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JESUS KNEW that betrayal, humiliation, and cruci-fixion were on the horizon. Approaching the cross was emotionally exhausting for Jesus. Grief and anxiety filled His heart. Yet in spite of it all, He prayed

passionately for His beloved disciples. John 17 recounts Jesus’ earnest prayer for His followers.

He loved the twelve disciples, poured Himself into these men, and knew challenging days were ahead for them. He also knew one of the twelve, Judas Iscariot, was ready to betray Him. This was troubling. Jesus loved Judas, sharing His life with him—the same way He had invested in the other disciples. Yet Judas had evil intentions. So in His prayer, Jesus described His betrayer using the dark and troubling phrase “son of perdition.”

General UnderstandingPerdition is a word that has not changed much from the meaning it held in Jesus’ day. Modern dictionaries explain perdition as an eternal state of punishment that comes after death for those who are evil. This meaning is clearly derived from biblical usage, as well as later literature, such as John Milton’s Paradise Lost (which was also influenced by the Bible’s depiction of perdition).1

The New Testament word translated “perdition” (Greek, apoleia) means “an everlasting state of torment and death.”2 Other meanings rendered from apoleia include annihilation, ruin, utter destruction, and wasting away (as in squandering resources).3

Jesus’ use of the phrase “son of perdition” is a “Hebraism,” which means the word is best understood in light of Jewish/Hebrew thought in Old Testament context. The Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) uses apoleia to describe one’s character. This

A W O R D S T U D YB Y J O S E P H B E C K L E R

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FBS: John 17:12

Above: Ivory carving depicts Judas hanging himself and Jesus’ crucixion; dates to about 425.

Right: The mon-astery of St. Onuphirius on the south slope of Mount Zion overlooking the Hinnom (Gehenna) Valley is built over a cave where a late tradition held that the apostles may have hidden during and after Jesus’ crucifixion. More significantly, this is also the traditional site of Judas’s suicide by hang-ing (Matt. 27:3-5) and the field called Akeldama (also Aceldama). Tradition holds that Judas’s 30 pieces of silver were used to purchase the burial site for strangers, a potters field. Akeldama means literally the “field of blood.”

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is the case in Isaiah 57:4 where the phrase tekna apoleias carries the meaning “children of unrighteousness.” The Septuagint also uses apoleia to describe a person’s destiny. For example, Isaiah 34:5 states, “the people I have doomed” (RSV). The New Testament uses the phrase “son of perdi-tion” on two occasions—John 17:12, which is Jesus’ refer-ence to Judas and 2 Thessalonians 2:3, which pertains to the Antichrist. Both of these New Testament references connect with perdition’s use in the Old Testament con-text, communicating a description of both character and eternal destiny.4

Following traditional Jewish form Jesus used the phrase “son of . . .” in His description of Judas. In the Hebrew tradition introductions were often made in light of one’s ancestral connection.5

The lineage defined who a person was. (For an example of this form, see Matthew 1:1—“Jesus Christ, the son of David,” KJV.) Jesus used “son of perdition” to describe Judas Iscariot as being related to—literally as a child of—destruction or a child of hell.

More troubling is the fact that the “son of perdition” can lead others toward destruction, which makes him even more dangerous.6 In Jesus’ case, Judas would betray Him into destruction on the cross. This was the betrayal of which Jesus would say, “but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born” (Matt. 26:24).7

“Perdition” as “Hell” in the New TestamentAs noted earlier, perdition refers to a state of eternal destruction, death, waste, and ruin—all of which are clear references to hell. Within the context of the New Testament, perdition clearly refers to this eternal state of waste, which has everything to do with judgment and death. Such is the eternal fate for those who do not repent and who reject Christ. Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 7:13, for example, describes a broad road that leads people to a place or destiny of apoleia—of ruin and destruction.8

“Perdition” also gives a clear sense of some-thing being wasted or made useless. In this sense, hell is a place of wasting away and uselessness. The New Testament uses apollumi, the verb form of apoleia, to describe this sense of “wasting.” The disciples used the word apoleia to voice their protest at the woman’s extravagant waste of perfume, as she poured it on Jesus’ head (26:8). 9 Interestingly, Matthew credited the disciples with making this complaint regarding wasted perfume. However, John’s Gospel particularly specified Judas, the son of perdition or wastefulness, as the one who

scolded Mary for wasting the perfume (see John 12:1-8). Judas, who criticized others for wastefulness, was actually wasting away himself as he planned to betray Jesus.

