a kind of sewer. Gehenna was,
therefore, in the mind of Jesus, a gloomy, filthy valley, full of
fire. Those excluded from the kingdom will there be burnt and eaten by
the never-dying worm, in company with Satan and his rebel angels.[6]
There, there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.[7] The kingdom of
heaven will be as a closed room, lighted from within, in the midst of
a world of darkness and torments.[8]

[Footnote 1: Matt. xiii. 38, and following, xxv. 33.]

[Footnote 2: Matt. xiii. 39, 41, 49.]

[Footnote 3: Matt. xxv. 34. Comp. John xiv. 2.]

[Footnote 4: Matt. viii. 11, xiii. 43, xxvi. 29; Luke xiii. 28, xvi.
22, xxii. 30.]

[Footnote 5: Luke xiii. 23, and following.]

[Footnote 6: Matt. xxv. 41. The idea of the fall of the angels,
detailed in the Book of Enoch, was universally admitted in the circle
of Jesus. Epistle of Jude 6, and following; 2d Epistle attributed to
Saint Peter, ii. 4. 11; _Revelation_ xii. 9; Gospel of John viii. 44.]

[Footnote 7: Matt. v. 22, viii. 12, x. 28, xiii. 40, 42, 50, xviii. 8,
xxiv. 51, xxv. 30; Mark ix. 43, &c.]

[Footnote 8: Matt. viii. 12, xxii. 13, xxv. 30. Comp. Jos., _B.J._,
III. viii. 5.]

This new order of things will be eternal. Paradise and Gehenna will
have no end. An impassable abyss separates the one from the other.[1]
The Son of man, seated on the right hand of God, will preside over
this final condition of the world and of humanity.[2]

[Footnote 1: Luke xvi. 28.]

[Footnote 2: Mark iii. 29; Luke xxii. 69; _Acts_ vii. 55.]

That all this was taken literally by the disciples and by the master
himself at certain moments, appears clearly evident from the writings
of the time. If the first Christian generation had one profound and
constant belief, it was that the world was near its end,[1] and that
the great "revelation"[2] of Christ was about to take place. The
startling proclamation, "The time is at hand,"[3] which commences and
closes the Apocalypse; the incessantly reiterated appeal, "He that
hath ears to hear let him hear!"[4] were the cries of hope and
encouragement for the whole apostolic age. A Syrian expression, _Maran
atha_, "Our Lord cometh!"[5] became a sort of password, which the
believers used amongst themselves to strengthen their faith and their
hope. The Apocalypse, written in the year 68 of our era,[6] declares
that the end will come in three years and a half.[7] The "Ascension of
Isaiah"[8] adopts a calculation very similar to this.