Hell and eternal punishment in the early church

The punishment of the wicked: its nature and duration, and whether it ends. Part of Eschatology.

Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 4.4 (53.4)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Sinners and pagans, like withered trees, will be burned.
2 Clement 7.6Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Those who break the seal of baptism face unending punishment.
2 Clement 17.5Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Unbelievers will see Christ's glory and lament; their punishment has no end.
2 Clement 17.7Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · The righteous will glorify God when they see the fate of those who denied Jesus.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 21Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Peter sees a dark place of punishment opposite.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 22Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Blasphemers of the way of righteousness hang by their tongues over fire.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 23Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Those who turn from righteousness are tormented in a lake of burning mire.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 24Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Adulterous women hang by their hair, and their partners by their feet, over the mire.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 25Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Murderers are tormented by reptiles and worms while their victims watch and praise God's justice.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 26Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Women who procured abortions sit in filth, struck by fire from the children they aborted.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 27Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Persecutors of the righteous burn and are eaten by worms.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 28Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Those who reviled the way of righteousness gnaw their lips and are burned in the eyes.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 29Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · False witnesses gnaw their tongues with fire in their mouths.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 30Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · The pitiless rich roll on red-hot stones.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 31Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Usurers stand in a lake of pus, blood and boiling mire.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 32Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Those who practised same-sex intercourse are cast down from a cliff again and again.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 33Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Makers of idols stand in fire beside others who beat one another unceasingly.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 34Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Those who abandoned the way of God are roasted in fire.
First Apology 19Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · The resurrection of the body is no harder to believe than human birth from a small seed.
Sibylline Oracles 8.351ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The Sibyl foretells the torment of the wicked, who will long for death in vain, though God gave time for repentance, and affirms that God revealed all this to her.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 11.2Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Threatened with fire, Polycarp contrasted it with the eternal fire of the coming judgment.
Diatessaron, section 29Tatian · ca. 160-180
To Autolycus 1.14Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · Theophilus himself was converted by reading the prophets; he urges Autolycus to believe and escape the eternal punishment the prophets foretold.
Against Heresies 2.28.7Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The origin of matter, the cause of the fall of some creatures, and the nature of transgressors must be left to God, since we know only in part.
Against Heresies 4.28.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · In the new covenant both faith and the demands of conduct are greater, and the punishment of unbelief is eternal, not temporal.
Against Heresies 4.40.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The same Father prepares good things for those who seek him and eternal fire for the devil and the impenitent.
Against Heresies 4.40.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The separation of sheep and goats and the parable of the weeds show one Father who prepared both the kingdom and the fire.
Against Heresies 5.27.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Communion with God is life and light; those who choose separation from him lose all good, and since God’s goods are eternal, so is their loss.
Excerpts from Theodotus 38.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · A river of fire flows from the Demiurge's throne into Gehenna; the Demiurge himself is fiery.
Excerpts from Theodotus 51.3Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Christ's warning about destroying soul and body in Gehenna refers to these two.
Octavius 35.1Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · Pagan poets and writers too speak of fiery punishment after death.
Octavius 35.2Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · Even Jupiter swears by the river of hell, fearing its punishment.
Octavius 35.4Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · Ignorance of God, the Father of all, deserves punishment as much as offending him.
On Repentance 12Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · The fires of volcanoes foreshadow Gehenna; since exomologesis is the second remedy after baptism, the sinner should use it, like Nebuchadnezzar, and not reject it, like Pharaoh.
Acts of Thomas 41Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · The colt dies at the city gate; Thomas frees a woman from a demon that has abused her for five years, seals her and gives the Eucharist; then a youth who killed his lover for refusing continence is convicted by the Eucharist and healed, and the woman, raised, describes the punishments she saw in the place of the dead.
Acts of Thomas 58Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · The raised woman begs to be spared the punishments; Thomas warns the crowd that worse punishments await unless they turn to God, who forgives and cleanses.
Against the Greeks 1Hippolytus of Rome · 3rd century (disputed) · Hades holds the souls of the righteous in light at Abraham's bosom and the unrighteous near Gehenna, separated by a great chasm, until the judgment.
Against the Greeks 3Hippolytus of Rome · 3rd century (disputed) · Christ the Word, not Minos or Rhadamanthys, will judge all; the wicked suffer endless fire, while the righteous enjoy a kingdom free of night, toil, and death.
Pistis Sophia 119Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 125Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 126Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 127Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 130Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 139Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 140Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 144Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 145Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 146Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 147Anonymous · 3rd century
Against Marcion 4.28Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Christ's warnings against hypocrisy, his call to fear the one who can cast into Gehenna and to confess him before men, and his refusal to divide an inheritance all fit the Creator, who judges and who inspired Balaam and Moses.
On Flight in Persecution 7Tertullian · ca. 208–213 · A permanent command to flee would contradict Christ's other sayings on confessing him, enduring to the end, and not fearing those who kill the body; the fearful are threatened with the second death, not offered flight.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 35Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Christ's warning about God who can destroy body and soul in Gehenna, the numbered hairs, the gnashing of teeth, and the wedding feast all presuppose a bodily resurrection.
On First Principles 2.10.4Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Each sinner kindles his own fire, fed by his sins as fever by bad food; the punishment is conscience recalling all its crimes and becoming its own accuser.
On First Principles 2.10.5Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The punishment of sinners may consist in the torment of their own passions, or in the soul's being torn from its proper harmony, which the fire then restores.
On First Principles 2.10.6Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · God, the physician of souls, uses painful remedies, even fire, to purify them, as images in Scripture show.