The New Testament uses apoleia (translated as “perdi-tion” or “destruction”) 20 times. In several of these New Testament uses, the word specifically refers to a place of destruction, namely hell. As mentioned earlier, Matthew 7:13 refers to “the gate is wide and the road is broad that leads to destruction.” Because Simon the sorcerer tried to purchase the power of the Holy Sprit from Simon Peter, Peter rebuked him saying, “May your silver be destroyed

with you” (Acts 8:20). Paul’s usage as well in his Epistles relates to a destiny of eternal ruin:

“objects of wrath ready for destruction” (Rom. 9:22); “evidence of their destruc-

tion” (Phil. 1:28); “their end is destruc-tion” (3:19); “desires, which plunge people into ruin and destruction” (1 Tim. 6:9); and “we are not those who draw back and are destroyed” (Heb. 10:39). A form of perdition is

in Revelation regarding the destiny of the beast—“The beast . . . is about to . . . go to destruction” (17:8) and “goes to destruction” (v. 11).

Second Peter also uses apoleia often to describe eternal ruin: “They will secretly

bring in destructive [worthless and even damn-ing] heresies” and “will bring swift destruction on themselves” (2:1); “their destruction does not sleep” (v. 3); “day of judgment and destruc-tion of ungodly men” (3:7); and “twist them to their own destruction” (v. 16).

Other Usage . . . Abaddon/ApollyonThe New Testament also refers to perdition (apoleia) by the name Apollyon. Revelation 9:11 states, “They had as their king the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he has the name Apollyon.” Abaddon is a Hebrew word for destruction (see Job 26:6; 28:22; Ps. 88:11; and Prov. 15:11). Abaddon is personified as the dark angel of Revelation. Apollyon, playing off of the Greek apoleia, is Abaddon, the angel who—like the son of perdition—is a destroyer of self and one who ruins others.10

Exploring the meaning of perdition is sobering. Jesus’ calling one of His disciples a “son of perdition” is a reference to both Judas’s destructive desire to betray of the Son of God as well as his destiny of eternal ruin. Perdition describes a place, namely hell, which embodies wastefulness and destruction. To call someone a “son of perdition” was to say that he was a child of hell who leaves a trail of ruin wherever he goes. Judas embodied this reality. He was swallowed up

Above: Bronze head of Hades (or “Pluto” as he is also called). Roman; dates 1st -2nd centuries A.D. Hades was lord of the under-world, where the shades of men went after death. He was grim and merciless, but not evil.

Upper right: Armenian church built over the site of Caiaphas’s house in Jerusalem. After his arrest, Jesus was taken to Caiaphas, where He was detained over night.

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in destruction and his actions would lead to a terrible event—Jesus’ crucifixion.

Yet Christians must always view perdition in light of the resurrected Christ. Judas’s betrayal was not the last word! Perdition, likewise, does not have the final say for those who trust Christ as their Lord. For Jesus has defeated death and created eternal relief from the perils of perdition. i

1. Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary, Cambridge University Press, 2000 [online, cited 8 September 2005]. Available from Internet: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=58795&dict=CALD. See also The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. [online, cited 8 September 2005]. Available from Internet: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=perdition.

2. Albrecht Oepke, “ajpovllumi” “ajpwvleia” “’Apolluvwn” in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT), Gerhard Kittel, ed., G. W. Bromiley, trans., vol. 1 (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1968), 395-397.

3. J. Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Greek (New Testament) (electronic edition). (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc. 1997). See also Walter Bauer, William F. Arndt, and F. Wilbur Gingrich “ajpwvleia” in A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1957), 103.

4. George R. Beasely-Murray, John in Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 36 (Waco: Word, 1987), 299.

5. Oepke, 397. 6. “Perdition” in Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Herbert Lockyer, gen. ed.

(Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1986), 818.7. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the Holman Christian

Standard Bible.8. Ken Massey, “Perdition” in Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Chad Brand, Charles

Draper, and Archie England, gen. eds. (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003), 1274-1275.

9. R. B. Girdlestone, Synonyms of the Old Testament: Their Bearing on Christian Doctrine—electronic edition (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1998).

10. Joachim Jeremias, “’Abaddwvn” in TDNT, vol. 1, 4.

Joseph Beckler is a church planter and resort minister in Durango, Colorado.

Greek mythology also had representa-tions of eternal pun-ishment. According to the story, Tantalus, the son of Zeus, was wel-comed to his father’s table. Yet he stole nectar and ambrosia and brought them back to his people and revealed the secrets of the gods. Divulging divine secrets brought eternal punish-ment. Tantalus’s sentence was to stand in a pool of water beneath a grape vine. When he reached for the fruit, the branches would rise beyond his grasp. When he bent over for a drink of water, the water would disappear. We get our word “tantalize” from this mythological figure.

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