Unquenchable Fire
Unquenchable Fire
un-kwencha-b’l, , pur asbestos): The phrase occurs in Mat 3:12 and its parallel Luk 3:17 in the words of the Baptist on the Messianic judgment: The chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire; but also on the lips of Christ Himself in Mar 9:43, where the unquenchable fire is equated with Gehenna (which see). The same idea lies in Mar 9:48, The fire is not quenched (ou sbennutai), and is implied in the numerous allusions to fire as the instrument of punishment and destruction in the Gospels and other parts of the New Testament (e.g. the Gehenna of fire, Mat 5:22 margin, etc.; furnace of fire, Mat 13:40, Mat 13:42, Mat 13:50; eternal fire, Mat 25:41; compare also 2Th 1:8; 2Pe 3:7; Jud 1:7; Rev 19:20; Rev 20:10, Rev 20:14, Rev 20:15; Rev 21:8). For Old Testament analogies compare Isa 1:31; Isa 34:10; Isa 66:24; Jer 4:4; Jer 7:20; Jer 17:27; Jer 21:12; Eze 20:47, Eze 20:48. The language is obviously highly metaphorical, conveying the idea of an awful and abiding judgment, but is not to be pressed as teaching a destruction in the sense of annihilation of the wicked. An unquenchable fire is not needed for a momentary act of destruction. Even in the view of Edward White, the wicked survive the period of judgment to which these terms relate. See PUNISHMENT, EVERLASTING.