is concerned about the final judgment. Matthew uses the term “Gehenna” seven times,
once with reference to people whose lives are inspired by “hell” (Mt. 23.15), but
otherwise – so says Joel B. Green – with reference to the “hell” of
eschatological condemnation (Mt. 5.22, 29-30; 10.28; 18.9; 23.33). Mark, for his part, devotes little attention
to these matters. References to “hell”
are concentrated at the end of Mark 9, where Jesus warns his followers to set
aside whatever might cause one to stumble in one’s faith (9.43-48). Mark associates those who stumble with God’s
enemies (cf. Is. 66.24), and paints “hell” with images of deplorable death and
decomposition, images used to motivate unreserved allegiance to God.[7]
Against the
common view that “Jesus has more to say about Hell than any other individual in
the Bible”,[8]
N.T. Wright advances the argument that when Jesus warns his contemporaries of
Gehenna, he is not speaking of a post-mortem, individualistic, eternal
destination; rather, Jesus was warning the people of God of the this-worldly
consequences of refusing his call to walk in the way of peace and
enemy-love. Wright interprets Jesus’
“Gehenna warnings” in light of his predictions of Jerusalem’s destruction (cf.
Mk. 13, par.). On Wright’s reading,
Jesus was warning his nation that if they did not “repent” of their being
“hell-bent” on violent revolution against Rome, Zion in its entirety would
become an extension of Gehenna, i.e. the garbage-dump in the Valley of Hinnom.[9] In the fourth Gospel, Jesus refers to both the
resurrection of life and the resurrection of condemnation (Jn. 5.29); this was
a belief that he shared with the Pharisees (cf. Ac. 23.6-8; 24.15). The Age to Come would be inaugurated by a
resurrection of all the dead (which assumes a new creation for these
resurrected folk to inhabit; cf. Rev. 21—22), followed by the final judgment
(cf. Rev. 20). So, Jesus did believe in
two possible “eternal” destinies; however, his “eschatology” differed greatly
from the popular, modern idea that eternity consists of disembodied souls
inhabiting either “Heaven” or “Hell”, without any regard for a rebirth of the
created cosmos (cf. Rom. 8.18-25).
REVELATION: “THE LAKE OF FIRE”
Revelation
raises many disquieting questions. What
is a good God to do? Can God judge the
world without morally compromising himself?
Does it make moral sense for the Creator to “destroy those who destroy
the earth” (cf. Rev. 11.18)? Surely, destruction
in and of itself is morally wrong, no?
Isn’t God “love” (cf. 1 Jn. 4.16-18)?
Doesn’t God always forgive wrongdoing?
Indeed, it often seems that in today’s Global North, (the Christian) God
has become quite sentimental…[10] Positive thinking – including a “positive”
image of God – will always be welcome to anxious/affluent moderns, but the
question remains – what can this “good God” do about evil? This is the question to which the book of
Revelation offers itself as an answer.
God created
a “good” cosmos; indeed, the Creator declared his work to be “very good” (Gn.
1.31; cf. 1.4, 10, 12, etc.). And yet,
there was a snake in the garden… (cf. Gn. 3.1ff). Evil – whose origins are never fully
explained in the Bible[11]
– infiltrated God’s good world and corrupted it, along with the wills of God’s
human creatures (cf. Gn. 3.1-7). The
rest is (quite literally) history…
The Bible
is the long, tortuous story of the Creator’s struggle to rescue his world from
the evil that defaces and seeks to destroy it.
Evil is a slippery foe. As
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918—2008) said, the line between good and evil runs
through every human heart. No one is
untainted by evil; traditionally, this reality – of which everyone is
intuitively aware – has been referred to as “original sin”.[12] No one occupies the proverbial moral high
ground; therefore, each person who would seek to fight evil will not only do so
imperfectly, but will also be painfully aware of the inherent hypocrisy in even
their best-intentioned actions. Indeed,
this would be an apt summary of the history of ancient Israel as told in the
Hebrew Scriptures. Israel, called to be
the Creator’s agent of salvation and rescue among the nations of the world,
turns out to be just as tainted by evil as the heathen nations for whom she was
supposed to be the light.[13]
But what of
God himself? Can God (violently) judge
the world without ceasing to be “good”?
