THE "DOCTRINE OF EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT" IS MANMADE AND TURNS GOD FROM A TRUE FATHER INTO A TYRANT

Matthew 25:46

PROBABLY THE SADDEST MISTRANSLATION IN HISTORY

The unfortunate rendering is:
"These shall go away into everlasting punishment".

However, the true rendering is:
"These shall go away into age-long pruning".
or
"These shall go away into age-lasting chastisement".

Why is the exposure of this mistranslation so important? Because it changes the Nature of our Father, the Divine Parent, our God, from one of a malicious, callous and thoughtless sadist into an always true, wise, faithful and ever-loving Supreme Being.

The majority of the Greek constructions used in this synopsis were originally transliterated by the Reverend Arthur Chambers, Associate of King's College, London; Vicar of Brockenhurst, Hants. at the beginning of the twentieth century, and the main thrust of this synopsis is developed from his books "Problems of the Spiritual" and "Our Life After Death".

Note: This article is followed (further down this page) by an enlightening extract from "Universalism: The Prevailing Doctrine of The Christian Church During its First Five Hundred Years" by Rev. J.W. Hanson D.D.

Also of possible interest concerning objections to Universal Salvation is this article: "Universal Salvation is a 'Heresy'!"

There is a mistranslation in Matthew 25:46 which needs to be analysed. This analysis of the mistranslation of Matthew 25:46, is considered with the assumption that Christ Jesus actually said the words attributed to Matthew, and that what Matthew has written is not his own personal interpretation of what he assumes to be true, and that he actually heard Christ Jesus say these exact words, or that another person's account of Christ's words was literally exact when given to Matthew.

As a mistranslation and misinterpretation, it is one which has satisfied man since the original Greek was translated into Latin. The mistranslation is of two words: "everlasting punishment", and when put in the context of the sentence, the unfortunate result is this: "These shall go away into everlasting punishment". However, the true rendering is: "These shall go away into age-long pruning" (or "...age-lasting chastisement").

"Everlasting punishment" should read "age-long pruning". The Greek word for an "age" is: , which is the noun from which the adjective: (aionios) is derived. The word "aionios" means "age-long", but this word has been mistranslated as "everlasting".

But what word or words could have been used to denote "everlastingness"? There is the word: , an adverb = ever, always, for ever. With the article, this word was used to express unendingness: (the unending time; i.e. eternity). Also: = those existing forever; i.e. the immortals. Moreover, this word: , conjoined with other words, imports into the latter the idea of non-ending. Thus: = ever-budding; = ever-sprouting; = perpetual generation - and so on.

Therefore, if our Lord had said what the Traditionalist translators claim i.e. "These shall pass away into everlasting punishment", then instead of saying: (These shall go away into an age-long pruning), our Lord could have said: to mean: "These shall go away into the unending vengeance or punishment" - which would have left no doubt in the mind of any person as to the signification of the intended meaning - truly and literally unending. But Matthew did not write that because our Lord did not say such a thing.

There is another Greek word which the New Testament writers actually have used to convey the sense of literal unendingness or that which is truly everlasting. It is the word: (aidios), an adjective derived from . Consequently there can be no question as to its signification being "everlasting". This word is used to describe God's Power and Divinity in Rom.1:20, which of course are eternal and everlasting i.e. , the translation of which is given in the Revised Version as "His everlasting power and divinity".

The word (aidios) is commonly employed by the writers of the New Testament: = "for ever", while was a phrase employed to denote "that which exists everlastingly". Moreover, the noun formed from this word is , which is the Greek word for "Eternity". But the word employed to convey the length of time when referring to "punishment" was not (aidios = forever = without end) but was in fact (aionios = age-long = long or short terminable period), a word which is used hundreds of times in the Bible to denote a terminable period and also in comparative literature (Josephus, the historian uses both (aidios) and (aionios) to demonstrate literal endlessness and terminableness respectively).

If our Lord or the Bible writers had desired to leave no doubt concerning the mistranslated passage under question, it would have been perfectly simple to convey that unthinkable and non-Divine significance of a literal "everlasting punishment" by writing (utilising aidios).

