Sheep and Goats

[prodigal_son]

**The Sheep and the Goats **

31"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34"Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

37"Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

40"The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

41"Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

44"They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

45"He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

46"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

My Hell-Burner brothers will use this particular quotation as evidence that Jesus taught eternal damnation. How do I counter?

[stellar_renegade]

If we are talking in terms of the Peshitta, which has a case for being the original language of scripture, then we are dealing with the word ‘olam’ in reference to the eternal.

Here’s what one site has to say about the word ‘olam’:

In the ancient Hebrew words that are used to described distance and direction are also used to describe time. The Hebrew word for east is qedem and literally means “the direction of the rising sun”. We use north as our major orientation such as in maps which are always oriented to the north. While we use the north as our major direction the Hebrews used the east and all directions are oriented to this direction. For example one of the words for south is teyman from the root yaman meaning “to the right”. The word qedem is also the word for the past. In the ancient Hebrew mind the past is in front of you while the future is behind you, the opposite way we think of the past and future. The Hebrew word olam means in the far distance. When looking off in the far distance it is difficult to make out any details and what is beyond that horizon cannot be seen. This concept is the olam. The word olam is also used for time for the distant past or the distant future as a time that is difficult to know or perceive. This word is frequently translated as eternity or forever but in the English language it is misunderstood to mean a continual span of time that never ends. In the Hebrew mind it is simply what is at or beyond the horizon, a very distant time. A common phrase in the Hebrew is “l’olam va’ed” and is usually translated as “forever and ever” but in the Hebrew it means “to the distant horizon and again” meaning “a very distant time and even further” and is used to express the idea of a very ancient or future time.

As for aionios, the word found in the Greek translations, the same basic case can be made. It is a word having to do with the concept of an age, and where we get the word ‘eon’.

And as for any objections to this saying that such a punishment could not serve God’s purposes, I would say this: a punishment that seems to be never-ending, extending to the very horizon, is enough to create hopelessness for the sinful nature. If release from such punishment is to be seen as only in God’s hands, then the sinner must give up all hope for any other kind of escape and simply become good, accept God’s way and His everlasting love, in order to escape.

Eternal death is, in fact, a good description of what the sinful state is. Completely self-entrenching, wrapping the sinner up in his own personal world of death - hell. This hell is within a person’s subconscious (James 3:6) and even in this life taints our very existence.

Isn’t the concept of ‘eternity’ rooted in the concept of a loop rather than a straight line extending without end? The latter seems to be a modern geometric concept that seems rather illogical (see also Hilbert’s Hotel paradox).

[JasonPratt]

Good comment, Justin. I love the Peshitta ref.

Also, the noun being used for punishment in this case, is an agricultural metaphor for brisk cleaning. It isn’t necessarily a hopeless thing in regard to an object; quite the contrary. (The metaphor is similar to the idea of sulfur and fire both being ancient common anti-infection remedies.)

A few of us (myself primarily around here) also argue extensively that the adjective “eonian” has a New Testament (and maybe Old Testament Greek) usage similar to the Jewish euphamism for God “the Everlasting”. So whole-ruination, fire, crisising, brisk cleaning, life, even God Himself in a way, and various other things, can be described as coming from God’s own essence this way. There are several threads where this is discussed in detail, pro and con; although I’m too lazy^H^H^H^Htired to look them up right now.