At first glance the above words of Jesus may seem to promote hellfire. Obviously, Jesus did not intend to contradict Gods Word, which clearly states: ''the dead no longer know anything'' (Ecclesiastes 9:5 NAB). to wot then was Jesus referring to when he spoke of a persons being thrown ''into hell''? is the ''eternal fire'' Jesus warned of literal or symbolic?
It wot sense do the wicked ''go off to eternal punishment''?
Lets examine these questions 1 at a time.

To wot then was Jesus referring to when he spoke of a persons being thrown into hell?
The original Greek word translated 'hell' at Mark 9:47 is 'Gehenna'. This word comes from the Hebrew 'Geh Hinnom,' meaning 'Valley of Hinnom'

The valley of Hinnom hugged the outerskirts of ancient Jerusalem. In the days of the Israelite kings it was used for child sacrifice. A disgusting sacrifice that God condemned, (see Jeremiah 7:30-34) God said that he would execute those who performed those acts of worship. The valley of Hinnom would then be called 'the valley of slaughter where 'the carcasses of this people would die unburied' (Jeremiah 7:30-34 King James Version). God foretold that the vally of hinnom would become a place not for the torture of live victims but for the disposal of dead bodies.

In Jesus' day, the inhabitants of Jerusalem used the Valley of Hinnom as a garbage dump. They threw the bodies of some vile criminals into this dump, and kept the fire there constantly burning there to dispose of the refuse and the carcasses.

When Jesus spoke of the undying worms ans unquenchable fire he was apparently alluding to Isaiah 66:24. '' the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched''(king james version) Jesus and his listeners knew that these words in Isaiah refered to the carcasses of those not deserving a burial.

Therefore Jesus used the Valley of Hinnom, or Gehenna as a fitting symbol of death without hope of a resurrection. He drove this point home when he warned that God ''can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna''(Matthew 10:28, NAB) Gehenna is a symbol of eternal death, not eternal torture.

is the eternal fire Jesus warned of literal or symbolic?

Note that the eternal fire mentioned by Jesus and recorded at Matthew 25:41 was prepared for ''the devil and his angels.'' Do you think that fire can burn spirit beings??

Or was Jesus using the term fire symbolically?
Certainly the ''sheep and the ''goats'' mentioned in the same conversation are not literal; they are word pictures that represent two types of ppl.(read this in matthew 25:32,33).

The eternal fire that Jesus spoke of completely burns up the wicked in a figurative sense.

in wot sense do the wicked 'go off to eternal punishment'?

Although most translations use the word ''punishment'' at Matthew 25:46, the basic meaning of the Greek word 'kolasin' is ''checking the growth of trees'' or pruning, cutting off needless branches. So while the sheeplike ones receive everlasting life, the unrepentant goatlike ones suffer ''eternal punishment'' being forever cut off from life.