On First Principles 2.10.8Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The “outer darkness” is deep ignorance, perhaps shown outwardly in the dark bodies of the impious after the resurrection.
Fragments on Job, column 75Origen · ca. 220-254 · The unkindled fire of Job 20 is an invisible inward punishment like fever, and the Overseer of Job 20:29 is God, whose image good bishops strive to bear.
PG 12:1095 (Ps 1 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · The spiritual body keeps the form but not the flesh; Ezekiel’s dry bones signify the restoration of the captive people, and the “gnashing of teeth” cannot be taken literally.
PG 12:1097 (Ps 1 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · The gnashing of teeth is the soul’s anguish at conviction; Paul’s words on the mortal body made alive and the seed show that the form, not the same matter, rises; a further note on the bodies of the righteous and the ungodly at the judgment.
PG 12:1251 (Ps 20 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · End of the notes on Ps 20 LXX (21):9–14: the punishment of the wicked, which destroys their evil works but not their being, and the face prepared for them among the remnants.
PG 12:1319 (Ps 36 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · A short note on Ps 36 LXX (37):20: sinners perish by ceasing to be sinners, not by ceasing to exist.
Refutation of All Heresies 10.34.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Knowing the true God, the hearers will escape the fire of judgment, dark Tartarus, the lake of Gehenna, the punishing angels, and the undying worm.
Commentary on John 6.297Origen · ca. 230–248 · Deep-rooted sin is taken away only through painful purification by the Word, sharper than a sword and hotter than fire.
Commentary on John 6.298Origen · ca. 230–248 · God's fire burns only the thorns of sin; the Lamb takes away sin in many ways, some hidden from most people.
Commentary on John 13.276Origen · ca. 230–248 · The rich man in torment lifted his eyes to see Abraham and Lazarus above.
Commentary on John 20.299Origen · ca. 230–248 · Matthew speaks of one being “twice as much a son of Gehenna.”
Commentary on John 20.300Origen · ca. 230–248 · So no one is a son of Gehenna by nature, and not all are so equally.
Commentary on John 28.63Origen · ca. 230–248 · Will the guest cast into outer darkness remain bound forever? Scripture does not say.
On Prayer 29.15Origen · ca. 233–234 · Idolaters given up to shameful passions receive the penalty of their error; but the purifying fire and prison of God's judgment are a benefit, cleansing sinners so that they may freely turn from evil.
Homilies on Ezekiel 3.7Origen · ca. 238–250 (Jerome's translation in the 380s) · The elders of Israel who came to Ezekiel figure presbyters absorbed in worldly cares, who prepare their own punishment.
Homilies on Ezekiel 5.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Jerome's translation in the 380s) · The sword, like the fiery sword of paradise, both burns and cuts, as a surgeon treats cancer; God’s punishments are rational remedies, not mere torture.
Homilies on Ezekiel 10.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Jerome's translation in the 380s) · God will restore Sodom (the Gentiles) first, Samaria (the heretics) second, and sinful Jerusalem (unfaithful believers) last; punishment is measured to sin, and anger is not in God but is provoked by sinners.
Homilies on Ezekiel 10.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Jerome's translation in the 380s) · Sodom and Samaria, figures of the sinful and heretical soul, are restored only after ages of punishment; how much longer, then, for the sinner who was Jerusalem?
Homilies on Leviticus 9.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The 'ready man' who leads the scapegoat away is like the angels who carry each person to the destiny chosen by his own life, as with Lazarus and the rich man.
Homilies on Numbers 8.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · God's threat after the spies' report shows Moses' intercession and foretells a new people, and the “year for a day” of punishment is explained as the long healing of repeated wounds of the soul, which repentance shortens.
Homilies on Numbers 19.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The last oracle foretells the blessedness of those who see Christ’s victory, the struggle of the people who “cross over” with the demonic “Assyrians,” and the final perishing of Assur, whom Origen doubts can ever be recovered like the lost sheep.
Homilies on Jeremiah 6.2Origen · ca. 240 · God's rebukes scourge the conscience; blessed are those who feel the pain, for insensibility is a sign of a deadened soul, and those who reject God's instruction waste all he has done for them.
Homilies on Jeremiah 7.2Origen · ca. 240 · Just as God added plagues step by step to Israel, sinners receive graded punishments, some more, some fewer, and the final end comes only at God's appointed day.
Homilies on Jeremiah 12.2Origen · ca. 240 · Every soul is a wineskin filled with wine: the wicked drink the unmixed cup of punishment, the mixed in character drink a cup mixed in proportion to their good and bad deeds, and the righteous drink Christ's cup of the new covenant.
Homilies on Jeremiah 12.5Origen · ca. 240 · Against heretics who call the Creator cruel, Origen compares God to a judge who does not pardon a murderer and a surgeon who must cut: punishment, including in church discipline, serves the good of the whole.
Homilies on Jeremiah 12.10Origen · ca. 240 · The “darkness” in which no one can glorify God is the age of punishment after the end of the world; God's “little while” may be a whole age for us, as some sins are not forgiven in this age or the next.
Homilies on Jeremiah 16.6Origen · ca. 240 · God, a consuming fire, burns away not the soul made in his image but the “wood, hay, and straw” built on it; so the punishment of sins comes first and then the reward, as God always kills before he makes alive.
Homilies on Jeremiah 19.15Origen · ca. 240 · God “deceives” as adults deceive children for their good, threatening punishments to turn them, as with Nineveh; the law's punishments (stoning for adultery) suited Israel's infancy, while the Gospel threatens punishments beyond description for those who sin knowing the truth.
