01.3.4.1. New Testament - Part 1
4.-- THE NEW TESTAMENT USAGE
AION THE SAME IN BOTH TESTAMENTS
Speaking to those who understood the Old Testament, Jesus and his Apostles employed such words as are used in that book, in the same sense in which they are there used. Not to do so would be to mislead their hearers unless they explained a change of meaning. There is certainly no proof that the word changed its meaning between the Old and New Testaments, accordingly we are under obligation to give it precisely the meaning in the New it had in the Old Testament. This we have seen to be indefinite duration. An examination of the New Testament will show that the meaning is the same, as it should be, in both Testaments.
NUMBER OF TIMES FOUND AND HOW TRANSLATED
The different forms of the word occur in the New Testament one hundred and ninety-nine times, if I am not mistaken, the noun one hundred and twenty-eight, and the adjective seventy-one times.
Bruder’s Concordance, latest edition, gives aión one hundred and twenty-six times, and aiónios seventy-two times in the New Testament, instead of the former ninety-four, and the latter sixty-six times, as Professor Stuart, following Knapp’s Greek text, declares.
In our common translation the noun is rendered seventy-two times ever, twice eternal, thirty-six times world, seven times never, three times evermore, twice worlds, twice ages, once course, once world without end, and twice it is passed over without any word affixed as a translation of it. The adjective is rendered once ever, forty-two times eternal, three times world, twenty-five times everlasting, and once former ages.
1 -- THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST
Ten times it is applied to the Kingdom of Christ. Luke 1:33 : "And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end." See also Luke 1:55; Hebrews 6:20; Hebrews 7:17; Hebrews 7:21; 1 Peter 4:11; 2 Peter 1:11; 2 Peter 3:18; Revelation 1:6; Revelation 11:15. But the Kingdom of Christ is to end, and he is to surrender all dominion to the Father, therefore endless duration is not taught in these passages (See 1 Corinthians 15:24-25; 1 Corinthians 15:28).
2 -- THE JEWISH AGE
It is applied to the Jewish age more than thirty times. 1 Corinthians 10:11 : "Now all these things happened unto them for examples; and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come". Consult also Matthew 12:32; Matthew 13:22; Matthew 13:39-40; Matthew 13:49; Matthew 24:3; Matthew 28:20; Mark 4:19; Luke 1:70; Luke 16:8; Luke 20:34; John 9:32; Acts 3:21; Acts 15:18; Romans 12:2; 1 Corinthians 2:6-8; 1 Corinthians 3:18; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Galatians 1:4; Ephesians 1:21; Ephesians 2:2; Ephesians 3:9; 1 Timothy 6:17; 2 Timothy 4:10; Titus 2:12; Hebrews 9:26. But the Jewish age ended with the setting up of the Kingdom of Christ. Therefore the word does not denote endless duration here.
3 -- THE PLURAL FORM
It is used in the plural in Ephesians 3:21 : "the age of the ages" (tou aionos ton aionon). Hebrews 1:2; Hebrews 11:3 : "By whom he made the worlds." "The worlds were framed by the word of God." There can be but one eternity. To say "By whom he made the eternities" would be to talk nonsense. Endless duration is not inculcated in these texts.
4 -- THE SENSE OF FINITE DURATION
The word clearly teaches finite duration in such passages as Romans 16:25; 2 Corinthians 4:17; 2 Timothy 1:9; Philemon 1:15; Titus 1:2. Read Romans 16:25 : "Since the world (eternity?) began". 2 Corinthians 4:17 : "A far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory". Here "and" is a word supplied by the translators, and the literal is "an excessively exceeding aionian weight". But endless cannot be exceeded. Therefore aiónion does not here mean eternal.
5 -- EQUIVALENT TO NOT
The word is used as equivalent to not in Matthew 21:19; Mark 11:14; John 13:8; 1 Corinthians 8:13. "Peter said unto him ’thou shalt never wash my feet’" is a specimen of this use of the word. It only denotes eternal by accommodation.