Even supposing that the word (aionios) was to be used to convey a sense of "everlasting" in an emphatic manner, its meaning does not denote a length of time which literally has no end. "Aionios" is used in the Bible to be a descriptive term for things which may perhaps exist for a relatively lengthy period but which ultimately do have an end - it is conditioned by the noun it is used with. This adjective "everlasting" is used today to emphasise a perhaps lengthy period of time through using it as a metaphor in a purely allegorical sense; we utilise the word "everlasting" to describe things which are not literally everlasting. For example, it might be said: "Her fingers were worn to the bone by the everlasting toil"; or perhaps: "His thirst was unbearable on his everlasting journey through the desert". Every one knows that the word everlasting used in this sense does not literally mean everlasting - the adjective is conditioned by its associated noun. Yet the highly efficient Greek language offered the early Christian speakers and writers quite adequate adjectives to distinguish between a literal endlessness: - (aidios), and a known or unknown period which may occasionally appear relatively interminable before it is over - but which most certainly does have an end at some stage: - (aionios).

To such poor souls in the darkness of aionion kolasin (age-long pruning) who have so crushed the Spirit within that no light may reach them, their hell might seem everlasting. But by God's most merciful provision, those who took the journey long ago and who have climbed the steep hill to God, take of what gifts and light they have made their own and seek to raise those in the darkness (but the freewill cannot be interfered with and still many refuse to face the light until further pruning and correction has taken place through suffering).

Etymologically, the words "aionios" and "aidios" possess a perceptible disparity because they have different roots - roots pertaining to "age" () and "for ever" (), respectively. They are both used to convey the sense of lengthy periods of time, but the inference of "aionios", because it is derived from "age", is different to that of "aidios" because it is derived from "for ever". Even "aidios" with its sense of literal endlessness has been utilised to emphasise a point i.e. that "sinning in knowledge" has far worse consequences than "sinning in ignorance", as can be seen when this word is employed to describe the result of evolved spiritual beings sinning (Jude 6). "Aidios" can impinge upon the territory of "aionios" to emphasise a point, and in this case aidios is as strong a metaphor as can be devised - it is used rhetorically.

(With regard to the implications involved concerning the correct meaning of 'aionios' and its import upon 'everlasting life', see below 'Humanity has lost the Aeon of æons'.)

Also to be considered is the true meaning of the word: kolasin used by our Lord in His phrase: (These shall go away into an age-long pruning). This word kolasin means "cutting back with a view to improvement" or "correctional chastisement", which fully describes what happens to the soul in the hells as the soul is purified through suffering before an initial repentance, and after repentance as the poor soul must progressively climb the steep hill to God from the darkness, depending on the depths to which it has sunk, up through the twilight, and towards the ever-increasing Light.

This is explained in symbolic terms in Christ's parable about the "wicked servant" who was forgiven his debt, but failed to forgive the debts of another. With a wicked servant's physical death, the inviolable law of consequences which cannot be circumvented, ensures the delivering of "him to his tormentors, till he should pay all that was due to him" (Matt.18:34). As painful as this chastisement may be and as endless as it might seem, God's ultimate Plan cannot fail, and after perhaps a long æon of time, the prodigal son shall return and be welcomed back into the fold with open arms, and God's Love shall be demonstrated once again.

There should be no doubt that a subject (kolasin) which is "correction" cannot have an adjective which denotes "everlastingness" to describe it, because "correction" or "pruning" is something which is done with a view to improvement - to correcting that which is incorrect, and there would be no need for improvement if "punishment" was to be applied eternally.

Humanity has lost the Aeon of æons

A difficulty which presents itself to many traditionalists and is this: If the word (aionios) does not mean "everlasting" or "eternal" in regard to punishment, then neither does it in regard to reward and blessedness; seeing that the same word is used in reference to righteousness - "The righteous shall go into an age-long life". What basis do we have for a belief in everlasting life, if in this and similar passages in the New Testament only an æonial or age-long life is promised?