Homilies on Jeremiah 20.3Origen · ca. 240 · Like a physician hiding the knife under a sponge, God conceals from the many the full truth that every sin will be purged by fire after death, so that they do not lose heart; such deception from God heals, unlike the serpent's.
Homilies on Jeremiah 20.4Origen · ca. 240 · A widow who stays unmarried because she wrongly fears that remarriage means damnation profits from the “deception”: remarriage is not damning, but remaining once-married is more blessed; so too the fear of eternal punishment keeps many from sin, while some who reject it grow worse.
Instructions 1.26Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · This life is full of misery, while God, who required Abel's blood of Cain, will reward the good and punish the wicked after death.
On the Computation of Easter 17Anonymous · 243 · The forty-nine years signify Christ's thirty-one years and the name of Jesus (18), and also the fire prepared for sinners, figured by the furnace of Babylon; from the exodus to the rebuilding of Jerusalem are 1,114 years.
Against Celsus 4.10Origen · ca. 248 · Christians do not frighten people with bogeymen like the Bacchic mysteries; they seek to correct humanity by warning of real punishments and promising the kingdom of God to the good.
Against Celsus 4.13Origen · ca. 248 · God is a “consuming fire” that burns up wickedness, the “wood, hay, and straw” built by the wicked, and refines the soul like gold and silver.
Against Celsus 5.15Origen · ca. 248 · The final fire is not God cooking the world but a purifying and healing fire that burns away only the 'wood, hay, and straw' of sin, as Paul, Malachi, Ezekiel, and Isaiah indicate.
Against Celsus 5.16Origen · ca. 248 · Simple believers take the fire of judgment literally, which suits them as fear suits children; in truth only the fully purified escape the fire, and the rest pass through it toward an end fitting creatures made in God's image.
Against Celsus 6.25Origen · ca. 248 · Origen describes the Ophite diagram, with its world-soul called Leviathan, and explains the biblical meaning of Gehenna, the Valley of Hinnom, as pointing to purifying punishment.
Against Celsus 6.26Origen · ca. 248 · Origen says the deeper teaching on punishment is not for everyone, since most people need the simple fear of eternal punishment, and he refuses to defend the Ophite diagram, which no Christian holds.
Against Celsus 8.48Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus says the mystery priests threaten eternal punishment just as Christians do; Origen replies that the true teaching is the one that actually leads people to live righteously, and that the prophets' foreknowledge proves God's Spirit was in them.
Against Celsus 8.51Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus agrees that the righteous will be happy and the wicked punished for ever, yet his attack on Christianity would destroy that belief in Christians; Chrysippus more wisely healed people using even doctrines he rejected.
Against Celsus 8.52Origen · ca. 248 · Christians try to win everyone to their whole teaching, but at least try to persuade outsiders of reward and punishment, since all can see the Creator's order in the world and all share common notions of right and wrong.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 16Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · On the proselyte made twice a son of Gehenna, degrees of punishment, oaths by the temple and altar read as Scripture and the heart, and tithing small things while neglecting judgment, mercy, and faith.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 62Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · Faithful stewards will share Christ's rule over all his possessions, each over a part, while bad stewards who abuse fellow servants under pretext of church service will be “cut in two,” their spirit returning to God and soul and body punished.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 72Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · The works of mercy stand for every virtue, bodily and spiritual: Christ is fed, clothed, received, and visited in his weak and imprisoned members; the Father blesses, but each person is the author of his own curse, and the eternal fire, invisible, was prepared not for men but for the devil and his angels.
Commentary on Matthew 10.2Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen reads the good seed as sound thoughts sown in the soul by the Word and the weeds as wicked doctrines sown by the devil, to be burned at the end of the age.
Commentary on Matthew 17.16Origen · ca. 246–248 · The apostles called Gentiles bad and good alike to the wedding, but all must put on the wedding garment of the virtues, or be cast into the outer darkness.
Commentary on Matthew 17.19Origen · ca. 246–248 · God is likened to a man, a panther, a lion, or a consuming fire only for the sake of sinners; at the restoration of all things he will be seen as he is, as light.
Commentary on Matthew 17.24Origen · ca. 246–248 · The guest without the wedding garment is one who kept the vices he had before faith; bound and cast out, he will weep and gnash his teeth, and the churches too have many called but few chosen.
Commentary on Romans 8.12Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Israel's partial blindness, brought on by the jealous angels of the nations and permitted by God, made room for the Gentiles; when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, Israel will seek Christ and be saved, while those not purified by the gospel face the purifying fire of Gehenna, a mystery not to be spread among the imperfect.
Martyrdom of Pionius and Companions 7Anonymous · 250 (the text may be later) · Sabina laughs at the threats; Pionius warns of fire after death.
In Praise of Martyrdom 20Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · The writer describes the punishments of gehenna: darkness, fire, crushing weights, falls, chains, wheels, and crowding.
To Demetrian 9Cyprian of Carthage · 252–253 · Since the plagues do not turn people to God, eternal punishment awaits; Hosea shows that God is angry because there is no knowledge of him on earth.
To Demetrian 24Cyprian of Carthage · 252–253 · At the judgment unbelievers will suffer eternal punishment, and their persecutors, seeing the righteous saved, will lament too late, as Isaiah and Wisdom describe.
Fragment on Job, no. 6Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · God's patience does not mean the punishment of the ungodly is postponed forever.
Against the Nations 2.14Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · Arnobius holds that souls are of a middle nature, neither immortal nor mortal by themselves: those who do not know God are finally destroyed in fire, while those who turn to God's mercy are saved.
