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The interpretation timeline

Sir 51:4

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

Sir 51:4 · Douay-Rheims
“And thou hast delivered me, according to the multitude of the mercy of thy name, from them that did roar, prepared to devour.”
Medieval c. 750 – 1100
856
A.D.
Rabanus Maurus Medieval
c. A.D. 780–856
“We read that this happened frequently in the passions of the martyrs. Like the three young men, who remained unhurt in the intense flames of the furnace, they also would not have suffered harm from the consuming flames. But since this has not been granted to all the martyrs of God, since many of them were burned bodily by the fire, though their souls arrived freely in the heavenly places, it is better to understand this fire and this flame as the intense heat of persecution, which, although it can afflict the saints of God for a little while, cannot go so far as to cause them to lose their souls.”
Source
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.