Mat_10:39.
Ψυχήν
and
αὐτήν
have no other meaning than that of soul (Mat_2:20, Mat_6:25, Mat_9:28); but the point lies in the reference of the finding and losing not being the same in the first as in the second half of the verse. “Whoever will have found his soul (by a saving of his life in this world through denying me in those times when life is endangered), will lose it (namely, through the
ἀπώλεια
, Mat_7:13, the eternal death at the second coming; comp. Luk_9:24 f.); and whoever will have lost his soul (through the loss of his life in this world in persecution, through an act of self-sacrifice), will find it” (at the resurrection to the eternal
ζωή
);
σωθήσεται
, Mat_10:22. For
ἀπόλλ
.
ψυχήν
, comp. Eur. Hec. 21; Anth. Pal. vii. 272. 2. The finding in the first half, accordingly, denotes the saving of the
ψυχή
, when to all appearance hopelessly endangered from temporal death; while, in the second, it denotes the saving of the
ψυχή
after it has actually succumbed to death. The former is a finding that issues in eternal death; the latter, one that conducts to eternal life.