- Table of Contents
- What you must know to read and understand this book
- Introduction
- Chapter 1: The Purpose of this Book
- Chapter 2: The Dead Sea Scrolls Textual Variant
- Chapter 3: The Dead Sea Scrolls Variant Points to the Old Testament Sacrifices
- Chapter 4: The Second Coming Fulfills the Old Testament Sacrifices
- Chapter 5: The Wicked are a Sacrifice
- Chapter 6: The Meaning of the Sacrifice Symbolism in Isaiah 34
- Chapter 7: Additional Hard Stops for the Duration of Punishment
- Chapter 8: The End of the Wicked is Ashes Outside the City, Not Endless Torment
- Chapter 9: The Wicked of the Sea are No More
- Chapter 10: More "αἰῶνας αἰώνων" Pointers to Ashes, Dead Souls, and Second Coming Judgment
- Chapter 11: Hell is Made Holy and Poetic Justice is Served
- Chapter 12: The Language of Action with Endless Results and Finite Duration
- Chapter 13: Final Interpretation and Checking the Answer in the Back of the Book
- Glossary
- Bibliography
Hell is Made Holy
How the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Book of Revelation show that the wicked and hell cease to exist
By David Aaron Beaty
Visit author’s web site at www.davidaaronbeaty.com
Chapter 8
The End of the Wicked is Ashes Outside the City Not Endless Torment
I keep asserting that Revelation 14:11; 19:3; and 20:10 draw on sacrifice symbolism, but don't there have to be some literal events or phenomena that follow the meaning of the symbolism? Without this, what would the purpose of the symbolism be? Of course the answer is yes, and we'll see that the book of Revelation points us directly to the literal meaning which quite precisely mirrors the symbolism of sacrifice. The sacrificial system that began at the tabernacle inauguration had as the final result of many of its rituals and sacrifices, a heap of ashes which was located outside the camp or outside the city of Jerusalem. In the Old Testament tabernacle inauguration and its ensuing sacrificial system, the priests were consecrated and fitted with new robes, sacrifices were made, God's presence comes, fire falls from God to consume the sacrifices, ashes are the result of the fire, and then the smoke begins to go up from generation to generation signaling the beginning of an enduring but not yet endless covenant. In the Book of Revelation and generally at the biblical second coming, the same pattern is followed.
The Christian priests are consecrated with the blood of Jesus and new white robes in heaven, the wicked are the sacrifices, Jesus comes as God's presence, the fire of Jesus falls to consume the sacrifices, the sacrifices who are the wicked are turned into ashes on the earth, and then the smoke in a symbolic sense begins to go up forever and ever signaling the beginning of an endless covenant. Will the only remains of the wicked literally be ashes though? We will see there is very strong support for this literal final end.
As I've already shown, the unique word construction in Revelation 14:11, "αἰῶνας αἰώνων", "ages ages" points to Psalm 22, the highly prophetic Psalm about Jesus and how he would be a sacrifice for sin. In the Old Testament sacrificial system, very little of the sin offerings were used in the tabernacle and on the altar. Most of the slain animal was taken outside the camp/city and burned to ashes. As you probably know, the theme of being outside the camp in the Old Testament signified, uncleanness, separation from God and His people, and generally rejection by God. We know that Jesus suffered, "outside the camp", in the words of the apostle Paul, mirroring precisely the procedures of the Old Testament sin offering which Jesus was:
[Hebrews 13:11-14 ESV] 11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. 12 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. 13 Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.
We know that Gehenna, the valley of Hinnom, the lake of fire, is a place which is literally outside the gate, outside the city, outside the camp. You can go walk through it today on the south and southwest sides of Jerusalem, just as Jeremiah describes it below in antiquity:
[Jeremiah 19:1-7 ESV] 1 Thus says the LORD, "Go, buy a potter's earthenware flask, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests, 2 and go out to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom at the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you. 3 You shall say, 'Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing such disaster upon this place that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. 4 Because the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known; and because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents, 5 and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind-- 6 therefore, behold, days are coming, declares the LORD, when this place shall no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. 7 And in this place I will make void the plans of Judah and Jerusalem, and will cause their people to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life. I will give their dead bodies for food to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the earth.
