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PREFACE TO THE COMMENTARY ON OBADIAH T IS LIKELY that Obadiah likewise prophesied at the same time as Joel, and was, as it were, accorded the same vision and shared the explanation. While the divinely inspired Joel, remember, at the very end of his prophecy says, “Egypt will become a wasteland, and Idumea a desolate countryside for the wrongs done to the children of Judah, in return for the innocent blood they have poured out in their land,”1 the other in due course explains in detail the manner and style of the destruction of Idumea. Since it is useful for the readers of the historical account in the book to learn precisely , even before other matters, about Idumea, its fate, and the reason for its being subjected to the disastrous effects of divine wrath, come now, let us give an explanation to the extent of our ability by clearly going into detail about such matters for eager students. Idumeans, then, are called after Esau, from whom they are descended. Since he was called Edom—that is, “earthy”—surely on account of selling his (547) birthright, spurning the distinction due to him from it and preferring instead the offer of a single meal, paltry though it was, consequently they also called his descendants Idumeans. Now, the country of the Idumeans is also called Seir and Teman: Seir because of the report that its inhabitants were hairy, Esau also being hairy—in fact, covered in hair—and Ser meaning “hirsute” or “growth of hair”; and Teman likewise on account of being far to the south, Teman in Hebrew meaning “south.”2 Some commentators, on the other 135 1. Jl 3.19. Cyril is encouraged by the mention of Edom’s fate by Joel (whose ministry he had placed prior to the invasion of Assyrians, or at least Babylonians ) to see the two prophets as contemporaries. He thus implicitly rejects a date for Obadiah after the fall of Edom to the Nabateans in the fifth century. 2. The etymology of Seir and Teman Cyril derives from Jerome. He is mis- 136 CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA hand, think it was called Teman for a different reason, claiming that in due course Esau had a son Eliphaz, whose son was Teman , and it was after him that the country was called Teman.3 While that suffices for Idumea and the people in it, their destruction was due to the following. When Jerusalem was under siege by Nebuchadnezzar, remember, and was at its last gasp, countless numbers falling to the swords of the nations, some few were saved and were deported to the countries of the neighboring nations. The majority of the people of Israel went down to Idumea, a neighbor of theirs, thinking that they would share their grief with them as brethren, recall their blood relationship , and accord assistance to those in distress. The latter, on the contrary, though obliged to have compassion on them as brethren, received them into their land but proceeded to slaughter them,4 patrolling the exits in the manner of brigands and robbing them in their terror and panic. They were so cruel as to surpass even the ferocity of the Babylonians; they attacked them in their desperate condition, as I said, mocking them (548) and making the misfortunes of their kith and kin a cause for celebration. The Jews of the time, therefore, departed for the country of the Persians and Medes. When at the expiration of seventy years God had pity on them, however, and they returned to Judea, they were zealous in rebuilding the city itself and in turn restoring the Temple in it. Again, however, the Idumeans, their brethren and neighbors, were goaded by envy and wanted to obstruct such endeavors, stirring up barbarians nearby of a similar mind, and actually going to war. But they fell and perished in the valley of Jehoshaphat when God protected the people of Israel. Since the Idumeans were more troublesome than the foreigners, however , the people of Israel made assaults on their country, killed some on the spot and hunted down others in rocky hideaways, caves, and hollows of the land, killing those they found. reading Gn 25 (as Theodoret also will) to see the meaning “earthy” in the name Edom; the Genesis text suggests rather “reddish,” a popular etymology. 3. Gn 36.10–11. 4. The PG text shows the Idumeans “not” admitting the Jews. Is Cyril confusing this (unsubstantiated) account with the incident of the Edomites...

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