That Jesus was not speaking of
eternal torment is clear from his many references to “destruction.” The “eternal
punishment” in Matt 25:46 is not everlasting “torment.” It is placed in antithetical
parallelism with “eternal life.” The opposite of life is not torture but death.
This punishment is “eternal” not because it is consciously experienced but
because it will never end. So too all the Gospel references to being burned
with fire: when, in the parable, “weeds” are tossed into the furnace (Matt
13:36-41), they don’t live in the fire forever burning; they are destroyed. So
to the sinners gathered up by the angels of the Son of Man; they weep and gnash
their teeth, but like everyone burned at the stake, that lasts only until they
expire. (Bart D. Ehrman, Journeys to Heaven and Hell: Tours of the Afterlife
in the Early Christian Tradition [New Haven: Yale University Press, 2022], 266
n. 66)