Does this prophecy above about Gehenna, the valley of Hinnom, sound anything like what we have seen in end times prophecies for Gehenna? We know it does. See here again below:
[Isaiah 66:22-24 ESV] 22 "For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the LORD, so shall your offspring and your name remain. 23 From new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the LORD. 24 "And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh."
[Mark 9:47-48 WEB] 47 If your eye causes you to stumble, cast it out. It is better for you to enter into God’s Kingdom with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into the Gehenna of fire, 48 ‘where their worm doesn’t die, and the fire is not quenched.’
As we've seen in the Book of Revelation, the wicked are to be a sacrifice, but they are also to be outside the city, outside the camp. Here John shows us that he recognizes that "the city" and "the camp" are one and the same, just as they are in the Old Testament sacrificial system as the temple practices transition from the mobile tent tabernacle over to the temple of Solomon:
[Revelation 20:9 ESV] 9 And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them,
And then when the events of Revelation have concluded, after God has come, the fire has fallen, and the sacrifices are consumed to nothing but ashes, the wicked are "outside the city" reduced to nothing but ashes:
[Revelation 22:14-15 ESV] 14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. 15 Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
Where did I get the ashes from in Revelation 22:14-15 above? It's clear in John's entire narrative in Revelation that the wicked are a sacrifice. If we follow along in the theme of the tabernacle inauguration and sacrificial system, as I have shown Revelation does throughout, the only way a sacrifice exists outside the city is in a state of having been reduced completely to nothing but ashes. This is exactly what John in Revelation tells us is going to happen to the wicked. Of course he does this in his usual style by pointing to another passage where we find the more explicit description of the wicked becoming ashes. Before we discuss John's pointing reference to the other passage, we need to be keeping in mind that Revelation 21, 22, and to some degree 20 are thematically unified. They are part of a long description of the "eternal state" and its initial emergence. The "eternal state" is the final, perfected, redeemed, unified state of heaven and earth with God and man both dwelling in it together. So things that we see in Revelation chapters 20, 21, and 22 should be recognized as being closely related. With that, here in six numbered groupings of passages which follow are the numerous pointing references displaying the connections between the Revelation description of the "eternal state" and the description of the wicked being ashes in Malachi 3 and 4. All the passages pointing to each other are grouped together, and the pointing phrases found in each group of passages are underlined as needed to help display the connections. Keep in mind as you read these that Malachi 3 and 4 also make up a singular related description, as can obviously be seen by the flow of thought across the chapter break from chapter 3 to chapter 4:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
As you may already realize (swiftly, ταχ ύ, G5035)above from Revelation is the adverbial counterpart of the adjective word (swift, ταχ ὺς, G5036)from the Septuagint of Malachi. Correspondingly (witness, μ αρ τυρ έ ω , G3140)from Revelation is the verb counterpart of the noun word (witness, μ άρ τυς , G3144) from the Septuagint of Malachi.
So with all these numerous connections between Malachi 3-4 and Revelation 20-22 we can see that Jesus is obviously the "Swift Witness" from Malachi 3-4 who turns the wicked into ashes "outside" the "city" at the time of the eternal state in Revelation 20-22. See below the last of the six groups of passages which show the connections between the eternal state in Revelation and the wicked finally being ashes in Malachi. As you read, notice that the Leviticus verses are out of the Greek Septuagint and they share the same Greek word for "outside" which is also used in the Revelation and Hebrews verses:
6.
Take notice of how the ash producing burning of the sin sacrifice "outside" the camp in Hebrews 13 above is directly associated in Hebrews 13 with the city, the camp, and "the city that is to come". What is this "city that is to come"? Of course it is the Heavenly City, the New Jerusalem, heaven on earth, the same city being described in Revelation 22:15 relative to which the wicked......."outside". So what is this place "outside" in Revelation 22:15 above that is very likely full of ashes in the end? It is the lake of fire, the second death. Compare these Revelation verses here again below:
[Revelation 21:8 ESV] 8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death."
