Key passage
Matthew 10:28
Jesus tells his disciples to fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.
The text
Don’t be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.
The immediate context
Part of the commissioning of the Twelve. Jesus warns them of coming persecution, tells them not to fear those who can kill only the body, and directs their fear instead to the one who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.
Where it sits in the canon
The case reads it beside Luke 12:4-5, which states the same warning as a sequence of killing and then casting into Gehenna, and beside 1 Corinthians 15, where an imperishable body is promised to those in Christ rather than assumed for everyone.
Why it matters
It is the one saying in which Jesus states directly what becomes of the soul in Gehenna, and the verb he uses there is destroy rather than torment.
How the passage is interpreted
The eternal conscious torment reading
Defenders of eternal conscious torment hold that the verb here means to ruin or to render useless rather than to end, the sense it carries when wineskins are destroyed or a life is lost. On this reading the saying contrasts a limited human power over the body with God's authority over the whole person, and what it points to is the everlasting ruin of body and soul together rather than their extinction.
The conditionalist reading
Conditionalists note that Jesus sets the two halves in parallel: what people can do to the body, God can do to body and soul. If the human half means literal killing, the divine half is naturally read as the ending of the whole person, and Jesus reaches for a stronger word to say so. The source document cites Chris Date for the observation that in the Synoptic Gospels this verb in the active voice, used of one agent acting on another, otherwise always refers to killing a person.
Where the readings agree
- God's authority over the final fate of a person exceeds any human power.
- The warning concerns Gehenna and not merely the death of the body.
- Body and soul share a single fate in what Jesus says here.
Where the disagreement lies
Whether destroying soul and body names a ruin the person continues to undergo, or the ending of the person as a living being.
Notes on the wording
- The Greek verb rendered destroy here is apollumi, the root behind perish in John 3:16.
- Jesus uses one verb for what people do to the body, kill, and a different and stronger verb for what God can do to body and soul.
Fuller treatment of the Greek and Hebrew words behind these notes is in the glossary and language notes.
Editorial notes
- The source document works through the possible states of body, soul and spirit after the lake of fire, and treats this verse as the constraint that ties the fate of body and soul together.
- The author presents the three-part account of the person as his own framework and tells readers who do not find it helpful to move on to the next section.
Where this passage appears in the case
- S10 Can God Destroy Both Body and Soul?Matthew 10:28 in its own terms, the use of the verb elsewhere in the Synoptics, and a technical appendix on two-part and three-part anthropology.
- S22 The Biblical Case for Conditional ImmortalityThe synthesis: 1 Corinthians 15 read through, and the short chain of reasoning from perishable bodies to the fate of the soul.
Related passages
- Luke 12:4-5Luke's form of the warning to fear the one who has authority to cast into Gehenna after killing.
- 1 Corinthians 15:42-44The resurrection chapter, where imperishability and immortality are given rather than assumed.
- Revelation 20:10-15The lake of fire, the great white throne, and the naming of the second death.
Sources consulted for this passage
- Phil Welch. My case for Conditional Immortality/Annihilation (CI) instead of Eternal Conscious Torment (ECT). Working document, revised through 2026. 2023-03-01 Details
- Rethinking Hell View original of Rethinking Hell (opens in a new tab) Details
- Joseph Dear. The Bible Teaches Annihilationism. 1st edition, PDF version. 2016. approximately 590 pages View original of The Bible Teaches Annihilationism (opens in a new tab) Details
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