Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 10:28
And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
28. him which is able to destroy ] Either (1) God, whose power extends beyond this life. Clemens Rom. ( Ep. II. 4) with a probable reference to this passage says, “We ought not to fear man but God.” Or (2) Satan, into whose power the wicked surrender themselves.
in hell ] Literally, in Gehenna. See note, ch. Mat 5:22.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Them which kill the body – That is, people, who have no power to injure the soul, the immortal part. The body is a small matter in comparison with the soul. Temporal death is a slight thing compared with eternal death. He directs them, therefore, not to be alarmed at the prospect of temporal death, but to fear God, who can destroy both soul and body forever. This passage proves that the bodies of the wicked will be raised up to be punished forever.
In hell – See the notes at Mat 5:22.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Mat 10:28
Fear not them which kill the body.
-It is prudent to give up the body in order to cave the soul; it is like casting the cargo of the vessel into the sea to preserve the crew from destruction. (Quesnel.)
Body and soul
I. That human nature is made up of body and soul.
II. That the body may be destroyed, while the soul remains uninjured.
III. That the honest working out of duty may expose the body to destruction.
IV. That the neglect of the duty exposes both body and soul to destruction. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
God to be feared rather than man
Christ cautions His disciples against three particular things.
1. Bodily torments.
2. Disgrace.
3. Death.
Which last He cautions against for these three reasons.
1. Because it is but the death of the body.
2. Because hell is more to be feared.
3. Because they live under the special care of Gods ever-seeing Providence, and cannot, therefore, be taken away without His permission.
The words of the text pregnant with great truths.
1. That it is within the power of man to divest us of all our temporal enjoyments.
2. That the soul of man is immortal.
3. That God has absolute power to destroy the whole man.
4. That the thought of damnation ought to have greater weight to engage our fears than the most exquisite miseries that the malice of man is able to inflict. The prosecution of this lies in two things.
I. In showing what is in those miseries which men are able to inflict that may lessen our fears of them.
1. They are temporal, and concern only this life.
2. They do not take away anything from a mans proper perfections.
3. They are all limited by Gods overruling hand.
4. The good that may be extracted out of such miseries as are inflicted by men is often greater than the evil that is endured by them.
5. The fear of those evils seldom prevents them before they come, and never lessens them when they are come.
6. The all-knowing God, who knows the utmost of them better than men or angels, has pronounced them not to be feared.
7. The greatest of these evils have been endured, and that without fear or astonishment.
II. In showing what is implied in the destruction of the body and soul in hell which makes it so formidable. It is the utmost Almighty God can do to a sinner. When tempted, ponder mans inability and Gods infinite ability to destroy. The case of Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego. (R. South, D. D.)
Fear, anxious and prudential
There are two kinds of fear.
1. A fear of solicitous anxiety, such as makes us let go our confidence in Gods providence, causing our thoughts so to dwell upon the dreadfulness of the thing feared as to despair of a deliverance. And with such a kind of fear Christ absolutely forbids us to fear those that kill the body; it being very derogatory to God, as if His mercy did not afford as great arguments for our hope as the cruelty of man for our fear.
2. The second kind of fear is a prudential caution, whereby a man, from the due estimate of an approaching evil, endeavours his own security. And this kind of fear is not only lawful, but also laudable. For, to what purpose should God have naturally implanted in the heart of man a passion of fear, if it might not be exercised and affected with suitable objects-that is, things to be feared? Now under this sort of fear we may reckon that to which Christ advises His disciples in these expressions-Beware of men, and Flee from one city into another. (R. South, D. D.)
Prison better than hell
Pardon me, Emperor, thou threatenest me only with a prison; but God threatens me with hell. (A Primitive Martyr.)
Fearing God rather than man
Bishop Latimer having one day preached before Henry VIII. a sermon which displeased his majesty, he was ordered to preach again the following Sunday, and to make an apology for the offence he had given. After reading his text the bishop thus began his sermon:-Hugh Latimer, dost thou know before whom thou art this day to speak? To the high and mighty monarch, the kings most excellent majesty, who can take away thy life if thou offendest; therefore take heed that thou speakest not a word that may displease. But then, consider well, Hugh; dost thou not know from whence thou camest-upon whose message thou art sent? Even by the great and mighty God, who is all-present, who beholdeth all thy ways, and who is able to cast thy soul into hell! Therefore, take care that thou deliver thy message faithfully. He then proceeded with the same sermon he had preached the Sunday before, but with considerably more energy. Afterwards, the king sent for him, and demanded of him how he dared preach in such a manner. He, falling on his knees, replied, his duty to his God and his Prince had enforced him thereto, and he had merely discharged his duty and his conscience in what he had spoken. Upon which the king, rising from his seat, and taking the good man by the hand, embraced him, saying, Blessed be God, I have so honest a servant.
Persecution
The devil drives but a poor trade by the persecution of the saints; he tears the nest, but the bird escapes; he cracks the shell, but loses the kernel. (Flavel.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 28. Fear not them which kill the body] . Those who slay with acts of cruelty, alluding probably to the cruelties which persecutors should exercise on his followers in their martyrdom. But are not able to kill the soul. Hence we find that the body and the soul are distinct principles, for the body may be slain and the soul escape; and, secondly, that the soul is immaterial, for the murderers of the body are not able, , have it not in their power, to injure it.
Fear him] It is, not hell-fire we are to fear, but it is God; without the stroke of whose justice hell itself would be no punishment, and whose frown would render heaven itself insupportable. What strange blindness is it to expose our souls to endless ruin, which should enjoy God eternally; and to save and pamper the body, by which we enjoy nothing but the creatures, and them only for a moment!