Homilies 3.6Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · The one God saves the repentant after due punishment, while the unrepentant are punished in fire for a set time and then cease to exist.
Homilies 11.11Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · The soul is immortal and the ungodly face endless punishment in unquenchable fire, and Peter must warn of this even at the risk of seeming to frighten.
Homilies 15.2Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · The father denies punishment after death; Peter asks him at least to examine the arguments fairly for his family's sake.
Recognitions 5.28Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · The souls of the impious are immortal and suffer eternal fire, which Peter must proclaim in order to reconcile his hearers to God and make them his friends.
Recognitions 9.11Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Sinners must be baptized and then curb desire by fear of judgment; just as fear of execution kills lust, full faith in eternal fire produces fear that keeps one from sin.
Divine Institutes 2.12.8Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The second death punishes unjust souls forever rather than annihilating them.
Divine Institutes 2.12.9Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The first death separates soul and body; the second is eternal punishment, which animals do not face.
Divine Institutes 2.17.5Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · God's anger will be treated elsewhere; worshippers of demons will share their eternal darkness and punishment.
Divine Institutes 5.18.16Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Deserters of God face the eternal fire.
Divine Institutes 6.4.5Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Those who live for present goods are condemned after death.
Divine Institutes 6.6.4Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · God's goods lead to immortality; the devil's evils to eternal punishment.
Divine Institutes 7.11.2Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The soul's death is eternal punishment.
Divine Institutes 7.12.16Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The soul's death is eternal torment, not annihilation.
Divine Institutes 7.14.3Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Deified heroes earned hell; the judgment is near.
Divine Institutes 7.20.7Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Objection: an immortal soul cannot suffer.
Divine Institutes 7.21.3Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The wicked will rise in indestructible bodies for eternal fire.
Divine Institutes 7.21.4Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The divine fire needs no fuel and has no smoke.
Divine Institutes 7.26.7Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The devil and the impious are burned forever.
Apology for Origen 8.1Pamphilus of Caesarea · ca. 308–310 (Rufinus's Latin about 397) · Pamphilus answers the charge that Origen denied the punishment of sinners with his teaching on the fire of judgment as a remedy and on the pains of the risen body, and begins his defence of Origen's views on the soul.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.38.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Scripture’s many mansions and eternal fire parallel Plato.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.6.11Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The incurable suffer forever as examples to others.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.6.15Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Rhadamanthys sends the wicked to Tartarus, marked curable or incurable.
Preparation for the Gospel 13.16.14Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Plato (Phaedo) describes judgment, purification, and eternal punishment in Tartarus.
Preparation for the Gospel 13.16.16Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Plato (Gorgias): the just go to the islands of the blessed, the incurably wicked suffer forever as examples.
Preparation for the Gospel 13.16.17Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Eusebius: eternal punishment and free choice of new lives are incompatible.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 52.9Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Idolaters face eternal punishment; those who suffer for God gain eternal life.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 54.3Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · The two ways of life and death are in this life, leading to heaven or eternal punishment.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 67.8Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · God will renew the world, make the righteous like angels forever, and raise the wicked to eternal punishment.
Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 13.1Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · Some blame God for making things and characters different; but diversity serves the world, while human character depends on free choice: reason ruling the passions leads to virtue and reward, vice to unquenchable fire.
Theophany 1.72Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
Demonstration 8.19Aphrahat · 337-345
Demonstration 20.9Aphrahat · 337-345 · The deaths of the rich man and Lazarus are told; the rich man is the people and the poor man is the Savior, who became poor for us.
Demonstration 22.22Aphrahat · 337-345
Demonstration 22.24Aphrahat · 337-345
That One Must Die for the Son of God 14Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer tells Constantius that whatever death he inflicts will bring the martyr immortality and bodily resurrection, while the emperor, unless he confesses the eternal Son and the one Godhead of the Trinity, faces the undying worm and outer darkness.
On Not Sparing Those Who Sin against God 32Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer warns Constantius of the river of fire, defends calling him a beast by Paul's words on the Cretans, and answers the emperor's appeal to the duty of obeying kings with Paul's command to Titus to rebuke with all authority.
Homilies on the Psalms 28.5Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · Basil explains Ps 29:6–11: Christ is the “unicorn” as having the one power of the Father; God's voice divides the fire of judgment into light and burning, makes the desert fruitful, prepares the “deer” (the saints) and uncovers the thickets of sin; he rebukes chatter in church, and reads the flood as baptism.
Homilies on the Psalms 33.8Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · On Ps 34:11 Basil distinguishes the enemy fear, born of unbelief, from the saving fear of God, and teaches it through a vivid picture of Christ's judgment seat, the dark fire, the worms and eternal shame.
Tractates on the Psalms 1.19Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The ungodly will be like dust driven by the wind: not annihilated but reduced to a state fit only for punishment.
Tractates on the Psalms 1.20Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The ungodly will rise, but not to judgment; they will remain to suffer punishment, as John 3 explains.
Tractates on the Psalms 51.19Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The righteous, seeing the fall of a people once so blessed, both fear the example and rejoice in their own righteousness, joy and fear tempering each other.
Tractates on the Psalms 54.14Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The punishment of descending alive into the underworld falls on all who share the betrayer's wickedness.
Tractates on the Psalms 57.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The wicked are not annihilated: their souls are punished even before the resurrection, like the rich man in the Gospel, and their raised bodies will bear the thorns of their sins.
Tractates on the Psalms 139.14Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The 'head' of Christ's encirclers is the devil, who moved Judas and the crowd; their own curses and the fire of judgment will cover them.
