Didymus the Blind - Böcker

The book of Zechariah is ""the longest and most obscure"" of the Twelve Minor Prophets, Jerome remarked. That may have been the reason why in 386 he visited the Alexandrian scholar Didymus the Blind and requested a work on this prophet. Though long thought to be lost, the work was rediscovered in 1941 at Tura outside Cairo along with some other biblical commentaries. As a result we have in our possession a commentary on Zechariah by Didymus that enjoys particular distinction as his only complete work on a biblical book extant in Greek whose authenticity is established, which comes to us by direct manuscript tradition, and has been critically edited. Thus it deserves this first appearance in English.A disciple of Origen, whose work on Zechariah reached only to chapter five and is no longer extant, Didymus's commentary on this apocalyptic book illustrates the typically allegorical approach to the biblical text that we associate with Alexandria. Even Cyril of Alexandria in the next generation will lean rather to the historical style of commentary found in the Antiochene scholars Theodore and Theodoret, whose works on the Twelve are also extant and who had Didymus open before them. Didymus alone offers his readers a wide range of spiritual meanings on the obscure verses of Zechariah, capitalizing on his extraordinary familiarity with Holy Writ (despite his disability), and proceeding on a process of interpretation-by-association, frequently invoking also etymology and number symbolism to plumb the meaning of the text. No wonder he remarks, ""The reader who understands it is a seer""; such is the richness of the hermeneutical offering.

Blind since early childhood, the Egyptian theologian and monk Didymus (ca. 313–398) wielded a masterful knowledge of Scripture, philosophy, and previous biblical interpretation, earning the esteem of his contemporaries Athanasius, Antony of Egypt, Jerome, Rufinus, and Palladius, as well as of the historians Socrates and Theodoret in the decades following his death. He was, however, anathematized by the Fifth Ecumenical Council in 553 because of his utilization and defense of the works of Origen, and this condemnation may be responsible for the loss of many of Didymus's writings. Jerome and Palladius mentioned that Didymus had written commentaries on Old Testament books; these commentaries were assumed to be no longer extant until the discovery in 1941 in Tura, Egypt, of papyri containing commentaries on Genesis, Zechariah, Job, Ecclesiastes, and some of the Psalms.Certain features of the Genesis commentary, unfortunately not preserved in its entirety, seem to indicate that it may have been Didymus's earliest work. In addition to his silence regarding his other works, remarks on specific heresies as well as Christological interpretations occur much less frequently here than in his Zechariah commentary (previously published in Fathers of the Church Vol. 111). Moreover, the heavier reliance on Philo and Origen may indicate relative inexperience.Whereas Didymus specifically names Philo in this commentary, he never identifies Origen as one of his sources even when quoting the latter verbatim. Like Origen, he rejects anthropomorphic interpretations and proceeds to an allegorical approach when the literal meaning repels him. He does not, however, neglect the literal-historical level; see, for example, his examination of the story of the Flood. All three of Origen's levels of interpretation—literal, moral, and allegorical—are mobilized here. This previously untranslated text is crucial for studies of the fourth century and of the monumental influence of Origen.

This volume provides the first full length English translation of the commentary on the Book of Job by Didymus the Blind. One of the earliest line-by-line commentaries on Job to survive from late antiquity, it covers the entirety of the first sixteen chapters of the LXX text of Job with a few unfortunate lacunae. It represents the third commentary of Didymus published in the Fathers of the Church series (preceded by Didymus' On Genesis and On Zechariah translated by Robert C. Hill) and the last of the commentaries discovered at Tura in 1941 that was edited for circulation in late antiquity, since Didymus' comments on Ecclesiastes and Psalms are unedited transcripts of his public lectures, replete with student questions.The Book of Job has garnered perpetual attention because of its intriguing dialogues between God and the Devil, Job and his wife, Job and his three friends and inevitably between Job and God. In recent years, it has become the focus of attention among scholars seeking to make sense of the horrors of the Holocaust and other 20th century atrocities where unlimited human cruelty and injustice strained any notions of Providence and the salvific nature of suffering by the righteous. Written at a pivotal time when Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism were emerging as distinct interpretive traditions, Didymus' commentary on the Book of Job offers important insights into the interpretation of Job based on the LXX translation which was a foundational text for early Christian doctrine, spirituality and liturgy. His presentation of Job as the icon of a student-loving teacher stands in contrast to the portrait of a blasphemous Job more familiar to modern audiences that value a bold iconoclastic character who puts God on trial for allowing human injustice. Didymus' comments on Job hint at the blind teacher's own mature consideration of his experience as a Christian teacher, concerned to train other potential leaders in the burgeoning post-Constantinian Church, whether as an ecclesiastical minister, monastic abba, governor, or teacher. As such, this early Christian commentary on the Book of Job merits further study because it illustrates an early exegetical trajectory that was already embedded in the Christian tradition prior Jerome's advocacy of the Hebraica Veritas.