Isaiah 65:5Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Yet they believed they had attained the pinnacle of purity, declaring to those who sought to approach them: "Depart from me, do not touch me, for I am clean." This mentality is inspired by evil and unclean spirits, leading their adherents to believe that by engaging in behavior contrary to the law and morality, they could achieve ultimate cleanliness through actions like lighting lamps, dancing around fires, or partaking in the superstitions of respectable elderly women. However, the things they have done wickedly and without reverence will be met with the smoke of divine displeasure, and a fire burns within it continually. It is known that smoke foreshadows fire ready to ignite. Before the arrival of the Savior, the aforementioned Israelites were warned through the presence of smoke, indicating the onset of divine judgment. Yet, after compounding their previous sins by desecrating the Savior and Redeemer of all—having put to death the Author of life (Acts 3:15)—the wrath was ignited, transforming the smoke, as it were, into flames.

This reflects the delusion of pagans and many others in Aesculapius' coffins, which are merely the resting places of the dead. Yet their impiety did not stop there; they also consumed swine, which the law forbids, and the brew of the previous day, eagerly indulging in what the Greeks term έωλον. So deeply entrenched were they in their uncleanness that both they and their vessels became defiled, and their pride and arrogance escalated to such an extent that anyone not ensnared by their folly was regarded as unclean and avoided, much like the Samaritans and Jews who shun contact with us, or the heretics in Gaul led by a fervent teacher. They, while distancing themselves from the martyr’s basilicas, regard us as unclean, despite praying there out of habit. This aversion stems not from themselves, but from the demons that dwell within them, unable to endure the power and purity of the sacred dust. Which heretics do not find rest among tombstones or slumber in the teachings of false prophets? Such were Marcion and Valentinus, and more recently Eunomius, whose leprous body bore testimony to his corrupted mind, having abandoned the light of the Holy Spirit and the upper room of the apostles for the darkness of the devil, reveling in caves condemned by Jeremiah as he lamented, "My inheritance has become to me like a den of Gehenna" (Jer. 12:12), which we call hyena—creatures that follow decaying flesh and feast on the ichor and putrid blood of corpses. Against those who dwell in caves, Habakkuk also cried out, “Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor, pouring out your fury and making them drunk, in order to gaze upon their nakedness" (Hab. 2:15). Of these caves the Lord spoke, saying, "It is written: My Father's house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves" (Matt. 21:13; Luke 19:46), where they destroy the souls of the deceived, preventing them from perceiving visions which the Savior proclaimed: "I will multiply visions, and through the prophets I will be known" (Hosea 12:10). The psalmist also affirmed, "You have spoken in a vision to your holy one" (Ps. 88:20), yet they place their faith in dreams and visions that the Lord explicitly commanded against. They partake of swine's flesh, of which it is said, "Do not give what is holy to the dogs" (Matthew 7:6), and imbibe vile brews, seasoned with heretical practices. Their vessels, encompassing both bodies and doctrines, are entirely unclean, and they reach such delusion that anyone not resembling them is deemed cursed and lost.