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Does the Bible teach we have an Immortal Soul
The Unkillable Soul Versus Conditionalism
Matthew 10:28 is a watershed text. It serves as a rope, and on
either side of the rope is a group of well-meaning Christians
tugging over the issue of human nature and destiny. On the one side are
those who teach innate immortality. These draw support
from Matthew 10:28a, where Jesus compares the body, which can be killed
by other men, to the soul, which cannot. This side of the debate
believes that “in death, the body only dies; but the soul lives
on uninterruptedly, and is immortal.”
On the other side of the rope are conditionalists.
We tend to emphasize Matthew 10:28b, where Jesus speaks of God being
able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna hell. We reason that
anything that can be destroyed is not by nature immortal. We do
not believe that “Matt. 10:28 presupposes a sharp division
between body and soul in which the ‘soul’ is the more
important, immortal part.” We see that presupposition as reading
into the text of Matthew 10:28a a dualistic view of the nature of
humanity which is not reflected in the rest of Scripture, and
essentially denies the reality of death.
In a recent article on this text, David Burge summarized a conditionalist approach:
- The Bible affirms that death is a real event which affects the whole person.
- In hell, the lost will suffer complete destruction; no part of them will survive.
- Jesus is teaching that the first death is only temporary. The resurrection will reverse it.
- Jesus is teaching about the nature of God here, not the nature of man. Believers should fear God, not human persecutors.
Psuché in Matthew
If our
brothers with the innate immortality view are right, Jesus is affirming
something about the nature of humanity in Matthew 10:28a. He is
teaching that there is a part of every human being that God has made
indestructible. This is the soul. One way of assessing the validity of
that interpretation is to cross-reference each occurrence of the word
soul (psuché in Greek) as it appears in Matthew’s Gospel.
This should help us grasp how Matthew understood the term –
whether or not he understood it as an immortal part of every human
being.
Matthew 2:20
The first
occurrence of psuché in Matthew comes from the mouth of the
Angel of the Lord. He tells Joseph that it is safe to return to Israel
from Egypt because those who sought Jesus’ life are dead. The
word the angel uses for life is psuché. It is clear that the
angel is speaking about Herod’s desire to kill Jesus, to prevent
him from challenging the authority of the Herodian dynasty. There is
absolutely no way to read into this statement any affirmation of human
immortality. Perhaps this is the reason that the translators of many
versions render the term psuché as life in this passage. Matthew
is using the word psuché as the Old Testament usually
does: as a reference to the life of the whole person.
Matthew 6:25
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus uses the term
psuché to talk about human appetites. He tells his disciples not
to worry about their psuché: “what you will eat or what
you will drink.” This is a significant text in the debate for two
reasons: 1) these are the words of Jesus, so they reflect how Jesus
used the term psuché; 2) Jesus also used the word body (soma) in
the same verse.
Crucial to the innate immortality position is the
assumption that body and soul are contrasting terms. Yet, in this
passage body and soul are not contrasted. Both body and soul are terms
which imply the earthly, fleshly appetites. The body is concerned with
what it will wear, and the soul is concerned with its next meal.
Clearly Jesus is not teaching that what one eats and drinks is more
important than what one wears. He is not contrasting the soul with the
body. Both soul and body are used here to refer to earthly, fleshly
appetites of the whole person. Nor is Jesus downplaying the importance
of these human needs. He is merely teaching that the kingdom of God is
more important. That is what believers should concern themselves over.
Matthew 10:39
Another significant use of psuché by Matthew
occurs just eleven verses after 10:28. This is within the most
immediate context. The situation and audience is the same: Jesus is
preparing the twelve disciples for the mission to the lost sheep of the
house of Israel. The threat is the same: believers are risking
their lives if they proclaim the gospel. They will find that even the
members of their own households will turn against them. To be a true
believer is to face the sword and take up one’s cross.
Yet, Jesus is not telling his disciples that it is only
their bodies that are threatened. He is actually encouraging them to
surrender their souls to be killed. He tells them “If you cling
to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me,
you will find it” (NLT). Once again, the word life in that
passage refers to the present life of the whole person, not an
immaterial essence that survives death. But that term, life, is a
translation of the same Greek word, psuché. If Jesus had meant
to affirm that the soul is an immortal part of the human being that
cannot die, why did he use the very same word to refer to the human
life, which, by definition is mortal and in threat of dying? What is
more, he is using the same term in the same message to the same
audience.
So, conditionalists cannot accept the interpretation of
Matthew 10:28a that insists that soul and body are separate
anthropological entities, one of which is indestructible and the other
is destructible. That interpretation contradicts what Jesus says in the
four most important contexts of Matthew 10:28a. It requires that
Matthew 10:28b be reread: anything that is indestructible cannot be
destroyed, even by God. Therefore the innate immortality view insists
that Jesus is talking about the perpetual torture of human souls, not
their destruction. It requires that the same term be translated
“life,” in 2:20 and 10:39, because the idea of an immortal
soul cannot fit those texts. It also downplays the strong connection
that the soul has with the body, as seen in 6:25.
