Perdition

Not annihilation. For in the case of the lost not only the worm but "their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched"; i.e. both the instrument of punishment, and the object of it, the lost man, die not. Thrice repeated by Christ with awful emphasis (Mar 9:44; Mar 9:46; Mar 9:48). (See HELL.) Mat 10:28; Mat 13:50; Mat 3:12; 2Th 1:9; Joh 3:36; Joh 5:29; Isa 66:24 ten "son of perditions"; applied only to him and Judas, marking the like character and destiny of both (Joh 17:12; Act 1:20; Psalm 69; 2 Thessalonians 2; Rev 17:10-11); his course is short, from the moment of his manifestation doomed to perdition. (See ANTICHRIST.)

PERDITION.—See Destruction.

PERDITION.—The word is used several times in the NT in the ordinary sense of ‘destruction,’ with special reference to the destruction of the soul (Php 1:28, 1Ti 6:9, Heb 10:39, 2Pe 3:7, Rev 17:8; Rev 17:11). It is found twice in the phrase son of perdition—a Heb. expression denoting close connexion between product and producer (cf. ‘sons of thunder,’ ‘sons of light,’ etc.). In Joh 17:12 the phrase is applied to Judas Iscariot, while in 2Th 2:3 it is used of the ‘man of sin,’ or Antichrist. In the latter context a great deal of discussion has centred round the meaning of the reference (see art. Antichrist). It will suffice here to point out that the phrase in 2Th 2:3, ‘the son of perdition,’ combined with certain passages in the Apocalypse (ch. 13), points to a constant tradition in the Christian Church of the Apostolic Age, which appears, from the passages alluded to, to have conceived not of a foreign potentate alien to the Church, but rather of a false Messiah who should be ‘sent to them that are perishing’ (namely, the Jews), and was expected to make his appearance at Jerusalem. The phrase ‘son of perdition’ suggest not so much the power of destruction exerted upon those coming under the sphere of the evil influence, as the effect of wickedness upon the soul of the individual to whom the phrase in each case, is applied.

T. A. Moxon.

pẽr-dish´un (ἀπώλεια, apṓleia, “ruin” or “loss,” physical or eternal): The word “perdition” occurs in the English Bible 8 times (Joh 17:12; Php 1:28; 2Th 2:3; 1Ti 6:9; Heb 10:39; 2Pe 3:7; Rev 17:11, Rev 17:18). In each of these cases it denotes the final state of ruin and punishment which forms the opposite to salvation. The verb apollúein, from which the word is derived, has two meanings: (1) to lose; (2) to destroy. Both of these pass over to the noun, so that apōleia comes to signify: (1) loss; (2) ruin, destruction. The former occurs in Mat 26:8; Mar 14:4, the latter in the passages cited above. Both meanings had been adopted into the religious terminology of the Scriptures as early as the Septuagint. “To be lost” in the religious sense may mean “to be missing” and “to be ruined,” The former meaning attaches to it in the teaching of Jesus, who compares the lost sinner to the missing coin, the missing sheep, and makes him the object of a seeking activity (Mat 10:6; Mat 15:24; Mat 18:11; Luk 15:4, Luk 15:6, Luk 15:8, Luk 15:24, Luk 15:32; Luk 19:10). “To be lost” here signifies to have become estranged from God, to miss realizing the relations which man normally sustains toward Him. It is equivalent to what is theologically called “spiritual death.” This conception of “loss” enters also into the description of the eschatological fate of the sinner as assigned in the judgment (Luk 9:24; Luk 17:33), which is a loss of life. The other meaning of “ruin” and “destruction” describes the same thing from a different point of view. Apōleia being the opposite of sōtēria, and sōtēria in its technical usage denoting the reclaiming from death unto life, apōleia also acquires the specific sense of such ruin and destruction as involves an eternal loss of life (Php 1:28; Heb 10:39). Perdition in this latter sense is equivalent to what theology calls “eternal death.” When in Rev 17:8, Rev 17:11 it is predicated of “the beast,” one of the forms of the world-power, this must be understood on the basis of the Old Testament prophetic representation according to which the coming judgment deals with powers rather than persons.

The Son of Perdition is a name given to Judas (Joh 17:12) and to the Antichrist (2Th 2:3). This is the well-known Hebrew idiom by which a person typically embodying a certain trait or character or destiny is called the son of that thing. The name therefore represents Judas and the Antichrist (see MAN OF SIN) as most irrecoverably and completely devoted to the final apōleia.

The word ἀðþëåéá is rendered both ‘destruction’ and ‘perdition’ in the NT (AV_ and RV_). It is not always easy to say with positiveness which translation is preferable. Jesus came ‘to seek and to save that which was lost’ (ôὸ ἀðïëùëüò, Luk_19:10), those who were still alive, not destroyed. Judas is called ὁ õἱὸò ôῆò ἀðùëåßáò (Joh_17:12), ‘son of perdition,’ and the same phrase is used of ὁ ἄíèñùðïò ôῆò ἀíïìßáò, ‘the man of sin,’ in 2Th_2:3, which is variously interpreted of the Roman Emperor, the Roman Empire, or a false Messiah (cf. Revelation 13). The notion here is not the ruin wrought by ‘the son of perdition’ so much as that coming to him. In Php_3:19 the RV_ translates ὧí ôὸ ôÝëïò ἀðþëåéá, ‘whose end is perdition,’ not ‘destruction’ as the AV_, because ôÝëïò is a future and final punishment. And yet in 2Pe_3:7 the RV_ has displaced ‘perdition’ of the AV_ by ‘destruction.’ So the RV_ has ‘destruction’ in the other passages in 2 Pet. (2Pe_2:1 bis 2Pe_3:16). In 1Ti_6:9 åἱò ὄëåèñïí êáὶ ἀðþëåéáí the RV_ distinguishes between the two and gives ‘destruction and perdition,’ but no consistent principle of distinction exists in the translation of ἀðþëåéá in the NT. The advocates of annihilation and conditional immortality appeal to the etymology of the word ἀðüëëõìé. The advocates of probation after death likewise argue that there is nothing in ἀðþëåéá to mean interminable punishment. The contrast, however, is sharply drawn in Php_1:28 and Heb_10:39 between those who are saved and those who fall into perdition; cf. also Rev_17:8; Rev_17:11, where it describes the state of eternal misery, the lot of those excluded from the Kingdom of God. The word is common in the LXX_ and appears in Aristotle, Nic. Eth. IV. i. 5, Polybius, VI. lix. 5, etc. Even when translated ‘destruction’ in the RV_ the word may still have the notion of eternal misery and not mere annihilation (see Destruction). But it must be admitted that the term ἀðþëåéá does not decide the question whether ‘perdition’ is interminable or limited (see Fire, vol. i. p. 409 f.). We may well leave the problem of a second probation to God, after remarking that it has very slender support in the NT outside of the possible interpretation of 1Pe_3:19 f. The Christian preacher is on safe ground when he warns the sinner not to risk the vague chance of that alternative. The problem of eternal life or death is settled by the issues of this life. See, further, Destruction, Eschatology, and Fire.

A. T. Robertson.