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Big_Dummy
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Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
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Nita
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Here are 3 that are quoted by Aquinas in his Catena Aurea
( catecheticsonline.com/CatenaAurea.php )
PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM:
Then He introduces the witness of prophecy from the prophet Isaiah, saying, Where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched. He says not this of a visible worm, but He calls conscience, a worm, gnawing the soul for not having done any good thing; for each of us shall be made his own accuser, by calling to mind what he has done in this mortal life, and so their worm remains for ever.
BEDE:
And as the worm is the pain which inwardly accuses, so the fire is a punishment which rages without us; or by the worm is meant the rottenness of hell, by the fire, its heat.
AUGUSTINE:
But those who hold that both of these, namely, the fire and the worm, belong to the pains of the soul, and not of the body, say also that those who are separated from the kingdom of God are tortured, as with fire, by the pangs of a soul, repenting too late, and hopelessly; and they not unfitly contend that fire may be put for that burning grief, as says the Apostle, Who is offended, and I burn not? They also think that by the worm must be understood the same grief, as is said: As a moth destroys a garment, and a worm wood, so grief tortures the heart of man.
All those who hesitate not to affirm that there will be pain both of body and soul in that punishment, affirm that the body is burnt by the fire. But although this is more credible, because it is absurd that there either the pains of body or of soul should be wanting, still I think that it is easier to say that both belong to the body than that neither; and therefore it seems to me that Holy Scripture in this place is silent about the pains of the soul, because it follows that the soul also is tortured in the pains of the body. Let each man therefore choose which he will, either to refer the fire to the body, the worm to the soul, the one properly, the other in a figure, or else both properly to the body; for living things may exist even in fire, in burnings without being wasted, in pain without death, by the wondrous power of the Almighty Creator.
It goes on: And if your foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for you to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched; where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched.
( catecheticsonline.com/CatenaAurea.php )
PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM:
Then He introduces the witness of prophecy from the prophet Isaiah, saying, Where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched. He says not this of a visible worm, but He calls conscience, a worm, gnawing the soul for not having done any good thing; for each of us shall be made his own accuser, by calling to mind what he has done in this mortal life, and so their worm remains for ever.
BEDE:
And as the worm is the pain which inwardly accuses, so the fire is a punishment which rages without us; or by the worm is meant the rottenness of hell, by the fire, its heat.
AUGUSTINE:
But those who hold that both of these, namely, the fire and the worm, belong to the pains of the soul, and not of the body, say also that those who are separated from the kingdom of God are tortured, as with fire, by the pangs of a soul, repenting too late, and hopelessly; and they not unfitly contend that fire may be put for that burning grief, as says the Apostle, Who is offended, and I burn not? They also think that by the worm must be understood the same grief, as is said: As a moth destroys a garment, and a worm wood, so grief tortures the heart of man.
All those who hesitate not to affirm that there will be pain both of body and soul in that punishment, affirm that the body is burnt by the fire. But although this is more credible, because it is absurd that there either the pains of body or of soul should be wanting, still I think that it is easier to say that both belong to the body than that neither; and therefore it seems to me that Holy Scripture in this place is silent about the pains of the soul, because it follows that the soul also is tortured in the pains of the body. Let each man therefore choose which he will, either to refer the fire to the body, the worm to the soul, the one properly, the other in a figure, or else both properly to the body; for living things may exist even in fire, in burnings without being wasted, in pain without death, by the wondrous power of the Almighty Creator.
It goes on: And if your foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for you to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched; where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched.
C
COPLAND_3
Guest
The quote from the Catena Aurea given above is excellent, but here are some more mostly commentaries on a parallel passage in Isaiah 66:24.
ST. GREGORY OF NYSSA: Address on Relgious Instruction 40
Nor, too, does anything which afflicts the senses here equal in torment the future like of sinners. Even if we denote some of those torments by terms familiar to us here, the difference is not slight. When you hear the word ‘fire,’ you have been taught to think of it differently from ordinary fire, since a new factor is added. For that fire is not quenched, while experience has devised many ways to quench the fire we know. And there is a great difference between fire which is quenched and that which cannot be put out. They are, therefore, different, and not the same. Then again, when a person hears the word ‘worm,’ the analogy must not be misapplied directly from the creature we know to the eternal. For the addition of the phrase ‘that does not die’ suggests the thought that this worm is not simply the creature we know.
