There have been a number of posts on my Facebook feed in recent weeks, on the matter of Hell. A number of them have made the claim that Hell does not appear in the New Testament. It’s a common claim made by hardline “progressive” Christians. I have started to address this in an earlier post; see
The Gospel passage proposed by the Revised Common Lectionary for this coming Sunday (Matt 25:14–30) raises this matter quite directly. This passage offers a parable of Jesus (found here and, in another version, in Luke 19), in which two slaves are commended for their shrewd stewardship of a huge amount of money that was entrusted to them, whilst one slave is punished for not improving the amount he was given.
That slave is called “wicked and lazy” (Matt 25:26) as well as “worthless”, and his punishment is far more severe: he is to be thrown “into the outer darkness” (25:30). That is often interpreted, with some justification, as being thrown into Hell.
I know about the way that Hell can be used in Christian rhetoric. In the past, I have been labelled, by a fellow-member of my church, with derogatory and insulting labels regarding my marital status. I have been condemned for “worshipping Satan” and being “doomed to hell”. I have been called out, publically, as an “apostate” who “has been deceived”, and told that I am “hell-bound without repentance”.
Graphic descriptions of my fate, as being condemned to “the eternal lake of burning sulphur” (Rev 20:7–10 and 21:8), have been provided for me to ruminate over. And worse, this particular individual has justified this way of responding by maintaining that there is “nothing unchristian about warning demonically inspired LGBTI advocates against Hell and the Lake of Fire”. How charmingly pastoral!
The slave who was not prepared for the return of his master—in the first of four parables (24:45–51) which conclude the final teaching discourse of Jesus—faces this clear punishment: “put him with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (24:51). Where was that place, where the hypocrites are to be found? Jesus does not specify that here.
Jesus had earlier spoken a similar instruction to “throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” in the parable where a person came to a wedding inappropriately dressed (22:13). This is a recurrent motif in Matthew’s Gospel; but this passage gives no further description of where that outer darkness with its weeping and gnashing of teeth is located.
Elsewhere in this Gospel, Jesus has pointed to the same punishment for lawless and disobedient people: such weeping and gnashing of teeth is cited in his words of judgement spoken in Capernaum, where he encounters a distressed centurion (8:12); in his explanation of the parable of the weeds and the wheat (13:42); in the parable of the good and bad fish (13:50); and in the parable of the talents (25:30). But where is the outer darkness where this experience located?
The gnashing of teeth is a punishment that is taken from Hebrew Scripture texts: “the wicked plot against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them (Ps 37:12); “the wicked gnash their teeth and melt away; the desire of the wicked comes to nothing” (Ps 112:10); “malicious witnesses … impiously mocked more and more, gnashing at me with their teeth” (Ps 35:11,16). The prophet laments that when Jerusalem is ransacked, “all your enemies open their mouths against you, they hiss, they gnash their teeth, they cry ‘we have devoured her!’” (Lam 2:16). It is a well-known form of torment and punishment.
The Matthean parable of the unprepared servant also has this apparently savage instruction: he will cut him in pieces (24:51). In a similar version, found in Luke’s Gospel (Luke 12:42–48), the master similarly “will cut him in pieces, and put him with the unfaithful” (Luke 12:46), but again the location of the unfaithful is not specified.
In a number of places in Hebrew Scripture, cutting a body into pieces was an action used in sacrificing animals (1 Kings 18:23, 33) and as a warning of judgement against sinners—in the terrible story of the Levite’s concubine (Judges 19:29), after Saul defeated the Ammonites (1 Sam 11:7), and also in direct prophetic warnings (Isa 45:2; 51:9; Ezek 16:40; Dan 2:34; also Judith 5:22). This is the fate decreed for the unprepared slave—a terrible end, indeed!
Throughout Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus declares that sinners are destined for the judgement of fire (Matt 5:22; 7:19; 13:40, 42, 50; 18:8–9; 25:41). This gives a clearer indication of the location where punishment will be meted out to the unfaithful, the hypocrites, and those who disobey the law. The reference to the judgement of fire picks up from the warning of John the baptiser, which Matthew has added to his Markan source: “You brood of vipers! who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? … even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matt 3:7, 10).
That place is described by Jesus, in parables unique to Matthew, as “the furnace of fire” (Matt 13:43, 50; 25:41). Sinners will be sent to a place of “eternal fire” (18:8; 25:41), “the hell of fire” (5:22; 18:9), the “unquenchable fire” threatened by John, as he baptised repentant sinners and warned that “the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire” (3:12). This builds on the warnings found in Mark’s Gospel about the punishment in store for those who put stumbling blocks in the way of “these little ones”—they will be condemned to “the unquenchable fire” (Mark 9:42–48). These warnings are repeated by Jesus in Matt 18:6–9.