Paraenesis, or Exhortation to Penitence 11Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian urges sinners to use the remedy of penance as animals use healing herbs, and warns of the eternal fire that awaits the unrepentant in body and soul.
Against the Manichees, Greek continuation of book 3, Lagarde p. 71Titus of Bostra · ca. 360s · The abyss was made later as a corrective punishment; since the demons can suffer and fear, they cannot be unbegotten.
Oration 5.38Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Julian will suffer worse than the punished of myth; Gregory and Basil, kept for last in his persecution, now answer him; Christian martyrs under Julian equalled the ancient heroes of faith.
Oration 40.36Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Scripture speaks of the light of the righteous and of a cleansing fire that Christ brings, but also of a punishing fire for the wicked, the unquenchable fire with the sleepless worm.
Tractates 1.16.4Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno proves the survival of souls from Samuel's appearance to Saul, Moses and Elijah at the transfiguration, and the rich man and Lazarus.
Homilies 19.4Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Each of the forty answers only “I am a Christian”; they reject the governor's flattery and bribes, preferring the crown of righteousness and fearing only Gehenna.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 3:15Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · A believer who taught falsely will be saved, but only after suffering a purifying punishment by fire, unlike unbelievers in eternal fire.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:22Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · As all die through Adam, all will rise through Christ, believers to life and unbelievers to endless punishment in their bodies.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:55Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · All rise immortal; sinning believers suffer punishment until their debt is paid, the impious eternally; at Christ's coming the living are caught up, and death, the devil, is mocked as defeated.
Commentary on 2 Thessalonians 1:6–9Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · At his coming Christ will give rest to the persecuted saints and eternal, unending punishment by fire to pagans and unbelieving Jews.
Letter 119.6Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome quotes Acacius of Caesarea on the reading 'we shall all sleep': all rise incorruptible, but only the saints are changed into glory.
Letter 124.7Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome reports that Origen placed the fire of hell in the sinner’s conscience and spoke of rebirth into other worlds and of a final bodiless perfection.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 31.30.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The wicked spirits and wicked people will be sent into eternal fire.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 38.8.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Judas's 'own place' is perdition.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.16.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Origen questions literal teeth in Gehenna.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.16.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Matt 10:28 implies punishment with a body.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.32.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · The wicked go to punishment, the righteous to eternal life.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 99Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Like gold refined by fire, or a clay-coated rope pulled through a narrow hole, the soul suffers while its vice is burned or scraped away; God’s judgment aims only at good, and the pain is proportioned to the amount of vice.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 151Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · God’s single aim is to bring all humanity, once complete, into the good beyond sight and hearing: some purified in this life, others healed afterward by fire, the length of healing matching each one’s vice. Paul’s answer to the Corinthians silences those who measure God by their own power.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 157Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Adam was the first ear; through sin humanity was scattered like grain, and at the resurrection all will rise; the virtuous at once in full form, the vicious only after the tares within them are burned away by fire, when, after long ages, they too will regain the original form.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 159Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · The difference between the good and the wicked at the resurrection is not bodily but in joy or deprivation of good; once the passions of vice have been cleansed by fire, incorruption, life, honour, and glory will take their place in human nature, God’s image.
On the Beatitudes 1221Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · The fear of judgment, like a stinging remedy, brings the callous sinner to feel and mourn his sin, as Paul did with the incestuous man; but since Christ blesses those who always mourn, and the sinless too are blessed, the beatitude must mean more than repentance.
On the Complaints of Job and David 3.8Ambrose · ca. 383-390 · The rich man in torment could find no rest, for chastisement is of no use after death.
Petition to the Emperors (Libellus precum) 16Faustinus · ca. 383–384 · These present punishments confirm the eternal punishments Scripture threatens on prevaricators, so those who refuse communion with them should not be blamed.
Catechetical Oration 35Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–390 · Triple immersion imitates Christ's three days in the tomb and begins the destruction of evil; the baptized pass to blessedness in the resurrection, while the unpurified must be purified by fire over long ages until their nature is restored pure to God.
Catechetical Oration 40Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–390 · Baptism without a changed life is only water: the baptized must show the character of God who begot them, restoring what they have taken, since the goods and punishments to come, the unquenchable fire and undying worm, are beyond description.
On the Life of Moses 349Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–395 · The plague of darkness shows that light and darkness come from our own choice, not from compulsion; the Egyptians’ return to light after three days figures repentance through knowledge of the Crucified; the boils from the furnace figure Gehenna, from which Christ’s outstretched hands can heal; the remaining plagues are caused by each person’s own choice.
On the Duties of the Clergy 1.15Ambrose · ca. 386–390 · The parable of the rich man and Lazarus and Paul’s crown show that rewards and punishments are given after death, after the contest of this life.
Exposition of Psalm 118 3.17.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The purifying fire for lesser sins differs from the eternal fire prepared for the devil, in which the rich man burned.
Exposition of Psalm 118 20.23.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The rich man in Hades suffers; the devil awaits judgment in perpetual fear.
Exposition of Psalm 118 21.8.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The martyr amid tortures trembles more at the thought of eternal punishment.
Exposition of Psalm 118 21.9.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Ambrose prays that in persecution he may fear Christ’s rejection more than torture.
Letter 102.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The fourth question claims that Christ's eternal punishment contradicts his saying about being repaid by the same measure.
Letter 102.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Not every measure is one of time; even the sun, which pagans think everlasting, has a measure, so eternal punishment can be measured.
Letter 102.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The saying about measure need not mean identical or equal-length punishment; it may be as great in force while longer in duration.