[Revelation 22:15 ESV] 15 Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
Remember that the "second death", according to the Targum Jonathan of Jeremiah 51 to which John may be pointing by his very use of the phrase "second death", is "to not live in the world to come" or the Hebrew Masoretic version, "sleep a perpetual sleep and never wake up". That's pretty outrageous, me trying to say that the description of the eternal state in Revelation 20-22 describes the wicked and their final fate, the lake of fire, Gehenna, "outside" as finally being ashes. Revelation 22 and its pointing directly to the "Swift Witness" who turns the wicked into ashes in Malachi make this connection very clear as I showed above, but here it is straight from Jesus' lips again below in Matthew 13 and Luke 13, if you are still not convinced. Jesus' comments on hell in Matthew 13 and Luke 13 below are pointing straight to Malachi, the Swift Witness, and the final end of the wicked being ashes and being cast "out". This is just the same Greek word for "outside" or "out" used to describe the wicked in Revelation 22, "outside" the "city". Take a read:
[Luke 13:28 ESV] 28 In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out (ἔ ξω , outside, G1854).
[Matthew 13:37-43, 49-50 NASB20] 37 And He said, "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, 38 and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the weeds are the sons of the evil one; 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels. 40 "So just as the weeds are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. 41 "The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, 42 and they will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 "Then THE RIGHTEOUS WILL SHINE FORTH LIKE THE SUN in the kingdom of their Father. The one who has ears, let him hear. ... 49 "So it will be at the end of the age: the angels will come forth and remove the wicked from among the righteous, 50 and they will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Notice the "furnace", the "righteous" "sun", and the totally burned up plants in the place of "weeping and gnashing of teeth" which is described as "out" in Luke 13 and Matthew 13 above. The same things all appear again in Malachi 4 below, which we've already seen is tightly connected to Revelation 22 in which the wicked are described as "outside":
[Malachi 4:1-3 NASB20] 1 "For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze," says the LORD of armies, "so that it will leave them neither root nor branches. 2 "But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and frolic like calves from the stall. 3 "And you will crush the wicked underfoot, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I am preparing," says the LORD of armies.
Also, call to mind that both righteous Jesus and his righteous people have God as "their Father", so the "Sun" in Matthew 13 far above and in Malachi 4 above can both be referring to Jesus. This strengthens the pointing connection between Matthew 13 and Malachi 4. From all this, we can see that Jesus is very obviously and intentionally connecting his statements about hell in Matthew 13 and Luke 13 far above to the wicked being ashes in Malachi 4 above. So "outside" the "city" in Revelation 22 is being ashes in Malachi, just as "out" in hell, the place of "weeping and gnashing of teeth" in Matthew 13 and Luke 13 far above, is also being ashes in Malachi. Ergo the triangle of connections is completed and the place "outside" the "city" in Revelation 22 is the same place described by Jesus in Matthew 13 and Luke 13. Both places are hell, the place of ashes in Malachi 4. Recall that in the Bible hell is Gehenna, the literal valley of Hinnom, and it is located just outside the city of Jerusalem. So would it make sense for Revelation to describe the final resting place of the ashes of the wicked as being literally "outside" the "city"?
Did Jesus' comment about "ears" far above in Matthew 13:43 in his extensive discussion about hell ring any bells for you? Recall that the "ears" that "hear" and the "second death" in Revelation may point us to Jeremiah 51 of the Aramaic Targums, where the second death is, "to not live in the world to come". And then, as you may recall, the Hebrew Old Testament and Greek Septuagint versions of Jeremiah 51, have the phrases, "sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake up" and "go into a deep sleep, and sleep an eternal sleep, and shall not be awakened" instead of having the phrase, "die the second death, and shall not live for the world to come" as seen in the Targum Jonathan of Jeremiah. Here are the connecting passages again:
[Matthew 13:43 NASB20] 43 "Then THE RIGHTEOUS WILL SHINE FORTH LIKE THE SUN in the kingdom of their Father.
