D'oh, you're right. I was fooled by the fact that the worms are in the RSV, which is pretty decent textually. (In particular, it's well post-W+H and isn't the TR.)
I think the fire (and worms, perhaps :-) ) are pretty clear references to Jerusalem's municipal rubbish dump at Ge Hinnom, where rubbish was burned _in order to get rid of it_. Which is one reason why I think annihilationism is a pretty tenable position for Christians even if they take a conservative view of the Bible.
I suspect that the very phrase "what eternity will be like" embodies an oversimplification -- the usual view AIUI is that eternity is all about sharing in God's transtemporal existence. (I have some suspicions that this is a sophisticated modern understanding that would have baffled the authors of the NT. That doesn't necessarily mean that Christians shouldn't adopt it.)
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2008-05-30 09:49 pm (UTC)I think the fire (and worms, perhaps :-) ) are pretty clear references to Jerusalem's municipal rubbish dump at Ge Hinnom, where rubbish was burned _in order to get rid of it_. Which is one reason why I think annihilationism is a pretty tenable position for Christians even if they take a conservative view of the Bible.
I suspect that the very phrase "what eternity will be like" embodies an oversimplification -- the usual view AIUI is that eternity is all about sharing in God's transtemporal existence. (I have some suspicions that this is a sophisticated modern understanding that would have baffled the authors of the NT. That doesn't necessarily mean that Christians shouldn't adopt it.)