Luke 12:4-6
4 “I ▼▼ Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, ▼▼ Judaism had a similar exhortation in 4 Macc 13:14–15.
and after that have nothing more they can do. 5But I will warn ▼▼ Grk “will show,” but in this reflective context such a demonstration is a warning or exhortation.
you whom you should fear: Fear the one who, after the killing, ▼▼ The actual performer of the killing is not here specified. It could be understood to be God (so NASB, NRSV) but it could simply emphasize that, after a killing has taken place, it is God who casts the person into hell.
has authority to throw you ▼▼ The direct object (“you”) is understood.
into hell. ▼▼ The word translated hell is “Gehenna” (γέεννα, geenna), a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew words ge hinnom (“Valley of Hinnom”). This was the valley along the south side of Jerusalem. In OT times it was used for human sacrifices to the pagan god Molech (cf. Jer 7:31; 19:5–6; 32:35), and it came to be used as a place where human excrement and rubbish were disposed of and burned. In the intertestamental period, it came to be used symbolically as the place of divine punishment (cf. 1 En. 27:2, 90:26; 4 Ezra 7:36).
Yes, I tell you, fear him! 6Aren’t five sparrows sold for two pennies? ▼ Yet not one of them is forgotten before God.
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