Commentary on Genesis through Ruth

Name: Commentary on Genesis through Ruth
Author: Didymus the Blind

Commentarii in Octateuchum

Didymus the Blind (c. 313–c. 398 AD)

Didymus the Blind (c. 313–c. 398) is the teacher named on these notes. The opening is the title page of a printed set of notes on the Octateuch and the books of Kings.

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Contents4 passages

1The lights of the fourth day
2The Gathering of Elements
3The Thorns and the Flaming Sword
4Creation, Providence, and Moses' Ascent

Author

Didymus the Blind (c. 313–c. 398 AD) — Blind from early childhood, he taught at Alexandria for decades; Jerome and Rufinus studied with him. He followed Origen in reading Scripture and was condemned with him in 553, so many of his works survive only in fragments.

All works by Didymus the Blind

About this text

Comments by Didymus the Blind on verses of Genesis and Exodus, kept in a Greek chain of comments on Genesis through Kings.

The notes in this English are on the gathering of the elements, the thorns and the flaming sword, and Moses. They are not his long commentary on Genesis.

A reader meets the making of the lights, the thorns of the ground, and Moses going up. The citations use the old names of the biblical books.

Printed text used

Translated from PG (Greek)

We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Greek on any section to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.

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The lights of the fourth day§1

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1Chapter 1, verse 14. And God said, 'Let there be lights in the expanse of the heaven for the purpose of the earth, to divide between the day and between the night' (Genesis 1:14). Didymus. Therefore also the lights, having come into being on the fourth day, because of the word concerning them, are said to have come into being since they are greater. For the four, being in power ten, is honorable; for ones, twos, threes, and fours joined together, they make the ten; for through all Scripture, the ten...

Greek · §1

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The Gathering of Elements§2

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2It is praised; for indeed Moses gave ten words, and ten are provided. Just as the water, previously poured out over the face of all the earth, later, having gathered it into one assembly on the third day, God made the seas, and the rivers, and the springs; so also the light, which was created in the beginning, previously being poured out, later, having gathered it all at once on the fourth day, God made from it the sun, and the moon, and the rest of the stars. The sun is not something other than the day. He makes thorns and thistles to rise up for you, and let you eat the herb of the field (Genesis 3:18).

Didymus. For what is it that is not painful from the sequences of the body, from which pleasures and anxieties grow? For these are the...

Greek · §2

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The Thorns and the Flaming Sword§3

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3The Savior signaled the thorns, which grow together with the seed called by him, if the receiver does not receive this into depth. Verse 40. And he commanded the cherubim, and the flaming sword, the turning one, to guard the way of the tree of life (Gen 3:24). Didymus says: The sword is said to be turning, so that having turned from evil to the virtue of the man, it itself may turn, providing the entrance. If therefore to someone there becomes a longing for the entrance, through these he is led by the hand; through the former, the cherubim, who signify the knowledge of our glory, then you will follow, like a servant to a master. Verse 43. And I will withdraw my hand, and then you will see behind me; but my face shall not be seen by you (Ex 33:20). Didymus says: Both the worldly existence and the divinity are shown through the...

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Creation, Providence, and Moses' Ascent§4

4face; and the creation and providence, through those behind (1). Exodus 34:2 And become ready for the morning, and ascend in the morning to the mountain Sinai, and stand for me there at the edge of the mountain. Didymus. For it does not stand for anyone else, but for God, by whom he will complete the revealed progress. What is it then to stand for God, or to become ready to hear the teaching of God? Exodus 34:3 And let no one ascend with you, and let no one be seen on any part of the mountain; and let the sheep and the oxen not graze near the mountain. Didymus. To those remaining below the perfection of Moses, he commanded to stay below the mountain.

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