6 -- APPLIED TO GOD, ETC
It is applied to God, Christ, the Gospel, the good, the Resurrection world, etc., in which the sense of endless is allowable because imputed to the word by the subject treated, as declared by Taylor and Fuerst, on page 17 of this book, in John 8:35; John 12:34; John 14:16; Romans 1:25; Romans 9:5; Romans 11:36; Romans 16:26-27; 2 Corinthians 4:18; 2 Corinthians 5:1; 2 Corinthians 9:9; 2 Corinthians 11:31; Galatians 1:5; Ephesians 3:11; Php 4:20; 1 Timothy 1:17; 2 Timothy 2:10; 2 Timothy 4:18; Hebrews 6:2; Hebrews 7:24; Hebrews 7:28; Hebrews 9:12; Hebrews 9:14-15; Hebrews 13:8; Hebrews 13:20-21; 1 Peter 1:25; 1 Peter 5:10-11; 2 Peter 3:18; 1 John 2:17; 2 John 1:2; Jude 1:25; Revelation 1:18; Revelation 4:9-10; Revelation 5:13; Revelation 7:12; Revelation 10:6; Revelation 15:7; Revelation 22:5;
7 -- LIFE ETERNAL
It is applied to life, "Everlasting and Eternal Life." But this phrase does not so much denote the duration, as the quality of the Blessed Life. It seems to have the sense of durable in these passages: Matthew 19:16; Matthew 19:29; Matthew 25:46; Mark 10:17; Mark 10:30; Luke 10:25; Luke 16:9; Luke 18:18; Luke 18:30; John 3:15-16; John 3:36; John 4:14; John 4:36; John 5:24; John 5:39; John 6:27; John 6:40; John 6:47; John 6:51; John 6:54; John 6:58; John 6:68; John 8:51-52; John 10:28; John 11:26; John 12:25; John 12:50; John 17:2-3; Romans 2:7; Romans 5:21; Romans 6:22-23; Galatians 6:8; 2 Thessalonians 2:16; 1 Timothy 1:16; 1 Timothy 6:12; Titus 1:2; Titus 3:7; Hebrews 5:9; 1 John 1:2; 1 John 2:25; 1 John 3:15; 1 John 5:11; 1 John 5:13; 1 John 5:20; Jude 1:21; See this subject treated further on.
PASSAGES DENOTING LIMITED DURATION
Let us state more definitely several passages in which all will agree that the word cannot have the sense of endless.
Matthew 13:22 : "The care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word" (the cares of that age or "time").
Matthew 13:39-40; Matthew 13:49 : "The harvest is the end of the world" (i.e. age, Jewish age, the same taught in Matthew 24:1-51, which some who heard Jesus speak were to live to see, and did see).
Luke 1:33 : "And he (Jesus) shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end." The meaning is, he shall reign to the ages (eis tous aionas). That long, indefinite duration is meant here, but limited, is evident from 1 Corinthians 15:28, "And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all." His reign is for ever, i.e., to the ages, but it is to cease.
Luke 1:55 : "As he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever, (to an age, aiónos).
Luke 1:70 : "As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began," or "from an age," (ap aiónos). "Of old," would be the plain construction.
Luke 16:8 : "For the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light." That is, the people of that time were more prudent in the management of their affairs than were the Christians of that day in their plans.
John 9:32 : "Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind." From the age, (ek tou aiónos) that is from the beginning of our knowledge and history.
Romans 16:25 : "Since the world began," clearly shows a duration less than eternity, inasmuch as the mystery that had been secret since the world began, was then revealed. The mystery was aiónion but did not last eternally. It was "now made manifest to all nations."
