KJV: 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.
YLT: 'And be not afraid of those killing the body, and are not able to kill the soul, but fear rather Him who is able both soul and body to destroy in gehenna.
Darby: And be not afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul; but fear rather him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
ASV: And be not afraid of them that 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.
φοβεῖσθε | you should be afraid |
Parse: Verb, Present Imperative Middle, 2nd Person Plural Root: φοβέομαι Sense: to put to flight by terrifying (to scare away). |
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τῶν | those |
Parse: Article, Genitive Masculine Plural Root: ὁ Sense: this, that, these, etc. |
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ἀποκτεννόντων | killing |
Parse: Verb, Present Participle Active, Genitive Masculine Plural Root: ἀποκτείνω Sense: to kill in any way whatever. |
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σῶμα | body |
Parse: Noun, Accusative Neuter Singular Root: σῶμα Sense: the body both of men or animals. |
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δὲ | however |
Parse: Conjunction Root: δέ Sense: but, moreover, and, etc. |
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ψυχὴν | soul |
Parse: Noun, Accusative Feminine Singular Root: ψυχή Sense: breath. |
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δυναμένων | being able |
Parse: Verb, Present Participle Middle or Passive, Genitive Masculine Plural Root: δύναμαι Sense: to be able, have power whether by virtue of one’s own ability and resources, or of a state of mind, or through favourable circumstances, or by permission of law or custom. |
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ἀποκτεῖναι | to kill |
Parse: Verb, Aorist Infinitive Active Root: ἀποκτείνω Sense: to kill in any way whatever. |
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φοβεῖσθε | you should fear |
Parse: Verb, Present Imperative Middle or Passive, 2nd Person Plural Root: φοβέομαι Sense: to put to flight by terrifying (to scare away). |
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μᾶλλον | rather |
Parse: Adverb Root: μᾶλλον Sense: more, to a greater degree, rather. |
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τὸν | the [One] |
Parse: Article, Accusative Masculine Singular Root: ὁ Sense: this, that, these, etc. |
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δυνάμενον | being able |
Parse: Verb, Present Participle Middle or Passive, Accusative Masculine Singular Root: δύναμαι Sense: to be able, have power whether by virtue of one’s own ability and resources, or of a state of mind, or through favourable circumstances, or by permission of law or custom. |
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καὶ | both |
Parse: Conjunction Root: καί Sense: and, also, even, indeed, but. |
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ἀπολέσαι | to destroy |
Parse: Verb, Aorist Infinitive Active Root: ἀπόλλυμι Sense: to destroy. |
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γεέννῃ | hell |
Parse: Noun, Dative Feminine Singular Root: γέεννα Sense: Hell is the place of the future punishment call “Gehenna” or “Gehenna of fire”. |
Greek Commentary for Matthew 10:28
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 note on Matthew 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. [source]
Reverse Greek Commentary Search for Matthew 10:28
Repeated in Matthew 10:28 and Matthew 10:31 Note also the accusative case with the aorist passive subjunctive, transitive though passive. See same construction in Luke 12:5. In Matthew 10:28 the construction is with απο apo and the ablative, a translation Hebraism as in Luke 12:4 (Robertson, Grammar of the Greek N.T. in the Light of Historical Research, p. 577). [source]
This is as good a translation as the Authorized Version was poor; “Take no thought for your life.” The old English word “thought” meant anxiety or worry as Shakespeare says:“The native hue of resolution Is sicklied o‘er with the pale cast of thought.”Vincent quotes Bacon (Henry VII): “Harris, an alderman of London, was put in trouble and died with thought and anguish.” But words change with time and now this passage is actually quoted (Lightfoot) “as an objection to the moral teaching of the Sermon on the Mount, on the ground that it encouraged, nay, commanded, a reckless neglect of the future.” We have narrowed the word to mere planning without any notion of anxiety which is in the Greek word. The verb μεριμναω merimnaō is from μερισ μεριζω meris class="normal greek">παγωμεν πιωμεν περιβαλωμετα merizō because care or anxiety distracts and divides. It occurs in Christ‘s rebuke to Martha for her excessive