In brief#
"There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth" is one of the most quoted phrases in the whole debate, and it is worth asking what the two words mean. Gnashing of teeth signals anger everywhere else it appears in Scripture, and weeping signals grief.
Eternal conscious torment (ECT), the view that the lost suffer consciously without end, takes the phrase as a description of the settled condition of the lost. Conditional immortality (CI), the view that unending life is given rather than innate, agrees that the response is real and conscious, and observes that no text says it continues without end. The phrase turns up in parables with a fiery furnace and in parables with no fire at all, which points to the judgment scene rather than to a place of ongoing burning.
Why ECT interpreters cite this passage#
The traditional reading has real force here and should be stated before it is answered.
The phrase is Jesus' own, and he uses it repeatedly across different parables. A formula repeated that often is not incidental colour; it is a settled way of describing the condition of those shut out. Whatever the words mean, they describe people who are conscious, aware of their situation and reacting to it.
In Matthew 13 the phrase follows the throwing into the furnace. The most natural reading of a sentence in that order is that the weeping and gnashing happen after the throwing, which is to say in the furnace. If the weeds were simply burned up and that were the end of it, adding a description of conscious anguish afterwards would be strange. Jesus adds it, and the traditional reading takes the addition seriously.
In Matthew 22 and Matthew 25 the phrase is attached to the outer darkness, and the man is cast into it. "Cast into" describes a destination, and a destination is a place where someone is, not a moment through which someone passes. Jude reinforces the picture by saying the blackest darkness has been reserved for such people for ever: a permanent condition and a location, named together.
What the two words mean elsewhere#
Gnashing of teeth denotes anger#
Every other occurrence of gnashing of teeth in Scripture is an expression of rage, not of physical suffering.
He has torn me in his wrath, and persecuted me. He has gnashed on me with his teeth. My adversary sharpens his eyes on me.
Job is describing what he takes to be God's anger and hostility toward him.
Like the profane mockers in feasts, they gnashed their teeth at me.
David is describing his enemies.
Now when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth.
The members of the council are furious with Stephen. They are not in pain; they are enraged.
The most telling instance for this discussion pairs the gnashing with an outcome:
The wicked will see it, and be grieved. He shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away. The desire of the wicked will perish.
The wicked see the righteous lifted up, gnash their teeth, and melt away. Whatever "melt away" describes, it is not a condition that lasts for ever.
Weeping denotes grief#
The word rendered weeping, κλαυθμός (klauthmos, weeping, wailing), carries sorrow rather than physical pain.
“A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children; she wouldn’t be comforted, because they are no more.”
Rachel weeps for her children and refuses to be comforted, because they are no more.
They all wept a lot, and fell on Paul’s neck and kissed him,
The Ephesian elders weep as Paul leaves them. Grief, not agony. Taken together, the phrase reads most naturally as sorrow and anger rather than as pain or the reaction to pain.
The phrase appears with fire and without it#
This observation does the most work. The phrase occurs in a parable with a fiery furnace (Matthew 13) and in parables with no fire mentioned at all (Luke 13, Matthew 22, Matthew 25). If the weeping and gnashing were the reaction to being burned, the occurrences without any fire would be out of place. The better account is that the response is sorrow and anger at being cast away from the Lord's presence, which is common to all these parables.
Two things follow. The phrase is not confined to the furnace and is not the primary outcome of the furnace. And the traditional argument that the furnace does not destroy the wicked, made on the ground that they go on weeping and gnashing afterwards, is therefore not established by the text.
Luke 13 and the question of "that place"#
22He went on his way through cities and villages, teaching, and traveling on to Jerusalem. 23One said to him, “Lord, are they few who are saved?” He said to them, 24“Strive to enter in by the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter in, and will not be able. 25When once the master of the house has risen up, and has shut the door, and you begin to stand outside, and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ then he will answer and tell you, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ 26Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ 27He will say, ‘I tell you, I don’t know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity.’ 28There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets, in the Kingdom of God, and yourselves being thrown outside. 29They will come from the east, west, north, and south, and will sit down in the Kingdom of God. 30Behold, there are some who are last who will be first, and there are some who are first who will be last.”