Letter 102.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Sin is measured by the will, not by duration; so punishments may be equally eternal yet differ in severity.
Letter 102.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Eternal punishment answers the sinner's will to enjoy sin eternally, so it is consistent with the saying about measure.
Letter 122.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine writes to his clergy and people at Hippo, asking them not to be saddened by his absence and urging them to persevere in good works in view of eternal life.
Letter 140.54Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Those who reject God's righteousness, if they spurn correction, will go into the 'outer darkness'; God is light and love, and the darkness is hatred and pride, into which the devil fell.
Letter 140.57Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Unbelievers are darkness, believers become light; the outer darkness is the penal company of the devil and his angels, opposite to the inner joy of the Lord, understood not spatially but in terms of the will.
Letter 140.58Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The outer darkness brings 'weeping and gnashing of teeth'; it may also mean bodily punishment, which alone servile fear dreads, whereas chaste fear clings to God.
Letter 184.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Unbaptized infants are condemned, though with the lightest punishment; there is no middle place between kingdom and punishment.
Letter 187.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine is unsure whether Abraham's bosom belongs to hell, but suggests 'paradise' may be any place of blessed life, including that region visited by Christ's soul.
Letter 205.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that all will rise, but only the righteous will be changed into incorruption, while the wicked rise to everlasting torment.
Letter 205.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that all will rise with whole bodies, but only the righteous will put on incorruption and immortality, while the wicked remain subject to the pain of punishment.
Letter 205.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine refers Consentius to his book on whether baptized persons dying unrepentant in grave sin will eventually be pardoned.
Letter 259.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues from the parable of the rich man and Lazarus that Cornelius's chaste wife would not want him to share the punishment of adulterers, and urges him to love her by amending his life.
Homilies on Matthew 4.11John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The three youths served God from love, not for reward, and prayed for their whole people; today the golden image is mammon, and Christians should prefer the furnace of poverty to its worship, as Lazarus did, rather than face the furnace of sin.
Homilies on Matthew 11.5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · John speaks of fire to recall Israel's theophanies; he first names the gift of the Spirit, then the Lamb who takes away sin; to keep the hearers from slackness he adds the winnowing fork and unquenchable fire, and the fulfilled promise of the Spirit guarantees the threatened judgment.
Homilies on Matthew 11.7John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · While on the threshing floor we can still change from chaff to wheat; humility, not display, survives the fire; almsgiving escapes the unquenchable fire, and faith without life will not save; Chrysostom laments that hearers carry home blank tablets, letting the devil overwrite his teaching.
Homilies on Matthew 13.5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The faithful must reject harmful counsel even from those closest to them, and the reality of future judgment is defended against those who live for the present, from the demons’ confessions, God’s justice, and his providence.
Homilies on Matthew 23.7John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The false prophets are known by their fruits, since a bad man bears no good fruit while he remains bad; the loss of the kingdom is a punishment worse than hell itself.
Homilies on Matthew 23.8John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · No loss is so great as falling from the glory of Christ; at the judgment he will mention not his countless benefits but only the sin, showing his gentleness even then.
Homilies on Matthew 43.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The queen of the south will also condemn this generation; the parable of the returning unclean spirit foretells worse calamities for the Jews after AD 70, and warns baptized Christians who relapse; Chrysostom describes the fire of Gehenna and rejects the comfort of being punished with many.
Homilies on Matthew 43.5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom defends preaching about Gehenna as a healing, urges his hearers to live so that pagans see the kingdom in them, and insists that marriage, children, work and city life are no obstacle to virtue.
Homilies on Matthew 81.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The covetous go about the city naked of virtue, unashamed because so many are like them; they live in a moral desert, are themselves tombs carrying dead souls, wound themselves with cares, and at the judgment will be punished in every parable of Christ.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.47.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Does Scripture teach that the ungodly will be annihilated?
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.48.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The adversaries cease to be adversaries but remain, converted; God punishes to purify.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.48.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Fire purifies rather than annihilates; God wills all to be saved.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.56.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · A third order, the ungodly unbelievers, rise straight to punishment.
On Genesis against the Manichaeans 2.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 388–390 · No one, not even the rich, escapes the sentence on Adam: the labor and thorns are the toil of seeking truth in a corruptible body; the one who tills his inner field suffers it only in this life, while others face purifying fire or eternal punishment after it.
Tractates on Matthew 8.3Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388–407 · Chromatius prefers the view that the adversary is the Holy Spirit, who opposes the flesh, and whom we must obey in this life to escape the prison of Gehenna.
On True Religion 52Augustine of Hippo · ca. 389–391 · The mind should turn from the beauty it perceives through the senses to the eternal law by which it judges, for curiosity, pride, and pleasure are distorted longings for knowledge, power, and rest found only in God.
On True Religion 54Augustine of Hippo · ca. 389–391 · Those who misuse the mind for visible things, contests, and bodily appetites are bound and cast into outer darkness, while those who use the senses and mind to know and love God enter the joy of their Lord, as the parable of the talents shows.
Sermon 31.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The tears of the just belong to this road and end in the joy of harvest; the wicked go from weeping to eternal weeping in the outer darkness, which will hold no pleasures.
Sermon 41.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The rich man would not keep faith with Lazarus in his poverty, and so could not share his rest; his mocking of the prophets is answered by Abraham.
Sermon 65.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · In Gehenna the body suffers everlasting punishment and the soul the absence of God; the soul should fear its own death, and the martyrs, fearing it, won their crowns.
