This coming weekend is the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time. In the previous post we discussed that there will be all manner of people who will not receive the evangelizing message, but may actively threatened your safety. Jesus tells them not to be afraid (v.26) and now He repeats this message: 28 And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.

The possibility of martyrdom in the cause of Jesus, already raised in v. 21, is now addressed head-on. The body/soul contrast, when used in relation to execution, presupposes that there is a true life which goes beyond mere physical existence, so that the real “self” is untouched by the death of the body alone. And that is all that human opponents can touch. But both body and “soul” are subject to God’s power, and therefore also to his judgment. Under that judgment, it is not only the body but the true life of the person which is liable to destruction in hell.

“Hell” (Gehenna) that was already referenced in 5:29-30, is again referenced in 10:28 (and will be again in 18:9; 23:15, 33) is the place of final destruction of the wicked. This use is well-attested in Jewish apocalyptic literature. It is not the same as Hades, the place of the dead, which is not usually understood as a place of punishment or destruction but rather of shadowy existence. The name Gehenna derives from the Valley of Hinnom (Hebrew gê hinnōm) outside Jerusalem which had once been the site of human sacrifice by fire to Molech (2 Kings 23:10; Jer 7:31). There is a later tradition that the city’s rubbish was dumped and burned in this valley, which if true would provide a vivid image of “the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

Image credit: Image credit: The Sacrament of Ordination (Christ Presenting the Keys to Saint Peter), c. 1636-40, by Nicholas Poussin, Public Domain