Key passage
Daniel 12:2
The clearest Old Testament statement of a two-outcome resurrection: everlasting life or everlasting contempt.
The text
Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
The immediate context
The close of Daniel's final vision. After a time of distress without precedent, many who sleep in the dust of the earth awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
Where it sits in the canon
This is the Old Testament text that most plainly sets a resurrection to life alongside a resurrection to judgment. The word rendered contempt appears again in Isaiah 66:24, where it describes corpses that are loathsome to all flesh, and a comparable idea of everlasting reproach appears in Jeremiah 23:40.
Why it matters
It is regularly listed beside Mark 9:48 as the Old Testament anchor for endless punishment, because everlasting contempt stands in the same sentence, under the same modifier, as everlasting life.
How the passage is interpreted
The eternal conscious torment reading
Defenders of eternal conscious torment point to the parallel structure of the verse. One group awakes to everlasting life and the other to everlasting shame and contempt, and the same modifier governs both halves. If the life of the first group is an unending conscious state, the natural reading is that the shame of the second group is an unending conscious state too, otherwise the verse balances a permanent experience against a permanent absence.
The conditionalist reading
Conditionalists answer that the word rendered shame is more often rendered reproach, and that reproach and contempt are both attitudes held toward someone rather than sensations felt by them. A person need not be conscious, or even present, for contempt toward him to continue. The source document adds, citing Joseph Dear, that the Hebrew word for life used here carries the basic sense of being alive, so those who do not receive it do not go on living.
Where the readings agree
- Daniel describes a genuine resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.
- The contempt in view really does last for ever.
- The two outcomes are deliberately set in parallel.
Where the disagreement lies
Whether everlasting contempt describes an ongoing conscious experience of those who are raised, or the lasting judgement of others upon them.
Notes on the wording
- The Hebrew word rendered shame here is more often rendered reproach in English versions.
- The word rendered contempt is the same word rendered loathsome in Isaiah 66:24.
- The Hebrew word for life here carries the basic sense of being alive rather than the fuller sense of knowing God.
Fuller treatment of the Greek and Hebrew words behind these notes is in the glossary and language notes.
Editorial notes
- The source document treats this verse as a secondary rather than a primary text for eternal conscious torment, listing it as one that possibly supports that view.
Where this passage appears in the case
- S01 Mark 9: Undying Worms and Unquenchable FireWhat Isaiah 66:24 contributes to Jesus’ warning, and what "unquenchable" means everywhere else in Scripture.
- S12 Where Is Endless Human Torment Stated Plainly?An argument from absence, stated with the limits an argument from absence carries.
Related passages
- Isaiah 66:15-24The scene of corpses, undying worms and unquenched fire that Jesus quotes when he speaks of Gehenna.
- Mark 9:42-48Jesus' warning about Gehenna, where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.
- Matthew 25:31-46The sheep and the goats, closing with eternal punishment set against eternal life.
Sources consulted for this passage
- Phil Welch. My case for Conditional Immortality/Annihilation (CI) instead of Eternal Conscious Torment (ECT). Working document, revised through 2026. 2023-03-01 Details
- Strong’s Hebrew 2781: cherpah. Bible Hub View original of Strong’s Hebrew 2781: cherpah (opens in a new tab) Details
- Joseph Dear. The Bible Teaches Annihilationism. 1st edition, PDF version. 2016. approximately 590 pages View original of The Bible Teaches Annihilationism (opens in a new tab) Details
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