The scene describes the last judgment. The householder gets up, closes the door and refuses to recognise those knocking. Just as the exchange in verses 25 to 27 happens once rather than repeating for ever, the weeping and gnashing in verse 28 belongs to that occasion, describing what happens as they are thrown out.
Then there is the phrase "in that place." Which place? The only place described in the whole story is the house, and the house is where they are not admitted. There is no second location in the parable, no place they are subsequently sent to, so "in that place" is most naturally read as the judgment scene itself.
Matthew 13 and the furnace#
24He set another parable before them, saying, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field, 25but while people slept, his enemy came and sowed darnel weeds also among the wheat, and went away. 26But when the blade sprang up and produced fruit, then the darnel weeds appeared also. 27The servants of the householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where did this darnel come from?’ 28“He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and gather them up?’ 29“But he said, ‘No, lest perhaps while you gather up the darnel weeds, you root up the wheat with them. 30Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First, gather up the darnel weeds, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn.”’” 31He set another parable before them, saying, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field; 32which indeed is smaller than all seeds. But when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in its branches.” 33He spoke another parable to them. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast, which a woman took, and hid in three measuresof meal, until it was all leavened.” 34Jesus spoke all these things in parables to the multitudes; and without a parable, he didn’t speak to them, 35that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying, “I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world.” 36Then Jesus sent the multitudes away, and went into the house. His disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the darnel weeds of the field.” 37He answered them, “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, 38the field is the world; and the good seed, these are the children of the Kingdom; and the darnel weeds are the children of the evil one. 39The enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40As therefore the darnel weeds are gathered up and burned with fire; so will it be at the end of this age. 41The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather out of his Kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and those who do iniquity, 42and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth. 43Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
The same phrase, "in that place," appears here, and the same reading applies: it most likely refers to the whole scene of the last judgment rather than to the interior of the furnace. The wording is identical to Luke 13:28, where there is no furnace at all, and the parable of the net later in the same chapter (Matthew 13:47-50) closes with the same formula. On either view of final punishment, weeping and gnashing would naturally surround all the events of the last judgment rather than being confined to what happens in the fire.
If a reader holds instead that the response must take place inside the furnace, the conditionalist reading still stands. It is perfectly possible to be conscious and to react while being burned up; nothing requires the fire to extinguish a person instantly.
The author's own suggestion is that Jesus adds the clause in verse 42 to mark the limits of the parable. Weeds burn without feeling anything; the unrighteous will have a conscious response in the process. The clause guards against reading the parable as though the end were a painless switching off. It does not suggest the unrighteous fail to burn up, which would undo the point of choosing weeds at all.
Matthew 22: the wedding feast#
1Jesus answered and spoke again in parables to them, saying, 2“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a certain king, who made a marriage feast for his son, 3and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the marriage feast, but they would not come. 4Again he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “Behold, I have prepared my dinner. My cattle and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the marriage feast!”’ 5But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his merchandise, 6and the rest grabbed his servants, and treated them shamefully, and killed them. 7When the king heard that, he was angry, and sent his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. 8“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited weren’t worthy. 9Go therefore to the intersections of the highways, and as many as you may find, invite to the marriage feast.’ 10Those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together as many as they found, both bad and good. The wedding was filled with guests. 11But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man who didn’t have on wedding clothing, 12and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here not wearing wedding clothing?’ He was speechless. 13Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and throw him into the outer darkness; there is where the weeping and grinding of teeth will be.’ 14For many are called, but few chosen.”
This parable is the most instructive of the set, because it contains two different punishments. Those who refused the invitation and mistreated the servants are dealt with in verse 7: the king sends his troops, destroys those murderers and burns their city. That is destruction, stated plainly.
The man without a wedding garment is then bound hand and foot and cast into the outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. The whole parable takes place in the ordinary physical world of kings, servants and cities, and nothing between verse 7 and verse 13 signals a shift to a realm where a response continues for ever.
That creates a difficulty for reading the phrase as unending conscious torment. It would mean that those who openly refused the invitation and murdered the king's servants received the lesser, finite punishment of being destroyed, while the man who came improperly dressed received an infinitely greater one. Read instead as the sorrow and anger of being shut out of the feast and ultimately perishing, the two outcomes fall into a sensible order.
Being bound hand and foot and thrown out points the same way. To be put out of the feast is to be put away from light, protection and food. A person tied up outside is not being housed somewhere, and is not going to last long.
