Annihilationism in Arnobius of Sicca and other Ancient Jewish and Christians texts

 Annihilationism in Arnobius of Sicca and other Ancient Jewish and Christians texts

Arnobius of Sicca (255 – 327 AD) was a early Christian that is often interpreted as being an annihilationist (or a conditionalist), i.e. someone who believed that immortality is only given to the saved and the lost will be annihilated (and it is not hard to see why in the case of Arnobius): 

"Do you dare to laugh at us when we speak of hell, and fires which cannot be quenched, into which we have learned that souls are cast by their foes and enemies? What, does not your Plato also, in the book which he wrote on the immortality of the soul, name the rivers Acheron, Styx, Cocytus, and Pyriphlegethon, and assert that in them souls are rolled along, engulphed, and burned up? But though a man of no little wisdom, and of accurate judgment and discernment, he essays a problem which cannot be solved; so that, while he says that the soul is immortal, everlasting, and without bodily substance, he vet says that they are punished, and makes them suffer pain. But what man does not see that that which is immortal, which is simple, cannot be subject to any pain; that that, on the contrary, cannot be immortal which does suffer pain? And yet his opinion is not very far from the truth. For although the gentle and kindly disposed man thought it inhuman cruelty to condemn souls to death, he yet not unreasonably supposed that they are cast into rivers blazing with masses of flame, and loathsome from their foul abysses. For they are cast in, and being annihilated, pass away vainly in everlasting destruction. For theirs is an intermediate state, as has been learned from Christ's teaching; and they are such that they may on the one hand perish if they have not known God, and on the other be delivered from death if they have given heed to His threats and proffered favours. And to make manifest what is unknown, this is man's real death, this which leaves nothing behind. For that which is seen by the eyes is only a separation of soul from body, not the last end — annihilation: this, I say, is man's real death, when souls which know not God shall be consumed in long-protracted torment with raging fire, into which certain fiercely cruel beings shall cast them, who were unknown before Christ, and brought to light only by His wisdom." (Against the Heathens, book 2, paragraph 14; source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/06312.htm)

There are some other early Christian texts that are sometimes cited in support of the idea of 'annihilationism' (also often called 'conditionalism' as in the links), see: https://ancientafterlifebelifs.blogspot.com/2026/07/possible-conditionalism-in-some-very.html . Also, in some writings of the Church Fathers Irenaeus of Lyons and Justin Martyr there is possible textual evidence of this belief: https://ancientafterlifebelifs.blogspot.com/2026/05/possible-conditionalism-in-justin.html . However, in contrast to the case of Arnobius, the presence of annihilationism in all these writings is disputed.

Ilaria Ramelli in her book 'A Larger Hope, vol. 1', mentions that the first-century Jewish theologian Philo of Alexandria believed in a form of annihilationism:

"Philo, instead, seems to believe that eternal life is a privilege granted by God only to virtuous souls, whereas the others seem to be doomed to perish altogether. Indeed, in Philo’s view, the rational soul alone is immortal and incorruptible, and only those who have exercised it will survive; the others, having renounced their own rational soul, will perish like irrational beings. 

...

For Philo, and for later patristic annihilationists, the death of the soul is an ontological destruction" (A Larger Hope, vol. 1, pp. 56-50)

However, it is not entirely clear that Philo was an annihilationist or not, see: https://www.academia.edu/4254181/The_Afterlife_in_Philo_and_Josephus_Proofs_ (the section on Philo's views about immortality start at the page numbered 102). Ramelli also gives the following reference for more information about annihilationism among Christians in Antiquity: "On patristic annihilationism, see, e.g., Bernstein, The Formation of Hell, 205–65." ( Larger Hope, vol. 1, p. 63)

N.B. Sometimes, the term 'conditional immortality' is equated with 'annihilationism'. In itself, however, 'conditional immortality' seems to just suggest a belief that immortality depends on God rather than being an essential property of the human soul. Annihilationism, of course, depends on 'conditional immortality': precisely because the souls aren't naturally immortal, according to the proponents of the annihilationist view, they can cease to exist. However, Christians that disagree on the final fate of the 'lost' still believe that God is the Creator and Sustainer of all things, including souls and, therefore, even in their view the immortality is something given to the soul by God and they therefore accept that immortality is 'conditional'.  


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