solicitude about something to eat (Luke 10:41). The notion of proper care and forethought appears in 1 Corinthians 7:32; 1 Corinthians 12:25; Philemon 2:20. It is here the present imperative with the negative, a command not to have the habit of petulant worry about food and clothing, a source of anxiety to many housewives, a word for women especially as the command not to worship mammon may be called a word for men. The command can mean that they must stop such worry if already indulging in it. In Matthew 6:31 Jesus repeats the prohibition with the ingressive aorist subjunctive: “Do not become anxious,” “Do not grow anxious.” Here the direct question with the deliberative subjunctive occurs with each verb (περιβαλωμετα phagōmen class="normal greek">ενδυσηστε piōmen class="normal greek">τηι πσυχηι peribalōmetha). This deliberative subjunctive of the direct question is retained in the indirect question employed in Matthew 6:25. A different verb for clothing occurs, both in the indirect middle (πσυχηι peribalōmetha fling round ourselves in Matthew 6:31, σωμα endusēsthe put on yourselves in Matthew 6:25).For your life (Πσυχη tēi psuchēi). “Here καρδια psuchēi stands for the life principle common to man and beast, which is embodied in the διανοια sōma the former needs food, the latter clothing” (McNeile). πνευμα Psuchē in the Synoptic Gospels occurs in three senses (McNeile): either the life principle in the body as here and which man may kill (Mark 3:4) or the seat of the thoughts and emotions on a par with πσυχη kardia and dianoia (Matthew 22:37) and pneuma (Luke 1:46; cf. John 12:27; John 13:21) or something higher that makes up the real self (Matthew 10:28; Matthew 16:26). In Matthew 16:25 (Luke 9:25) psuchē appears in two senses paradoxical use, saving life and losing it. -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- [source]
“When he might have been saved” (Bengel). This word, in classical Greek, is used: 1. Of death in battle or elsewhere. 2. Of laying waste, as a city or heritage. 3. Of losing of life, property, or other objects. As an active verb, to kill or demolish. 4. Of being demoralized, morally abandoned or ruined, as children under bad influences. In New Testament of killing (Matthew 2:13; Matthew 12:14). 5. Of destroying and perishing, not only of human life, but of material and intellectual things (1 Corinthians 1:19; John 6:27; Mark 2:22; 1 Peter 1:7; James 1:11; Hebrews 1:11). 6. Of losing (Matthew 10:6, Matthew 10:42; Luke 15:4, Luke 15:6, Luke 15:8). Of moral abandonment (Luke 15:24, Luke 15:32). 7. Of the doom of the impenitent (Matthew 10:28; Luke 13:3; John 3:15; John 10:28; 2 Peter 3:9; Romans 2:12. [source]
First aorist passive subjunctive with μη mē ingressive aorist, do not become afraid of, with απο apo and the ablative like the Hebrew μη εχοντων περισσοτερον τι ποιησαι min and the English “be afraid of,” a translation Hebraism as in Matthew 10:28 (Moulton, Prolegomena, p. 102).Have no more that they can do (εχω mē echontōn perissoteron ti poiēsai). Luke often uses the infinitive thus with echō a classic idiom (Luke 7:40, Luke 7:42; Luke 12:4, Luke 12:50; Luke 14:14; Acts 4:14, etc.). [source]
Ταπος Taphos (grave) presents the notion of burial Jesus claims not only the power of life (spiritual) and of judgment, but of power to quicken the actual dead at the Last Day. They will hear his voice and come out A general judgment and a general bodily resurrection we have here for both good and bad as in Matthew 25:46; Acts 24:15; 2 Corinthians 5:10 and as often implied in the words of Jesus (Matthew 5:29.; Matthew 10:28; Luke 11:32). In John 6:39 Jesus asserts that he will raise up the righteous. [source]
Σῶμα in earlier classical usage signifies a corpse. So always in Homer and often in later Greek. So in the New Testament, Matthew 6:25; Mark 5:29; Mark 14:8; Mark 15:43. It is used of men as slaves, Revelation 18:13. Also in classical Greek of the sum-total. So Plato: τὸ τοῦ κόσμου σῶμα thesum-total of the world (“Timaeus,” 31). The meaning is tinged in some cases by the fact of the vital union of the body with the immaterial nature, as being animated by the ψυξή soulthe principle of individual life. Thus Matthew 6:25, where the two are conceived as forming one organism, so that the material ministries which are predicated of the one are predicated of the other, and the meanings of the two merge into one another. -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- In Paul it can scarcely be said to be used of a dead body, except in a figurative sense, as Romans 8:10, or by inference, 2 Corinthians 5:8. Commonly of a living body. It occurs with ψυχή soulonly 1 Thessalonians 5:23, and there its distinction from ψυχή rather than its union with it is implied. So in Matthew 