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
As I told you before, you will in the publication of my gospel meet with opposition from men. Now that it is preached as it were in darkness, and whispered in mens ears, there is no great noise made in the world; but the case will be otherwise when it cometh to be publicly revealed, and published upon the housetops. But consider, the enemies can only kill the bodies of my disciples: you have souls as well as bodies; they have no power over your souls; but he that hath sent you to preach, and called you to the owning and profession of the gospel, hath a power over your souls as well as over your bodies, and to punish both in hell. We have the same Luk 12:4,5. There is nothing so effectual to drive out of our hearts a slavish fear of man in the doing of our duty, as a right apprehension of the power of God, begetting a fear of him in our souls.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
28. And fear not them which kill thebody, but are not able to kill the soulIn Lu12:4, “and after that have no more that they can do.”
but rather fear himInLuke (Lu 12:5) this ispeculiarly solemn, “I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear,”even Him
which is able to destroy bothsoul and body in hellA decisive proof this that there is ahell for the body as well as the soul in the eternal world; in otherwords, that the torment that awaits the lost will have elements ofsuffering adapted to the material as well as the spiritualpart of our nature, both of which, we are assured, will exist forever. In the corresponding warning contained in Luke (Lu12:4), Jesus calls His disciples “My friends,” as if Hehad felt that such sufferings constituted a bond of peculiartenderness between Him and them.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And fear not them which kill the body,…. This is a “periphrasis” of bloody persecutors, who, not content to revile, scourge, and imprison, put the faithful ministers of Christ to death, in the most cruel and torturing manner; and yet are not so to be feared and dreaded by them, as to discourage and divert them from the performance of their important work and office; for, as Luke says, Lu 12:4 “after” that they “have no more than they can do”. This is all they are capable of doing, even by divine permission, when they are suffered to run the greatest lengths in violence against the saints; this is the utmost of their efforts, which Satan, and their own wicked hearts, can put them upon, or is in the power of their hands to perform: and the taking away of the lives of good men is of no disadvantage to them; but sends them the sooner out of this troublesome world to their father’s house, to partake of those joys that will never end; so that they have nothing to fear from their most implacable enemies; but should boldly and bravely go on in their master’s service, openly, freely, faithfully, and fully discharging the work they were called unto: for, the loss of a corporal life is no loss to them, their souls live after death, in eternal happiness; and in a little time God will raise up their bodies, and reunite them to their souls, and be for ever happy together. A noble argument this, which our Lord makes use of, to engage his disciples to a public and diligent ministration of the Gospel, in spite of all opposers; who, when they have vented all their malice, can only take away a poor, frail, mortal life; and which, if they did not, in a little time would cease in course:
but are not able to kill the soul; which is immortal, and cannot be touched by the sword, by fire and faggot, or any instruments of violence: it is immortal, it survives the body, and lives in a separate state, enjoying happiness and bliss, whilst the body is in a state of death:
but rather fear him, which is able to destroy both body and soul in hell. This is a description of God, and of his power, who is able to do that which men are not: all that they can do, by divine permission, is to kill the body; but he is able to “destroy”, that is, to torment and punish both body and soul “in hell”, in everlasting burnings; for neither soul nor body will be annihilated; though this he is able to do. As the former clause expresses the immortality of the soul, this supposes the resurrection of the body; for how otherwise should it be destroyed, or punished with the soul in hell? Now this awful being which is able to hurl, and will hurl all wicked and slothful, unfaithful and unprofitable, cowardly and temporising servants and ministers, soul and body, into the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, is to be feared and dreaded; yea, indeed, he only is to be feared, and to be obeyed: cruel and persecuting men are not to be feared at all; God alone should be our fear and dread; though the argument seems to be formed from the lesser to the greater; yet this, is the sense of the word “rather”, that God is to be feared, not chiefly and principally only, but solely; and in some versions that word is left out, as in the Arabic, and Ethiopic, and in Munster’s Hebrew Gospel.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Destroy both soul and body in hell ( ). Note “soul” here of the eternal spirit, not just life in the body. “Destroy” here is not annihilation, but eternal punishment in Gehenna (the real hell) for which see on 5:22. Bruce thinks that the devil as the tempter is here meant, not God as the judge, but surely he is wrong. There is no more needed lesson today than the fear of God.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “And fear not them which kill the body,” (kai me phobeisthe apo ton apoktennonton to soma) “And do not be fear-obsessed from those who kill the body,” Isa 8:12; 1Pe 3:14. Do not hold back from doing my bidding out of fear of man-killers, murderers. Your true life is beyond their reach, Mr 8:36-38.
2) “But are not able to kill the soul:” (ten de psuchen me dunamenon apokteinai) “Yet, they are not able (strong enough) to kill the soul,” to annihilate your immortality, your indestructible soul, Col 3:3; Rev 2:10; Luk 12:4.
3) “But rather fear him which is able,” (phobeisthe de maloon ton dunamenon) “But be ye rather fearful of the one who is able,” have reverential awe, fear of displeasing your Savior, Protector, and Master, the one who has promised to be with you always, Mat 28:20; Heb 13:5.
4) “To destroy both soul and body in hell.” (kai psuchen kai soma apolesai en geenne) “To destroy (bring to great suffering) both soul and body in Gehenna hell,” the place of obnoxious refuse burning, where the fires never went out, in the valley of Hinnom at the SE side of Jerusalem, an image of the place of eternal final punishment of both soul and body for all who reject God’s call to salvation, Pro 14:26-27; Pro 29:25; Heb 10:31; Heb 12:28-29; 1Pe 1:17; Act 4:19; Jas 4:12.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
28. And fear not those who kill the body To excite his disciples to despise death, Christ employs the very powerful argument, that this frail and perishing lift ought to be little regarded by men who have been created for a heavenly immortality. The statement amounts to this, that if believers will consider for what purpose they were born, and what is their condition, they will have no reason to be so earnest in desiring an earthly life. But the words have still a richer and fuller meaning: for we are here taught by Christ that the fear of God is dead in those men who, through dread of tyrants, fall from a confession of their faith, and that a brutish stupidity reigns in the hearts of those who, through dread of death, do not hesitate to abandon that confession.
We must attend to the distinction between the two opposite kinds of fear. If the fear of God is extinguished by the dread of men, is it not evident that we pay greater deference to them than to God himself? Hence it follows, that when we have abandoned the heavenly and eternal life, we reserve nothing more for ourselves than to be like the beasts that perish, (Psa 49:12.) God alone has the power of bestowing eternal life, or of inflicting eternal death. We forget God, because we are hurried away by the dread of men. Is it not very evident that we set a higher value on the shadowy life of the body (595) than on the eternal condition of the soul; or rather, that the heavenly kingdom of God is of no estimation with us, in comparison of the fleeting and vanishing shadow of the present life?
