Originally Posted by
jlisenbe
The deal is this. The word translated "eternal" bothers you. You have come up with an alternative translation as used by Robert Young. "46 And these shall go away to punishment age-during, but the righteous to life age-during." Now that's an extraordinarliy minorty translation, but even if we accept it, it presents several problems. 1. If hell is some temporary span, then so is heaven, for it is the same word in both instances. 2. Jesus still plainly says he is going to send people to hell, so you haven't solved that (for you) problem. 3. It is depicted by Jesus as a fiery place of torment for the unrighteous. 4. It was prepared for the devil, but if it's only temporary, then the devil himself will get out at some point.
So it seems that you are reduced to telling people that they should do whatever it is you think they should do lest they go to hell for merely an "age-during". Still doesn't sound good to me.
But even at that, the hundreds of committed scholars who have chosen to render the word as "eternal" trumps your two or three in spades. So if given the choice between believing you or believing them, I'm going with them. I think your argument for aionios is pretty lame (my word!), as is your dubious explanation for why nearly all scholars disagree with you.
Same thing with hell. Given the choice between believing you and believing what Jesus said, I'm going with Jesus.