Didymus the Blind

[emeth-]

Tracking resources related to him here.

[emeth-]

Commentary on Job:

• Discussion: https://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2011/03/16/translation-of-didymus-the-blinds-commentary-on-job-from-the-tura-papyri/
• Text: http://www.gtfeducation.org/images/dynamic/file/resources/syllabus/OTL_Duffy.pdf

[emeth-]

The Catena of Nicetas (Νικήτας) is an 11th century compilation of earlier patristic commentators. Migne (xxxix, 1119ff) presents Didymus' commentary extracted from the Catena of Nicetas found in the two 12th or 13th century manuscripts in the Bodleian library in 1637.

[emeth-]

https://catholiclibrary.org/library/browse/

Commentarii in Ecclesiasten [grc]

Commentarii in Ecclesiasten 5 [grc]

Commentarii in Job [grc]

Commentarii in Job in Catenis [grc]

Commentarii in Octateuchum et Reges [grc]

Commentarii in Psalmos [grc]

Commentarii in Zacchariam [grc]

Contra Manichaeos [grc]

Dialexis Montanistae et orthodoxi [grc]

In epistulas catholicas brevis enarratio [grc]

Fragmenta in epistulam ad Romanos [grc]

Fragmenta in epistulam i ad Corinthios [grc]

Fragmenta in epistulam ii ad Corinthios [grc]

Fragmenta in Joannem [grc]

Fragmenta in Proverbia [grc]

Fragmenta in Psalmos [grc]

Fragmentum in epistulam ad Hebraeos [grc]

In Genesim [grc]

De trinitate [grc]

De trinitate - [grc]

De trinitate [grc]

[emeth-]

https://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2009/05/04/the-1941-discovery-of-works-by-origen-and-didymus-at-toura-in-egypt/
Codex 3. This was 27.5 x 24 cms, 15 quaternions, and contained the Commentary on Ecclesiastes, probably by Didymus the Blind. This codex, like 4-7, had suffered in antiquity, since each of its quaternions was cut in two horizontally, then the two halves rejoined, and rolled up. The cuts were done with great care to avoid the lines. Since Ecclesiastes is 12 chapters long, it can be inferred that this manuscript was originally 25 quaternions long. Part of the manuscript is in the Cairo collection, the rest in 1955 was in a private collection.

Codex 4. This was 27 x 23 cms, 16 quaternions, and contained the Commentary on Genesis by Didymus the Blind. The quaternions are numbered 1-16, and take the text up to Gen. 16:16. Quaternion 1 is only fragmentary, however; the 6 pages of quaternion 16 are likewise falling apart. If the work covered the whole of Genesis, this would require two codices of 30 quaternions; but it seems doubtful that these were at Tura. The manuscript has blank pages, suggesting that the copyist did not complete the work.

Codex 5. This was 27 x 24.5 cms, 14 quaternions, and contained the Commentary on the Psalms by Didymus the Blind. Most of the pages of this were in private hands.

Codex 6. This was 27 x 22 cms, 26 quaternions, and contained the Commentary on Zachariah by Didymus the Blind. This codex is complete.

Codex 7. This was 31.5 x 15.5 cms, 25 quaternions, and contained the Commentary on Job by Didymus the Blind. All but the last quaternion were at the Cairo Museum, the other being in private hands.

[emeth-]

https://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2013/06/28/papyrus-manuscript-of-didymus-the-blinds-commentary-on-ecclesiastes-online/
https://www.uni-koeln.de/phil-fak/ifa/NRWakademie/papyrologie/Turapap/ekklesiastes.html

Quite accidentally I find that colour photographs of the pages of Didymus the Blind’s Commentary on Ecclesiastes are online here. I can only say “wow!”

This work was lost until 1941. In that year, the threat of Rommel’s Afrika Corps caused the British Government to order works carried out at the Tura quarries near Cairo, to store ammunition. The quarries themselves were used in ancient times. At some point native workmen discovered a pile of leaves of papyrus hidden under apparently random chunks of stone. They promptly spirited them away and sold them for a song to the antiquities dealers. But word got out, and most of the find was recovered. The main portion of it was biblical commentaries by Didymus the Blind and Origen.

Now wouldn’t it be nice if an English translation of this work was also online?

[emeth-]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didymus_the_Blind#Works
Modern knowledge of Didymus has been greatly increased by a group of 6th or 7th century papyrus codices discovered in 1941 at a munitions dump near Toura, Egypt (south of Cairo). These include his commentaries on Zechariah, Genesis 1–17, part of Job and parts (of uncertain authenticity) on Ecclesiastes and Psalms 20–46.[5] In these commentaries, Didymus discusses long quotations from the Bible, and refrains from speculation, which he considered sophistry. However, he interprets scriptures allegorically, seeing symbols everywhere. For example, he wrote that the mountains in Zachariah represented the two Testaments of the Bible. Didymus saw an individual's movement towards virtue as emerging from their interaction with scripture.[4]: 96–98

A commentary attributed to Didymus that survives only in Latin suggests the epistle 2 Peter was forged, anticipating the beliefs of later scholars who would agree with the position that Peter was not the author of the letter.[17] That said, it is doubtful that Didymus was the true author, as his other writings treat 2 Peter as canonical.[18]