The one who has ears, let him hear.
[Revelation 2:11 WEB] He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. He who overcomes won’t be harmed by the second death.
The Targum...........................
[Isaiah 22:14 Targum Jonathan] The prophet said, With my ears I was hearing when this was decreed before the LORD God of hosts: "Surely this sin will not be forgiven you until you die the second death," says the LORD God of hosts. (Chilton, 1990, Vol. 11, pg. 44)
The Targum...........................
[Jeremiah 51:39-40 Targum Jonathan] 39 Bring distress upon them, and they shall be like drunken men, so that they shall not be strong; and they shall die the second death, and shall not live for the world to come, says the Lord. 40 I will hand them over like bulls to the slaughter, like rams, with goats. (Hayward, 1987, Vol. 12, pg. 187)
The Hebrew...........................
[Jeremiah 51:39,57 WEB] 39 When they are heated, I will make their feast, and I will make them drunk, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake up, " says Yahweh ... 57 I will make her princes, her wise men, her governors, her deputies, and her mighty men drunk. They will sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake up, " says the King, whose name is Yahweh of Armies.
The Septuagint...........................
[Jeremiah 51:39 LES2] When they are hot, I will give them a drink, and I will make them drunk in order that they might go into a deep sleep, and sleep an eternal sleep, and shall not be awakened, " says the Lord.
So if we gather the meaning of all the total of all the wording and imagery reference pointers in Jesus' statements regarding the place "outside" the "city" in Revelation 22, what do we get? What we get is that the place "outside" the "city" in Revelation 22 is the place of "weeping and gnashing of teeth", it is "out", it is the "furnace of fire", it is the place of the "ashes", possibly the place of those who will "sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake up", the place of the final ashy remnants of the no longer existent wicked. This, of course, precisely mirrors the ashes of the Old Testament sin sacrifices being outside the city after they are slain and burnt to nonexistence. This follows along with the consistent pattern that we keep seeing of Revelation mirroring and fulfilling the prophetic nature of the Old Testament sacrificial system right? From this we have very strong evidence that Jesus is saying that the wicked will finally be dead ashes outside the city just like the sacrifices, not writhing in torment for eternity. They weep and gnash their teeth until they die, crumbling into a pile of ashes. Romans 6:23a "For the wages of sin is death", not eternal, immortal life in flames.
While we are on the topic of the furnace of fire, it's relevant to discuss one more of those six Psalms that the odd word construction in Revelation 14:11 points to. Just like Revelation 14:11 with its "αἰῶνας αἰώνων", "ages ages", Psalm 21 in the Septuagint has two occurrences of the odd word construction, "αἰῶνα αἰῶνος", "age age" in verses 4 and 6. If we look at the content of a translation of the Hebrew Masoretic text of Psalm 21 below, we see the same "fiery furnace" concept popping up yet again. Does this look familiar?:
[Psalm 21:7-10 WEB] 7 For the king trusts in Yahweh. Through the loving kindness of the Most High, he shall not be moved. 8 Your hand will find out all of your enemies. Your right hand will find out those who hate you. 9 You will make them as a fiery furnace in the time of your anger. Yahweh will swallow them up in his wrath. The fire shall devour them. 10 You will destroy their descendants from the earth, their posterity from among the children of men.
