One problem these discussions go nowhere is that the NT images point in different directions. E.g. if you look up “fire” you’ll find that in Luke and John it suggests destruction:
- Luke 3:9 - tree thrown into the fire
- Luke 3:17 - chaff burned in fire
- John 15:6 - branch thrown into the fire
I note that both passages in Luke are from John the Baptist, not Jesus. From Jesus, the tree that doesn’t bear fruit is cut down [13:9], but nothing is said about its disposition.
In Matthew there are parallels to this (more, since Matthew is really big on judgement): 3:10, 3:12, 7:19, 13:40. However there are others that might allow eternal torment:
- 5:22 liable to the hell of fire
- 13:42 and 50 furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing
- 18:8 thrown into the eternal fire
- 18:9 thrown into the hell of fire
- 25:41 the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels
I think 25:41 is the clearest. But that depends upon your understanding of “eternal.” I think there are reasonable arguments to translate “eschatological fire” rather than “eternal fire.” That is, fire that occurs in the afterlife. See below
In Mark there is one reference. I would call it ambiguous
- 9:43, 9:48 - hell, where their worm never dies and the fire is never quenched
The reason I consider this ambiguous is that it is a clear reference to Is 66:24, where the unquenched fire and worm are consuming the dead bodies. The context is also a saying that seems obvious hyperbole: cutting off hands to avoid this fate.
I was going to stop with fire, but since Luke has no references attributed to Jesus, I think I need to try more. Say references to hell (which in my translation is just Gehenna). Hmmm… I’ve got a problem there too. Luke has only one reference (12:5) and it’s hypothetical: God has the authority to send you to hell, with no real description of what that means or for how long. Mark is the same passage referred to above for fire.
Matthew, gives us the same hypothetical reference as in Luke (5:22), and a parallel to Mark’s hyperbole (5:29-30, 18:9). In addition we have
- 10:28 - fear God, who can destroy body and soul in hell
- 23:3 - How can you escape being sentenced to hell?
Also kind of hypothetical, though I think the implication is that God sometimes does it.
All of the Synoptics have other imagery, whose literal meaning in terms of these discussions is a bit ambiguous. Here I’m working from a list in one of McLaren’s books, since a word search won’t find everything:
Matthew:
- 5:13 - tasteless salt is trampled
- 5:19 - called least in the Kingdom
- 5:21 - put in prison until they pay the last …
- 6:5 - no reward
- 7:1 - will be judged as they judge
- 7:13 - destruction
- 7:21 - “away with you
- 8:10 - outer darkness
- 9:12 - not healed
- 10:11 - fare worse than Sodom in the judgement
and it goes on. This is about 1/3 of the list
The list for Luke is shorter:
- 6:35 - God is kind to them
- 6:46 - house falls
- 9:23 - lose life
- 12:47 - beaten with many blows
- 12:54 - in prison until they pay
- 13:6 - cut down
- 13:1, 22 - banished from God
- 14:15 - miss banquet
- 15:11 - miss party
- 16:19 - Lazarus in Hades
- 19:11 - take away mina from unfaithful
I should note that missing the party is a bit more serious than it sounds, since it’s pretty clearly the Messianic banquet.
The point of all of this is that there are a variety of images, but Matthew clearly has the most about punishment, and the references that are the most likely to be eternal torment are all from Matthew. Despite Matthew’s use of an ambiguous word for eternal (the unambiguous one is aidios), I suspect Matthew actually does believe in eternal torment.
In all of this, you can find plenty of ammunition for a variety of views. Universalism requires some pretty fancy interpretation though. You’d have to say that all of these images talk in different ways about accountability, but aside from a couple in Matthew, the punishment can reasonably be read as finite. For that to make sense you’d have to also use various passages that have been cited elsewhere in the thread suggest everyone eventually being saved.
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On eternal [aionios]:
Citing the Theological Dictionary of the NT, which is one of the major lexicons, in the NT aionion has several meanings
- describing God
- describing God’s possessions and gifts, e.g. 2 Cor 4:18, things that cannot be seen are eternal. In the OT this would be things like the Temple’s eternal gates
- eschatological things, e.g. Heb 9:35, the eternal inheritance
- a somewhat weakened chronological reference, i.e. not literally eternal, e.g. Rom 16:25, which refers to a mystery that was secret for “eternal ages.”
See also
Ilaria L. E. Ramelli & David Konstan, Terms for Eternity. Αἰώνιος and ἀίδιος in Classical and Christian Authors - PhilPapers. (I’ve looked at the actual paper that this summarizes. You probably need academic library access to find it.)
