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And near this flame there is a great and very deep pit and into it there flow all

kinds of things from everywhere: judgment (?), horrifying things and excretions. And the
women (are) swallowed up (by this) up to their necks and are punished with great pain.
These are they who have procured abortions and have ruined the work of God which he
has created. Opposite them is another place where the children sit, but both alive, and
they cry to God. And lightnings go forth from those children which pierce the eyes of
those who, by fornication, have brought about their destruction. Other men and women
stand above them naked. And their children stand opposite to them in a place of delight.
And they sigh and cry to God because of their parents, ,,These are they who neglected and
cursed and transgressed thy commandment. They killed us and cursed the angel who
created (us) and hung us up. And they withheld from us the light which thou hast
appointed for all. And the milk of the mothers flows from their breasts and congeals and
smells foul, and from it come forth beasts that devour flesh, which turn and torture them
for ever with their husbands because they forsook the commandment of God and killed
their children.. . . And those who slew them will be tortured for ever, for God wills it to
be so.

Ezrael, the angel of wrath, brings men and women with the half of their bodies

burning and casts them into a place of darkness, the hell of men; and a spirit of wrath
chastises them with all manner of chastisement, and a worm that never sleeps consumes
their entrails. These are the persecutors and betrayers of my righteous ones.

And near to those who live thus were other men and women who chew their

tongues, and they are tormented with red hot irons and have their eyes burned. These are
the slanderers and those who doubt my righteousness.. . .

In another place situated near them, on the stone a pillar of fire (?) And the pillar

is sharper than wordsmen and women who are clad in rags and filthy garments, and they
are cast upon it, to suffer the judgment of unceasing torture. These are they which trusted
in their riches and despised widows and the woman (with) orphans . . . in the sight of
God.

And into another place nearby, saturated with filth, they throw men and women up

to their knees. These are they who lent money and took usury (1:7-10, Ethiopic).

The punishments for these sins are almost entirely pictured as physical. In addition to

references to different forms of fire and burning, people are plunged into darkness, hanging by
some part of their body connected with their sin (e.g. tongue, hair), thrown into slime, attacked
by ferocious monsters. These sorts of details involve imaginative speculations that go far beyond
anything envisioned in Scripture.

Nevertheless, consistent with New Testament teaching, these texts make it clear that these

punishments were to last foreverwith no letup, no relief, no reprieve, no second chance, and no
escape. In spite of its sometimes grisly details, the imagery here is consistent only with the
traditionalist view of conscious eternal punishment.

B. ACTS OF THOMAS