A Fire That Does Not Burn

Κατέδεται αὐτὸν πῦρ ἄκαυστον... Μυστήριον τι μανθάνομεν περὶ τῆς κολάσεως τῆς ἀποκείμένης, ἵνα φυλασσώμεθα αὐτὴν παθεῖν. Πῦρ εἶπεν ἄkαυστον κατέδεσθαι τὸν ἀσεβῆ· τοῦτο τὸ πῦρ· τὸ παρ' ἡμῖν ὑλκὸν οὐκ ἔστιν ἄκαυστον πῦρ· βλεπόμενον γὰρ αὐτό. Ἐκεῖϝο δὲ ἀόρατόν ἐστι τὸ πῦρ, τὸ ἐπὶ τοὺς ἁμαρτωλοὺς ἐρχόμενον, ὃ ἔνδον αὐτοὺς καίει. Νοητόν ἐστι καὶ κολάζον. Ἐὰν θέλῃς εἰκόνα παραλαβεῖν ἐκείνου τοῦ πυρὸς, νόει μοι τὸν εἰς ὑπερβολὴν πυρέσσοντα, καὶ ὐπὸ πυρὸς φλεγόμενον. Οὐχ εὑρήσεις ὄψει τὸ πῦρ ἐν αὐτῷ, ὑπόκειται δὲ, καὶ ἐκκαίει αὐτοῦ τὰ σπλάψχνα. Οὕτως ἀπὸ τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων πυρέττων τις ἐkkαίεται. Ὠριγένης, Εἰς Τον Ιὠβ Source: Migne PG 17.76a-b

A fire that does not burn shall consume him... 1 Here we learn about a mystery of punishment which awaits, so that we might guard ourselves against suffering it. He speaks of the fire that does not burn which shall devour the impious man. Here fire is a material thing to us, and it is not a fire that does not burn, for so we observe it. But that fire which is immaterial enters into the sinful, and it blazes up within them. This punishment is intellectual. If you wish to have an image of that fire, think of a man who is gravely afflicted with a fever, blazing up with a fire. You shall not find an observable fire in him, however it is within, and it sets his insides on fire. Likewise because of his sins a man is set on fire as if by a fever. Origen, On Job, Fragment 1 Job 20.26