Php 4:20 : "Now unto our God and Father be glory for ever and ever," for the ages of the ages (eis tous aiónas ton aiónon), (Galatians 1:5 same). "For the eternities of the eternities," is an absurd expression. But ages of ages is a proper sentence. Eternity may be meant here, but if the word aión expressed the idea, such a reduplication would be weak and improper.
1 Timothy 6:17 : "Charge them that are rich in this world" (age or time).
1 Timothy 1:17 : "Now to the King eternal (of the ages) be glory for the ages of the ages." What is this but an ascription of the ages to the God of the ages? Eternity can only be meant here as ages piled on ages imply long, and possibly endless duration. "All the ages are God’s; him let the ages glorify," is the full import of the words. Translate the words eternity, and what nonsense. "Now to the God of the eternities (!) Be glory for the eternities of the eternities (!!)
Hebrews 1:8 : "The age of the age."
Ephesians 2:7 : "That in the ages (aións) to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace." Here at least two aións, eternities are to come. Certainly one of them must end before the other begins.
Ephesians 3:21 : "The generations of the age of the ages." 2 Timothy 4:18 : "The age of the ages." The same form of expression is in Hebrews 13:21; 1 Peter 4:11; Revelation 1:6; Revelation 4:9; Revelation 5:13; Revelation 7:12; Revelation 14:11; Revelation 15:7; Revelation 20:10.
When we read that the smoke of their torment ascends eis aiónas aiónon, for ages of ages, we get the idea of long, indefinite, but limited duration, for as an age is limited, any number however great, must be limited. The moment we say the smoke of their torment goes up for eternities of eternities, we transform the sacred rhetoric in jargon. There is but one eternity, therefore as we read of more than one aión, it follows that aión cannot mean eternity.
Again, 1 Corinthians 10:11 : "Our admonition, on whom the ENDS of the aións (ages, ta tele ton aiónon) have come." That is, the close of the Mosaic and the beginning of the gospel age. How absurd to translate "ends of the eternities!" Here the apostle had passed more than one, and entered, consequently, upon at least a third aión. Hebrews 9:26 : "Now at an end of the ages." Matthew 13:39-40; Matthew 24:3, "The conclusion of the age." Eternity has no end. And to say ends of eternities is to talk nonsense.
2 Timothy 1:9 : "Before the world began," i.e., before the aiónion times began. There was no beginning to eternity, therefore the adjective aiónion here has no such meaning as eternal. The fact that aión is said to end and begin, is a demonstration that it does not mean eternity.
ABSURDITY OF POPULAR VIEWS
Translate the word eternity, and how absurd the Bible phraseology becomes! It represents the Bible as saying, "To whom be the glory during the ETERNITIES, even TO THE ETERNITIES" (Galatians 1:5). "Now all these things happened unto them, for ensamples, and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends OF THE ETERNITIES are come" (1 Corinthians 10:11). "That in the ETERNITIES coming he might show the exceeding riches of his grace" (Ephesians 2:7). "The mystery which hath been hid from the ETERNITIES and from the generations" (Colossians 1:26). "But now once in the end of the eternities, hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself" (Hebrews 9:26). "The harvest is the end of the eternity" (Matthew 13:39). "So shall it be in the end of this eternity" (Matthew 13:40). "Tell us when shall these things be, and what the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the eternity" (Matthew 24:3). But substitute "age" or "ages," and the sense of the Record is preserved.
IT ACQUIRES VARIOUS MEANINGS
This is seen in many passages. Luke 20:34-35 : "The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage; but they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, are equal unto the angels," etc. Here "that world" (tou aiónos ekeinou) denotes the eternal world, not because the word aión intrinsically means that, but because the resurrection state is the topic of discourse. The words literally mean that age or epoch, but in this instance the immortal world is the subject that defines the word and gives it a unique meaning. So when the word refers to God, it denotes a different duration than when it applies to the Jewish dispensation. That in some of the places referred to the mooted word has the sense of endless, we do not question, but in all such cases it derives that meaning from the subject connected with it. (Dr. Edward Beecher. See p. 17.)
