Commentary on Zechariah

Introduction

INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION 1. Circumstances of composition of the Zechariah Commentary We have Jerome to thank for the Commentary on the prophet Zechariah by Didymus, composed at his request by the illustrious Alexandrian scholar a decade before his death in 398.1 Despite the loss of his sight in early childhood, Didymus not only became a monk2 but also attained such eminence as a scholar, adversary of heretics, and spiritual director as to win the admiration of a prelate like Athanasius and a hermit like Antony. The Zechariah commentary carries allusions to this early disability , and betrays as well his championing of orthodoxy and his remarkable familiarity with Holy Writ. Born in 313, Didymus ’s life spanned a period immediately following the persecution of Diocletian and including the ecumenical councils of Nicea and Constantinople I, whose terminology leaves an imprint on his work.3 And it is ironic that a teacher who attracted to his cell pupils like Rufinus of Aquileia and guests like the historian Palladius as well as Jerome and Paula, and who won the eulogies of church historians like Socrates and Theodoret,4 3 1. Cf. preface to Jerome’s own commentary (CCL 76A.747–900). 2. Cf. observations below on internal evidence of the intended readership of this commentary and Didymus’s comments on states of life. In view of the mention by Palladius (The Lausiac History of Palladius 2.20) of visitors being admitted to Didymus’s “cell,” P. Nautin concludes (“Didymus,” EEC 1.235) that “he led a monastic life and that his audience must have been mainly composed of monks.” 3. For biographical details see L. Doutreleau, SC 83.13–16; B. Kramer, “Didymus der Blinde,” TRE 8:741–46; C. Kannengiesser, Handbook of Patristic Exegesis, BAC 2, 725–29. At places during the Commentary Didymus speaks of the period of persecution (e.g., on Zec 8.6); and we shall find him using conciliar terminology. 4. In commending Didymus’s rebuttal of heretical views, Socrates couples should incur condemnation on charges of Origenism by church councils.5 The works of Didymus, dogmatic and exegetical, though in many cases lost as a result of this condemnation, are known to us by name from Rufinus and Jerome and in fragments in the catenae. Palladius tells us that he had “commented on the Old and the New Testament”;6 and Jerome reports that he had “at my request dictated books of commentary [on Zechariah], and along with three books on Hosea had delivered them to me.”7 In 1941 a discovery was made at Tura outside Cairo of the Commentary on Zechariah along with those on Genesis, Job, Ecclesiastes , and some Psalms. Didymus mentions some of his other works while commenting on Zechariah (admitting at the outset that it is not a full commentary on The Twelve he is embarking on): commentaries on Leviticus, Psalms, Isaiah, the Final Vision of Isaiah, Matthew, John, Romans, 2 Corinthians, and Revelation ; On the Trinity; On the Son; On Virtue and Vice; and a work on Ezekiel possibly only projected. The Commentary on Zechariah alone, however, enjoys the threefold distinction that it is the only complete work on a biblical book by Didymus extant in Greek whose authenticity is established,8 that it comes to us not through the catenae but by direct manuscript tradition, and that it has been critically edited.9 Its appearance in English is overdue. It seems, then, that Didymus composed the Zechariah Commentary soon after Jerome’s visit to him in 386; since it was in the latter’s hands in 393 when he mentioned it again in the De viris illustribus,10 along with the further work on Hosea, it is rea4 DIDYMUS THE BLIND him with Gregory Nazianzen in his Hist. eccl. 4 (PG 67.528) as Theodoret likewise couples him with Ephrem in his Hist. eccl. 4 (PG 82.1189). 5. J. Quasten, Patrology 3:86, attributes the loss of so many of Didymus’s works to his condemnation along with other Origenists at the fifth ecumenical council in 553. Cf. also DS 519. 6. The Lausiac History of Palladius 2.19–20. Palladius speaks of Didymus as a suggrafeuv". 7. See n. 1 above. 8. Cf. CPG 2549. 9. The critical edition is that of L. Doutreleau, Didyme L’Aveugle. Sur Zacharie, SC 83, 84, 85. 10. De viris illustribus 109 (PL 23.705); FOTC 100.142–44. sonable...