English · KJV

Olympiodorus of Alexandria

Late Patristic · AD 500–800 · 48 passages across 2 books

Commentary

1–20 of 48
Ecclesiastes 1:5

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

The great sun, when compared with the Sun of righteousness, is vanity.

COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 1:5

Ecclesiastes 1:6

The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.

According to the narrative he calls the sun wind, due to the speed of its movement.

COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 1:6

Ecclesiastes 1:8

All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.

All writings, both of secular and of divine wisdom, yield instruction when effort is applied.

COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 1:8

Ecclesiastes 2:3

I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom; and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life.

It is not the acuity of the mind but rather the disposition of the soul, being employed beneficially or shamefully in making use of the gift, which is to be praised or condemned.

COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 2:3

Ecclesiastes 3:19

For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.

Ecclesiastes teaches us from this not to attend to our physical needs but to our spiritual existence.

COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 3:19

Ecclesiastes 3:21

Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?

Ecclesiastes, instructing us through enigmas, guides us to the other life.

COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 3:21

Job 3:4-5

Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.

According to Job’s words, he desires that the moon or the stars might not illuminate his night but that it may be obscured by thick darkness, which Job calls the shadow of death. If one carefully examines the text’s meaning, Job demands through his prayers that sin may appear as it actually is in its great depravity, so that sin may not simulate virtue. Rather, after sin has been recognized as dark and deadly, it may be avoided and rejected.

COMMENTARY ON JOB 3:4-5

Job 4:17

Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker?

And do not think, Eliphaz says, that I am speaking these words to you reproachfully. No person, in fact, is totally blameless, and if he can hide his sins from people, he does not hide them from God’s all-seeing eye that knows everything accurately. This indicates what is contrary to the Lord.

COMMENTARY ON JOB 4:17

Job 5:21

Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue: neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh.

He will hide you from the evil tongue, which knows how to persecute unjustly. In fact, they call “scourge” the malice and slander of the tongue. Moreover, you will end up in complete safety.

COMMENTARY ON JOB 5:19-21

Job 6:25-26

How forcible are right words! but what doth your arguing reprove?

Job’s words mean … “It is likely you have suffered the same in many things.” Truth, however, is always hateful to many. Therefore, you despise my words of truth. “You do not come down to me,” Job says, “nor do you speak about the gifts of grace like people who desire to encourage. On the contrary, you accuse me openly, whereas I have never accused you. I hope, however, that after answering each of you, my words will defeat you.”

COMMENTARY ON JOB 6:24-27

Job 7:15-16

So that my soul chooseth strangling, and death rather than my life.

“I beg of you. Take away my life. Deliver me from my pains through death. In fact, you did not create me immortal. So … may [I] enjoy quiet and tranquility in the future. I do not demand, O Lord, anything contrary to your decree. You made me mortal, not immortal. Therefore bring me death.” Moses prayed with these same words by saying, “If that is your purpose for me, then kill me.”

COMMENTARY ON JOB 7:15

Job 8:5-7

If thou wouldest seek unto God betimes, and make thy supplication to the Almighty;

Bildad says, “I suggest you pray to the Lord with all your devotion and diligence. Everything else should come after your prayers.” This is what “be early” means. And if you are true and empty of any deceit and falseness, God will give you back a condition of life and a status worthy of a righteous person. You will enjoy an abundance of goods as great as you possessed earlier. Notice how Bildad demonstrates in this part of his discourse of praise his belief that the happiness of the righteous is found in the material goods of worldly life.

COMMENTARY ON JOB 8:5-7

Job 8:16

He is green before the sun, and his branch shooteth forth in his garden.

The papyrus and the reed are dried by the scorching heat of the sun and their shoots rot, even though they are moistened by water. In fact, this is what “his branch shall sprout from his dung heap” means. The impious will suffer the same destiny, when the wrath of God falls upon them. Bildad appears to allude to the death of Job’s children through his use of “branch,” which can indicate shoots, branches or flowers.

COMMENTARY ON JOB 8:16

Job 10:4-7

Hast thou eyes of flesh? or seest thou as man seeth?

