Fragmenta in Proverbia

From the Commentaries of Didymus on the Proverbs of Solomon. A proverb is like, "Sweet is war to the inexperienced," and, "A constant drop hollows a stone." The proverb is so called because, when the roads were still without distinguishing marks, what are now called miles by the Romans, then called signs, the ancients placed at certain points along the road, and on these they inscribed some questions. They did this for two reasons: to let the traveler know the distance of the road, and so that, by reading the inscription and working to understand it, he might be relieved of his fatigue. For "oimos" means road. Verse 2. "To know words of prudence" properly refers to virtue, of course, as the other interpreters clarify, rendering it as "words of understanding," not "of prudence." Or he says "words of prudence" meaning those that are sophistical and crafty. Verse 3. The discourse, refuting those who pretend to righteousness and claim to possess it as they ought, says: "If truly you speak of righteousness, judge rightly, sons of men." Verse 6. I hear the interpretation of Theodotion, which Symmachus also published, that they have rendered it as "problem." What then is the obscure saying? That which is confused in both word, thought, and expression, like the passage in the prophet Isaiah: "Woe to the land of ships, beyond the rivers of Ethiopia! The one who sends hostages by sea, and letters of papyrus upon the water." For none of these things has a clear expression, either in parables, nor does it present a clear narrative of history. And while the riddle allows one to understand the literal meaning, the obscure saying does not even have a literal meaning.

A dark saying is a general expression; a comparison is specific. "Dark" does not mean deprived of light, but hidden, as one who is ignorant is darkened. Sayings are elegant apophthegms. A riddle is a speech that signifies the truth with concealment, such as, "Open, O Lebanon, your gates, and let fire devour your cedars." Verse 7. For true fear is reverence based on piety; understanding is good. One must place a punctuation mark here. For it is not enough for blessedness to know the good, unless one also does it; piety toward God is the beginning of understanding. Verse 8. The father of the righteous is God. For everyone who practices righteousness is born from God. Our mother is the Church, whose bridegroom is our Lord Jesus Christ. The laws are the apostolic constitutions. Even if the passages have an anagogical meaning, they also apply to natural parents, when they are God-fearing and raise their children. Since the teacher is the man who begets the students through the Gospel, his spouse and the mother of those born is the Church, or rather the ecclesiastical opinion and polity. Therefore, says the proverb-writer, if you now listen to me as a guide and father, and to wisdom and virtue as a mother, you will be crowned with a crown of graces, and your neck will be adorned with a collar made of spiritual gold and ornament. For the material of the crown, which encircles the head of the inner man, the encompassing of virtues, is called graces.

In accordance with the crown, which is intelligible, one must also interpret the golden collar placed upon the neck of the soul, that is, upon its submissive part. St. 9. By "head" and "neck" he means the mind; by "golden collar," knowledge and the intelligible adornment of the soul; or a golden collar is submission to God and the encompassing of the divine oracles. St. 10. And sinning together with others brings punishment; but impious men are those perfect in wickedness. St. 11. They bury in the earth those whom they persuade to think of earthly things; but you will understand a righteous man as one having a heavenly mind. These things can also be understood with reference to Christ and to the people of the Jews. Scripture indicates "sufficiency" through the word "swallow," as in: "Lest such a one be swallowed up by excessive grief." They say, therefore, that having overthrown and conquered the one who has a heavenly mind, we transfer him to ourselves, so that he thinks of earthly things. And the one who has a correct opinion about what is to be done will be swallowed alive, having cast this opinion aside. St. 11. By "counsel" he means the deliberate choice according to which we choose to do what is to be done, or not; by "thought," that concerning theoretical matters, so as to abandon them and become intimate with God, keeping his commandments as much as possible. St. 3. The one who has the virtues in a fixed state, not being superficially negligent of them, has them written on the tablet of his own heart, that is, on the depth of his own soul, or on his constant desire, so that the adversary may not turn you aside. St. 8. By "body" I mean the aggregate of the soul's faculties; by "bones," its solid faculties; for all our bones will say, "Lord, Lord." St. 16.

