Didymus the Blind — Commentary on Scripture

Daniel 13:28

The devil does not fill someone or dwell in him by participation in his nature or being, as some think, but is thought to dwell in someone whom he has filled with confusion, deception and wickedness. With this same deception he entered the old men, who became cruel toward Susanna, and filled their souls with the passion of lust and the belated will of old age. In fact, it is written, “The two old men arrived, full of evil intentions.” He also filled the entire Jewish people with these deceptions. As the prophet says, “Woe to you, sinful nation, a people full of sins, evil seed, corrupt children.” “Evil seed” is the devil, and his children are called “sinners” because of their surpassing wickedness. If, therefore, those who are called “his children” in the Scriptures do not possess the devil according to a participation in being—because this has been shown, more than once, to be impossible in creatures—then neither can anyone else receive him by participation in his being but only by taking on an extremely treacherous will.

Ecclesiastes 1:1 · 2 passages

The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

Question: [Are the] words of Ecclesiastes said by the author personally?Answer: Actually the Spirit is the author of the divinely inspired Scriptures. The Spirit inspires so that words are expressed, but the wise man is also involved. For the Spirit has not himself invisibly written the letter and put down the text, but he breathes it into the soul. Either the real author is Solomon, or some [other] wise men have written it. Maybe we should opt for the latter so that nobody may say that the speaker talks about himself.

Solomon, who here appears as Ecclesiastes, that is, who preaches what is appropriate for the church, is the son of David. He came after Saul, whose rule was destroyed and terminated. Solomon is son of this king David in two ways.… The first is according to nature and lineage; the second is according to his teaching. One has to understand Paul in this [second] way when he says, “For though you might have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers. Indeed, in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.” David thus was Solomon’s father in both respects: according to nature—Solomon was his heir and “David begot Solomon”—but he was also his father in terms of instruction. David was wise as only few are—especially wise regarding God.…But Solomon also became wise in a way that few achieve: he became wise through the wisdom [he received] and through his human lineage. According to both ways Solomon thus was the son of David. But especially in terms of his words as Ecclesiastes is he the son of David, not so much according to nature as according to instruction. F…

Solomon, who here appears as Ecclesiastes, that is, who preaches what is appropriate for the church, is the son of David. He came after Saul, whose rule was destroyed and terminated. Solomon is son of this king David in two ways.… The first is according to nature and lineage; the second is according to his teaching. One has to understand Paul in this [second] way when he says, “For though you might have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers. Indeed, in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.” David thus was Solomon’s father in both respects: according to nature—Solomon was his heir and “David begot Solomon”—but he was also his father in terms of instruction. David was wise as only few are—especially wise regarding God.…But Solomon also became wise in a way that few achieve: he became wise through the wisdom [he received] and through his human lineage. According to both ways Solomon thus was the son of David.
But especially in terms of his words as Ecclesiastes is he the son of David, not so much according to nature as according to instruction. For the sons of the wise beget wise people, since they are wise themselves. But someone who is father of a son according to nature does not necessarily become a father again. Many were sons and did not become fathers. The sons according to the Spirit, however, become fathers themselves.

Ecclesiastes 1:2

Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.

There is a difference between vanities; there are those that are especially so, and others that are not.…Question: [Does Ecclesiastes speak] about one and the same [kind of vanity]?
Answer: About both, about the things that are just vanity as well as about those that are a vanity of vanities. Both the things that most clearly belong to the sphere of vanity and the less obvious vanities are altogether vain in comparison with actual truth. The newborn, the little child and the boy are imperfect. Of course, they are imperfect in comparison with an adolescent, and they are all imperfect in comparison with a man.…
Question: Does he not mean by “vanity of vanities” the visible and the perceivable?
Answer: Yes, but the layperson and the astronomer do not perceive the sun in the same way. The perception of the sun by an astronomer and by a scientist is far inferior to the seeing of the invisible God and it is inferior to the knowledge that comes from God.

Ecclesiastes 1:3

What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?

Those who are rich in things that are valued in the realm of the natural do not gain anything. They do not gain longevity. Rich and poor are in the same situation: they go through life quickly and do not stay for a long time. Thus “from all the toil at which they toil under the sun” one does not gain anything, no increase in natural qualities. But the one who toils and strives for things that lead to the eternal and to the invisible gains something: A human being becomes a god, an uncertain human being becomes a strong one, a coward becomes courageous.

Ecclesiastes 1:4

One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.

The sun has existed since it was created and will exist and be one and the same as long as God wants it. But if I say … that humankind remains forever, I do not mean one and the same human being but the whole succession of generations. The same is true for other mortal beings and plants.… One generation goes and one generation comes. The generation that goes is destroyed by death; the one that comes is the one that is born.

Ecclesiastes 1:5

The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.

The sun of righteousness rises in the soul. The beginning of its rise is preparatory. It is a preparatory enlightenment. But when it circles around the whole soul and enlightens it altogether so that nothing is outside the light any more, then the soul is in perfect enlightenment. For often it sets in order to rise again. Sunset and sunrise are in accordance with its progress. And sunset and sunrise are united with respect to its location. The second enlightenment means sunset with respect to the previous enlightenment, but it means sunrise with respect to the enlightenment now beginning.