These words of Christ ought therefore to be explained in this manner: “Acknowledge that you have received immortal souls, which are subject to the disposal of God alone, and do not come into the power of men. The consequence will be, that no terrors or alarms which men may employ will shake your faith. “For how comes it that the dread of men prevails in the struggle, but because the body is preferred to the soul, and immortality is less valued than a perishing life?”
(595) “ La vie de ce corps, laquelle n’est qu’une fumee;” — “the life of this body, which is but a vapor,” (Jas 4:14.)
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(28) Are not able to kill the soul.Here our Lord uses what we may call the popular dichotomy of mans nature, and the word soul includes all that truly lives and thinks and wills in man, and is therefore equivalent to the soul and spirit of the more scientific trichotomy of St. Pauls Epistles (1Th. 5:23).
Fear him which is able . . .Few words have given rise to interpretations more strangely contrasted than these. Not a few of the most devout and thoughtful commentators, unwilling to admit that our Lord ever presented the Father to men in the character of a destroyer, have urged that the meaning may be thus paraphrased: Fear not men; but fear the Spirit of Evil, the great Adversary who, if you yield to his temptations, has power to lead you captive at his will, to destroy alike your outward and your inward life, either in the Gehenna of torture or in that of hatred and remorse. Plausible as it seems, however, this interpretation is not, it is believed, the true one. (1) We are nowhere taught in Scripture to fear the devil, but rather to resist and defy him (Eph. 6:11; Jas. 4:7); and (2) it is a sufficient answer to the feeling which has prompted the other explanation to say that we are not told to think of God as in any case willing to destroy, but only as having the power to inflict that destruction where all offers of mercy and all calls to righteousness have been rejected. In addition to this, it must be remembered that St. James uses language almost identical (There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy, Jas. 4:12) where there cannot be a shadow of doubt as to the meaning.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
28. Fear not them which kill the body Neither miraculous power nor divine promise insures the apostles against bodily harm or bodily death. But they are enjoined to possess a superiority to fear of these corporeal injuries. And in these words is the primal source of the martyr spirit. It is courage founded on faith. Body soul We have here the two parts of man’s compound nature placed in contrast. They are two separate things.
The body is not the soul. The soul is not the body. This is demonstrably the doctrine of the text. Them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul From these words, it follows that the body may be dead, and the soul alive. Men can murder the body, they can extinguish its corporeal life. They may burn it to ashes, and scatter its particles to the four winds. Yet still the soul is alive. No blows can murder it, no fire can burn it, no water drown or quench it. Nothing less than this can be the meaning of the text, and against the text no materialism can stand. But rather fear him Namely, God. Fear, then, and fear as the dread of punishment, is a right and suitable feeling. And those who say that such a feeling is too base to be indulged, are contradicted by this text. And those who deny any punishment from God after the death of the body, contradict these words of Christ. To destroy both soul and body The Lord does not say kill both soul and body. To destroy is not to kill, still less to annihilate, but to ruin. Our Lord’s words teach, not the dismissal of the soul from existence, but its catastrophe and ruin in existence. And this is an evil, a destruction, which we are bound to fear, as a possible reality beyond our bodily death. In hell In Gehenna. This word Gehenna, or valley of Hinnom, in its primitive and literal sense, designated a gorge south of Jerusalem, otherwise called Tophet, where the offals of the city were ordinarily burned. As a place of defilement and perpetual fire, it became to the Jewish mind the emblem, and the word became the name, of the perpetual fire of retribution in a world to come. Hence, loose reasoners have endeavoured to maintain that this valley was the only hell. And upon this sophism the heresy of Universalism is mainly founded. But the present text demonstrates that beyond the death of the body, and therefore in a future state, there is a hell or Gehenna, which the soul may suffer, more terrible than bodily death, and more to be feared than any evil that man can inflict. God is the author of that evil; it lies beyond death, it is executed upon the soul as well as the body. No plausible interpretation can expel these meanings from this text.
The following statement is from Kitto’s Cyclopedia:
“Hell is represented by Sheol in the Old, and by Hades in the New Testament. But hell, as the place of final punishment for sinners, is more distinctively indicated by the term Gehenna, which is the word translated ‘hell’ in Mat 5:22; Mat 5:29-30; Mat 10:28; Mat 18:9; Mat 23:15; Mat 23:33; Mar 9:43; Mar 9:45; Mar 9:47; Luk 12:5; Jas 3:6. It is also distinctively indicated by such phrases as ‘the place of torment,’ (Luk 16:28😉 ‘everlasting fire,’ (Mat 25:41😉 ‘the hell of fire,’ ‘where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched,’ (Mar 9:44.) The dreadful nature of the abode of the wicked is implied in various figurative expressions, such as ‘outer darkness,’ ‘I am tormented in this flame,’ ‘furnace of fire,’ ‘unquenchable fire,’ ‘where their worm dieth not,’ ‘the blackness of darkness,’ ‘torment in fire and brimstone,’ ‘the ascending smoke of their torment,’ ‘the lake of fire that burneth with brimstone,’ (Mat 8:12; Mat 13:42; Mat 22:13; Mat 25:30; Luk 16:24; comp. Mat 25:41; Mar 9:43-48; Jud 1:13; comp. Rev 14:10-11; Rev 19:20; Rev 20:14; Rev 21:8.) The figure by which hell is represented as burning with fire and brimstone is probably derived from the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, as well as that which describes the smoke as ascending from it, (comp. Rev 14:10-11, with Gen 19:24; Gen 19:28.) To this coincidence of description Peter also most probably alludes in 2Pe 2:6.”
Is it not more probably derived from the fire of Gehenna?
In regard to the valley of Hinnom, see supplementary note, page 351 (End of Matthew).
Note to Mat 10:28 , page 135.