Our Saviour Christ in His reiterated promises as to this æonial-life, and the writers of the Epistles in their constant reference to the same thing, were focussing their mental gaze upon that great Epoch which St Paul in Ephesians 3:21 describes as "...the Aeon of the æons" (but which rarely receieves a correct translation).

Note: That the early Greek-speaking Christians understood, beyond any doubt or confusion, that aionios was associated with an æon or age, is unquestionable by anyone who studies the subject seriously and with an unbiased mind. "Macrina the Blessed", born A.D. 327 to Christian parents, employs the word aionion in its proper sense of ages. On Phil. ii:10, Macrina declares (Life and Resurrection, p. 68): "When the evil has been extirpated in the long cycles of the æons nothing shall be left outside the boundaries of good" The German version translates "the long cycles of the æons" as "centuries" (jahrhunderte), which clearly illustrates how an intended meaning is irrevocably altered by human misinterpretation .

This is a particular Aeon, the great Aeon, the consummating Age of all the ages, the Age whose closing shall see the fulfilment of God's "Purpose of the æons" (Eph.3:11), i.e. "the Restitution of all things." It will be an Aeon of blessedness and perfected being and life to those in affinity with Christ. "I give unto them this Aeonial () life" said He.

But this Aeon of blessedness and perfected life for the righteous will include its epochs of pruning and disciplining. Though it will be a terminable period, it will be a vast one, as indicated by Paul's words: "all the generations of the Aeon of æons" or "...æons of the Aeon" - - which the Traditionalists translate as "all ages, world without end" (Eph.3:21); and Christ spoke of "æonial death" and "æonial pruning", indicating an ongoing process of painful soul-purification for those who are dead spiritually, contrasted with living the Christ-Life and progessing spiritually with Christ. This great Aeon will close only when the Purpose of God in Christ shall have been accomplished; when the epochs of pruning and death shall have passed away, and the "lost" and "dead" beings shall have been found and made alive to God.

Note: The earliest Christians who came immediately after the earthly sojourn of Christ, said in the first recorded creed (not the "Apostles' Creed", so named, which was not formed until between 250 A.D. and 350 A.D. in its earliest form): "I believe in the æonian life" which was shortly revised to "I believe in the life of the coming æon", showing that the phrases mean exactly the same thing. "Endless punishment" or "everlasting punishment" simply do not get mentioned. This is because the early Christians - the Christians who were closest to the Cause of the Christian Religion, Christ - were Universalists, as was the Saviour Himself. This Universalism was prevalent amongst Greek-speaking Christians until, in the sixth century, the stern hierarchical Roman influence and language corrupted the original beautiful and sweet Christian thought. Indeed, before this, from Clement of Alexandria and onwards for three hundred years, Universal Salvation was taught.

To those who pass into that great Aeon, identified with Christ, it will mean an Aeon of enhanced and superabundant life; a life which will place the participators of it beyond the reach of æonial pruning or æonial "death". That is what our Lord meant when He said: "If a man keep My word, he shall not see death all through the Aeon" - - (John 8:51).

It may be asked: "If that great Aeon will close, will not the life and blessedness of that Aeon also come to an end?" No, that cannot be. Like a mighty river which has gathered the waters from the smaller streams and brooks, and then charges itself into the great ocean, so the "Aeon of æons (Eph.3:21)" will merge into Eternity; and the life pertaining to that Aeon - because it is from Perfection Himself, because it is God-life and Christ-life - will last for ever.

The great Aeon of Christ Jesus' Purpose shall finally achieve its fulfilment and to Christ's satisfaction (Isaiah 53:11), "...when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father" (1 Cor. 15:24), thus in "the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ (Eph.1:10) .

We do not base our immortality upon the promise of the Aeonial life (as grand as that promise is); but upon the fact that linked to Him we are linked to God. The soul shall have thrown off layer upon layer of that which had been blocking the Spirit, the soul shall have thinned the conditions of its garment (the spiritual body) to allow penetration into the Light in its higher states of awful purity becoming ever more "fashioned unto the likeness of Christ" - and that cannot know any ending. "Because I live," said Jesus, "you shall live also" (John 14:19).