Matthew 11:29
Expanding the contextual boundaries a bit further, we find
Jesus promising rest for the souls of those who take his yoke upon
themselves. Jesus could not have been referring to merely the
immaterial essences of the disciples, because in the previous verse he
had said the same thing without using the word psuché:
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest.” ((Matthew 11:28 )) Here Jesus uses the
term psuché the same way as he did in the previous passages in
Matthew: as a synonym for the whole person. It parallels the pronoun
“you.”
Matthew 12:18
In the next chapter, Matthew quotes Isaiah 42:1-3, which
definitely does refer to an immortal soul. Unfortunately for the innate
immortality view, that immortal soul is God’s soul. The text
cannot prove anything about human souls. But in this text as well, the
best way to understand God’s use of the word soul is as a
parallel to the “I” in the same verse.
Matthew 16:25-26
In chapter 16, Jesus repeats the same admonition that he
gave his disciples in 10:39. Jesus is about to go to the cross, , take
up their crosses, and follow him. If they try to save their lives (by
rejecting him) they will lose their lives. If they lose their lives (by
being killed along with him) they will find them.
Here a rather peculiar thing happens. The word
psuché appears in this passage four times: twice in v.25, and
twice in v.26. Many of the modern translations render it as life in v.
25, and soul in v. 26. Apparently, the only reason for doing so is that
v. 26, taken out of its context, could be used to contrast the soul
with the body. In its context, however, v. 26 is saying the same thing
that Jesus has said before: personal safety is not worth rejecting him.
In chapter 20, Jesus uses the term psuché referring
to himself. He said that he came “to give his life as a ransom
for many.” Again, the best translation for the term psuché
is the English word life. It is clear that Jesus is referring to his
impending death at Calvary. By his physical death on the cross, Jesus
drank from the cup that led to atonement for the sins of the world. By
dying that death, Jesus gave his “soul.” If the soul of
every human being is immortal, then Jesus’ soul could not die.
But if Jesus’ soul could not die, how could he give it as the
world’s ransom?
Matthew 22:37
In chapter 22, Jesus quotes from the Old Testament again.
He had been asked which is the greatest commandment. He replied that it
involved loving the Lord with all one’s heart, soul, and mind.
Despite the fact that this text is a favorite of preachers due to its
built-in three points, it is best to see “heart, soul and
mind” as an example of hendiatrys. Jesus is emphasizing complete
devotion to God. He is not teaching anthropology. Any of the three
terms in this verse could have been used alone to convey the idea of
complete devotion. Together they maximize the same emphasis.
Matthew 26:38
The final example of psuché in Matthew’s
Gospel is a quote from Jesus to his disciples at Gethsemane. He is in
agony as he prays in the garden, knowing that his death is immanent. He
explains to the disciples that his soul is “very sorrowful, even
to death” and asks them to remain there with him and
“watch.” It is clear from Matthew’s description of
the event that Jesus’ body was also sorrowing. In fact, Matthew
had said the same thing of the whole Jesus in v.37: “he began to
be sorrowful and troubled.” So, once again, Matthew is using the
term psuché as a parallel to a pronoun.
The Lucan Parallel
Luke 12:4 offers a synoptic view of the same statement as
Matthew 10:28. Luke has Jesus saying “do not fear those who kill
the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do.”
Luke does not even mention the psuché, thus avoids the
perception of dualism, perhaps because he was writing to a Gentile
audience who would have been more prone to dualistic thought. His
emphasis was the same as that of Matthew. He was encouraging commitment
to God rather than fear of man. The death that the persecutors threaten
is a real death, but it is merely a temporary one. The cost of
rejecting Christ is permanent destruction in Gehenna at the final
judgment.
What Matthew 10:28a Does Not Imply
Having surveyed every use of psuché in Matthew, and
looked at the only synoptic parallel passage, we are now prepared to
infer from our text what it does not imply. It does not imply an
obvious contrast between two parts of the human person. In every text
investigated, the psuché is used of the whole person, not one of
many parts. In many of the texts, the soul’s loss is inextricably
linked to the death of the body. In the most immediate context –
Matthew 10:28b – both body and soul are destroyed together at the
final punishment of the wicked. Thus, 10:28a could not be implying the
innate immortality of the soul. Also, the only significant thing this
text implies about the intermediate state is that it is just that
– intermediate. It does not imply consciousness. It is a state of
death, albeit a temporary death.
What Matthew 10:28a Does Imply
Conditionalists are not prepared to concede that body and
soul are two distinct parts of a human, nor that the soul is by nature
immortal. But that does not mean that conditionalists refuse to take
Matthew 10:28a seriously. We believe that freed from the shackles of
platonic dualism this text is better able to convey the original
intentions of both Christ and Matthew. They encourage believers to be
more concerned about doing God’s will than cautious about how
others might respond to their devotion. They also remind us that
although death is real, it is not permanent. Between Matthew 28a and
28b there is space and time for the dead to be raised by God’s
power at Christ’s return. For believers, this is cause for
celebration.
See Afterlife
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