Ecclesiastes 2:4

I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards:

If one wants to understand houses as good deeds, then every good deed is the house of its owner. Those who “hear the words of Jesus and do them” … build their foundation on a rock. Since virtue as a whole is one, one who strives after it builds one house, establishing it upon the rock, upon God’s unbreakable Word, that is, upon Christ.

Ecclesiastes 2:8 · 2 passages

I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces: I gat me men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of all sorts.

In many places of the divine teaching the Spirit and spiritual things are expressed by the image of gold, the spoken word and its virtue by the image of silver. “The tongue of the righteous is choice silver,” that is, his spoken word and everything which he teaches by this spoken word. In the same way the following saying is to be understood: "The promises of the Lord are promises that are pure, silver refined in a furnace on the ground.” But the spirit is gold.

As the choir directors assign a place and a pitch to each male and female member of the choir so that a harmony of sound emerges, so those who sing to God and do so in harmony have the Savior himself as choir director. Or the [choir director could also be the] wise man, who here is Solomon, if we understand him in his role as wise man.

Ecclesiastes 2:9

So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me.

The wise person always finds himself “increasing” when he prospers. But in life, it is the last and the first thing to reach perfection. In Scripture it is said, “When human beings have finished, they are just beginning.” Of course, even if human beings reach the perfection possible in this life, still, as it is said, “We know only in part.” In the activity of “increasing” there is always something virtuous.… [The prophets and Moses] prophesied what Jesus would do and teach. But Jesus fulfilled the prophecy. The actualization of potentialities is always an “increase.” These prepared the way, but he has perfected the way when he declared about himself: “I am the way, the truth.” And he says to his disciples: “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees.” In this you see that Jesus’ disciples had more righteousness than the previous ones.

Ecclesiastes 2:10 · 3 passages

And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour.

In the literal sense the following is meant: If I desired something among the things in the visible world, I did not keep my eyes from them. I got everything that I longed for. John says in his letter: “The desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches comes not from the Father but from the world.” Even if they do “not come from the Father” as the gifts of grace and of the Spirit, they are nevertheless from God. Desire for visible things, however, should not be consuming but should instead be appropriate to that which is desired.

As is well known, the person who toils for something in his heart suffers if he does not succeed with it. Ecclesiastes thus wants to say: I did not fail in any of the things I hoped for in my toil. Further: The person who strives for knowledge and pursues virtue “toils.” … The person who toils for the things that are useful for the soul and that adorn the inner person says about himself: “I found pleasure in all my toil.”

“Heart” does not here signify the organ but reason. In a different passage [we read]: “Blessed are the pure in heart.” This means with regard to reason. And: “Listen to me, you stubborn of heart.” The heart thus understood does not need to be “kept from pleasure.” It derives pleasure from appropriate views and meditations based on knowledge. By knowledge I mean knowledge that is in accordance with God.

Ecclesiastes 2:11 · 2 passages

Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.

My hands are busy and tools fit for work. They toil and are active. And I saw that all that has been created by these visible hands and their activities, was vanity.… This kind of toil is to be rejected indeed—it is vanity. And still, most human beings act vainly. Ecclesiastes counts himself among these people; he is himself a human being. I said it already: No one who talks against wealth is heard if he is poor himself. But one who teaches this needs to have experienced all these human things himself. A teaching thus only reaches its goal and is successful if he who delivers it is acquainted with what he is rejecting. He thereby shows that he himself is able to handle them in an appropriate way.

A person who is enlightened by the “sun of righteousness” is not “under” it but “in” it. Thus it is said in the Gospel: “The righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father,” not “under” the sun. If a person says about himself that he is a Christian and enlightened by the true light, by the “sun of righteousness,” and still concentrates his actions on earthly things and strives after them (and we all are for the most part like these people) this person is “under the sun.” If he is “under the sun” in this way, he has no gain. Even if he quotes much from Scripture but does not act accordingly, he has no gain.

Ecclesiastes 2:14

The wise man's eyes are in his head; but the fool walketh in darkness: and I myself perceived also that one event happeneth to them all.

If we think about “eyes” in the visible sense, then (one can say) that both the foolish and the wise have eyes in their head. The wise [person], insofar as he is wise, turns upwards to Christ, his head. Thus it is written: “Christ is the head of every man.” The head of the wise is the mind; therefore it is written: “But we have the mind of Christ.”

