Eternal Punishment: Understanding “Hell” Through Rabbinic Thought

One of the most troubling concepts associated with the Bible has to be the doctrine of "eternal punishment." The idea that all of humanity is hell-bound from birth is enough to cause many to walk away and never look back.

And while discussions of an afterlife judgment appear in early proto-Rabbinic conversations, the [eternal punishment] doctrine as most know it, took shape much later.

It was the 4th–5th century theologian Augustine who gave this concept its place within the developing church.

Because Martin Luther leaned so heavily on Augustine’s theology, the idea of eternal torment became hardwired into Protestantism, where it became virtually unquestioned.

Eternal Punishment

Yet for all its weight in Christian doctrine, the entire concept leans on a single passage in the Gospel of Matthew.

In Matthew 25, Jesus teaches about the judgment at the end of the age in his Parable of the Sheep and the Goats.

In the Temple, goats were the offering for sins. Thus, in the Rabbinic stories, goats represent wicked people, so it is no surprise that Jesus tells them:

... And these will depart into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” - Matthew 25:46

The English seems straightforward. But when we unpack the words "eternal punishment" from the Greek, back into Hebrew, we find an idea that conforms with Jewish tradition, and a different picture of the afterlife emerges.