And then here below is an English translation of the Septuagint of Psalm 21 with essentially the same message. Bear in mind that the Greek word for "oven" in Psalm 21 below is the same Greek word in the Septuagint version of Malachi where the "oven" turns the wicked to ashes:
[Psalm 21:7-10 LES2] 7 For the king hopes upon the Lord, and in the mercy of the Most High he will not be shaken. 8 May your hand be found against all your enemies. May your right hand find all those who are hating you. 9 You will set them as an oven of fire for the time of your face, O Lord. With your wrath you will confound them, and fire will devour them. 10 You will destroy their fruit from the earth, and their seed from the sons of humans,
As you can see, the content of both Psalm 21 in the Masoretic text and in the Septuagint above are just restating the same thing that we see in Malachi 3 and 4, with the fiery furnace/oven eliminating those who are not in the book of life. In Malachi 3 and 4, they are ashes. In Psalm 21 they are "devoured" by the fire, which makes them what?.......Ashes. John and the Holy Spirit are pointing to this content so many times and in so many ways our heads are left spinning. The wicked are outside the city in a heap of ashes.
You may still not be convinced though. It's such a forceful statement that the wicked "are outside" the "city" in Revelation 22:15. It sounds just like what our pastors told us. They "are outside" the city writhing in torment for all of eternity. There's another very obvious major problem with this though. The wicked "are" not necessarily physically located outside according to the Greek language of this verse. We'll see this is just another case of a non-existent assumed elided verb that has no explicitly expressed verb tense. According to the proper use of the Greek language, its past or present tense cannot be determined from translation only, but it has to be interpreted from the context surrounding it. Recall that the context of Revelation chapter 22 is Revelation chapter 21. Both chapters are part of an extended description of the new heavens and the new earth and heaven on earth, the holy city, the New Jerusalem. If the wicked are outside the gates of the city writhing and screaming in pain for all future time, as the traditional view of hell might tell us, then how do the characteristics of the new heaven and the new earth and the holy city abide by the description we see in Revelation 21 below which is the context for our elided verb? How will God's people pass in and out of the gates of the city as we see them doing below in Revelation 21 without being exposed to the abject horror that the traditional view of hell might read into Revelation 22:14-15 and its description of the wicked who are "outside"?
[Revelation 21:1-2, 4-5, 24-26 ESV] 1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband....4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. " 5 And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." ....24 By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, 25 and its gates will never be shut by day--and there will be no night there. 26 They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.
As I approach the gates of heaven, will the tears be wiped from my eyes as I see my unsaved friends from my past life writhing in torment for eternity? Will my unsaved friends be writhing in torment in this new heavens and new earth, a place where there is no mourning, crying, or pain, and the "former things" have passed away? What are the "former things" that have passed away which John is referring to in verse 4 above in regard to the new heavens and the new earth? These are very likely some of the things that he is referring to below in Isaiah 26 & 65 in regard to the new heavens and the new earth:
[Isaiah 65:17 NASB20] 17 "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former things will not be remembered or come to mind.
What is it that will not be remembered? Here's the answer:
[Isaiah 26:14 NASB20] 14 The dead will not live, the departed spirits will not rise; Therefore You have punished and destroyed them, And You have eliminated all remembrance of them.
So will God continually and endlessly and intentionally remind me of my unsaved friends by keeping them in an endless state of torment in a place "outside" the walls of heaven where I will pass by over and over again for eternity? Here's the answer again:
[Isaiah 66:23-24 NASB20] 23 "And it shall be from new moon to new moon And from Sabbath to Sabbath, All mankind will come to bow down before Me," says the LORD. 24 "Then they will go out and look At the corpses of the people Who have rebelled against Me. For their worm will not die And their fire will not be extinguished; And they will be an abhorrence to all mankind."
