“And I say unto you My friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear Him, which after He hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear Him.” Luke 12:4, 5.
1. These texts are the record, by different writers, of the same language of the Savior. The first one is often quoted by those who teach the immortality of the soul and its conscious existence in death. In Matthew’s version of the Savior’s words, the soul is indeed made very prominent; but in that of Luke, it is not mentioned. Yet the language of the one version is the same substance as that of the other. 2. Thus, while Matthew represents the Savior as saying, “Fear not
them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul,” Luke expresses the idea thus: “Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more they can do.”
And Matthew adds, “Fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Luke gives the same warning, thus: “Fear Him, which after He hath killed hath power to cast into hell.”
3. Thus it is seen that our Lord recognizes the fact plainly expressed elsewhere, that there are two deaths. The first death, which is the common lot of mankind, is thus spoken of by Paul: “It is appointed unto men once to die.” Heb. 9:27.
The second death is the portion only of the wicked. “He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.” Rev. 2:11; 20:6, 14; 21:8.
The second death is the portion only of the wicked. “He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.” Rev. 2:11; 20:6, 14; 21:8.
The Savior bids us not to fear those who can inflict only the first of these deaths; but He warns us to fear Him who alone is able to kill with the second death.
4. The place in which the terrible punishment here set forth is inflicted, is called hell. This word is found in the English Testament twenty-three times. But in the Greek Testament there are three different words, hades, gehenna and tartarus, signifying different places, all rendered by the one English word, “hell.” Thus, hades is used eleven times in the original, and is rendered “hell” ten times and “grave” once.
Thus hades is seen to be the place of the dead, whether righteous or wicked; the place into which they are introduced by death, and from which they are delivered by the resurrection. Those who are in hades are said to be dead. Rev. 20:13. Once, in the English Testament, hades is rendered “grave.” 1 Cor. 15:55.
Gehenna, on the contrary, is the place where the wicked are to be cast alive with all their members, and to be destroyed soul and body. It is the lake of fire in which the wicked dead are to be punished after their resurrection. Rev. 20:13-15.
Tartarus is the place into which the evil angels were cast after their rebellion. These three places, therefore, though rendered by the one English word “hell,” are not to be confounded with one another."
J.N. Andrews