Following on from the last post about Gehenna being a place of destruction the same meaning is to be found in the next verse to be considered – Matthew 10:28 - 'Do 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'. The historical context to be taken into account here is that Matthew wrote his gospel during a time of persecution and it is suggested that these particular words were included to include some kind of comfort to his readers/hearers while they were suffering for their faith.

The encouragement offered is to remember that while the persecutors could destroy the body they could not affect the believers’ eternal destiny. Only God has the ability to destroy both body and soul.

Some commentators have suggested that an emphasis on hell being a place of torment is ‘unavoidable’ here (Zondervan NIV Bible Commentary). But the key word to unlocking the verse is surely ‘destroy’ and even the definition of the English word has the meaning of something being ‘damaged so badly … it does not exist or cannot be used’ (Cambridge Dictionary Online). Is there any room in that definition for eternal punishment? I would suggest not. I offered the Greek definition in the last post and will not repeat it here – but it comes very close to the English. While the destruction could be construed as punishment and while it could take a long time to happen – it cannot carry on for eternity, unless God fails in his attempt to destroy and just keeps going until he succeeds.

So, once again, Gehenna as used by Jesus here does not necessarily need to be taken as a place of eternal conscious torment.

The last post on hell can be found here.