On the Fire of Hell
Not Metaphorical
Biblical Commentary
On the Fire of Hell
Not Metaphorical
Biblical Dissertation
Lemma I
1. Unless some limit is placed upon metaphorical interpretations, nothing certain will remain in the Bible, nothing ratified and fixed, nothing which can legitimately be inferred from it either for asserting the articles of faith or for convicting errors opposed to the faith. That which we understand by reason we see confirmed by experience, especially in the commentaries of those who take their name from Socinus or are called rationalists.
Lemma II
2. The limit to be placed upon metaphorical interpretations is this: they ought not to be presumed, but must be confirmed by evident arguments; and unless this is done, they are to be rejected at once, without any examination being undertaken.
Lemma III
3. Moreover, metaphorical interpretations, which must never be admitted unless they are proved, are especially to be kept away from those passages which contain either a first institution, or a precept, or a law, or a sentence. For arguments beyond every exception are necessary in order that we may believe that, in passages of this kind, a transferred, metaphorical, and more remotely sought sense is to be preferred to the proper and obvious sense.
Lemma IV
4. In the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew there is set forth both the supreme sentence1 which Christ the Judge will pronounce against the reprobate, and the execution of that same sentence is declared.2 Therefore, unless altogether decisive arguments stand in the way, the obvious and proper sense of the words must be retained in both passages.
Lemma V
5. Such an argument, moreover, is not one which someone might perhaps seek from those things contained in the same chapter from verse one through verse thirty-one. Namely, from verse one to verse fourteen the parable of the virgins is related, and from verse fourteen to verse thirty-one the parable of the talents distributed is related. Will the discourse which extends from verse thirty-one to the end of the chapter therefore also be parabolic? One who concluded thus would seem to be playing in a grave matter.
That the discourse is parabolic through verse thirty-one is declared both by its subject matter and circumstances and by the words themselves. Thus verse one begins, τότε ὁμοιωθήσεται ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν, “then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened …”; and verse fourteen, ὥσπερ γὰρ ἄνθρωπος, “for even as a man…” But none of these things occurs which pertains to those matters read from verse thirty-one to verse forty-six. Indeed, each and every thing bears the appearance of historical narration and must be understood as historical narration requires: namely, properly and literally.