Bede : "The shape of this world passes away," not its substance; just as with our bodies too, the shape will be changed. The substance does not perish when "what is sowed as a physical body rises as a spiritual body." But we read nothing of this sort about the fire and the water. Rather we have in the book of Revelation, "And the sea is now no longer," and in the prophets, "And the light of the lamp shall shine for you no more." "We wait for his promises," he says, "in which righteousness dwells." Righteousness dwells in the future age, because then the crown of righteousness will be given to each of the faithful in accord with the measure of their struggle. This is a thing that cannot at all happen in this life, according to the saying of Solomon, "I have seen beneath the sun wickedness in place of judgment and iniquity in place of righteousness and I said in my heart, 'God will judge the righteous and the wicked, and there will be a time for everything.' " And again he says, "I saw the deceit that goes on beneath the sun and the tears of the innocent and that there was no comforter, nor were those deprived of the help of all able to resist their power, and I praised the dead rather than the living." — Commentary on the Catholic Epistles, 2 Peter 3:13 Gregory of Neocaesarea : I saw in the lower regions a pit of punishment awaiting the ungodly but a different place set apart for the godly. — PARAPHRASE OF Ecclesiastes 3:16 Jerome : "Furthermore, I have observed beneath the sun: in the place of justice there is wickedness, and in the place of righteousness there is wickedness. I mused: God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for everything and for every deed, there." The meaning of this is clear but is cloaked by the cloud of interpretation. He says: I sought truth and righteousness under the sun and I saw that even among the benches of judges truth is not valued, but gifts. Or differently: I thought some kind of justice present in this world and either took the pious man on his own merit, or punished the impious for his crimes; and I found the opposite to that which I had been thinking. For I saw a righteous man here suffer much injustice and an impious man made to rule instead of being punished for his crime. But thinking to myself afterwards and considering it carefully I understood that they judge not in respect of God and treating each case one by one, but rather reserve judgement for the future, so that all are judged equally and receive there according to their will and effort. For this is what he says: "and there is a time for everything and for every deed, there", that is, in judgement when God will have begun to judge, then there will be truth, now injustice prevails in the world. Such as when we read in Wisdom, Sirach wrote: "lest you say, what is this or what is that? For all things are sought in their own time" [Eccli. ?]. — Commentary on Ecclesiastes