Mt 10:24-33
[Jesus said to the Twelve,] 24“No disciple is above his teacher, no slave above his master. 25It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, for the slave that he become like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more those of his household!
26“Therefore do not be afraid of them. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. 27What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. 28And 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. 29Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge. 30Even all the hairs of your head are counted. 31So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. 32Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. 33But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.”
BODY AND SOUL: In the Old Testament, “flesh” and “soul” both designate the human being as a whole. In the New Testament “body” often replaces “flesh.” “Flesh” primarily speaks of man as mortal, dependent on God, subject to sickness and death. “Body” refers more to man’s outside appearance. “Soul” is understood as “life”; it designates man as a living being, subject to the vicissitudes of life.
In the Gospel, Jesus speaks of those who “kill the body but cannot kill the soul.” The saying seems to hint at the Greek distinction between immortal soul and mortal body. But Jesus then talks of both soul and body being destroyed in Gehenna. It is better to see “flesh/body” and “soul/life” as two sides of the human being. The saying is thus interpreted: human beings cannot kill life itself. Only God (no one else, not even the devil) can destroy the body and the life given it. The Jewish rabbis would put it thus: the killing by a king of flesh and blood is not an eternal killing, but the killing performed by the King of all kings is; he kills for this age and the age to come.
Matthew shares the latter Jewish notion—espoused in the books of Daniel, Maccabees, Wisdom—that the end of the body is not the end of life, because God will give a new body which will live in God’s kingdom. Or the body will be cast into hell. Matthew calls men and women to be without fear in this life, because there is only one who deserves to be feared: God.