“Do you judge things according to human views? May anything hide from your careful examination, as it is hidden from human beings? Are your years few, and do you ignore what was previous to your age? Do you need to make an enquiry and an investigation about what happened to me, in order to understand that I am not impious?” He says these words by bringing forward God as the witness of his righteousness and by demanding the benefit of his infinite benevolence. People, in fact, ask for similar things, and God, in his benevolence, reveals few of them to the many. “But if I have not committed iniquity,” he says, “I know, in my heart, that it is not possible to escape from your will; and if I did not know this by myself, your will which knows human things better than us, would have mastered me.” The blessed Job pronounces all these words by teaching us that in temptation we can only take refuge in God and supplicate that his mercy may spare his creature.

COMMENTARY ON JOB 10:4-7

Job 11:13-14

If thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thine hands toward him;

Here times are changed, and the meaning is, “If you want to obey me, open your arms in prayer to God with a pure heart, and you will never commit iniquity or transgression, and those things which Zophar mentions later will happen to you.” And here it seems that Zophar is giving advice to Job, save that he himself strikes him by saying that Job is punished for his sins.

COMMENTARY ON JOB 11:13-14

Job 12:22

He discovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out to light the shadow of death.

“Revealing deep things out of darkness, and he has brought into light the shadow of death.” The literal meaning is, “He manifests the things which are hidden to all, and preserves those who are in danger and close to death.” He calls danger “the shadow of death,” because, as shadow is very close to the body that produces it, so danger is very close to the death that causes it. However, the profound meaning of this sentence appears to announce prophetically the advent of the Lord, who said to the prisoners, “Come out, and to those who are in the shadow, show yourselves,” “and appeared to those, who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.”

COMMENTARY ON JOB 12:22

Job 13:6-7

Hear now my reasoning, and hearken to the pleadings of my lips.

“Consider now the words which I am about to say in order to correct you, and then judge whether I pronounce them thoughtfully.” “Do you not speak before the Lord and utter deceit before him?” “Do you not realize that God hears your speeches? How do you dare, while he hears you, say false words?” Consider also these words from that blameless and truthful man, how falsehood is able to blame everything, even when one appears to speak according to God. Therefore Job ponders with truth and frankness all the words that are spoken, so that God himself may approve him, as God is the truth. Falsehood, in fact, comes from the evil one, as the Savior says.

COMMENTARY ON JOB 13:6-7

Job 13:17-19

Hear diligently my speech, and my declaration with your ears.

The Lord is near those, it is said, who invoke him, and therefore God is kindly disposed toward them. So listen, Job says, to what I am about to say: I will maintain my kindly disposed judgment upon God, who is just and speaks truthfully; and by trusting his truthfulness, I believe that I will appear to say words more righteous than yours. Or, in a different sense, “I am near my judgment,” that is, I am ready to suffer what God has decreed. Confiding in his truthfulness, I hope I will be seen to be righteous.

COMMENTARY ON JOB 13:17-18

Job 14:13-14

O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!

The meaning is, “Oh that in the time when you were inflamed with rage against me, you would have kept me in custody in the netherworld—there, in fact, custody is not due to faults—and that you would not have forgotten me completely but would have set a time for my custody there!” Job has given us a reason for his desiring death. Without trials, he says, while being kept there, I will wait for resurrection. In fact, Job says, if a person dies after completing the days of this life, he does not withdraw into nonexistence but lives in his soul and waits for resurrection.

COMMENTARY ON JOB 14:13-14

Job 15:14-16

What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

“Who is the person,” Eliphaz asks, “who can be blameless or can proclaim, I am righteous?” If, in fact, those who are very holy, both men and angels, and the purity itself of heaven before the judgment of the most pure God appear to be unclean, what should we say about the damnable and impure human being who drinks iniquity like a draught? He has said this because humans commit sin deliberately. The words “as he does not trust his saints” may also be interpreted in this manner, since the angels themselves can become different in their nature, and actually some of them slipped away from their own former position. Heaven is not pure because of this, and it is also often obscured by clouds.

COMMENTARY ON JOB 15:14-16

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