house full of merriment, the area outside the door dimly lit by the lamps inside and the region beyond the perimeter of the lamplight where darkness rules. Those expelled from the festivities inside the house are thrown out into that “outer darkness.” Both Matthew and Luke literally say that there, in the outer darkness, will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. As we have already found, we do not need to imagine that God keeps people alive forever, torturing them without end, in order to understand