Crafting the Eschaton: The Second Death and the Lake of Fire in Revelation

Abstract

The idea of a ‘second death’ (Rev. 2.11; 20.6, 14; 21.8) is found nowhere else in the NT except for Revelation. One of the more striking characteristics of the second death in the Apocalypse is its equivalency with ‘the lake of fire’ (Rev. 19.20; 20.10, 14-15), a phrase unique to John himself save for a few temporally distant Egyptian sources. By exploring why John might have been motivated to identify these two concepts directly with each other, one can better appreciate the creative rhetorical work he has performed in order to inform his readers about the nature of the eschaton.