Matthew 10:28

Context

This verse belongs to the so-called "Missionary Discourse" (Matthew 10), which Jesus Christ delivered when sending the twelve disciples out on a preaching mission. Earlier in the discourse, Jesus warns the disciples that they will be hated and persecuted (10:16-25). Then, from verse 26 through verse 31, he repeatedly tells them not to fear. Verse 28 contrasts human beings with God and states whom one ought to fear. The verses that follow (29-31) comfort the disciples with the assurance of God's care, saying that not even one sparrow falls to the ground without the Father. The same saying also appears in Luke 12:4-5.

Interpretation

• Reading as a reference to God: This view takes "him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell" to be God, who carries out the Last Judgment; most commentators and denominations follow this reading. Persecutors can take only the life of the body, but God determines a person's eternal destiny, so the verse is read as a call to fear God, with reverence and awe, rather than human beings.
• Reading as a reference to the devil: Some interpreters have identified the one to be feared as the devil. This view, however, is regarded as a minority position. Two reasons are given against it: Scripture does not tell believers to fear the devil but to resist him (James 4:7), and the verse is immediately followed by a description of the Father's care.
• Emphasis on comfort: Some interpreters do not read the verse merely as a warning. They emphasize it as a word that gives boldness in the face of persecution by assuring believers that even if the body dies, the soul remains in God's hands.

Debates and Issues

The word rendered "hell" here is the Greek Gehenna, a name derived from the Valley of Hinnom south of Jerusalem. How one understands "destroy" (Greek apollymi) bears on the debate over the nature of punishment in hell.

• Most Korean denominations, including Presbyterian, Methodist, Holiness, Baptist, and Full Gospel churches, hold that the wicked will suffer eternal conscious punishment. They understand the "destruction" in this verse not as the cessation of existence but as eternal ruin.
• Those who hold that the wicked are ultimately annihilated after the judgment follow the view known as conditional immortality or annihilationism, and they cite this verse in support. The Seventh-day Adventist Church teaches this position. Within evangelicalism, John Stott is known to have expressed cautious sympathy for this view.

The verse's distinction between body and soul is also frequently cited in support of the doctrine of the "intermediate state," which holds that the soul continues to exist between a person's death and the resurrection. Some point out, however, that this verse alone cannot settle whether dichotomy, which views the human person as consisting of body and soul, or trichotomy, which views the person as spirit, soul, and body, is correct.

In the Korean Church

The verse is often cited in sermons on persecution and martyrdom and in sermons urging believers to stand firm in their faith in the face of the world's threats.

Related Passages

• Luke 12:4-5
• Matthew 10:29-31
• Hebrews 10:26-31
• 2 Corinthians 5:8
• John 5:25-29