Matthew 25 and the outer darkness#
14“For it is like a man, going into another country, who called his own servants, and entrusted his goods to them. 15To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one; to each according to his own ability. Then he went on his journey. 16Immediately he who received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. 17In the same way, he also who got the two gained another two. 18But he who received the one went away and dug in the earth, and hid his lord’s money. 19“Now after a long time the lord of those servants came, and reconciled accounts with them. 20He who received the five talents came and brought another five talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents. Behold, I have gained another five talents besides them.’ 21“His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ 22“He also who got the two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents. Behold, I have gained another two talents besides them.’ 23“His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ 24“He also who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you that you are a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter. 25I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the earth. Behold, you have what is yours.’ 26“But his lord answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant. You knew that I reap where I didn’t sow, and gather where I didn’t scatter. 27You ought therefore to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received back my own with interest. 28Take away therefore the talent from him, and give it to him who has the ten talents. 29For to everyone who has will be given, and he will have abundance, but from him who doesn’t have, even that which he has will be taken away. 30Throw out the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
The worthless servant is cast into the outer darkness, and there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. The same formula appears earlier in Matthew, applied to those who are thrown out while others sit down at the feast:
but the children of the Kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Sorrow and anger expressed in the darkness outside do not imply that the one expressing them is immortal. And the wording repays exact reading: "there will be" is not "there will for ever be."
A pattern runs through all these parables. The righteous have somewhere prepared for them: a barn, containers, a house, a feast. The unrighteous have nowhere. Even being thrown into the furnace is a way of being thrown away rather than of being placed. That argument is developed in S20.
What is never said#
The Bible nowhere says there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth for ever and ever. The nearest thing to it is the torment of Revelation 20:10, stated of the devil, the beast and the false prophet, which is treated in S03.
Outer darkness in Jude and 2 Peter#
wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever.
The phrase about darkness being reserved for ever admits of two readings, and both should be stated. The first is that the blackest darkness has always been reserved for them, from the beginning, so that "for ever" describes how long the reservation has stood rather than how long they will be in it. The second is that their end is to be for ever in blackest darkness; the author judges this the less likely of the two on linguistic grounds, and that judgement is his own rather than a finding this page can verify.
Even on the second reading the verse fits conditional immortality. Non-existence, and above all being no longer in the presence of the Lord, is the deepest darkness there is.
These are wells without water, clouds driven by a storm; for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever.
The author reads this part of 2 Peter as running in chronological order, which would place the darkness of 2:17 before the Day of the Lord in chapter 3, and so before the unrighteous are destroyed by fire. That is an inference about the letter's arrangement, not a claim the passage makes about itself. Earlier in the same chapter, 2 Peter 2:4 describes darkness as the condition of the angels being held for judgment, so it makes sense that the wicked would experience it before judgment too.
Darkness carries the association elsewhere. It covered the land before Jesus died on the cross, functioning as a sign of impending death rather than a permanent dwelling. That passage is treated in S17.
What this argument establishes#
- Gnashing of teeth conveys anger everywhere else it appears in Scripture, and weeping conveys grief.
- The phrase occurs both with fire and without any fire, so it is not a description of the experience of burning.
- In Luke 13 the only place described in the story is the house, so "in that place" most naturally refers to the judgment scene.
- No text says that weeping and gnashing of teeth continues for ever and ever.
What it does not establish by itself#
- That the response is brief, or that it involves no pain. Neither follows.
- That the phrase can never refer to any period after the judgment scene itself.
- That the parables settle the question of final punishment. They are parables, and each makes its own point.
Conclusion#
Weeping and gnashing of teeth, and the darkness that accompanies it, make sense in the intermediate state and they make sense as a response to the punishment phase of the Day of Judgment. Neither location requires that they last for ever.
Related sections and passages#
What fire does throughout Scripture is S13. The rich man and Lazarus is S05. The Day of Judgment is S23. The lake of fire and the second death is S03, and the argument that the unrighteous have no place prepared for them is S20.
Sources and notes#
A longer treatment of the phrase across the Synoptic parables is available from Rethinking Hell [Weeping and gnashing], and Joseph Dear's book covers the same material at greater length [Dear]. Both are conditionalist sources, cited as advocacy rather than as neutral authorities.