FIRE (πῦ?ρ except in Mark 14:54 = Luke 22:56 where φῶ?ς occurs) is referred to in the Gospels much more frequently in a figurative than in a literal sense.
1. The allusions to literal fire are the following. (a) Those concerned with the domestic use of fire for heating and cooking. In the better houses in Palestine the rooms were warmed by charcoal fires in portable braziers; in poorer houses the wood or other fuel was burned in a hollow in the earthen floor. The fire into which the epileptic boy fell (Matthew 17:15 = Mark 9:22) would be of the latter description. The fire of coals kindled for warmth in the middle of the court of the high priest’s house (Mark 14:54 = Luke 22:55-56, John 18:18), * [Note: In Mark 14:54 = Luke 22:56 φῶ?ς is used instead of τῦ?ρ (cf. Luke 22:55). In classical Gr. a similar use of the word is found in cases where a fire is thought of as the source of light as well as heat (so also 1Ma_12:29, cf. 1Ma_12:28 where τῦ?ρ is employed). Its appropriateness in both the Synoptic passages is due to the fact that it was night, and, in the Lk. passage, to the further fact that it was the blaze of the fire which revealed Peter to the maid. In both cases RV brings out the meaning by rendering προς τὸ? θῶ?ς ‘in the light of the fire.’] and that employed for cooking on the shore of the Lake of Galilee (John 21:9), would be charcoal fires on the ground, (b) Fire from heaven (lightning, or something of the same kind, natural or miraculous) was a frequent form of Divine judgment in OT. One instance of this (the destruction of Sodom) is recalled in Luke 17:29, and another (in the life of Elijah) prompted the feeling and suggested the question of James and John in Luke 9:54.
2. The figurative references to fire are of various kinds. Since wood which was worthless for any other purpose was used as fuel, fire became an emblem of the judgment awaiting spiritual unfruitfulness (Matthew 3:10 = Luke 3:9, Matthew 7:19, John 15:6). A similar idea was suggested by the burning of other worthless things, such as chaff (Matthew 3:12 = Luke 3:17) and tares (Matthew 13:30, Matthew 13:40, Matthew 13:42). The ‘furnace of fire,’ which is part of the natural imagery of the parable of the Tares, becomes, in the parable of the Drag-net, a standing expression for the destiny of the wicked (Matthew 13:50). Similarly we have ‘eternal’ (Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885) or ‘everlasting’ (Authorized Version) fire (Matthew 18:8, Matthew 25:41), ‘unquenchable’ fire (Matthew 3:12 = Luke 3:17, Mark 9:43, Mark 9:48), and ((Revised Version margin)) ‘the Gehenna of fire’ (Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 ‘the hell of fire,’ Authorized Version ‘hell fire’) in Matthew 5:22, Matthew 18:9 (= Mark 9:43, Mark 9:45, Mark 9:47). The last of these expressions is found in the same context as the other two, and gives the key to their meaning. From the OT associations of the valley of Hinnom the name Gehenna had in Christ’s time been appropriated in Jewish thought for the place of the final punishment of the wicked—a place of burning and corruption, in which body as well as spirit would be tortured. In the passages above mentioned our Lord must be understood to use the popular religious language of His time, though it may have been in a less literal and more parabolic sense than usual. To the group of sayings in Mark 9:43-48 is attached another (Mark 9:49), in which fire is the emblem of the self-discipline in this world, by which the destruction of Gehenna in the next world is to be avoided. The destructiveness of fire made the phrase ‘I will send fire’ a common form of prophetic Divine threatening in OT, and this phrase is taken up by Christ (Luke 12:49) as expressing, in one aspect, the result of His earthly mission. Fire is used by John the Baptist as an emblem of the purity and intensity of the influence accompanying the baptism of the Holy Spirit which he foretold that Christ should bestow (Matthew 3:11 = Luke 3:16).
The eyes of the glorified Christ, as seen in the vision of the Apocalypse, are compared to a flame of fire (Revelation 1:14, Revelation 2:18, Revelation 19:12).
Origen (Hom. in Jer. xx. 3) has preserved the following agraphon of Jesus: ‘He who is near me is near the fire; he who is far from me is far from the kingdom.’
James Patrick.