10:28, though even there the distinction includes the two as one personality. It is used by Paul:-DIVIDER- 1. Of the living human body, Romans 4:19; 1 Corinthians 6:13; 1 Corinthians 9:27; 1 Corinthians 12:12-26. -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- 2. Of the Church as the body of Christ, Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 12:27; Ephesians 1:23; Colossians 1:18, etc. Σάρξ fleshnever in this sense. -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- 3. Of plants and heavenly bodies, 1 Corinthians 15:37, 1 Corinthians 15:40. -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- 4. Of the glorified body of Christ, Philemon 3:21. -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- 5. Of the spiritual body of risen believers, 1 Corinthians 15:44. -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- It is distinguished from σάρξ fleshas not being limited to the organism of an earthly, living body, 1 Corinthians 15:37, 1 Corinthians 15:38. It is the material organism apart from any definite matter. It is however sometimes used as practically synonymous with σάρξ , 1 Corinthians 7:16, 1 Corinthians 7:17; Ephesians 5:28, Ephesians 5:31; 2 Corinthians 4:10, 2 Corinthians 4:11. Compare 1 Corinthians 5:3with Colossians 2:5. An ethical conception attaches to it. It is alternated with μέλη membersand the two are associated with sin (Romans 1:24; Romans 6:6; Romans 7:5, Romans 7:24; Romans 8:13; Colossians 3:5), and with sanctification (Romans 12:1; 1 Corinthians 6:19sq.; compare 1 Thessalonians 4:4; 1 Thessalonians 5:23). It is represented as mortal, Romans 8:11; 2 Corinthians 10:10; and as capable of life, 1 Corinthians 13:3; 2 Corinthians 4:10. -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- In common with μέλη membersit is the instrument of feeling and willing rather than σάρξ , because the object in such cases is to designate the body not definitely as earthly, but generally as organic, Romans 6:12, Romans 6:13, Romans 6:19; 2 Corinthians 5:10. Hence, wherever it is viewed with reference to sin or sanctification, it is the outward organ for the execution of the good or bad resolves of the will. -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- The phrase body of sin denotes the body belonging to, or ruled by, the power of sin, in which the members are instruments of unrighteousness (Romans 6:13). Not the body as containing the principle of evil in our humanity, since Paul does not regard sin as inherent in, and inseparable from, the body (see Romans 6:13; 2 Corinthians 4:10-12; 2 Corinthians 7:1. Compare Matthew 15:19), nor as precisely identical with the old man, an organism or system of evil dispositions, which does not harmonize with Romans 6:12, Romans 6:13, where Paul uses body in the strict sense. “Sin is conceived as the master, to whom the body as slave belongs and is obedient to execute its will. As the slave must perform his definite functions, not because he in himself can perform no others, but because of His actually subsistent relationship of service he may perform no others, while of himself he might belong as well to another master and render other services; so the earthly σῶμα bodybelongs not of itself to the ἁμαρτία sinbut may just as well belong to the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:13), and doubtless it is de facto enslaved to sin, so long as a redemption from this state has not set in by virtue of the divine Spirit” (Romans 7:24: Dickson).DestroyedSee on Romans 3:3.He that is dead ( ὁ ἀποθανὼν )Rev., literally, he that hath died. In a physical sense. Death and its consequences are used as the general illustration of the spiritual truth. It is a habit of Paul to throw in such general illustrations. See Romans 7:2. [source]
oP. Rend. who preserveth alive. Quickeneth is according to the reading ζωοποιοῦντος makethalive. Comp. lxx, Exodus 1:17; Judges 8:19. This association of God as the preserver with confession is noteworthy in Matthew 10:28-33. [source]
Cf. the picture of God‘s power in Matthew 10:28, a common idea in the O.T. (Deuteronomy 32:39; 1 Samuel 2:16; 2 Kings 5:7). [source]
Old compound (from νομοσ τιτημι nomosνομοτετεω tithēmi), only here in N.T. In Psalm 9:20. Cf. σωσαι nomotheteō in Hebrews 7:11; Hebrews 8:6.To save (σωζω sōsai first aorist active infinitive of και απολεσαι sōzō) and to destroy (απολλυμι kai apolesai first aorist active infinitive of συ δε τις ει apollumi to destroy). Cf. the picture of God‘s power in Matthew 10:28, a common idea in the O.T. (Deuteronomy 32:39; 1 Samuel 2:16; 2 Kings 5:7).But who art thou? Proleptic and emphatic position of τον πλησιον su (thou) in this rhetorical question as in Romans 9:20; Romans 14:4.Thy neighbour (ton plēsion). “The neighbour” as in James 2:8. [source]