What has been said will be sufficient to show how superficial is the argument, that, in rejecting "everlasting" as the translation of the word (aionios) we demolish not only the awful doctrine of everlasting loss and misery, but also that of everlasting life and blessedness. When the truth is looked at with honesty, the Literalistic Fundamentalists and Traditionalists base their salvation upon this word "aionios" (although they do not realise this and would claim otherwise) because the Fundamentalists draw their theory of salvation whilst regarding this word to mean 'everlasting without end' - and therefore in their minds one either passes one way to Hell from which there is no return, or alternatively, the other "direction" - and this being based upon a mere belief: 'being saved or being damned' - damned everlastingly without end, no less.

For if this word literally signifies "everlasting", then most good people are doomed for ever to a hideous "punishment" and that is an erroneous, immoral and disgusting belief. But if this word is considered to mean what it signified to those of Christ's earthly sojourn, when it is used to describe passing things, then we may truly begin to enter into understanding the Love and Foresight of God.

We would truly need a pity which is Divine, if either the chance for all of God's creatures to live for ever in perfect harmony, joy and love - or for a large portion of good people to be subjected to eternal torment - was based upon a word!...the word "aionios", which is used in the Bible to describe things which have come into being and have gone out of being, such as systems of social and national life, the Aaronic order of priesthood, and the gates of a temple (Psalms 24:7).

The Translators have always overlooked this important difference for two reasons: Firstly, they were without a true understanding of the early Greek language with its words denoting endlessness and periods of time, and indeed the philosophic meaning of its root, which ultimately is an antithesis of time, as it is used to describe certain periods, i.e. the Mosaic era, etc. - something which has a beginning and an end - but not time itself. Secondly, because they have misinterpreted Christ's teaching of Universal Salvation and, through dogmatisation, have assumed salvation to be limited to only a predestined few, due to the overwhelming Roman and non-Christian influences imported into the original beauty of early Christianity.

The above synopsis draws its theme (and Greek constructs and translations) from the writings of the Reverend Arthur Chambers, Associate of King's College, London; Vicar of Brockenhurst, Hants., found in two of his books "Problems of the Spiritual" and "Our Life After Death".

NB: Many who believe in Universal Salvation also do not believe that there is a place (Hell or the hells) where those with much so-called evil in their souls receive a form of purification in order that they can live according to God in the Spirit. However, this is not the case of Greater World Christian Spiritualists, who most definitely believe in the existence of hells of varying evil where, through untold suffering and much effort, it is possible to traverse from one hell to another hell less "evil", and so on, explaining how God is "the Saviour of all men" and also how God shall indeed "draw all men" unto Him, and indeed how universal redemption has been ordained by God for each and every one from the very beginning. This is so very much in line with the private thoughts of the earliest Universalists such as Origen, who spoke of the "medicinal" value of the sufferings in Hell.

Tony Bisson 

The following is extracted from
"Universalism: The Prevailing Doctrine of The Christian Church During its First Five Hundred Years"
(and showing the influence of Greek Mythology and pagan philosophy on Christian Doctrine)
by Rev. J.W. Hanson D.D.

Origin of Endless Punishment

"When our Lord spoke, the doctrine of unending torment was believed by many of those who listened to his words, and they stated it in terms and employed others, entirely differently, in describing the duration of punishment, from the terms afterward used by those who taught universal salvation and annihilation, and so gave to the terms in question the sense of unlimited duration.

"For example, the Pharisees, according to Josephus, regarded the penalty of sin as torment without end, and they stated the doctrine in unambiguous terms. They called it eirgmos aidios (eternal imprisonment) and timorion adialeipton (endless torment), while our Lord called the punishment of sin aionion kolasin (age-long chastisement).

