Mar 9:46 Where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched.
Mar 9:46 Where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched.
Alternative: Where their worm never ends and the fire does not go out.
This is the second of three repetitions of this phrase at the end of this chapter. Our discussion of the first is here. As we said there, when Christ does three repetitions, his metaphors cover the three aspects of temporal life (physical, emotional, and intellectual, see here for more). In this case, the three symbols used in these series of repeating verses are the hand, foot, and eye, representing the emotional (our relationships with others), physical (our physical bodies), and intellectual (our mind).
This second iteration refers to the physical part of our lives. Christ doesn't preach the dichotomy of the flesh being evil and the spirit being good. In Christ's view, all the temporal aspects of life are a path to spiritual understanding. All can also be barriers if we get "stuck" in them. Being physical handicapped is only a problem if it traps us. The point of life is not physical. The point is always that everything in this life, good or bad, has meaning and purpose. Everything can help us in our spiritual quest if we see it as a help.
We lose Christ's meaning if we get caught up in our modern concepts of hell and hell fire in thinking about what he actually mean talking about the trash heap at Gehenna, which is the word he used. At that trash heap, material was constantly rotting, filled with worms and fire was used to destroy the rotten material. The fire was not punishment but purification.
The difference between this world and the spiritual world is that, in our world, conditions are temporary, but in the spiritual world, they are eternal. Here, fire destroy the worm, purifying the world, but states are preserved in the spiritual world only to be changed in this world. So, if we do not change in this world, we are preserved with all our faults in the spiritual world. If we put our lives on the trash heap here, the worm never dies in the spiritual world even though the fires never stop burning them. We are frozen in that state. Until the next age, which may be our next reincarnation.
"Worm" is from skôlêx (skolex), which means "worm," specifically, "earthworm," "grub," "larvae," and "worms in dung, decaying matter and trees and word."
"Die" is from teleutaô (teleutao), which means "to bring to pass," "to accomplish," "to finish," "to die," "to end a life," and "to make an end to life." (Christ uses this word Mar 7:10, for the OT Hebew word, muwth, which means "to die" and "to kill.")
"Fire" is from pur (pyr), which means "fire," "sacrificial fire," "funeral fire," "hearth-fire," "lightning," "the light of torches," and "heat of fever."
"Quenched" is from sbennumi (sbennymi), which means "quench," "put out," "dry up," "run dry," and "go out."
