Homer wrote:Since the words of Polycarp are "eternal punishment (kolasin aiōnion)" I have no illusion that those who disbelieve eternal punishment will accept his statement even though he contrasts it with temporal punishments.
True. But you still seem to hold to the illusion that "aiōnion" means "eternal" in spite of the fact that its use in the vast majority of passages in the Septuagint
cannot mean "eternal". Nor in most of these cases is the word used figuratively.
Because of your belief that "aiōnion" has to mean "eternal", you presume that Polycarp contrasts the word with "temporal punishments". What he actually contrasts is "fire which burneth for an hour, and after a little is extinguished" with the "fire of the coming judgment and of correction which goes from age to age". There is quite a difference between fire which lasts for an hour and fire which lasts for many ages, perhaps even millions of years. We who live 70, 80, or 90 years have no idea what it is to suffer for thousands or perhaps millions of years.
However, Justin Martyr can not be explained away. We have record of some fifteen to twenty statements he made regarding his belief in eternal punishment and three of them should inform us in how to understand all of them:
Well, I spent most of today searching the Internet to find the Greek Text of Justin's "Apology" --- to no avail. However, I do not consider it wasted time since I found a number of other early Greek texts which I value.
150 AD Justin Martyr: "We have been taught that only they may aim at immortality who have lived a holy and virtuous life near to God. We believe that they who live wickedly and do not repent will be punished in everlasting fire" (First Apology, 21).
I see nothing in this text which indicates everlasting punishment except what I am guessing is a mistranslation of "aiōnion"
150 AD Justin Martyr: For among us the prince of the wicked spirits is called the serpent, and Satan, and the devil, as you can learn by looking into our writings. And that he would be sent into the fire with his host, and the men who follow him, and would be punished for an endless duration, Christ foretold. (The First Apology of Justin, Chap. XXVIII)
"Endless duration" seems to be oxymoronic. "Duration" suggests a period of time. How can it be endless? However, I looked at another translation which reads "endless ages". That makes sense. So, if Satan and his hosts will be punished "for endless ages", that means they will be punished forever. I would really like to verify whether this is what Justin actually said. What was the Greek word translated as "endless"? I have not yet been able to determine that.
If Justin did use the word "endless" then he obviously believed in eternal punishment for Satan and his hosts. When he said, "you can learn [this] by looking into our writings", he may have had in mind the following passage:
Jude 1:6 And the angels that did not keep their own position but left their proper dwelling have been kept by him in eternal chains in the nether gloom until the judgment of the great day
Here the true word for "eternal" is used ("aidios"). But even here, the fallen angels are kept in these eternal chains
until the judgment.
There seems to be a hint that they will not no longer be held by these chains afterward. We are not told what their lot will be afterward.
But then I wonder, why are the
chains eternal?
If the Greek word used was indeed "endless", then perhaps Justin believed in eternal punishment for Satan and his hosts. Some reconciliationists exclued Satan and his angels from ultimate reconciliation.
150 AD Justin Martyr: when some are sent to be punished unceasingly into judgment and condemnation of fire; but others shall exist in freedom from suffering, from corruption, and from grief, and in immortality." (Dialogue of Justin, Philosopher and Martyr with Trypho, A Jew, Chap. XLV)
What is there here that suggests eternal punishment? The words that some will be "punished unceasingly"? We uses such phrases yet today. When we say that a person "suffers pain unceasingly" we simply mean "without letup". The pain is not necessarily permanent. The person may get over his pain condition in a day, or a week, or a month.
By the way, I was unable to find this passage in chapter 45.
And here Justin's rebuttal shows that the same argument by our universalist philosophers was being used in his day:
150 AD Justin Martyr: And that no one may say what is said by those who are deemed philosophers, that our assertions that the wicked are punished in eternal fire are big words and bugbears, and that we wish men to live virtuously through fear, and not because such a life is good and pleasant; I will briefly reply to this, that if this be not so, God does not exist; or, if He exists, He cares not for men, and neither virtue nor vice is anything, and as we said before, lawgivers unjustly punish those who transgress good commandments. (The Second Apology of Justin for the Christians Addressed to the Roman Senate, Chap. IX)
What these philosophers were asserting was that to say that the wicked will be punished
at all, is to get people to live righteously through fear. That this is the case, seems obvious from the "rebuttal" of Justin (or whoever the author was) is that if God does not punish the wicked, then He does not care about people, nor is concerned with virtue or vice. Surely "Justin"'s argument would not apply if the wicked wre punished for ages and ages (as I believe they are).
The "Second Apology" is thought not to have been written by Justin, and is thought to have been written at a much later date.
