Is Hell For Ever?

From Origen onwards, there has been a notion within the church that hell, although real, will be of limited duration.

It has been argued that the Gk words for ‘eternal’ do not necessarily mean ‘everlasting’.  The word ‘aion’ originally meant ‘an age’, and the adjective ‘ainios’, translated ‘eternal’, means ‘belonging to the age’.  Thus ‘eternal’ has a qualitative, rather than a quantitative meaning.  But this is not always the case: often these words do carry a clear idea of duration, Heb 13:8; Rev 4:10; 10:6; 11:15; 14:11; 20:10.  Cp Mar 3:29 w Mt 12:32.