According to the Bible, the Creator rarely acts without partnering with
human beings – and therefore always runs the risk of being associated with the
moral ambiguity of human nature. Be that
as it may, there are times when God acts unilaterally; for example, the great
Flood described in Genesis chapters 6—9.
Indeed, the story of Noah’s Flood is in many ways the “prequel” to the
book of Revelation – in both instances, the Creator performs a cataclysmic
judgment of the world in order to make a new beginning (cp. Gn. 1.26-31 with
Gn. 9.1-7; cf. Rev. 21.1-5).[14] Paradoxically, God tells Noah that the reason
he is about to destroy the earth is because of humankind’s rampant violence
(Gn. 6.11-13; cf. Rev. 11.18)![15] This apparent paradox is somewhat mitigated
when we consider that the Flood represents the tragic climax of violence that
ultimately ruined creation. The Flood
was both the end and natural result of violence and God’s way of mediating the
consequences of sin that were already present in the pre-Flood situation.[16] Through the Flood, the Creator brought the
world back to its pre-creation state (cf. Gn. 1.1-2), with the goal of
re-creating it. Following the Flood, God
promised never to un-make his creation again (Gn. 9.8-17). In Revelation, God re-makes his ultimate
version of his creation (Rev. 21.1ff).
It remains that before new creation can become a reality, all
anti-creation forces must be destroyed…[17]
The “lake
of fire” is the equivalent, in apocalyptic literature, to Gehenna in the
Gospels.[18] The narrative of
Revelation is hard to reconcile with the traditional picture of a final judgment
which results in the saved ascending to Heaven and the damned descending into
Hell (cf. the altar wall of the Sistine chapel). Rather, Revelation offers a tantalizing
vision of a new creation, “new heavens and a new earth” (21.1). The New Jerusalem descends from heaven to
earth, with the appearance of a bride on her wedding day (21.2). The vision of the new creation presumes the
resurrection of the dead (cf. 20.12; Ac. 24.15). The “lake of fire” (20.15) served to destroy
(?) everything/everyone who posed a threat to the shalom of the new world where
there is no more crying, pain, suffering, evil or death (21.2-5). And yet, even after the great white throne
judgment scene (20.11-15), there remain nations in need of healing (22.2) who
make pilgrimage to the New Jerusalem and bring their glory into it (21.22-26).
This
“ambiguous” final scene which contains “nations” outside the heavenly city (now
on earth) who are yet welcome to visit the New Jerusalem as well as the list of
those who are (eternally?) refused access (21.27; 22.14-15) rejects the overly
simplistic scenario which has long prevailed in the Christian imagination –
that of all humans ending up in one of two eschatological destinations: either
“the good place” or “the bad place”.
Whatever the “lake of fire” is, it seems that it must not be taken to mean
the “final resting place” of those who, by all appearances, do not yet belong
to Christ at the time of his coming to judge the living and the dead.
CONCLUSION
There seems
to be no way of doubting that the New Testament clearly teaches the reality of a
final judgment. However, when one begins
to examine the imagery provided for the consequences of a negative outcome
at this judgment, things become less straightforward. Fire is often used in the Scriptures to
connote destruction, but it is also often used to connote purification (e.g. 1
Cor. 3.10-15). In his sermon “The Weight
of Glory”, C.S. Lewis spoke of two possible eschatological outcomes – that each
and every person was in the process of becoming either “a creature which, if we
saw it now, we would be tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption
such as we now meet only in a nightmare”.[19] Is death the “unveiling” of which outcome is
to be ultimately and definitely ours? Or
is there yet hope beyond the grave to continue journeying towards one’s “final
destination”? Alas, the New Testament
doesn’t appear to have clear and fast answers…besides that of Rom. 8.38ff.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hoekema,
Anthony A. The Bible and the Future, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979.
