Is ἐκεῖ ἔσται ὁ κλαυθμὸς καὶ ὁ βρυγμὸς τῶν ὀδόντων in the Gospels a Funerary Formula?

Abstract

In two recent articles,1 Prof. Rodney K. Duke proposes that the words “weeping and gnashing of teeth” in the Gospels communicate “that the judgment received is death” for those condemned at the eschatological judgment, and “suggests that our clause was a cultural expression for a typical funerary mourning ritual undertaken by the living on behalf of the dead or dying.”2!e earlier article devotes a two-page section to this clause within a broader essay defending an annihilationist reading of eschatological punishment in the New Testament, while the later article is largely concerned with this clause and its context. !is essay interacts with Duke’s exegesis and argues that the usual reading of this textual unit—namely, that it vividly expresses the emotions of those consigned to the place of eschatological punishment— makes better sense of the syntax and context. Space does not allow us to address the full breadth of texts and concepts discussed by Duke in his two articles. !e focus will be limited to the clause or “formula”3 under. debate and related eschatological language and imagery in Matthew and Luke, interpreted against their biblical and Second Temple Jewish background. Moreover, this article is exegetical in scope and does not seek to draw theological conclusions. Before summarising Duke’s argument, let us outline the exegetical problem at hand. Seven sayings of Jesus in the canonical Gospels contain the nine-word unit ἐκεῖ ἔσται ὁ κλαυθμὸς καὶ ὁ βρυγμὸς τῶν ὀδόντων (Matt 8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30; Luke 13:28). !e text reads identically in every instance (including word order) and NA28 notes no textual variants in any instance. !e words are always spoken in connection with a dominical saying about future punishment. Duke’s goal is “to reconstruct how a first-century Palestinian Jewish audience probably would have understood” these words.4