Let us indicate its varied use. Matthew 6:13 is probably spurious (See Griesbach, Knapp, and Wetstein): "Thine is the glory forever," that is through the ages. Here eternity may be implied, but the phrase "forever" literally means "for the ages."
Mark 4:19; Matthew 13:22 : "And the cares of this world", the Jewish age.
Mark 10:30 : "But he shall receive a hundred fold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life." Literally, in the age to come, the life of that age, i.e., gospel, spiritual, Christian life. We have shown that the world to come denotes the Christian dispensation.
Mark 11:14 : "No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever," that is "in the age," meaning the period of the tree’s existence.
John 12:34 : "The people answered him, We have heard out of the law that Christ abideth for ever;" (to the age). The Jews believed that their dispensation was to continue, and Messiah would remain as long as it would last. This language means that Christ was to remain through the Mosaic epoch. So the Jews thought.
John 13:8 : "Thou shalt never wash my feet" is equivalent to "Thou shalt not wash my feet"
John 14:16 : "And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever", eis ton aióna, "unto the age", that is, accompany them into the coming or Christian era.
John 6:51; John 6:58 : "If any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever;" eis ton aióna, into the age, that is, enjoy the life of the world that is to come, the Christian life. Its duration is not described here at all.
John 8:35 : "And the servant abideth not in the house for ever; (to the age), but the Son abideth ever." The Jews are here told that their religion is to be superseded by the Christ only. They are to leave the house because slaves to sin, while the Son will remain to the age - permanently.
John 8:51-52. "’Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying he shall never see death’. Then said the Jews unto him, ’Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying he shall never taste of death’". Moral, spiritual death is impossible to a man as long as he keeps the saying of Christ, is the full meaning of the words.
OCCURRENCE OF THE ADJECTIVE
The adjective aiónios is (incorrectly) said by Professor Stuart (Ex. Essays p. 46) to occur sixty-six times in the New Testament, be we make it seventy-two times. Of these fifty-seven are used in relation to the happiness of the righteous; three in relation to God or his glory; four are of a miscellaneous nature; and seven relate to the subject of punishment. Now these fifty-seven denote indefinite duration, "everlasting life" being a life that may or may not -- certainly does not always -- endure forever.
Thus the great preponderance of usage in the New Testament is indefinite duration. But if the preponderance were against this usage, we ought, in order to vindicate God’s character, to understand it in the sense of limited when describing a Father’s punishment of his children.
APPLIED TO PUNISHMENT
How many times does the word in all its forms describe punishment? Only fourteen times in thirteen passages in the entire New Testament, and these were uttered on ten occasions only. The Noun, Matthew 12:32, Mark 3:29, 2 Peter 2:17, Jude 1:13, Revelation 14:11; Revelation 19:3; Revelation 20:10. The Adjective, Matthew 18:8; Matthew 25:41; Matthew 25:46, Mark 3:29, 2 Thessalonians 1:9, Jude 1:7, Hebrews 6:2.
Now if God’s punishments are limited, we can understand how this word should be used only fourteen times to define them. But if they are endless how can we explain the employment of this equivocal word only fourteen times in the entire New Testament? A doctrine that, if true, ought to crowd every sentence, frown in every line, only stated fourteen times, and that, too, by a word whose uniform meaning everywhere else is limited duration! The idea is preposterous. Such reticence is incredible. If the word denotes limited duration, the punishments threatened in the New Testament are like those that experience teaches follow transgression. But if it means endless, how can we account for the fact that neither Luke nor John records one instance of its use by the Savior, and Matthew but four, and Mark but two, and Paul employs it but twice in his ministry, while John and James in their epistles never allude to it? Such silence is an unanswerable refutation of all attempts to foist the meaning of endless into the word. "Everlasting fire" occurs only three times, "everlasting punishment" only once, and "eternal damnation" once only. Shall any one dare suppose that the New Testament reveals endless torment, and that out of one hundred and ninety-nine occurrences of the word aion it is applied to punishment so seldom, and that so many of those who wrote the New Testament never use the word at all? No. The New Testament usage agrees with the meaning in the Greek classics, and in the Old Testament.