THEODORET OF CYRUS: Commentary on Isaiah 66:24
He has displayed by that everlastingness of the chastisement: for the fire is inextinguishable and the worm immortal. With this chastisement He has threatened them, and not them alone, but also those who infringe upon His divine laws.
ST. JEROME: Commentary on Isaiah 66:24
But the worm that will not die and the fire that will not be extinguished are understood by many to be the conscience of sinners, which tortures those who are in supplications. Therefore, due to their vice and sin, they are deprived of the good of the elect, in accordance with which it is said, “I was turned to misery, as thorns pierced me,” (Ps 32:4) and in the Proverbs, “the worm of the bones is the envious heart.” (14:30)
The fire, like the worm must also be understood to burn as long as it has material with which the voracious flame is fed. If, therefore, anyone has weeds in his conscience, which the enemy sowed while the head of the family was asleep, this fire will burn them up, and this conflagration devour them.
CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Commentary on Isaiah 66:24
These misfortunes piled on the Jews are meant to be the things we say happened to them at the hands of the Romans, when the temple was destroyed and all were subjected to cruel slaughter. For suffering such things they became a spectacle for all, but their suffering was not prolonged indefinitely. Yet this is what perhaps is meant when it says, “Their worm will not die not the fire go out.” Some, however, want to refer these words concerning them to the time of the end of the age.
ST. BASIL THE GREAT: Commentary on Isaiah 66:24
Next is the poisonous and flesh-devouring class of worms, which eat greedily and are never satiated and cause unbearable pains by their voracity.
OECUMENIUS: Commentary on Revelation 9
Perhaps calling the sting of the soul and its persistent and creeping pain a worm.
ST. GREGORY OF NYSSA: Address on Relgious Instruction 40
Nor, too, does anything which afflicts the senses here equal in torment the future like of sinners. Even if we denote some of those torments by terms familiar to us here, the difference is not slight. When you hear the word ‘fire,’ you have been taught to think of it differently from ordinary fire, since a new factor is added. For that fire is not quenched, while experience has devised many ways to quench the fire we know. And there is a great difference between fire which is quenched and that which cannot be put out. They are, therefore, different, and not the same. Then again, when a person hears the word ‘worm,’ the analogy must not be misapplied directly from the creature we know to the eternal. For the addition of the phrase ‘that does not die’ suggests the thought that this worm is not simply the creature we know.
THEODORET OF CYRUS: Commentary on Isaiah 66:24
He has displayed by that everlastingness of the chastisement: for the fire is inextinguishable and the worm immortal. With this chastisement He has threatened them, and not them alone, but also those who infringe upon His divine laws.
ST. JEROME: Commentary on Isaiah 66:24
But the worm that will not die and the fire that will not be extinguished are understood by many to be the conscience of sinners, which tortures those who are in supplications. Therefore, due to their vice and sin, they are deprived of the good of the elect, in accordance with which it is said, “I was turned to misery, as thorns pierced me,” (Ps 32:4) and in the Proverbs, “the worm of the bones is the envious heart.” (14:30)
The fire, like the worm must also be understood to burn as long as it has material with which the voracious flame is fed. If, therefore, anyone has weeds in his conscience, which the enemy sowed while the head of the family was asleep, this fire will burn them up, and this conflagration devour them.
CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Commentary on Isaiah 66:24
These misfortunes piled on the Jews are meant to be the things we say happened to them at the hands of the Romans, when the temple was destroyed and all were subjected to cruel slaughter. For suffering such things they became a spectacle for all, but their suffering was not prolonged indefinitely. Yet this is what perhaps is meant when it says, “Their worm will not die not the fire go out.” Some, however, want to refer these words concerning them to the time of the end of the age.
ST. BASIL THE GREAT: Commentary on Isaiah 66:24
Next is the poisonous and flesh-devouring class of worms, which eat greedily and are never satiated and cause unbearable pains by their voracity.
OECUMENIUS: Commentary on Revelation 9
Perhaps calling the sting of the soul and its persistent and creeping pain a worm.
B
Big_Dummy
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thanks
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