“The valley of the son of Hinnom,” (Jos 15:8,) so called from some unknown person in very early times, running east and west, intersects the Kedron at the southeast corner of the city. At this place the idolatrous Israelites “burnt their children in the fire” (Jer 7:31) unto Moloch, a deity represented by a brass image with the face of a bull. The drum ( toph) which was used to drown the cry of the victim gave the place the name of Tophet, (Jer 19:6.) The deep “gorge” of Gehenna (as its Greek name is written) is described by Prof. Hackett as “almost terrific.” “A wall of frowning rocks and precipices hangs over us on the left, and the southern extremity of Zion rises so steeply on the right that one must almost look up into the zenith in order to scale the top of it with the eye
I found myself oppressed, at length, with a feeling so desolate and horror-stricken, that it was a relief to get through with my task, and come forth where I could see and hear again the sights and sounds of a living world.” The name of this ancient gloomy yet fiery recess was fifty used to designate hell.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“And do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
For they are to face up to final consequences, and therefore not be afraid. What does it matter if the body is killed off? What they should remember is that anyone who touches them cannot touch their inner life within them. Thus if they are martyred they will simply go on to be with Him. So they need not fear those who have the authority of life and death, because that is all that they can do. Marcus Aurelius would later try to go one further. He ordered that the bodies of Christians martyred in Lyons should be ground to powder and thrown into the river with the intent of preventing their resurrection. But he failed to achieve his aim, for all God requires for resurrection is their ‘dust’ as found in the dust of the ground (Isa 26:19, compare Gen 3:19). The One Whom they therefore need to be in awe of is the One Who has the power of eternal life and eternal death. Let them therefore be in awe of Him, the One Who can destroy both body and inner being in Gehenna.
We are reminded here of the Old Testament wisdom teaching, ‘the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil that is understanding’ (Job 28:28; see also Psa 111:10; Pro 1:7; Pro 9:10; Pro 15:33; compare Isa 33:6), by which of course is meant the same reverent awe as we have here.
Note on Being ‘Destroyed’ in Gehenna.
With regard to those who will be ‘destroyed in Gehenna’ there are conflicting views. In his book on Immortality Plato regularly used this verb ‘to destroy’ in order to signify final death resulting in total lack of consciousness and being (he clearly did not feel that any other Greek verb quite conveyed this idea). If we accept his use of the term, ‘destroy’ here would signify what we call final annihilation after judgment. But the judgment cannot be made simply on the basis of Greek terms alone.
In Jewish tradition, as in other Greek works (not all followed Plato), there were suggestions of eternal (or ‘age long’) punishment (e.g. Jdt 16:17 ; 2Es 7:36 ; Assumption of Moses Mat 10:10). And some Greeks spoke of Tartarus as the place of eternal conscious punishment, at least for some. In 2Pe 2:4, however, that term is used of the intermediate state of the fallen angels. But none of these speak of that punishment as ‘destruction’ when spoken of in these terms, and such ideas are not found in the Old Testament.
There are only two places in the Old Testament where the fate of the wicked after resurrection is described, and those are Isa 66:24 and Dan 12:2. In Isa 66:24 the wicked are cast bodily into the valley of Hinnom where they are consumed by eternal maggots and eternal fire. But it is the maggots and the fire that are eternal, not the consciousness of the dead. In the case of the dead it is their carcases which will be abhorred by all flesh. And it is their carcases that the righteous will come to look on as a reminder of God’s judgment. The valley of Hinnom was the place where the dead bodies of criminals were thrown to be burned and eaten by maggots, and where the fires were continually burning in order to dispose of the rubbish of Jerusalem, so the point here is that the unrighteous dead are classed with the criminal fraternity and have become so much rubbish. But the everlastingness depends on the everlastingness of the lives of the righteous. While there is clearly the intention of indicating something rather more than the old Valley of Hinnom, it has not become what we think of as Ge-henna, ‘the ‘Valley (ge) of Hinnom’.
The same is true in Dan 12:2. It is the shame and everlasting contempt which is everlasting, as in Isa 66:24. But it is only the righteous who are seen as having a conscious future.
Interestingly when we come to the New Testament Paul actually says nothing clear about the destiny of the wicked apart from to call it ‘death’ (e.g. Rom 6:23), although he does speak of their being ‘eternally destroyed from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His power’ (2Th 1:9). Jesus on the other hand certainly speaks of conscious punishment beyond the grave, but He nowhere says that the consciousness will be everlasting (Mar 9:43; Mar 9:48 merely applies the concepts of Isa 66:24 to Gehenna). It says nothing about the consciousness of those who are being punished). Indeed some argue that the whole point of ‘destruction’ is that after their punishment all the unrighteous are destroyed. It could for example be argued that such verses as Luk 12:47-48 must be seen as pointing to the opposite of eternal conscious punishment. Furthermore while Mat 25:46 speaks of ‘eternal punishment’ that is in contrast to ‘eternal life’ and could thus tie in with Plato’s concept. There is no suggestion of it being conscious, except in the giving of the sentence. Nothing is more eternal than destruction and annihilation. Besides the main use of ‘eternal’ in Scripture is in order to indicate quality, not duration, compare eternal judgment (Heb 6:2) which cannot mean an eternal judging.
The only place where more detail is given in is Revelation. There we read of the Lake of Fire. But we must beware of reading this too literally, for Satan is thrown in there and Satan is a spirit being. Real fire would not worry him at all. The point of it for Satan, and for the wild beast and the false prophet, is that they are thrown alive into it. Thus they are punished for ever and ever (Rev 20:10). But that is apparently in contrast with the unrighteous who are thrown into it dead (compare the similar contrast in Rev 19:20-21), and are not said to be punished for ever and ever. They are not in the book of the living (Rev 20:15). And it should be noted in this regard that Death and Hades are thrown in with them at the same time, and the only point behind that must be that they might be destroyed (Isa 25:8). Death and Hades have no consciousness so they cannot be consciously punished.
Some have pointed to Rev 14:9-11 to support their position. But that in fact supports Isa 66:24 as indicating that it is the means of punishment that are eternal. It is the smoke of their torment that arises for ever and ever, a reminder of the trial by torture that they have faced. ‘And they have no rest day or night’ (or more strictly ‘they are unceasing ones day and night’) is a translation that assumes what it wants to prove. Exactly the same Greek words are used in Rev 4:8 where they cannot possibly indicate anything but continuing joy. So the real point is the comparison between the two. Both those who worship God and those who worship the Wild Beast do so continually. But clearly the worship of the Wild Beast ceases after the events in Rev 19:20-21.