Does it not strike the candid mind as impossible that God should have concealed this doctrine for thousands of years, and that for forty centuries of revelation he continually employed to teach limited duration the identical word that he at length stretched into the signification of endless duration? The word means limited duration all through the Old Testament; it never had the meaning of endless duration among those who spoke the language, (as we have demonstrated,) but Jesus announced the doctrine of endless punishment, and selected as the Greek word to convey his meaning the very word that in the Classics and the Septuagint never contained any such thought, when there were several words in the copious Greek tongue that unequivocally conveyed the idea of interminable duration! Even if Matthew wrote in Hebrew or in Syro-Chaldaic, he gave a Greek version of his gospel, and in that rejected every word that carries the meaning of endlessness, and appropriated the one which taught nothing of the kind. If this were the blunder of an incompetent translator, or the imperfect record of a reckless scribe, we could understand it, but to say that the inspired pen of the evangelist has deliberately or carelessly jeoparded the immortal welfare of countless millions by employing a word to teach the doctrine of ceaseless woe that up to that very hour taught only limited duration, is to make a declaration that carries its own refutation.
We come now to the sheet-anchor of the great heresy of the partialist church. THE PRINCIPAL PROOF-TEXT
of an error hoary with antiquity, and not yet wholly abandoned. Matthew 25:46 is the great proof-text of the doctrine of endless punishment: "These shall go away into everlasting punishment, and the righteous into life eternal." We shall endeavor to establish the following points against the erroneous view of this Scripture. 1. The punishment is not for unbelief, but for not benefitting the needy. 2. The general antecedent usage of the word denoting duration here, in the Classics and in the Old Testament, proves that the duration is limited. 3. One object of punishment being to improve the punished, the punishment here must be limited; 4. The events here described took place in this world, and must therefore be of limited duration. 5. The Greek word kolasin, rendered punishment, should be rendered chastisement, as reformation is implied in its meaning.
1. THE AIONIAN PUNISHMENT IS FOR EVIL WORKS
Practical benevolence is the virtue whose reward is here announced, and unkindness is the vice whose punishment is here threatened, and not faith and unbelief, on which heaven and hell are popularly predicated (Matthew 25:34-45). "Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was a hungered, and ye game me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee a hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then shall he say unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was a hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee a hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me."
If cruelty to the poor -- neglect of them even, -- constitutes rejection of Christ -- as is plainly taught here -- and all who are guilty are to suffer endless torment "who then can be saved?" the single consideration that works, and not faith are here made the test of discipleship, cuts away the foundation of the popular view of this text.
2. THE WORD AIONION DENOTES LIMITED DURATION
This appears in Classic and Old Testament usage. It is impossible that Jesus should have used the word rendered everlasting in a different sense than we have shown to have been its meaning in antecedent literature.
3. GOD’S PUNISHMENTS ARE REMEDIAL
All God’s punishments are those of a Father, and must therefore be adapted to the improvement of his children. Hebrews 12:5-11 : "My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons: for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? ... Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." Proverbs 3:11-12 : "My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of his correction: For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth." Lamentations 3:31-33 : "For the Lord will not cast off forever: But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. For he doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men." See also Job 5:17-18; Lev 26; Psalms 119:67; Psalms 119:71; Psalms 119:75; Jeremiah 2:19.