Ecclesiastes 3:4

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

Since weeping has different meanings, laughing needs to be understood accordingly; for weeping does not have only one meaning, nor does laughing. And since laughing is split in two meanings—sometimes praiseworthy, sometimes reprehensible—even weeping must be seen in this way, so that praiseworthy laughing corresponds to praiseworthy weeping and the same with reprehensible laughing and weeping.Often, thus, a life which is prone more to lust than to the love of God is laughing in such a way that the laughter itself is made into a god. And as some consider their stomachs divine and others consider them mammon, so a third person who loves entertainment and wants to be witty and so on, builds altars for laughter by making it divine so that he sacrifices to it. One sacrifices to it if one teaches what is suitable for laughing or what excites laughter. That kind of laughter is reprehensible. It is blissful to abandon this kind of laughter and to devote one’s self to the weeping opposed to it. This is what the virtuous one was striving for when he said, “Every night I flood my bed with tears…

Since weeping has different meanings, laughing needs to be understood accordingly; for weeping does not have only one meaning, nor does laughing. And since laughing is split in two meanings—sometimes praiseworthy, sometimes reprehensible—even weeping must be seen in this way, so that praiseworthy laughing corresponds to praiseworthy weeping and the same with reprehensible laughing and weeping.Often, thus, a life which is prone more to lust than to the love of God is laughing in such a way that the laughter itself is made into a god. And as some consider their stomachs divine and others consider them mammon, so a third person who loves entertainment and wants to be witty and so on, builds altars for laughter by making it divine so that he sacrifices to it. One sacrifices to it if one teaches what is suitable for laughing or what excites laughter.
That kind of laughter is reprehensible. It is blissful to abandon this kind of laughter and to devote one’s self to the weeping opposed to it. This is what the virtuous one was striving for when he said, “Every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping.”
There is, however, also a praiseworthy laughter. It is said that God “will yet fill your mouth with laughter”—with (of course) praiseworthy laughter. This corresponds to the fruit of the Spirit, which is joy, for “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace.” Laughter, therefore, that corresponds with joy is praiseworthy.
Any weeping that is opposed to this kind of laughter and to the condition that opposes the joy of the Holy Spirit is reprehensible. That kind of weeping did not help Jerusalem. … And why was that so? It is because it did not repent at the time when it should have repented, but after it was too late.…
Now, we want to look for the spiritual meaning: The ascetical life, which is appropriate for pious people, is called weeping; the uninhibited life, however, which is prone more to lust than to the love of God, is laughter. Those who weep in this life will laugh later on, so that they are even blessed: “Blessed are you who weep now.” … But those who have laughed here, because they lived prone more to lust than to the love of God, will weep, after the punishment that will follow, so that the following is said to them: “There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Those, however, who here greatly weep out of repentance pray to God with the words: “You have fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in full measure.”

Ecclesiastes 3:5 · 2 passages

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

“A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing.” In the literal sense this means men who live together with their wives have a time when they get together with them and a time when they do not.… When it is time for prayer, when it is a day on which one has to remain clean and send up prayers, one has to avoid embraces. When the days of prayer are over, they come together and embrace.…According to a superficial explanation, but perhaps also against it, the following remark is valid. “The appointed time has grown short,” Paul writes; “from now on, let even those who have wives be as though they had none.” He says, Since time has grown short and humankind has increased to a large number, it is not necessary any more to increase it; one has to cease.… When it was necessary that humankind increase, it was a time to embrace. But after the population had become numerous and the begetting of the faithful spread, one needed to avoid embracing.… In the spiritual sense this is the meaning: Some have acquired God’s wisdom as a wife, like the one who says, “I became enamored of her beau…

“A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing.” In the literal sense this means men who live together with their wives have a time when they get together with them and a time when they do not.… When it is time for prayer, when it is a day on which one has to remain clean and send up prayers, one has to avoid embraces. When the days of prayer are over, they come together and embrace.…According to a superficial explanation, but perhaps also against it, the following remark is valid. “The appointed time has grown short,” Paul writes; “from now on, let even those who have wives be as though they had none.” He says, Since time has grown short and humankind has increased to a large number, it is not necessary any more to increase it; one has to cease.… When it was necessary that humankind increase, it was a time to embrace. But after the population had become numerous and the begetting of the faithful spread, one needed to avoid embracing.…
In the spiritual sense this is the meaning: Some have acquired God’s wisdom as a wife, like the one who says, “I became enamored of her beauty” and took her home as a spouse. About her it is said: “She will honor you if you embrace her.” Then wisdom embraces the wise by communicating to him her character, and the wise man embraces her.
When therefore this wife is with a person from whom she can beget insight and thoughts and works of insight—for “wisdom begets insight for a man”—then it is the time to embrace. This time, however, is not interrupted by breaks. One can always embrace wisdom. This time is eternal.

In the literal sense the following is said: The law prescribes that Israel’s judges have to investigate the behavior of the people; and if someone was found to have done prohibited things, he was to be convicted to be stoned.…Now, we relate the verse to rebuke instead of stoning. The wise teacher knows whom he has to rebuke and whom not, and in a certain way he throws the rebuke like stones in order to dissuade the rebuked from a bad way of life. If the person improves through the rebuke, the rebuke is gathered in and no more stones are thrown against him. Paul indicates this when he says, “Convince, rebuke and encourage!” By rebuking and convincing he was throwing stones. After seeing the one who was rebuked improve, he encourages and gathers the stones together. The following is meant: There is a time to punish and a time not to punish.