The Bible uses many words to describe the annihilation of
the unrighteous. Two of those words we
will examine today: downburned and ashified.
You won’t find either of those words in an English
translation of your Bible, nor for that matter in an English dictionary. In order to draw attention to these words, I
have translated two Greek words in an admittedly overly literal way. Let’s look
at these words one at a time.
Downburned, from
the Greek katakaio
In English, if we say that something has been burned,
it is not clear how severely it was burned.
The same is true with the Greek word meaning “to burn”, namely kaio.
If we want to make clear that something was destroyed by
fire, we can say that it was “burned up” if we are thinking about the smoke and
ashes rising, or “burned down” if we are thinking about the ashes and embers
left on the ground. As far as I know, Greek
does not use a word corresponding to “burned up” (I might be wrong about this),
but it does have a word corresponding to “burned down”, and that word is katakaio. Greek puts these words in the opposite order
we would, and so katakaio could be
over-literally translated as “downburned”.
The account of the burning bush further illustrates the
meaning of katakaio:
The traditional view of hell is that that the people
thrown into to it are like the burning bush in that they are burning in the
fire and yet they are never consumed or burned up by the fire. Of course, the analogy is limited. Bushes don’t feel anything whether they are
burned up or not.
But the Bible teaches just the opposite of the
traditional view of hell. The Bible teaches that
the unrighteous will be burned up (katakaio-ed):
"And
His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing
floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up (katakaio) the chaff with unquenchable
fire." (Matthew 3:12 NAS)
“Allow
both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will
say to the reapers, "First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to
burn them up (katakaio); but gather the
wheat into my barn.” (Matthew 13:30 NAS)
What didn’t happen
to the burning bush does happen to
the unrighteous!
The context makes it clear that the chaff and tares refer
to the unrighteous. They will be burned
up.
That this is the normal, consistent meaning of katakaio may be seen by its use
throughout the Bible. Here are some
examples:
ESV 2 Kings 23:4 And the king commanded
Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second order and the keepers of
the threshold to bring out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels made for
Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven. He burned (katakaio) them outside Jerusalem in the
fields of the Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel.
ESV Isaiah 33:12 And the peoples will be
as if burned (katakaio) to lime, like
thorns cut down, that are burned (katakaio)
in the fire."
ESV Jeremiah 36:25 Even when Elnathan and
Delaiah and Gemariah urged the king not to burn (katakaio) the scroll, he
would not listen to them.
Katakaio continues to be used the
same way in the New Testament:
ESV Acts 19:19 And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books
together and burned (katakaio) them
in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to
fifty thousand pieces of silver.
Katakaio is not the only word used to emphasize that
the unrighteous will be completely burned up in judgment.
Ashified, from the Greek tefroo
In English we turn some nouns into verbs. For example:
glory → glorify
diety → deify
But we don’t turn “ash” into a verb. Nevertheless, if I said I “ashified”
something, you would probably understand what I meant.
Just because we don’t turn “ash” into a verb in English,
doesn’t mean they can’t do it in Greek.
In fact, they do. The Greek word tefroo is a verb derived from the noun
that means “ashes”. tefroo means to “ashify”, or to put it into more normal English, “to
turn something into ashes”. This word is
used only once in the Bible. Peter uses
it. Why would he use a relatively rare
word? Rare words tend to capture our
attention. Here’s what Peter wrote:
NIV
2 Peter 2:6 if he condemned the
cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes (tefroo), and made them an example of
what is going to happen to the ungodly;
Question: Based on
2 Peter 2:6, what should we expect to happen to the ungodly?
Answer: We expect
them to be burned to ashes.
When will this happen?
Well, I’ve never seen any of my ungodly neighbors turned to ashes, so I’m
pretty sure Peter is talking about the final judgment.
Same
Truth, Other Words
This same truth, that the ungodly will not exist forever
as conscious people, but will be completely burned to ashes, is also taught
using different words:
ESV
Malachi 4:3 And you shall tread
down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the
day when I act, says the LORD of hosts.
NIV Hebrews 10: 26 If we deliberately keep on sinning
after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is
left, 27 but only a fearful expectation
of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.
The use of the words katakaio,
tefroo, and similar words is not at all consistent with believing in
eternal conscious torment. Are the ashes
being tormented?
The Biblical language is entirely consistent with the
Bible’s teaching that the unsaved will perish (John 3:16), be destroyed in both
soul and body (Matthew 10:28), and experience a second death (Revelation
20:14).
Conclusion and Further Reading
When the ungodly are thrown into Hell, they will not
continue to exist forever as conscious people.
They will be completely consumed by the fire and burned to ashes. Ashes, smoke, and dust may remain, but not
people.
If you want to read more on the topic of hell, I have gathered a list of resources (my own, plus some others) here:
Mark's Resources on Hell
Hebrews 13:16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others . . .