Sermon 75.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Those who think Christ’s threats of punishment are not real also treat him as a phantom; his promises and his threats are equally true.
Sermon 150.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The happy life means truth without deception and life without death or pain, which alone deserves the name of life; the philosophers missed the way to it, but Christ, the way, the truth, and the life, has come to us.
Sermon 161.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · There are only two dwellings, eternal fire and the eternal kingdom; people who run to the bishop in terror of prison or death should fear hell's fire far more.
Sermon 161.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · No enemy can kill the soul, but a man can kill his own soul by lying; from what people fear on earth they should learn to fear hell and eternal death.
Sermon 161.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · One who refrains from adultery only for fear of hell is not yet to be praised, though Christ commands that fear; such fear is a guard and tutor that keeps the place for love, which makes one not want to sin.
Sermon 161.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · A lustful lover fears only that his beloved will not see him; if we loved God, the thought of not seeing his face would terrify us, and if not, let us at least fear hell.
Sermon 178.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God's “Fool” is a sentence of damnation; and the rich man of Luke 16 was condemned not for robbery but only for his lack of mercy to Lazarus, so robbers can expect worse.
Sermon 224.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Husbands must keep only to their wives and the unmarried come chaste to marriage; a married man's concubine, even his own slave, is a harlot, and keeping her leads to Gehenna.
Sermon 277.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Had Vincent denied Christ to spare his body, he would only have postponed eternal punishment for that body; all will rise, but those who denied Christ to the resurrection of judgment, that is, eternal punishment.
Sermon 279.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Death cannot be avoided, but eternal punishment can, by living well; Christ’s death and resurrection show both, so believers should confess him without shame, as Paul, who seized in the morning, divided the food of the word in the evening.
Sermon 294.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Paul warns sinners only that they will not possess the kingdom, which implies eternal fire; salvation comes only in the name of Jesus Christ, and to promise infants salvation without Christ endangers the promiser’s own.
Sermon 306.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Scripture calls only the blessed life ‘life’: the wicked will exist in torment but that is the ‘second death’, not life, so ‘the resurrection of life’ and ‘the fountain of life’ mean happy life.
Homily 10.3 on 1 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom urges Christians to win pagans by their lives, laments that worldliness keeps them away, and argues that sharing punishment with others brings no consolation in hell.
Homily 15.2 on 1 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom explains the “double honour” due to presbyters who preside well and teach, the rules for accusing and rebuking presbyters, and then urges fear of Gehenna, contempt for passing things, and imitation of God's generosity.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 1.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine interprets the judge, officer, prison, and last farthing of Matt 5:25–26, leans toward reading the punishment as eternal, and asks whether the adversary is the devil, a man, the flesh, God, or God’s commandment, preferring the last two.
On Christian Doctrine 1.20Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · Those who do not die to the world will rise only to punishment.
On Christian Doctrine 1.21Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · Faith holds that neither soul nor body is wholly destroyed, but the wicked rise to punishment and the godly to eternal life.
On the Nature of the Good 38Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399 · Even the eternal fire is not an evil nature; its torment is an evil only to the damned, as light pains sore eyes.
On the Nature of the Good 39Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399 · The eternal fire is not eternal as God is, since it had a beginning and is changeable; only God's unchangeable immortality is true eternity.
Commentary on Daniel 7, scholion 38Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · The fire signifies the severity of the sentence, not its literal form.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 12.32Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · After death souls are carried, not to bodily places, but to spiritual places resembling bodily ones, of punishment or of rest; these are real, and the underworld exists, though its substance is spiritual.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 12.33Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · The underworld is real and receives souls after death; Christ descended to free some from its pains; but Augustine finds no place where Scripture calls the rest of the righteous, Abraham's bosom, the underworld.
Apology against Rufinus 2.6Jerome · ca. 401–402 · Jerome quotes Rufinus's statement on the devil's eternal punishment and mocks its Latin style.
Against Felix the Manichaean 2.8Augustine of Hippo · December 404 · Felix charges the catholic doctrine of eternal fire with the same cruelty; Augustine replies that the damned are those who by free choice refused repentance and healing, while sin is not possible at all on Manichaean premises.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 43.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The death Christ promised to spare us is the second, eternal death of damnation; bodily death is only a departure.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 43.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Many, fearing bodily death, fell into eternal death by worshiping idols; we must fear the death of Gehenna, as the three young men and the martyrs did, keeping Christ's word in faith.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 44.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The night in which no one can work is the condemnation of the ungodly, which each unbeliever enters at death, as the rich man in Luke 16 shows.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 89.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Those who heard and rejected Christ are not among those "judged by the Law"; all not saved in Christ perish, though punishments differ as sins differ.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 3.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · The reward for abiding in what we heard from the beginning is eternal life, a promise of the Truth that cannot fail; the alternative is eternal fire.
On the Spirit and the Letter 48Augustine of Hippo · 412 · Even if the gentiles of Rom 2 are unbelievers with remnants of God's image, the new covenant's distinctiveness stands; their good works cannot save them, though punishment will differ in degree.
City of God 6.12Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine concludes that since the gods of civil theology cannot give happiness, they cannot give eternal life, which is happiness without end.
City of God 13.2Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The soul dies when God forsakes it, the body when the soul leaves it; the second death is the eternal punishment of body and soul, good to no one.
City of God 13.11Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The moment of death cannot be located, and even Latin cannot properly “decline” the verb to die; but by Christ's grace we can “decline” the second death, an endless dying.