This all suggests that we must be very careful before we claim that Scripture teaches eternal conscious punishment. While the fate of the unrighteous is clearly intended to be seen as horrific, it is nowhere spelled out that it is a matter of eternal consciousness. Many would feel that ‘destruction’ must be given its obvious meaning as in the end resulting in the removal from God’s fullness, when God will be all in all, of all that offends. Perhaps we should consider that the wisest course is to teach what the Scriptures positively say and leave such matters to Him.
(Of course those who believe in an ‘eternal soul’ that even God cannot destroy will already have made up their minds. They are bound by their doctrine (which is nowhere taught in Scripture). But such a concept may seem blasphemous to many. Can there really be anything that God cannot destroy? If it were so then it would seem (and I say it reverently) that God has then surely ceased to be God).
End of note.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Further consolation:
v. 28. And fear not them which, kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
v. 29. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.
v. 30. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
v. 31. Fear ye not, therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows. Why harbor fear? All that the persecuting enemies can destroy or injure is the body, if God should so permit. Only one fear can and should live in the hearts of Christ’s disciples, a deep-seated fear, an awe and relevance which fears not the punishment, but stands in holy dread of Him that judges and condemns both soul and body in everlasting destruction. For this is not a mere human tempter, who tries to harm his neighbor’s soul by leading him into sin, nor is it Satan, for he has no absolute power over body and soul. It is the great God, the divine Judge Himself. Fear of human enemies implies lack of faith in Him, which may in turn lead to denial and thus to damnation. And again: Why fear? So little is the sparrow valued that one will be sold for one half an assarion , less than one cent; so small is the loss of a single hair that it is not even noticed. And yet: Not a single one of the lowest of birds falls to the ground without God’s consent; the very individual hairs of our head are numbered. Will He whose care embraces the smallest details of every-day life permit harm to befall those that put their unwavering trust in Him? Will He who gives the assurance that we are preferred above many sparrows permit the enemies to harm our bodies?
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Mat 10:28. And fear not them, &c. This was a saying familiar to the Jews. See Wis 16:13-15 and compare Isa 51:7-8. Our Saviour most wisely cautions his disciples against the fear of man, since they were going to encounter all the powers of the world and of darkness, by promoting the gospel of purity, and of true holiness.
Dr. Doddridge observes very well, that these words contain a certain argument, to prove the existence of the soul in a separate state, and its perception of that existence, else the soul would be as properly killed as the body; and accordingly he paraphrases the words, “Fear not them who can only kill the mortal body, but cannot kill or hurt the immaterial soul, which will still survive in allits vigour, while its tabernacle lies in ruins.” Our Saviour, instead of the word , to kill, makes use of the word , to destroy, in the second clause, which carries with it the signification also of tormenting. See Grotius. What an awful verse is this before us! How fit is it that this eternal and almighty God should be the object of our humble fear, and that in compassion with him we should fear nothing else! All the terrors, and all the flatteries of the world, are disarmed by this:an idea which in every state of life should engage us to be faithful to God; so shall we be most truly faithful to ourselves.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Mat 10:28 . ] who is in a position to consign body and soul, at the day of judgment, to everlasting destruction in Gehenna. Comp. Mat 5:29 . It is God that is meant, and not the devil (Olshausen, Stier). Comp. Jas 4:12 ; Wis 16:13-15 .
, as a rendering of , and expressing the idea of turning away from the object of fear, occurs often in the LXX. and Apocrypha; the only other instance in the New Testament is Luk 12:4 ; not found in classical writers at all, though they use (Xen. Cyr. iii. 3. 53; Polyb. ii. 35. 9, ii. 59. 8).
] potius. Euth. Zigabenus: , .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
Ver. 28. And fear not them which kill the body ] That cruelly kill it, (as the word signifies), that wittily torture it, as those primitive persecutors, with all the most exquisite torments that the wit of malice could devise: that kill men so that they may feel themselves to be killed, as Tiberius bade. Odull Gemmet suffered a strange and cruel death in France for religion. For when they had bound him, they took a kind of creatures which live in horse dung, called in French escarbots, and put them unto his navel, covering them with a dish, the which, within a short time, pierced into his belly, and killed him. The tragic story of their cruel handling of William Gardner, martyr, in Portugal, may be read in Mr Foxe’s Martyrology, fol. 1242. At the loss of Heidelberg, Monsieur Millius, an ancient minister and man of God, was taken by the bloody Spaniards, who having first abused his daughter before him, tied a small cord about his head, which with truncheons they wreathed about till they squeezed out his brains. So they rather roasted than burnt many of our martyrs, as Bishop Ridley, and others. Neither would they let the dead rest in their graves, as Paulus Phagius, whose bones they digged up and burnt: so they raged exceedingly upon the dead body of Zwinglius, after they had slain him in battle, &c. a Now these that cruelly kill the body we must not fear. Our Saviour saith not, that can kill the body at their pleasure, for that they cannot; but that do kill it, when God permits them to do it. And then, too, occidere possunt, laedere non possunt, as he told the tyrant: b they may kill the saints, but cannot hurt them, because their souls are out of gunshot. St Paul’s sufferings reached no further than to his flesh, Col 1:24 ; his soul was untouched, he possessed that in patience amidst all outward perturbations.
But are not able to kill the soul ] As they would do fain, if it were in their power. David often complains that they sought after his soul, that they satanically hated him, &c. Now we commit thy soul to the devil, said the persecutors to John Huss. The Popish priests persuaded the people here at the burning of the martyrs, that when the gunpowder (that was put under their armholes for a readier despatch of them) gave a burst, then the devil fetched away their souls. When Cranmer often cried in the fire, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,” a Spanish monk ran to a nobleman then present, and would have persuaded him that those were words of despair, and that he was now entering into hell. c Upon the patient and pious death of George Marsh, many of the people said he died a martyr, which caused the bishop shortly after to make a sermon in the cathedral, and therein he affirmed that the said Marsh was a heretic, burnt like a heretic, and a firebrand in hell. Of Nicolas Burton, martyr in Spain, because he embraced death for Christ with all gladness and patience, the Papists gave out that the devil had his soul before he came to the fire, and therefore they said his senses of feeling were past already.
