A Good Place To Start
The Greek word kolasis, typically translated as "punishment," carries a meaning far more aligned with correction and remediation than with retributive penalty. Clement of Alexandria, William Barclay, Thomas Talbott, and Luke Kessler each explore what this word would have meant in its first-century context.
“For there are partial corrections (padeiai) which are called chastisements (kolasis), which many of us who have been in transgression incur by falling away from the Lord’s people. But as children are chastised by their teacher, or their...
Matt 25:46
“The Greek word for punishment here [Matt 25:46] is kolasis, which was not originally an ethical word at all. It originally meant the pruning of trees to make them grow better. I think it is true to say that in all Greek secular literature...
“There is a difference between revenge and punishment; the latter (kolasis) is inflicted in the interest of the sufferer, the former (timoria) in the interest of him who inflicts it, that he may obtain satisfaction.” “And these will go...
Matthew 25:46; John 15:2; Hab. 3:6
So far we have looked at 4 terms used in Scripture to convey judgment in the afterlife. In this blog we will look at the term that is found in the most notorious reference to supposed “eternal damnation.” This reference is by far the most...