[ImpressiveWebs]

Sorry for the late rely. HN doesn’t make it easy to see comment replies.

You’re misunderstanding what I said and you’ve got it backwards. Jesus was speaking metaphorically when he said “Gehenna”, not literally. The eternal fire was not literal and Gehenna was not literal. It’s a symbol for eternal destruction.

The reason he mentioned the worm is because the Jews at that time understood that the worm would eat dead bodies in the literal Gehenna. Jesus was pointing out that their future death would be eternal with no hope of a resurrection if they continued down a certain spiritual path.

Also, please look up the verses I cited previously. The symbolic understanding of Gehenna is in agreement with those other verses where God clearly does not condone burning people, let alone burning them eternally.

Also, there is no place in the Bible that says that the “soul” will reside in hell forever, separate from the body. The whole person gets thrown in Gehenna, which is pointed out in the context of the verse you cited (see verses 43 to 47).