Meaning of Scriptural Terms

"The language of Josephus is used by the profane Greeks, but is never found in the New Testament connected with punishment. Josephus, writing in Greek to Jews, frequently employs the word that our Lord used to define the duration of punishment (aionios), but he applies it to things that had ended or that will end.¹ Can it be doubted that our Lord placed his ban on the doctrine that the Jews had derived from the heathen by never using their terms describing it, and that he taught a limited punishment by employing words to define it that only meant limited duration in contemporaneous literature? Josephus used the word aionos with its current meaning of limited duration. He applies it to the imprisonment of John the Tyrant; to Herod's reputation; to the glory acquired by soldiers; to the fame of an army as a "happy life and aionian glory." He used the words as do the Scriptures to denote limited duration, but when he would describe endless duration he uses different terms. Of the doctrine of the Pharisees he says:

'They believe that wicked spirits are to be kept in an eternal imprisonment (eirgmon aidion). The Pharisees say all souls are incorruptible, but while those of good men are removed into other bodies those of bad men are subject to eternal punishment" (aidios timoria). Elsewhere he says that the Essenes, "allot to bad souls a dark, tempestuous place, full of never-ceasing torment (timoria adialeipton), where they suffer a deathless torment" (athanaton timorion). Aidion and athanaton are his favorite terms for duration, and timoria (torment) for punishment.'

Philo's Use of the Words

"Philo, who was contemporary with Christ, generally used aidion to denote endless, and aionian temporary duration. He uses the exact phraseology of Matt. xxv: 46, precisely as Christ used it: "It is better not to promise than not to give prompt assistance, for no blame follows in the former case, but in the latter there is dissatisfaction from the weaker class, and a deep hatred and æonian punishment (chastisement) from such as are more powerful." Here we have the precise terms employed by our Lord, which show that aionian did not mean endless but did mean limited duration in the time of Christ. Philo adopts athanaton, ateleuteton or aidion to denote endless, and aionian temporary duration. In one place occurs this sentence concerning the wicked: "to live always dying, and to undergo, as it were, an immortal and interminable death." ²

"Stephens, in his valuable "Thesaurus," quotes from a Jewish work: "These they called aionios, hearing that they had performed the sacred rites for three entire generations." ³ This shows conclusively that the expression "three generations" was then one full equivalent of aionian.

"Now, these eminent scholars were Jews who wrote in Greek, and who certainly knew the meaning of the words they employed, and they give to the æonian words the sense of indefinite duration, to be determined in any case by the scope of the subject.

"Had our Lord intended to inculcate the doctrine of the Pharisees, he would have used the terms by which they described it. But his word defining the duration of punishment was aionian, while their words are aidion, adialeipton, and athanaton.

"Instead of saying with Philo and Josephus, thanaton athanaton, deathless or immortal death; eirgmon aidion, eternal imprisonment; aidion timorion, eternal torment; and thanaton ateleuteton, interminable death, he used aionion kolasin, an adjective in universal use for limited duration, and a noun denoting suffering issuing in amendment.

"The word by which our Lord describes punishment is the word kolasin, which is thus defined: 'Chastisement, punishment.' 'The trimming of the luxuriant branches of a tree or vine to improve it and make it fruitful.' 'The act of clipping or pruning - restriction, restraint, reproof, check, chastisement.' 'The kind of punishment which tends to the improvement of the criminal is what the Greek philosopher called kolasis or chastisement.' 'Pruning, checking, punishment, chastisement, correction.' 'Do we want to know what was uppermost in the minds of those who formed the word for punishment? The Latin poena or punio, to punish, the root pu in Sanscrit, which means to cleanse, to purify, tells us that the Latin derivation was originally formed, not to express mere striking or torture, but cleansing. correcting, delivering from the stain of sin.' ⁴

Use of Gehenna

"So of the place of punishment (gehenna). The Jews at the time of Christ never understood it to denote endless punishment. The reader of Farrar's 'Mercy and Judgment,' and 'Eternal Hope,' and Windet's 'De Vita functorum statu,' will find any number of statements from the Talmudic and other Jewish authorities, affirming in the most explicit language that Gehenna was understood by the people to whom our Lord addressed the word as a place or condition of temporary duration. They employed such terms as these 'The wicked shall be judged in Gehenna until the righteous say concerning them - We have seen enough -' ⁵ 'Gehenna is nothing but a day in which the impious will be burned.' 'After the last judgment Gehenna exists no longer.' 'There will hereafter be no Gehenna.' ⁶