Do burning corpses writhe and scream in pain endlessly, or do they maybe end up as ashes like the scripture tells us repeatedly? Hint, hint......the Old Testament Hebrew word for "quench" or "extinguish" in Isaiah 66 above is used several times in other Old Testament passages in which the contexts very obviously demonstrate that it can mean intentionally putting out a fire like the fire department does. It doesn't have to describe an endlessly burning fire. In that sense, if a fire is not quenched, it burns until it completely consumes, which makes what?..........Ashes. And also, what happens to a fly maggot worm if it is feeding on rotting flesh and it doesn't die? You got it, it turns into a fly and flies away. It doesn't go on endlessly living as a maggot worm. We can see clearly that part of the context of this "outside", describing the final state of the wicked in Revelation 22 is contained in the four passages I just showed. "Outside" clearly does not describe a state of ongoing conscious existence in a geographic location just outside of heaven on earth, the New Jerusalem. The elided being verb, "are" has no context on which to base the verb tense "are" outside the city, unless the meaning of "outside" is something other than what we would typically expect. The fact that the being verb commonly inserted into the text is a non-existent elided verb is made obvious by the fact that some highly literalG translationsG don't even put the verb there. They just leave it as an awkward English word construction, translating it with something like, "And without, dogs, and charmers and fornicators, and murderers, and idolaters, and every one loving and doing a lie.", strong such as in the highly literal "Julia Smith Translation", which is also just known as "Smith's Literal Translation" (Smith, 1876, pg. 276).Various other translations utilize the uncertainty of the elided verb to translate it as something like "will be" instead of "are". In the 2006 revised edition "Revelation, Expositor's Bible Commentary", pg. 537, scholar Alan F. Johnson states: "There is no verb in the Greek text of the verse, so the time of the action is determined by the context." The context which has to be used to translate this elided verb is the broader meaning of being outside the camp, outside the city, or just "outside" throughout the Bible. At times being outside the camp was a temporary condition for an Israelite until their state of uncleanness had passed. Many times though, outside the camp/city was a place for a person to be killed as a result of a death sentence as in these passages:
Numbers 15:32-36; Leviticus 24:14-16; 1 Kings 21:11-13; Acts 7:57-59
In the Greek Septuagint and in the New Testament, the same Greek word for "outside" the city that John uses in Revelation 22:15 is seen to mean just exclusion without any connotations of geographic location:
1 John 4:18; John 9:34; Mark 4:11; Deuteronomy 25:5
As I've already extensively described, Revelation uses numerous pointing references to other passages to drop hints to us that the wicked are a sacrifice and that their final end is ashes. With all this in mind, how would the ancient reader of Revelation have interpreted the elided verb? What tense would they have assumed? What meaning? Would they have understood it as exclusion or ongoing conscious existence? Assuming that they were catching all the hints that John lays down, I think the answer is very clear. They would have understood the wicked to be outside the city as "ashes", as in Malachi 3-4, to possibly "not live in the world to come", as in Targum Jeremiah 51, to possibly "sleep a Perpetual sleep and never wake up", as in the Hebrew Masoretic text of Jeremiah 51, to "not be able to keep their soul alive" as in Psalm 22, to "be no more" as in Psalm 37, and to be "devoured by fire" as in Psalm 21. These are all passages that we have evidence John is pointing to throughout Revelation. So it's clear that John's audience would have seen the wicked as "outside" of the city in whatever sense and for whatever duration that ashes would be literally physically outside the city under the soles of the feet of those passing by as in Malachi. They would have possibly also understood the wicked to be outside the city in the sense of exclusion, for a permanent duration. That would be exclusion without ongoing conscious existence. I say literally physically ashes, because there is no part of the highly symbolic Old Testament sacrificial system in which the Israelites were instructed to walk through the ashes of the sacrifices. Yet in Malachi 4, there they are walking through the ashes of the wicked "under the soles of their feet" in a way that has no parallel in the Old Testament sacrificial system. This is a painfully obvious hint that God's people will literally walk through the ashes of the wicked. This would likely be the way that the ancient audience of Revelation would have elided the verb to mean either past, present, or future. In that sense, John's not putting an actual verb there, allows the meaning of the verse to fully encompass all that I have just described, without eliminating the possibility of any of it. In that sense, John's word construction may have been a clever use of words, allowing him to say everything by saying nothing: "They are excluded outside the city because they no longer exist. They were outside the city when they were being burned to an ashy non-existence. They always will be excluded outside the city for eternity because they no longer exist."
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