4. THESE EVENTS HAVE OCCURRED
The events here described took place in this world within thirty years of the time when Jesus spoke. They are now past. In Matthew 24:3, the disciples asked our Lord when the then existing age would end. The word (aión) is unfortunately translated world. Had he meant world he would have employed kosmos, which means world, as aión does not. After describing the particulars he announced that they would all be fulfilled, and the aión end in that generation, before some of his auditors should die. If he was correct the end came then. And this is demonstrated by a careful study of the entire discourse, running through Matthew 24:1-51 and Matthew 25:1-46. The disciples asked Jesus how they should know his coming and the end of the age. They did not inquire concerning the end of the actual world, as it is incorrectly translated, but age. This question Jesus answered by describing the signs so that they, his questioners, the disciples themselves, might perceive the approach of the end of the Jewish dispensation (aión). He speaks fifteen times in the discourse of his speedy coming, (Matthew 24:3; Matthew 24:27; Matthew 24:30; Matthew 24:37; Matthew 24:39; Matthew 24:42; Matthew 24:46; Matthew 24:48; Matthew 24:50; Matthew 25:6; Matthew 25:10; Matthew 25:13; Matthew 25:19; Matthew 25:27; Matthew 25:31). He addresses those who shall be alive at his coming: "Ye shall hear of wars, etc" (Matthew 24:6); "Pray that your flight be not in the winter" (Matthew 24:20); "So likewiseye when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled" (Matthew 24:33-34).
Campbell, Clarke, Wakefield, and Newton (Com. in loc.) translate the phrase, end of the world (sunteleia tou aiónos) "conclusion of the age," "end of this dispensation." The question was, then, what shall indicate thy second coming and the end of the Mosaic economy (aión)? "When shall all these things be fulfilled?" (Mark 13:4). He spoke of the temple (Luke 21:5; Luke 21:7) saying one stone should not be left on another, and the question of his disciples was, how shall we know when this is to take place? The answer is, "Ye shall hear of wars" (Matthew 24:6). "Ye shall see the abomination of desolation" (Matthew 24:15). "Pray that your flight be not in winter" (Matthew 24:20). The adverbs "Then" and "When" connect all the events related in the two chapters in one unbroken series. And what infallible token did he give that these events would occur "then"? Matthew 24:34 : "Verily I say unto you this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled." What things? The "son of man coming in his glory in the clouds" and the end of the existing aión, or age. Mark phrases it: "This generation shall not pass till all these things be done" (Mark 13:30). (See also Luke 21:32). This whole account is a parable describing the end of the Jewish aión, age, or economy, signalized by the destruction of Jerusalem, and the establishment of the new aión, world, or age to come, that is the Christian dispensation.
Now on the authority of Jesus himself the aión then existing ended within a generation, namely, about A.D. 70. Hence those who were sent away into aiónion punishment, or the punishment of that aión, were sent into a condition corresponding in duration to the meaning of the word aión, i.e., age-lasting. A punishment cannot be endless, when defined by an adjective derived from a noun describing an event, the end of which is distinctly stated to have come.
5. THE WORD TRANSLATED PUNISHMENT MEANS IMPROVEMENT
The word is Kolasin. It is thus authoritavely defined: Greenfield, "Chastisement, punishment." Hedericus, "The trimming of the luzuriant branches of a tree or vine to improve it and make it fruitful." Donnegan, "The act of clipping or pruning -- restriction, restraint, reproof, check, chastisement." Grotius, "The kind of punishment which tends to the improvement of the criminal, is what the Greek philosophers called kolasis or chastisement." Liddell, "Pruning, checking, punishment, chastisement, correction." Max Muller, "Do we want to know what was uppermost in the minds of those who formed the word for punishment, the Latin pæna 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."
