Second death

In Targum Neofiti (Neof.) and the fragments (FTP and FTV), the "second death" is the death that the wicked die.[2]

Targum Isaiah has three occurrences. The first is 22:14 where the Aramaic paraphrases the Hebrew as "This sin will not be forgiven you until you die the second death." [3] The final two examples are from Targum Isaiah 65 which sets the scene for an apocalyptic final battle. Targum Isaiah 65:6 paraphrases the Hebrew in line with the interpretation of the penultimate verse of the Hebrew Isaiah, found in the Gospel of Mark, where "their worm does not die" is equated with Gehinnom. Here both Targum Isaiah and Gospel of Mark supply the term "Gehinnom", where Hebrew Isaiah simply concludes with the heaps of corpses following the last battle where "their worm does not die", making no further eschatological extension into resurrection and judgment.

Targum Jeremiah 51:17 has the Aramaic "they shall die the second death and not live in the world to come", which appears to depart from the other Targum uses in not being explicit that the second death is after resurrection but may instead be an exclusion from resurrection.

The majority reading of Targum Psalm 49:11 has the Aramaic translation "For the wise see that the evildoers are judged in Gehinnom". However, several manuscripts, including Paris No.10, Montefiore No.7, and Targum of Salomos 113 have the variant Aramaic translation "He sees men wise in wickedness, who die a second death, and are judged in Gehinnom".[4]

David Kimhi (Toulouse, c.1160-Narbonne, 1235) considered the phrase to mean "the death of the soul in the world".[5]

Maimonides declares, in his 13 principles of faith, that the souls of the wicked would be punished with annihilation.[6]

When people are saved, they are not subject to the second death. They die only the first, earthly death. However, an unsaved person will experience two deaths: the first death and then after the resurrection the second death which is usually interpreted as everlasting torment or everlasting destruction. The traditional view of everlasting torment was elucidated by Lactantius:

We term that punishment the second death, which is itself also perpetual, as also is immortality. We thus define the first death: Death is the dissolution of the nature of living beings; or thus: Death is the separation of body and soul. But we thus define the second death: Death is the suffering of eternal pain; or thus: Death is the condemnation of souls for their deserts to eternal punishments.[7]

Christian universalists reject the notion of endless torment and therefore offer different interpretations. For instance, Gregory of Nyssa understood the second death as a cleansing, albeit painful process. He wrote that "those still living in the flesh must as much as ever they can separate and free themselves in a way from its attachments by virtuous conduct, in order that after death they may not need a second death to cleanse them from the remnants that are owing to this cement of the flesh".[8] Annihilationists and conditionalists, including all Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses, and others in many denominations, also oppose the idea of eternal suffering but believe that the second death is an actual second death and that the bodies and souls condemned to it after the final judgment will be utterly destroyed.