One popular Messianic psalm begins with the words, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" Jesus recalls that God is the faithful deliverer of those who call upon Him and then declares, "But I am a worm, and no man" (Psa 22:1-5). Many people, including the Early Church Fathers, have wondered in what manner could our Lord be considered a worm. Obviously, as He hung on the Cross, Christ was despised and humiliated and treated with the contempt one might show for a worm.
David, writing this psalm, may have meant to point out the great disparity between the value and character of himself as petitioner and the God he called upon to save him. Nevertheless, it was this same God who brought him forth from the womb and granted him an existence (Psa 22:9). However, the character of Christ is as the character of God. Therefore, it does not seem meet that Christ would call Himself a worm on this account.
Pope Gelasius I taught that Christ called Himself a worm, not because he was abandoned and crucified, but because He would rise again in a glorified body like the caterpillar who emerges from his tomblike chrysalis in the form of a beautiful butterfly. Augustine and others believed that "the worm is generally not begotten, but spontaneously originated in flesh or any vegetable product" (Augustine - Second Division, Letter 102). Therefore, they considered Christ a "worm" on account of His virgin birth.
When the reluctant prophet Jonah realized that the gentiles of Nineveh had turned away the wrath of God with repentance, he sat down outside the walls of the city to sulk. God caused a gourd to spring up and provide shelter for Jonah. But the next day He sent a worm to gnaw at the plant causing it to wither. Augustine believed that the cool shadow cast by the gourd was symbolic of the special privileges and protection enjoyed by the Israelites under the Mosaic covenant. He wrote that the worm prefigured Christ who put an end to their favored status by extending salvation to the gentiles (Augustine - Second Division, Letter 102).
Worms are associated with dissolution, destruction, and decomposition. John Donne writes that they "endeavor to devour the world which produces them" (Devotions Upon Sickness and Death). The righteous are counseled not to fear or envy the wicked and powerful for their end is an inheritance of worms which will "eat them like wool" (Ecclus 10:11 REB; Is 51:7-8). The accomplishments of the wicked "turn to filth and worms" (1 Macc 2:62-63 REB). Ephraim the Syrian's 41st hymn illustrates the folly of humans who care more for their possessions than their souls with the cautionary image of a man examining his clothes each day for imperfections completely oblivious to the fact that "a worm (sinful habit) is lurking in his members." St. John Chrysostom advises Christians to clad themselves in virtue since all other garments are but food for worms (The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Matthew, Homily 23 - Mt. 7:1).
Worms are symbolic of death and the grave, yet they are also connected with rebirth, transformation, and transition. In Chinese, Icelandic, and South American legend, humans are born from the worms of the corpses of the world's earlier inhabitants. Worms are associated with the larval state of the butterfly and indicate a passage from that which is lowly, disgusting, corrupted, and tragic. While caterpillars become butterflies, that which is transformed by the worm may end up in either a higher or a lower state than it was before. Every 500 years the mythical phoenix burnt itself to ashes on the altar of the sun. From these ashes, a worm, representing its essential being, arose and became the phoenix reborn.
The lowly worm is symbolic of humility, weakness, and self-deprecation. It is a symbol of those who through circumstances or the meanness of men are considered subhuman (Job 25:6; Ps 22:6; Is 41:14). Thomas Watson compares the person whose heart is set upon the things of this world to the worm who cannot soar as the lark, for such a one unable to advance in spiritual things, crawls upon the earth oblivious to the glories of the Lord (The Lord's Prayer).
God says, "Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel! I will help you" (Is 41:14). He hears His chosen ones. They are weak and despised by their enemies. Like the worm, their strength is in their mouth; their weapon is prayer. With prayer the small are made strong and their powerful enemies are brought down.
Worms are associated with corruption, disease, and impurity. Methodius compares them to sinners who are attracted to the filth of this world. Worms are said to "take possession of" those who frequent prostitutes (Ecclus 19:2-3 REB). The Devil or Serpent is sometimes called the "great worm." Cypress and cedar are resistant to the gnawing of worms and as such are symbols of the Church. Wood which had been chewed by worms was not suitable for burning in the fires of the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem's Temple.
The Loathly Worm is a legendary creature similar to the dragon which crawls about the countryside wreaking destruction. The Loch Ness Monster was considered a giant worm. During the 6th century it was believed to have been defeated by the prayers of St. Columba.
