“The more common view sees the afterlife as partaking of two stages. A) a period of cleansing of sin (akin to the idea of purgatory), which everyone undergoes. The maximum amount of time you can stay there is one year. B) From there most people will proceed to receive their eternal reward (what this means is debated). What happens to those that do not get to go on is up for debate”
I read this quote from the FAQ and was intrigued. As a Christian Universalist, who also believes in a period of cleansing in Gehenna, I was very surprised to find out that Judaism holds a similar belief.
My question is, since you believe in this, how do you reconcile this with Daniel 12:2? Specifically, how do you define עוֹלָ֔ם (olam), and the Septuagint’s equivalent αἰώνιος (aionios) to get around this proof text for Eternal Conscious Torment?
And an extra question if you don’t mind (I may make this question a separate post): Was this view, of Gehinnom/Gehenna being a purifying place, existent in 1st century Judaism like it is now? I have read This article on it, and they claim it did somewhat exist (Albeit not the most common view). In that article they mention how one school of thought didn’t believe in Gehenna, just eternal bliss or eternal repulsion, and the other eternal bliss, gehenna, and eternal repulsion. Was gehenna only known to be as a purifying place, and that first school of thought just didn’t believe in “gehenna”? This is significant for me, the Gospels only spoke of “Gehenna”, and if it was understood as a purifying place in the 1st century, then that has implications.
If there are any Jewish Scholars or Rabbis (Or anyone else) willing to help me that would be amazing.
God bless, thank you so much.
EDIT: The FAQ mentioned that “Maimonides” do not believe in a purifying place like the common view, thus the title.
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Source: Reditt