Lewis, C.S. The Weight of Glory and other Addresses,
New York: HarperOne, 2001 [1949, 1976, 1980].
Lynch, Matthew
J. Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God, Downers
Grove: IVP Academic, 2023.
Ryken,
Leland et al., gen. Eds. Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, Downers Grove:
InterVarsity Press, 1998.
Vanhoozer,
Kevin J., gen. ed. Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible,
Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2005.
Wright, N.T.
Evil and the Justice of God, Downers Grove: IVP Books, 2006.
__________.
Following Jesus: Biblical Reflections on Discipleship,
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995 [1994].
__________. Jesus and the Victory of God,
Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996.
[1] Cf.
Hoekema, Anthony A. The Bible and the Future, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
1979, p. 273.
[2] Kittel,
Gerhard, ed. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Vol. I, Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964, p. 657.
[3] Ryken,
Leland et al., gen. Eds. Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, Downers Grove:
InterVarsity Press, 1998, pp. 376-77.
[4] Green,
Joel B., “Heaven and Hell” in Green, Joel B., gen. ed. Dictionary of Jesus
and the Gospels (second edition), Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2013,
p. 371.
[5] I.e. a characteristic of the Age to Come; cf. Shogren, G.S. “Hell,
Abyss, Eternal Punishment” in Martin, Ralph P. & Peter H. Davids, eds. Dictionary
of the Later New Testament & its Developments, Downers Grove:
InterVarsity Press, 1997, p, 461.
[6] Ryken,
Leland et al., gen. Eds. Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, Downers Grove:
InterVarsity Press, 1998, pp. 377.
[7] Green,
Joel B., “Heaven and Hell” in Green, Joel B., gen. ed. Dictionary of Jesus
and the Gospels (second edition), Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2013,
pp. 373-74.
[8] Cf. Hoekema,
Anthony A. The Bible and the Future, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979, pp.
266-68. A few days ago, I heard a street
preacher say this.
[9] Wright,
N.T. Jesus and the Victory of God, Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996,
pp. 329-32; 454-55; cf. idem. Following Jesus: Biblical Reflections on
Discipleship, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995 [1994], pp. 91-98.
[10] This
phenomenon has resulted in the proliferation of what some call “therapeutic
spirituality”.
[11] Cf. N.T. Wright, Evil and the Justice of God, Downers Grove:
IVP Books, 2006, pp. 13-42.
[12] The
classic exposition of this doctrine was made by St. Augustine in the 5th
century AD. Since the advent of
modernity, this doctrine has become controversial, but the events of the 20th
century served to remind the West that there may still be something to it (to
put it mildly…). Different attitudes
towards evil emerged in the modern era.
Liberal theology has tended to assume that human nature is basically
good; for his part, Friedrich Nietzsche (1844—1900) waxed eloquent about the
“problem of morality” and taught that we must go “beyond good and evil” in
order to arrive at a true account of human nature. Nietzsche believed that the “good” consisted
in exerting one’s “will to power”, to constantly surpass both oneself and
society’s conventions. On his account,
the fundamental mistake was to appease weakness, the error exhibited in the
“morality of resentment” which, for him, was the hallmark of Christianity.
[13] Cf.
chapters 9—11 of St. Paul’s letter to the Romans.
[14]
Interestingly, in Rev. 21.1, “there is no more sea” (cf. Gn. 9.8-17).
[15] Cf.
Matthew J. Lynch, Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of
God, Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2023, pp. 64-73.
[16] Cf. Ibid,
pp. 84-85.
[17] Cf.
chapters 6-20 of Revelation.
[18] Shogren,
G.S. “Hell, Abyss, Eternal Punishment” in Martin, Ralph P. & Peter H.
Davids, eds. Dictionary of the Later New Testament & its Developments,
Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1997, p. 460.
[19] Lewis, C.S. The Weight of Glory and other Addresses, New
York: HarperOne, 2001 [1949, 1976, 1980], p. 45.
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