But rather fear him ] As one fire, so one fear drives out another. Therefore, in the second commandment, lest the fear of men’s punishment should keep us from worshipping of God, great punishment is threatened to them that worship him not. If I forsake my profession, I am sure of a worse death than Judge Hales had, said that martyr. There is a military law for those that forsake their captain, or else (under a colour of discretion) fall back into the rereward. They that draw back, do it to perdition,Heb 10:39Heb 10:39 . And is it nothing to lose an immortal soul? to purchase an everlasting death? Should servants fear their masters because they have power over the flesh? Col 3:23 ; and should not we fear him that can destroy both body and soul in hell? Biron, Marshal of France, derided the Earl of Essex’s piety at his death as more befitting a silly minister than a stout warrior: as if the fear of hell were not a Christian man’s fortitude; as if it were not valour but madness to fight with a flaming fire, that is out of our power to suppress. This Biron, within a few months after, underwent the same death that Essex did, and then if he feared not hell, he was sure to feel it.
a In corpus Zuinglii exanime valde saevitum uit, &c. Scultet. Annal., p. 348.
b , . Thraseds, apud Dion. in Nerone.
c Melch. Adam. in Vit. Cranmer.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
28. ] is a Hebraism, . The present indicates the habit . On the latter part of this verse much question has of late been raised, which never was, as far as I have been able to find, known to the older interpreters. Stier designates it as ‘the only passage of Scripture whose words may equally apply to God and the enemy of souls.’ He himself is strongly in favour of the latter interpretation, and defends it at much length; but I am quite unable to assent to his opinion . It seems to me at variance with the connexion of the discourse , and with the universal tone of Scripture regarding Satan . If such a phrase as could be instanced as = ., or if it could be shewn that any where power is attributed to Satan analogous to that indicated by . . . ., I should then be open to the doubt whether he might not here be intended; but seeing that indicating terror is changed into so usually followed by in a higher and holier sense (there is no such contrast in Mat 10:26 , and therefore that verse cannot be cited as ruling the meaning of this), and that GOD ALONE is throughout the Scripture the Almighty dispenser of life and death both temporal and eternal , seeing also that Satan is ever represented as the condemned of God, not . ., I must hold by the general interpretation, and believe that both here and in Luk 12:3-7 our Heavenly Father is intended as the right object of our fear. As to this being inconsistent with the character in which He is brought before us in the next verse, the very change of construction in would lead the mind on, out of the terror before spoken of, into that better kind of fear always indicated by that expression when applied to God, and so prepare the way for the next verse. Besides, this sense is excellently in keeping with Mat 10:29 in another way. ‘Fear Him who is the only Dispenser of Death and Life: of death , as here; of life , as in the case of the sparrows for whom He cares.’ ‘Fear Him, above men: trust Him, in spite of men.’
In preparing my 2nd edn., I carefully reconsidered the whole matter, and went over Stier’s arguments with the connexion of the discourse before me, but found myself more than ever persuaded that it is quite impossible, for the above and every reason, to apply the words to the enemy of souls. The similar passage, Jas 4:12 , even in the absence of other considerations, would be decisive. Full as his Epistle is of our Lord’s words from this Gospel, it is hardly to be doubted that in , , he has this very verse before him. This Stier endeavours to escape, by saying that barely , as the opposite to , is far from being = in a context like this. But as connected with , what meaning can bear, except that of eternal destruction? The strong things which he says, that his sense will only be doubted as long as men do not search into the depth of the context, &c. do not frighten me. The depth of this part of the discourse I take to be, the setting before Christ’s messengers their Heavenly Father as the sole object of childlike trust and childlike fear the former from His love, the latter from His power, His power to destroy, it is not said, them , but absolute, body and soul , in hell. Here is the true depth of the discourse: but if in the midst of this great subject, our Lord is to be conceived as turning aside, upholding as an object of fear the chief enemy, whose ministers and subordinates He is at the very moment commanding us not to fear , and speaking of him (which would indeed be an “ horrendum”) as . . . . , to my mind all true and deep connexion is broken. It is remarkable how Stier, who so eloquently defends the insertion of in the Lord’s Prayer, can so interpret here. Reichel (whose works I have not seen) seems by a note in Stier, p. 380, to maintain the above view even more strongly than himself. Lange also, in the Leben Jesu, ii. 2, p. 721, maintained this view: but has now, Bibelwerk, i. p. 150, retracted it for reasons the same as those urged here.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 10:28-31 . New antidote to fear drawn from a greater fear, and from the paternal providence of God. like the Hebrew , but also one of several ways in which the Greeks connected this verb with its object. : that is all the persecutor as such can injure or destroy He not only cannot injure the soul, but the more he assails the physical side the safer the spiritual. . . Who is that? God, say most commentators. Not so, I believe. Would Christ present God under this aspect in such close connection with the Father who cares even for the sparrows? What is to be greatly feared is not the final condemnation, but that which leads to it temptation to forsake the cause of God out of regard to self-interest or self-preservation. Shortly the counsel is: fear not the persecutor, but the tempter, not the man who kills you for your fidelity, but the man who wants to buy you off, and the devil whose agent he is.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat 10:28-31
28Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. 29Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30But the very hairs of your head are numbered. 31So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.
Mat 10:28 “Do not fear” See notes at Mat 10:26.
“to destroy” See Special Topic: Apollumi at Mat 2:13.
“soul and body” This verse does not refer to a sharp dichotomy between body, soul, and spirit, but is an expression of the possibility of physical death, but not eternal death for believers.
