On 'ECT', the book of Judith and Justin Martyr

 

On 'ECT', the book of Judith and Justin Martyr

In this post I’ll provide evidence that the belief of endless conscious torment (‘ECT’) was present among the very early Christians.

Book of Judith

This book is accepted as part of the Old Testament of the Catholic Churches, Eastern Orthodox Churches, Oriental Orthodox Churches, and the Churches of the East[1]. This book was known by some very early figures of Christianity and was later accepted as Scripture. Apparently, the earliest texts that survive are in Greek. For our interests, the passage that is the following one[2]:

“Woe to the nations that rise up against my people!  The Lord Almighty will take vengeance on them in the day of judgment; he will send fire and worms into their flesh; they shall weep in pain forever.” (Judith 16:17; New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

This verse, part of a speech attributed to Judith, which mentions the ‘day of Judgment’, clearly echoes a passage present in Isaiah:

“And they shall go out and look at the dead bodies of the people who have rebelled against me, for their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh” (Isaiah 66:24; ibid.)

This passage is significant because, it is also quoted in one of Jesus’ speech about Gehenna (‘hell’ in the translation), present in the Gospel of St. Mark:

“And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies and the fire is never quenched.” (Mark 9:47-48; ibid.)

It should be noted that the passage in Isaiah speaks about ‘dead bodies’ and this clearly suggests unconsciousness (perhaps, the ultimate fate of those punished is annihilation). However, the book of Judith very clearly speaks of conscious and arguably unending torment, i.e. ‘ECT’.

Given the fact that the book of Judith was clearly written later than Isaiah and perhaps is closer to the time of the Gospels, one can arguably make the case that such an interpretation of the ‘fire and worm’ mentioned in Isaiah was popular among Jews and the earliest Christians of the time.

Of course, this isn’t a ‘proof’ that ECT is necessarily the correct interpretation of Jesus passage, but it, in my opinion it is a clear evidence that the certain Old Testament passages and some words attributed to Jesus were from very early times interpreted in this way.

Justin Martyr (fl. mid 2th century)[3]

About a century after the times of Jesus and Paul, Justin Martyr wrote this:

 "...and we say that the same thing will be done, but at the hand of Christ, and upon the wicked in the same bodies united again to their spirits which are now to undergo everlasting punishment; and not only, as Plato said, for a period of a thousand years." (First Apology, ch. 8, https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0126.htm )

The explicit denial that punishments will last a ‘thousand year’ (which might well be a symbolic number) but will be ‘everlasting’ clearly suggests that Justin Martyr supported the belief of ECT. This cannot be intended as a mere quotation of the biblical verse Matthew 25:46 but it is an explicit denial of temporary punishment.  

Conclusion

It seems then that a belief in ECT was clearly present among many Christians in the earliest century of Christianity. So, while I believe this isn’t enough to say that ECT is necessarily the correct interpretation of certain passages in the New Testament it provides evidence that such an interpretation wasn’t a ‘corruption’ due to, for instance, bad Latin translations or whatever else. Furthermore, the excerpt of the book of Judith also shows that from very early times the seemingly ‘annihilationist’ language of Isaiah was, in fact, interpreted as a language entailing conscious torment.

 

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