That it had this meaning in Greek usage we cite Plato (Protag. Sec. 38, vol. 1, p. 252): "For the natural or accidental evils of others, no one gets angry, or admonishes, or teaches or punishes (kolazei) them, but we pity those afflicted with such misfortunes. For if, O Socrates, you will consider what is the design of punishing (kolazein) the wicked, this of itself will show you that men think virtue something that may be acquired; for no one punishes (kolazei) the wicked, looking to the past only, simply for the wrong he has done, -- that is, no one does this thing who does not act LIKE A WILD BEAST, desiring only revenge, without thought -- hence he who seeks to punish (kolazein) with reason, does not punish for the sake of the past wrong deed, but for the sake of the future, that neither the man himself who is punished, may do wrong again, nor any other who has seen him chastised. And he who entertains this thought, must believe that virtue may be taught, and he punishes (kolazei) for the purpose of deterring from wickedness."
Like many other words this is not always used in its exact and full sense. The apocrypha employs it as the synonym of suffering, regardless of reformation (see Wis 3:11; Wis 16:1; 1Ma 7:7). See also Josephus (War. 3, 5, 8. Ant. 2, 4, 5, etc.). It is found but four times in the New Testament: In Acts 4:21, the Jews let John and Peter go, "finding nothing further how they might punish them" (kolazo). Did they not aim to reform them? Was not their punishment to cause them to return to the Jewish fold? From their standpoint the word was certainly used to convey the idea of reformation. 1 John 4:18 : "Fear hath torment." Here the word "torment" should be restraint. It is thus translated in the Emphatic Diaglot. The idea is, if we have perfect love we do not fear God, but if we fear we are restrained from loving him. "Fear hath restraint." The word is used here with but one of its meanings. In 2 Peter 2:9, the apostle uses the word as our Lord did: the unjust are reserved unto the day of judgement to be punished (kolazomenous). This accords exactly with the lexicography of the word, and the general usage in the Bible and in Greek literature agrees with the meaning given by the lexicographers.
Now, though the word rendered punishment is sometimes used to signify suffering alone, by Josephus and others, surely Divine inspiration will use it in its exact sense. We must therefore be certain that in the New Testament, when used by Jesus to designate divine punishment, it is generally used with its full meaning. The lexicographers and Plato, above, show us what that is, suffering, restraint, followed by correction, improvement.
From this meaning of the word, torment is by no means excluded. God does indeed torment his children when they go astray. He is a "consuming fire," and burns with terrible severity towards us when we sin, but it is not because he hates but because he loves us. He is a refiner’s fire tormenting the immortal gold of humanity in the crucible of punishment, until the dross of sin is purged away. Malachi 3:2-3 : "But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire and like fuller’s soap. And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold or silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness." Therefore kolasis is just the word to describe his punishments. They do for the soul what pruning does for the tree, what the crucible of the refiner does for the silver ore.
Even if aiónion and kolasis were both of doubtful signification, and were we only uncertain as to their meaning we ought to give God the benefit of the doubt and understand the word in a way to honor him, that is, in a limited sense, but when all but universal usage ascribes to aiónion limited duration, and the word kolasin is declared by all authorities to mean pruning, discipline, it is astonishing that a Christian teacher should be found to imagine that when both words are together, they can mean anything else than temporary punishment ending in reformation, especially in a discourse in which it is expressly declared that the complete fulfillment was in this life, and within a generation of the time when the prediction was uttered.
Therefore, (1) the fulfillment of the language in this life, (2) the meaning of aiónion, (3) and the meaning of kolasis, demonstrate that the penalty threatened in Matthew 25:46, is a limited one. It is a threefold cord that human skill cannot break. Prof. Tayler Lewis thus translates Matthew 25:46. "These shall go away into the punishment (the restraint, imprisonment,) of the world to come, and those into the life of the world to come." And he says "that is all that we can etymologically or exegetically make of the word in this passage."
Hence, also, the zoen aiónion (life eternal) is not endless, but is a condition resulting from a good character. The intent of the phrase is not to teach immortal happiness, nor does kolasin aiónion indicate endless punishment. Both phrases, regardless of duration refer to the limited results wronging or blessing others, extending possibly through Messiah’s reign until "the end" (1 Corinthians 15:1-58). Both describe consequences of conduct to befall those consequences antedate the immortal state.