City of God 19.13Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine defines the peace of body, soul, household, city, and the heavenly city, and of all things as “the tranquillity of order,” showing that even the wretched and the devil remain within God's order, and that temporal peace, rightly used, leads to eternal peace.
City of God 19.28Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine describes the end of the wicked as the second death, an unending war between will and passion and between pain and bodily nature, and announces that the next book will treat the last judgment.
City of God 20.22Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The saints will “go out” to see the punishment of the wicked not by moving bodily but by knowledge; Augustine notes different views on the fire and the worm and defers the question.
City of God 21.1Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine explains that he will treat the eternal punishment of the wicked before the happiness of the saints, since bodily endurance in torment seems harder to believe.
City of God 21.2Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · To unbelievers who demand examples, Augustine points to creatures that live in fire and hot springs: if living in fire without pain is believed, living in pain is not harder to believe.
City of God 21.3Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Pain is a sign of life, not proof of death: the soul feels pain yet is immortal, and so the risen bodies of the damned can suffer without dying.
City of God 21.9Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The unquenchable fire and undying worm of Gehenna may both be bodily, or the fire bodily and the worm the mind's grief; Augustine leaves the choice open but insists that the bodies of the damned will truly feel the fire.
City of God 21.10Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The bodily fire of Gehenna can torment demons, whether they have airy bodies or are incorporeal spirits bound to the fire in a wonderful way, just as souls are bound to bodies.
City of God 21.11Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Punishments in human law are not measured by the time a crime took but by its gravity, so eternal punishment for sins done in time is not unjust; “the same measure” means requital, not equal duration.
City of God 21.12Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Eternal punishment seems unjust only because we cannot perceive how great the first sin was; the whole human race is a condemned mass, from which some are freed by undeserved grace to show both mercy and justice.
City of God 21.13Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Against the Platonist view that all punishment after death purifies, Augustine holds that some punishments purify and others do not, that some suffer temporary punishments after death before the judgment, and that not all of these come to eternal punishment.
City of God 21.17Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine turns to “tender-hearted” Christians who think the punishment of the damned will end; he notes that the church rejected Origen's view that even the devil would be restored and that souls cycle endlessly between bliss and misery.
City of God 21.18Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine reports the view of some that at the judgment the saints' intercession will obtain mercy for all human beings, with their arguments from Psalm 77, Nineveh, Psalm 31, and Romans 11, and notes that they are pleading their own case.
City of God 21.23Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The church rejected the restoration of the devil because Scripture calls his punishment eternal and “for ever and ever”; the same word “eternal” in Matthew 25:46 must mean the same for punishment as for life.
On Faith and Works 25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · If faith alone saved through fire, even persistent adulterers and prostitutes should be baptized, and the many texts excluding the wicked from God's kingdom and the judgment of Matthew 25 would be false.
On Faith and Works 42Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · Rom 2:12 offers no milder fate: “judgment” in Scripture can mean eternal damnation, as John 5:28–29 divides the risen by their deeds.
On Faith and Works 43Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · “Judgment” cannot mean temporary purgation, since unbelievers too are “already judged”; those who sin knowingly under the law are worse off, not better.
Reminder concerning the Error of the Priscillianists and Origenists 3Orosius · 414 · Orosius reports how Origenist teachings came into Spain through the two Aviti and lists the doctrines they taught.
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 7.27.16Orosius · ca. 417–418 · Antichrist and his followers will perish in the lake of fire.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 9Augustine of Hippo · 417 · The charge that all sinners will burn eternally was accepted because Pelagius cited the gospel, and no one pressed him to distinguish those saved through fire.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 10Augustine of Hippo · 417 · The synod approved condemning Origen's view that the damned and the devil will finally be freed, but did not rule on those saved through fire.
On the Soul and Its Origin 2.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Victor rightly holds that souls are judged at death, but his claim that the soul seeks food only for the body cannot explain the rich man’s thirst in Luke 16.
Commonitorium 1.301–330Orientius of Auch · ca. 420-450 · Hell's fire, like burning mountains and ever-flowing springs, punishes forever without consuming; the reader should therefore trample on the world, and above all avoid looking at beautiful faces, since no one handles fire unburned.
Commonitorium 2.271–300Orientius of Auch · ca. 420-450 · Those who neglected God will suffer punishments fitted to their deeds in gehenna, darkness, fire and ice, each sin paid for separately, unlike earthly justice, which can kill only once.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 92Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Those not freed by the Mediator will rise in their own flesh to be punished with the devil; their unending suffering is the second death.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 93Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Both deaths result from sin; the mildest punishment will be for those with only original sin, and others will be punished in proportion to their sins.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 111Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · After the judgment the two cities, of Christ and of the devil, will last forever, with degrees of happiness in the one and of misery in the other.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 112Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Against those who soften the eternity of punishment, Augustine argues it is as eternal as the saints' life, allowing only that its torments may be eased at intervals; loss of God alone is the greatest punishment.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 113Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · The eternal death of the damned, estrangement from God, will be common to all of them, as eternal life is to all the saints.
Retractations 1.6Augustine of Hippo · 426-427 · Reviewing his two books on the morals of the Catholic Church and of the Manichaeans, Augustine corrects arguments built on faulty Latin copies, denies that perfection is reached in this life, and rejects Origen's view that all fallen beings return to God.
Part 4, chapter 19Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The Psalms, Christ’s parable of the sheep and goats, Paul, the Apocalypse, Isaiah, and the Sibyl describe the last judgment, where mercy to the poor decides; (chapter 20) a purifying fire will purge certain of the faithful and renew the elements, while the impious repent in vain.