"These quotations might be multiplied indefinitely to demonstrate that the Jews to whom our Lord spoke regarded Gehenna as of limited duration, as did the Christian Fathers. Origen in his reply to Celsus (VI, xxv) gives an exposition of Gehenna, explaining its usage in his day. He says it is an analogue of the well-known valley of the Son of Hinnom, and signifies the fire of purification.

"Now observe: Christ carefully avoided the words in which his auditors expressed endless punishment (aidios, timoria and adialeiptos), and used terms they did not use with that meaning (aionios kolasis), and employed the term which by universal consent among the Jews has no such meaning (Gehenna); and as his immediate followers and the earliest of the Fathers pursued exactly the same course, is it not demonstrated that they intended to be understood as he was understood? ⁷

"Professor Plumptre in a letter concerning Canon Farrar's sermons, says: 'There were two words which the Evangelists might have used: kolasis, timoria. Of these, the first carries with it, by the definition of the greatest of Greek ethical writers, the idea of a reformatory process, (Aristotle, Rhet. I, x, 10-17). It is inflicted 'for the sake of him who suffers it.' The second, on the other hand, describes a penalty purely vindictive or retributive. St. Matthew chose - if we believe that our Lord spoke Greek - he himself chose the former word, and not the latter.'

"All the evidence conclusively shows that the terms defining punishment - 'everlasting,' 'eternal,' 'Gehenna,' etc., in the Scriptures teach its limited duration, and were so regarded by sacred and profane authors, and that those outside of the Bible who taught unending torment always employed other words than those used by or Lord and his disciples.

"Professor Allen concedes that the great prominence given to 'hell-fire' in Christian preaching is a modern innovation. He says: 'There is more 'blood-theology' and 'hell-fire,' that is, the vivid setting-forth of everlasting torment to terrify the soul, in one sermon of Jonathan Edwards, or one harangue at a modern 'revival,' than can be found in the whole body of homilies and epistles through all the dark ages put together. Set beside more modern dispensations the Catholic position of this period (middle ages) is surprisingly merciful and mild.' ⁸"

¹ See "Aion-Aionious," J.W. Hanson, pp. 109-14; also Josephus, "Antiq." and "Jewish Wars."
² "De Præmiis" and "Poenis" Tom. II, pp. 19-20. Mangey's edition. Dollinger quoted by Beecher. Philo was learned in Greek philosophy, and especially reverenced Plato. His use of Greek is of the highest authority.
³ "Solom. Parab."
⁴ Donnegan, Grotius, Liddel, Max Muller, Beecher, Hist. Doc. Fut. Ret. pp. 73-75.
⁵ The important passage may be found more fully quoted in "Aion-Aionios."
⁶ Targum of Jonathan on Isaiah, xvi: 24. See also "Aion-Aionious" and "Bible Hell."
⁷ Farrar's "Mercy and Judgment." pp. 380-381, where quotations are given from the Fourth Century, asserting that punishment must be limited because aionian correction (aionian kolasin), as in Matt. xxv: 46, must be terminable.
⁸ "Christian Hist. in its Three Great Periods." pp. 257-8.

A complete in-depth study and conclusively thorough exposure of this mistranslation by the Reverend John Wesley Hanson D.D. can be found in His book "The Greek Word 'Aión - Aiónios' Translated 'Everlasting - Eternal' In The Holy Bible, Shown To Denote Limited Duration".

"Jesus Christ the righteous...is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:2), "...who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time" (1 Tim.2:6), "The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world" (1 John 4:14), "We trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially those that believe" (1 Tim.4:10), "The lord is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish" (2 Pet.3:9), "...having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself..." (Col. 1:20), "The grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all men" (Titus 2:11).