Another topic to discuss in our examination of Matthew
25:46 is the “punishment” as an English translation of kolasis is also
not without controversy. In Plato, Aristotle, Antiphon, Plutarch, and many
other Greek works, this term properly meant a punishment done for the sake of
correction. Aristotle in Rhetorics specifically distinguishes kolasis
from timōria, the latter of which has a remedial connotation with a
linguistic origin in horticulture. To subject a person to a punishment of kolasis,
in at least the widespread Greek understanding, would be to remove what is
diseased in a person (just like you would a plant) to put them back on the road
of virtue (or in the case of a plant, for it to grow again).
If the NT authors believed that Jesus taught about how
punishment will be undergone by sinners in the next world for the sake of God’s
satisfaction and they wanted to employ the most precise term to indicate this, they
would have employed timōria rather than kolasis. This is,
however, not the only meaning of it. Non-universalists are right to point out
that it very well could mean “punishment” in a more remedial sense. Some argue
that by the time of Jesus, the term was just used as punishment in general; one
that does not take a sharp stance of correction or remediation. If we look at
the Septuagint, kolasis indeed seems to take a more generic meaning (2
Macc 4:38; 2 Macc 1:3; Wis 11:3; 19:4; Jer 18:20; Ezek 18:30; 43:11). Perhaps
the translators of the Hebrew Scriptures into the Septuagint did not feel a
need to specify when punishment was timōria because all punishments by
this time were grouped under kolasis. On the other hand, the only other
use of this word in the NT is in 1 John 4:18, which does not refer to remedial
punishment but to suffering experienced by someone who is fearful. The verbal
form, kolazō, is mentioned in two verses. The book of Acts, in 4:21,
uses it in referce to disciplinary punishment, and 2 Peter 2:9 uses it in
reference to the fact that fallen angels are being held until the day of
judgment. Since none of these referencea remedial punishment without end, those
who argue this as straightforward seem to have misplaced confidence. Also, a tangentially
relevant point is that the teaching of kolasis as a corrective
punishment fits more with the central message of Jesus’ ministry rather than if
there was no distinction between kolasis and timōria. Jesus
taught how to love our enemies so that we can be like our Father in heaven, and
he explicitly rejected the principle of equal retaliation (Matt 5:38-42, 47).
When we put this together with Paul’s statements in Romans 11 that revolve
around the fact that eVen God’s severity is an expression of his mercy . . .
the argument that kolasis is used purposefully here grows in evidence.
A more decisive consideration that should increase our
credence that kolasis was distintuished from timōria in the NT is
that early Christians recognized such a linguistic distinction. St Clement of
Alexandria adopts the Aristotelian definition for kolasis and timōria.
In Stromateis, he defines kolasis as “absolute discipline” and timōria
as the “return of evil done for evil.” St Basil the Great, in one text, refers
to otherworldly fire as pur kolastikon, an adjective which derives from kolasis;
while he does not explicitly juxtapose this to timōria like Clement
does, he employs this term purposefully to stress the correctional function of
otherworldly fire. St Gregory the Theologain, like his food friend Basil, uses
a variant of kolasis (for him, the verb kolazein) to say that he
is persuaded that God punishes for the correction of sinners in the future age.
St Gregory of Nyssa expectedly makes a very similar point several times in his
writings.
Considering all this and more, I favor (thought not strongly
favor) the view that kolasis was purposefully used to indicate a
correctional process in the Nt. While I do not land as dogmatically on one side
of the coin as some scholars, I will not fall as hard on the sword if the
position is shown to be untenable at some future point. (Hunter Coates, Grace
Abounds: A Holistic Case for Universal Salvation [Eugene, Oreg.: Resource
Publications, 2024], 183-84)
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