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The Canaanite and the Light of Justice
“You shall not bring a dog or a prostitute's wages into the house of the Lord your God.” (Deuteronomy 23:18 ). For by guarding this, no Canaanite remains in the house of the Lord Almighty on the day that is dawned upon by the sun of justice, the light of the true, Only-begotten Son of God. The unreached end of the prophet Zechariah, set forth for clarity, and we cease the arrangement of the commentaries regarding him.
Greek οἴσεις τὸν κύνα οὐδὲ μίσθωμα πόρνης εἰς οἶκον Κυρίου Θεοῦ σου.» Του´̣του γὰρ φυλαττομένου, οὐκ ἔστιν Χαναναῖος ἐν οἴκῳ Κυρίου παντοκράτορος ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ καταυγαζομένῃ ὑπὸ τοῦ ἡλίου τῆς δικαιοσύνης, τοῦ φωτὸς τοῦ ἀληθινοῦ, τοῦ Μονογενοῦς Υἱοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ. ‹5.212› Τ̣έλος ἀπειληφότος τοῦ εἰς σαφήνειαν προκειμένου προφήτου Ζαχαρίου, καὶ ἡμεῖς καταπαύομεν τῆς συντάξεως τῶν εἰς αὐτὸν ὑπομνημάτων. 168
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About this text Didymus the Blind explains Zechariah verse by verse, from the measuring of Jerusalem and the high priest's filthy garments to the lampstand and flying sickle.
Didymus the Blind (c. 313–c. 398) was a Christian theologian in Alexandria who lost his sight at about age four and nevertheless became head of the city's catechetical school. He remained a layman and an ascetic scholar, deeply influenced by the work of Origen. He wrote this commentary for readers seeking a Christian understanding of the prophet Zechariah.
Jerome visited Alexandria in 386 and asked Didymus to write on Zechariah because Origen's own commentary had stopped at chapter five and Zechariah was considered the longest and most obscure of the Minor Prophets. Didymus composed the work shortly after that request and delivered it to Jerome by 393. The commentary survived in a single papyrus codex found in 1941 at Tura near Cairo, copied in the late sixth or early seventh century.
The commentary moves verse by verse through all fourteen chapters of Zechariah. Didymus reads the prophet's visions and oracles as prophecies of Christ's incarnation, the calling of the Gentiles, and the spiritual restoration of Jerusalem, understood as the Church or the purified soul. A reader will meet Zechariah himself, Joshua the high priest, Zerubbabel, the interpreting angel, and the devil, and will hear Didymus argue against heretics such as Tatian, Paul of Samosata, Photinus, Marcellus, Artemas, and Theodotus. To follow the work, know that Jerusalem and Zion are spiritual realities, the Dawn is a title for Christ, and the author quotes the Septuagint, so Psalms are numbered one lower than in many modern Bibles and books such as 1 Kingdoms are cited as 1 Samuel.
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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