So I have recently taken the view that Gehenna is simply an earthly judgment that happened to Israel in 70 A.D. (this explains why John didn’t write a single word about Gehenna). Assuming that Gehenna was not a garbage dump, it is still extensively talked about in Jeremiah as a future judgment. Yet there is one verse which seems to present a problem with this view, Matthew 10:28 seems to allude to Gehenna being more. Both body and soul are soul are destroyed in Gehenna?
The problem with Gehenna not just killing the body, but destroying the soul as well, is that I thought the soul and body were connected, where if the body died then the soul died with it? Scripture plainly says that souls die, however this is the same thing as human beings dying. Adam was not given a soul, he became a living soul. If a person dies, then a soul dies. Person=Soul. So if a body dies then automatically would not a soul die? The answer to this predicament is found again in one word being translated correctly. Rotherham’s Emphasized Bible reads,
**And be not in fear, by reason of them that are killing the body,—and, the soul, are not able to kill. But fear, rather, him who is able, both soul and body, to destroy in gehenna! **
The tense of the first ‘kill’ is present and active, now we know that ‘killing the body’ and ‘kill the body’ are two separate things. Killing the body implies simply beatings, pains, wounds, but not death. If I say that poison is killing me am I already dead? No. Do not be afraid of beatings, pains, and wounds, be afraid of the one who can end your life in Gehenna. Remember the judgment of Gehenna was that Jew’s bodies were left unburied, this suggests destruction of the body, not just life(soul).