SPECIAL TOPIC: BODY AND SPIRIT
“in hell” This was the Hebrew term “Gehenna.” It was a compound of “valley” and “(sons of) Hinnom.” This was a valley outside Jerusalem where a Canaanite fertility and fire god (cf. Lev 18:21) was worshiped by sacrificing children (called molech). The Jews turned it into the garbage dump for Jerusalem. Jesus’ metaphors of eternal punishment were taken from this burning, stinking, worm-infested dump. See Special Topic: Where Are the Dead? at Mat 5:22.
Mat 10:29-30 “sparrows. . .hairs” God cares and knows about every aspect of believers’lives (cf. Luk 12:6; Luk 21:18; 1Pe 5:7). This is a promise of individual (not corporate) concern.
“a cent” This is literally “assarion,” which was a Roman copper coin. One assarion could buy several sparrows.
Mat 10:31 “So do not fear” See note at Mat 10:19; Mat 10:26.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
fear not. Hebrew. yare’min. Deu 1:29; Deu 5:5. Psa 3:6; Psa 27:1.
them = [and flee] from them. Greek. apo.
kill. Man causes the loss of life, but he cannot kill: i.e. “destroy” it. Only God can do that.
the soul. Greek. psuche. See App-110.
destroy. Note the difference. Not “kill” merely. Compare Luk 12:4, Luk 12:5.
hell. Greek. geenna. See note on Mat 5:22, and App-131.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
28.] is a Hebraism, . The present indicates the habit. On the latter part of this verse much question has of late been raised, which never was, as far as I have been able to find, known to the older interpreters. Stier designates it as the only passage of Scripture whose words may equally apply to God and the enemy of souls. He himself is strongly in favour of the latter interpretation, and defends it at much length; but I amquite unable to assent to his opinion. It seems to me at variance with the connexion of the discourse, and with the universal tone of Scripture regarding Satan. If such a phrase as could be instanced as = ., or if it could be shewn that any where power is attributed to Satan analogous to that indicated by . . . ., I should then be open to the doubt whether he might not here be intended; but seeing that indicating terror is changed into so usually followed by in a higher and holier sense (there is no such contrast in Mat 10:26, and therefore that verse cannot be cited as ruling the meaning of this), and that GOD ALONE is throughout the Scripture the Almighty dispenser of life and death both temporal and eternal, seeing also that Satan is ever represented as the condemned of God, not . ., I must hold by the general interpretation, and believe that both here and in Luk 12:3-7 our Heavenly Father is intended as the right object of our fear. As to this being inconsistent with the character in which He is brought before us in the next verse, the very change of construction in would lead the mind on, out of the terror before spoken of, into that better kind of fear always indicated by that expression when applied to God, and so prepare the way for the next verse. Besides, this sense is excellently in keeping with Mat 10:29 in another way. Fear Him who is the only Dispenser of Death and Life: of death, as here; of life, as in the case of the sparrows for whom He cares. Fear Him, above men: trust Him, in spite of men.
In preparing my 2nd edn., I carefully reconsidered the whole matter, and went over Stiers arguments with the connexion of the discourse before me, but found myself more than ever persuaded that it is quite impossible, for the above and every reason, to apply the words to the enemy of souls. The similar passage, Jam 4:12, even in the absence of other considerations, would be decisive. Full as his Epistle is of our Lords words from this Gospel, it is hardly to be doubted that in , , he has this very verse before him. This Stier endeavours to escape, by saying that barely, as the opposite to , is far from being = in a context like this. But as connected with , what meaning can bear, except that of eternal destruction? The strong things which he says, that his sense will only be doubted as long as men do not search into the depth of the context, &c. do not frighten me. The depth of this part of the discourse I take to be, the setting before Christs messengers their Heavenly Father as the sole object of childlike trust and childlike fear-the former from His love,-the latter from His power,-His power to destroy, it is not said, them, but absolute, body and soul, in hell. Here is the true depth of the discourse: but if in the midst of this great subject, our Lord is to be conceived as turning aside, upholding as an object of fear the chief enemy, whose ministers and subordinates He is at the very moment commanding us not to fear, and speaking of him (which would indeed be an horrendum) as . . . . , to my mind all true and deep connexion is broken. It is remarkable how Stier, who so eloquently defends the insertion of in the Lords Prayer, can so interpret here. Reichel (whose works I have not seen) seems by a note in Stier, p. 380, to maintain the above view even more strongly than himself. Lange also, in the Leben Jesu, ii. 2, p. 721, maintained this view: but has now, Bibelwerk, i. p. 150, retracted it for reasons the same as those urged here.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 10:28. , …, and be not afraid of etc.) The connection is as follows: He who publicly preaches hidden truth, him the world afflicts: he who fears God, ought to fear nothing except Him: he who does not fear God, fears everything except Him: see 1Pe 3:14-15.[490]-, of) This preposition is not repeated. I fear Him, is a stronger phrase than I am afraid of Him.[491]-,[492] who kill) From the root are derived , , . See Eustathius.- , Him who is able[493]) and that too with the highest ability and authority (see Luk 12:5), that is, GOD; see Jam 4:12.- , both soul and body) the two essential parts of man.-, to destroy, to ruin) It is not said to kill: the soul is immortal.- , in hell) It is not easy to preach the truth; and to none are severer precepts given than to the ministers of the Word, as is evident from the epistles to Timothy and Titus. The most efficacious stimulus is on this account employed. Many witnesses to the truth have been first excited, and afterwards led on, by the most fearful terrors from God.
[490] The world admires the magnanimous spirit of those who fear nothing, and regards such a spirit worthy of heroes and great men. And yet the fear of GOD is the only heroism truly worthy of the name; and in the absence of it, all presence of mind, as it is called, is false, and only indicates reckless rashness.-V. g.
[491] i.e. Bengel would render the passage thus-Be not afraid of them ( ) which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear HIM ( ) which is able, etc.-(I. B.)
[492] E. M. .-(I. B.)
[493] In the original there is a play on the words potest and potestas, which cannot be preserved in the translation. The passage runs thus-Eum qui potest, et quidem cum summa , potestate.-(I. B.)
