Hell is an “abyss … full of fire” where the wicked are “cast into this fiery abyss, and they were burned.”14 Fire, darkness, lamenting. These are the typical images used by first-century Jews to describe hell, and, as we’ll see, they are the same images used by Jesus and other New Testament writers. Now, as for the duration of hell, there was difference of opinion among the Jews. Some believed that the wicked would be annihilated in hell (their personal existence would cease), while others believed
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