Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Matthew 25:46 - 25:46
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
46. οὗτοι. Those on the left are unnamed here and throughout the description, but the parallel δίκαιοι infuses a meaning into οὗτοι. Compare with this the unnamed rich man in the parable of Lazarus, Luk 16:19-31.
In this important passage αἰώνιος is translated in A.V. everlasting (punishment) and (life) eternal; in each case the adjective in the text follows the noun, though in A.V. it precedes one noun and follows the other. αἰώνιος = of or belonging to (1) an œon or period, (a) past, (b) present, (c) future, or (2) to a succession of aiôns or periods. In αἰών the idea of time is subordinate. It is the period required for the accomplishment of a specific result. τὰ τέλη τῶν αἰώνων (1Co 10:11) are the results of the æons since the world began. A man’s life is an αἰὼν not because it endures a certain number of years, but because it is complete in itself—with the life the life’s work ends. It does not, therefore, in itself = ‘unending,’ but ‘lasting through the required epoch.’ But life eternal, which is ‘to know the true God and Jesus Christ’ (Joh 17:3), can only be conceived of as unending and infinite; cp. ‘Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die’ (Hab 1:12).
κόλασις (der. from a root meaning to lop, prune, &c.) is ‘correction,’ punishment that checks and reforms, not vengeance (τιμωρία). The two are distinguished, Arist. Rhet. I. 10. 17. The rare occurrence of κόλασις draws attention to its use here. The only other passage where it is found in N.T. is 1Jn 4:18, where the Apostle speaks of ‘perfect love’ (ἡ τελεία ἀγάπη) giving confidence in the day of judgment (ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῆς κρίσεως); fear is inconsistent with that perfect love, because φόβος ἔχει κόλασιν—‘hath the remedial correcting punishment even now, and so separates from good while it lasts.’ In a profound sense that passage is cognate to this. Cp. also the use of κολάζεσθαι, 2Pe 2:9, ἀδίκους εἰς ἡμέραν κρίσεως κολαζομένους (suffering punishment now) τηρεῖν. Cp. Act 4:21, μηδὲν εὑρίσκοντες τὸ πῶς κολάσωνται αὐτούς, where the notion of restraint and reform is evident. Two passages of Aristotle’s Ethics which exhibit the use of κόλασις agree with these instances: μηνύουσι δὲ καὶ αἱ κολάσεις γινόμεναι διὰ τούτων· ἰατρεῖαι γάρ τινές εἰσιν, Eth. Nic. II. 3. 5, ‘they are a sort of remedies.’ ἀπειθοῦσι δὲ καὶ ἀφυεστέροις οὖσι κολάσεις τε καὶ τιμωρίας ἐπιτιθέναι τοὺς δὲ ἀνιάτους (the incurable) ὅλως ἐξορίζειν, Eth. Nic. 10.
The rebuke of the king is the beginning of the κόλασις.