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
hell
(See Scofield “Mat 5:22”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
And: Mat 10:26, Isa 8:12, Isa 8:13, Isa 51:7, Isa 51:12, Dan 3:10-18, Luk 12:4, Luk 12:5, Act 20:23, Act 20:24, Act 21:13, Rom 8:35-39, 2Ti 4:6-8, Heb 11:35, 1Pe 3:14, Rev 2:10
him: Psa 119:120, Ecc 5:7, Ecc 8:12, Ecc 8:13, Isa 66:2, Jer 5:22, Heb 12:28, Heb 12:29
able: Mat 25:46, Mar 9:43-48, Luk 16:22-26, Joh 5:29, 2Th 1:8-10, Rev 20:10-15
Reciprocal: Gen 12:12 – will kill Gen 15:1 – Fear Gen 26:7 – She is my sister Gen 37:21 – not kill him Exo 1:17 – feared God Exo 5:1 – and told Deu 20:3 – let not Deu 28:58 – fear this glorious Deu 32:22 – lowest Jos 9:24 – we were sore 1Ki 18:3 – feared the Lord 1Ki 18:14 – and he shall slay me 1Ki 20:31 – peradventure 2Ki 1:15 – be not afraid of him 2Ki 17:36 – him shall ye fear 2Ki 17:39 – the Lord 2Ch 20:3 – feared 2Ch 26:18 – withstood Uzziah Neh 4:14 – General Neh 6:13 – that I should Est 5:9 – he stood not up Job 3:17 – the wicked Job 13:11 – Shall Job 37:24 – fear Psa 76:7 – even thou Psa 89:7 – General Psa 119:87 – almost Pro 29:25 – fear Isa 7:4 – fear not Isa 47:14 – they shall Jer 4:20 – upon destruction Jer 26:21 – he was Jer 36:14 – took Jer 42:11 – afraid Eze 2:6 – be not Dan 3:18 – be it Dan 6:10 – as he Mat 5:22 – hell Mat 26:74 – saying Luk 10:15 – thrust Joh 16:2 – the time Act 27:24 – Fear not 2Co 5:11 – the terror Eph 6:20 – boldly Phi 1:28 – in Heb 10:31 – to fall Heb 11:23 – and they Heb 13:6 – I will Jam 4:12 – able Rev 21:8 – the fearful
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
0:28
Mere human beings can cause us to die physically, but Jesus teaches that they cannot go any further in their work of destruction while someone else can. All this proves that death as we use that term does not end it all, hence the materialists are shown to be teachers of false doctrine. God is the One who can destroy (cast) our whole being in hell, therefore we should fear or respect Him. See the note at chapter 5:30 for the lexicon explanation of hell.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 10:28. And be not afraid of them. Boldness and candor in speaking Gods truth awaken deadly opposition. Such opposers, though they can kill the body, are not able to kill the soul. The word translated soul sometimes means life, and is sometimes contrasted with spirit; here where body and soul are contrasted and then joined as including the whole man, it must mean soul as we ordinarily use that word, i.e., the whole immaterial and immortal part of man. Hence: the soul is not killed by the death of the body; it is the higher part of our nature; the eternal safety of the soul is infinitely more important than the present safety of the body.
But rather fear him who is able, etc. God, not Satan. We may be afraid of the latter, but are to fear the former. Satan does not destroy in hell but before, so that men are punished there with him.
To destroy both soul and body in hell. God alone is the dispenser of life and death, temporal and eternal. Hence reverence and awe, not fear and terror, are required, as the change of terms implies. The change from kill to destroy is also significant. The latter implies not annihilation, but continued punishment, affecting both the material and the spiritual part of man (both soul and body). The place of such punishment is hell. There is no other probable interpretation of the passage. Such holy fear is not carnal fear, but sets us free from that.
Mat 10:29 introduces, immediately after the command to fear God, a tender description of His care, to call forth childlike trust. The two are joined by Christ, are joined through and in Christ alone. He reveals Gods power and care in harmony; He also harmonizes the corresponding fear and trust of the believer, which are therefore indissoluble.
Two sparrows, or little birds.
For a penny. Not the same word as in chap. Mat 5:26 (farthing), but assarion (worth about three farthings English, or a cent and a half American), the tenth part of a Roman drachm; here used to express an insignificant value, the birds being very plenty and destroyed in great numbers.
Not one of them. Too small to be offered for sale except in pairs, yet God marks the fall of one.
Fall on the ground, as birds do, when struck violently, or when frozen, wet, or starved Comp. Luk 12:6 : Not one of them is forgotten before God.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Observe here the following particulars,1. An unwarrantable fear condemned; and that is, the sinful, servile, slavish fear of impotent man: Fear not him that can kill the body.
2. A holy, awful, and prudential fear of the omnipotent God commended: Fear him that is able to kill both body and soul.
3. The persons that this duty of fear is recommended to and bound upon-Christ’s own disciples, yea, his ministers and ambassadors; they both may and ought to fear him; not only for his greatness and goodness, but upon the account of his punitive justice; as being able to cast both soul and body into hell, such a fear is not only lawful, but laudable, not only commendable, but commanded, and well becomes the servants of God themselves.
This text contains a certain evidence that the soul doth not perish wih the body; none are able to kill the soul, but it continues after death in a state of sensiblilty; it is granted that men can kill the body, but it is denied that they can kill the soul: it is spoken of temporal death; consequently then the soul doth not perish with the body, nor is the soul reduced int an insensible state by the death of the cody; nor can the soul be supposed to sleep as the body doth till the resurrection; for an intelligible, thinking, and perceivin being, as the soul is, connot be deprived of sensation, thought, and perception, any more than it can lose its being: the soul, after the death of the body, being capable of bliss or misery, must continue in a state of sensation.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
10:28 And {n} fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
(n) Though tyrants rage and are cruel, yet we must not fear them.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
It also helps to conquer fear if the disciple will remember that the worst a human adversary can do does not compare with the worst God can do. Jesus was not implying that true believers might go to hell if they do not remain faithful to God. His point was that God has power over the disciple after he dies whereas human adversaries can do nothing beyond killing the disciple’s body. The believer needs to remember that he or she will stand before God one day to give an account of his or her stewardship. Walvoord took "him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell" as a reference to Satan. [Note: Walvoord, Matthew: . . ., p. 77.]