Worms were used as agents of the Lord to punish the wicked. When He gave manna to the Israelites wandering in the desert, God forbade them to gather more than what was necessary for each day's nourishment. Any manna stored overnight "bred worms and stank." However, manna stored up for the Sabbath remained free of worms during the day of rest (Ex 16:20-24). Israelites were warned that worms would consume the fruits of their labors if they disobeyed their God (Deu 28:39). Wicked people were eaten alive by worms. Such was the case with Antiochus who persecuted the Jews, threatened to turn Jerusalem into a graveyard, and refused burial to the "sons of Jerusalem" (2 Macc 9:4-9; Hymns and Homilies of Ephraim the Syrian); Herod Aggrippa who allowed a crowd to praise him as a god (Acts 12:22-23); and Julian who blasphemed Christ and defiled the vessels of the church of Antioch (Socrates Sozomenus, The Ecclesiastical History of Sozomen, Book 5, Chapt. 9).
Expensive crimson or scarlet dye was made from worms and used for the clothing of kings. When Isaiah records the fall of the King of Babylon (sometimes as symbol of Lucifer), he writes, "Your pomp is brought down to Sheol...the maggot is spread under you, and worms cover you" (Is 14:11). Here is the irony of one who proudly wore crimson garments discovering that they are the garments of corruption and uncleanness. This casts light on the phrase, "Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be white as snow" (Is 1:18).
The agonies of hell are represented by the "worm that does not die" (Is 66:24; Mk 9:44, 46, 48). Fire and worms await the ungodly and popular legend asserts that the corpses of the wicked taste sweetest to these creatures (Judith 16:17; Ecclus 7:17 REB; Job 24:20). Thomas Aquinas reasoned that, since animals are not granted immortality, the undying "worm of the damned" must be the worm of regret and conscience rather than a physical worm (Summa Theologica by Thomas Aquinas).
To the sufferings of Job were added the horror and shame of being eaten alive by worms (Job 7:5). According to St. John Chrysostom, Job "saw his body pouring out worms like a fountain" (Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Matthew, Homilies 1-15). He believes his sickness will end in death and presents the following riddle to his unsympathetic friends: "If I say to corruption, 'You are my father,' and to the worm, 'You are my mother and my sister,' where then is my hope?" (Job 17:14-15). His hope is in the grave where he will no longer be urged to make a false confession. Matthew Henry writes that Job saw the grave as a "passage-house" on his way to his heavenly home. Perhaps Job felt his longed for audience with God could only be had on the other side of the grave. He wanted his name to be cleared. He wanted to destroy the lie that this world's misfortunes were punishments visited by God upon the wicked. He frequently points out that in the end both the rich and the poor, the happy and the miserable, the good and the bad go to the grave and "worms cover them" (Job 21:26). Punishments and rewards are in the afterlife whereas trials and temptations are in this world. His friends, however, maintain that no one can be righteous before God; humans are like worms and maggots in His eyes - too weak and corrupt to be cleared by a holy God (Job 25:4-6).
According to popular Jewish legend, God created a worm called Shamir on the evening of the sixth day, just before the earth's first Sabbath began. Although he was only the size of a grain of barley, Shamir was designed to cut through stone so that the Temple might be built without the use of metal tools. One of Solomon's tasks when he came to the throne was to find this worm. Learning that the demon king, Asmodeus, knew of the worm's whereabouts, Solomon had the demon's well filled with wine. After Asmodeus drank from it and became drunk, he was captured and brought to Solomon where he revealed that Shamir had been carried from the garden of Eden by a bird who kept it hidden still. Solomon then ordered glass bowls placed over all bird's nests in his kingdom. When Shamir came out to cut through the glass of his bird's nest, he was captured and put to work cutting the large stones of the Temple and the gems for the High Priest's breastplate.
Worms are images of corruption, dissolution, knotted energy, and decay. They symbolize the earth, the grave, and the defilement or snatching away of persons and objects held dear to us. Legends tell of King Conchobar who was born holding a worm in each hand, and Cuchulainn who was conceived when his mother inadvertantly swallowed a worm which had fallen into her drink. The Zuni tell of a worm who helped the warrior twins escape their enemies by vomiting on their pursuers to the degree that they were suffocated and died. Since that day Worm has been small and unable to recover his original bulk.
Except where otherwise indicated all scripture quotes are from the NKJV.
More information about worms is available at:
© 1999 by Suzetta Tucker
To cite this page:
Tucker, Suzetta. "ChristStory Worm Page." ChristStory
Christian Bestiary. 1999. http://ww2.netnitco.net/users/legend01/worm.htm
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