Matthew’s portrayal of Jesus is consistent in reporting that he warns his followers, again and again, of the fiery fate that awaits evildoers. Once again, this picks up on Hebrew Scripture passages in which various prophets declare that God will use fire to destroy people and places because of their sinfulness (Isa 1:7; 5:24; 30:27–28, 30, 33 18–19; Jer 4:4; 6:27–30; 20:47–48; Hos 8:14; Joel 2:1–3; Amos 1:4—2:5; Nah 1:15).
Amongst those prophetic oracles, Zephaniah, for instance, portrays utter devastation through divine judgement: “neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of the Lord’s wrath; in the fire of his passion the whole earth shall be consumed” (Zeph 1:18).
However, the final prophet in the Christian Old Testament, Malachi, reworks this imagery, offering some hope; God’s messenger on The Day of the Lord “is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness” (Mal 3:1–4).
A number of psalms reflect a desire for God to punish evildoers severely; “pour out your indignation upon them, and let your burning anger overtake them” is the cry of one psalm (Ps 69:24). Another psalm notes the vengeance of God—“in your hearts you devise wrongs; your hands deal out violence on earth” (Ps 58:2)—and suggests that “the righteous will rejoice when they see vengeance done; they will bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked” (Ps 58:10). We must wonder: did Jesus pray these psalms? did he concur with their ideas? did he pray for God to act with vengeance? The words that Matthew attribute to Jesus in his Gospel would suggest that he did.
The image of fiery punishment is often noted by the psalmists: “on the wicked [God] will rain coals of fire and sulfur; a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup” (Ps 11:6); “the voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire; the voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness” (Ps 29:6-7); and again, “your hand will find out all your enemies; your right hand will find out those who hate you; you will make them like a fiery furnace when you appear; the Lord will swallow them up in his wrath, and fire will consume them.” (Ps 21:8-9).
Indeed, one psalmist prays to God, “as fire consumes the forest, as the flame sets the mountains ablaze, so pursue them with your tempest and terrify them with your hurricane” (Ps 83:14-15). After one such prayer, other psalmists must have been astounded as “smoke went up from his nostrils, and devouring fire from his mouth; glowing coals flamed forth from him” (Ps 18:8; see also 18:12; 46:9; 68:2; 78:21, 63; 97:3; 104:4; 106:18). And so the psalmist laments, “how long, O Lord? will you be angry forever? will your jealous wrath burn like fire?” (Ps 79:5; 89:46).
This imagery is picked up and placed into the story of Daniel (Dan 3:1–30) and appears again in the last book of the New Testament, where the prophet describes his visions of “the lake of fire that burns with sulfur” (Rev 19:20; 20:10, 14–15), also described as “the second death” (Rev 20:14; 21:8). It is there that the devil, the beast, and the false prophet “will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (Rev 20:10). Matthew appears to share some similarities with the writer of this book, for as we have noted, eternal punishment in a fiery furnace features also in the words of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel.
So we can’t simply brush aside the closing words of the parable which is in focus this coming Sunday—the Heavenly Father, we are told, will follow the example of the unforgiving servant, who will be “tortured until he would pay his entire debt” (18:34–35), in the service of ensuring that faithful people do indeed forgive one another! (How he will be able to pay off his debt while he is being tortured in prison, I do not know!)
Such punishment is consistent with the way that God’s justice will be implemented, according to the various teachings and parables of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel that we have already noted. It will be incredibly hard to be let off the hook by this fierce, punitive God!! We are left in no doubt whatsoever, that Jesus believed in a place where divine wrath would visit punishment and wreak revenge on evildoers.
So as we read and hear and interpret this parable, today, and as we reflect on the matter of punishment, Hell, and the afterlife, we are left to ponder for ourselves: do we still hold to this place, Hell, as a place of eternal torment for sinners? or can we move on in our understanding and reshape our theology to form a belief system that offers a different way of addressing injustice and rewarding faithfulness? (I would like to think we can.)
Certainly, the survey of passages above reveals a clear development in various Hebrew Scripture passages, on through into New Testament texts—which raises the question, why, then, do we need to stop our thinking about these ideas—our conceptualisation of how God deals with sin—with late first century texts? And let’s note that understandings of these ancient texts have been mediated especially through interpreters of late antiquity and the medieval period, and their more recent followers. Is it not legitimate for us, today, to continue that development and for us to articulate new understandings?
We are also left with the conundrum: what are we to make of this aggressively violent, retributive God, condemning sinners to the misery of “hell”? Is this the last word about God? or can we legitimately form a different, more nuanced understanding of the divine? (Again, this is the direction I would like to move.)
These questions focus the the challenge of preaching and interpreting this parable of Jesus, and these ancient texts as a whole, in our contemporary world.
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Material in this and the previous blogs is drawn in part from the research of Elizabeth Raine and from MESSIAH, MOUNTAINS, AND MISSION: an exploration of the Gospel for Year A, by Elizabeth Raine and John Squires (self-published 2012)
See also
An Informed Faith 