Her right side is the knowledge of divine things, from which comes eternal life; her left side is the knowledge of human things. St. 18. Here again he calls the cross the tree of life. For to those genuinely suspended in Christ, diverse life drips from the tree; but to those leaning upon its foundations, a firm and unshakable stability is fixed, as also to those securely established upon the Lord. –If it is the tree of life, the wisdom of God, Adam was rightly prevented from partaking of it. For wisdom will not enter a malicious soul, since the tree of life grows from the fruits of righteousness. Not finding anything to which to compare the one who hopes in the Lord, he turns the discourse back upon himself, saying "as upon the Lord": For the one who leans upon her, that is, who hopes in God, is secure. St. 20. This too now befits the Son of God, who is the wisdom and prudence of God. But also the faithful soul is earth, bearing fruit a hundredfold; and this soul becomes wise from the richness of wisdom, God and the Father establishing it upon her. For he grounds for her the introduction of teaching, making a fixing from wisdom within her, and always showing her advancing; and he works heaven as a most pure creation, a dwelling place for angels and intellectual beings. Having received perception of being, and contemplating the precision of things, such as the profundity of God's judgments, he called these clouds, or he called the clouds prophets, and the dew teaching. Do not be outside the drinkable water of life. He calls "counsel" the movement concerning practical matters; "conception," that concerning theoretical matters.

He called the neck the soul itself, which bore the yoke of the Lord. And just as the neck is encircled by breastbands, so the soul will receive the honors of God in the kingdom, as also in this life it receives his commandments. The possessions of the impious, even the glorious ones, are accursed; but those of the righteous, even the humblest, are blessed. By "house" he means the powers of the rational soul; by "courts," those of the spirited and appetitive parts, for in them the irrational passions dwell. St. 8. The honor of wisdom is the keeping of the commandments; wisdom is Christ, whose bride is the soul that honors him through the virtues, and which will be embraced by him. St. 20. Just as for a little child one always sets prizes for attentions and rouses it when it is distracted elsewhere. The springs of life are the virtues, from which comes the living water, the knowledge of Christ. For one advancing in wisdom, there are many springs, and not just one, but according to the multitude of virtues. To those who keep these exhortations, he says, they become life; these are the prize. St. 26. Walk the path of life rightly, he says. The feet of the soul are its transitive impulses; for virtue is the mean. St. 2.

Do not attend to deceptive teaching, which lures through fair speech, that is, heresy, and to idolatry, and to vain words. Verse 3. Up to the hearing, their good. For such is deception: it is accustomed to conceal the destructive element, but puts forward the pleasant, so as to ensnare; for otherwise they would have immediately recoiled. But God does not act thus: rather, he conceals the pleasant and sets forth the painful. And he did not say, "It flows away," but, "It drips," so that the bitterness might not become cloying, yet later it is more bitter than gall; not that the bitter is as much as the pleasant, but much more. Verse 8. Here he called "way" the mind that travels toward virtue; or perhaps he commands that we separate virtue from vice. Verse 11. That is, in old age; which, through the wearing away of the flesh, indicates licentiousness as a kind of corruption. Verses 12, 14. He introduces the one who has been corrupted reproaching himself, as one who hated discipline, and he says: I would have perished and been corrupted, having worn away my flesh in debaucheries, and I nearly cast away life itself. Therefore my penalty became manifest in the midst of Church and Synagogue. For it is the voice of one who has repented, and who has not come to be in the state which he nearly came to be. Similar is the saying, "My steps were nearly poured out." For having come to his senses and perceived, he says, Where is the "nearly"? How then is it possible to soothe the madness that comes from nature? Verse 15. Knowledge is both a well and a spring: for those approaching the virtues it is a well; for those perfected in them, a spring. Knowledge is also called mother, and wife, and sister: mother, because through it we have been born by the teacher.

woman, because by consorting she gives birth to virtues and right doctrines; sister, because we are born from one God. And I called wisdom sister. Verses 16, 17. See how she indicates not only ease by abundance, but also by having no partner in enjoyment; she doubles it and calls it possession; for she knows the pleasure of the thing. Verse 8. Even if you imitate the natural work of irrational beings; or be, that is, go. For many do good works from theory or hearing, and not from knowledge. He calls bees prophets and apostles, whose labors are useful both to those great in habit and to the small; wax he calls the things; honey, their theory. Just as the bellwether leads the goats, so the leader leads the bees. Good, then, throughout all life is order. Verse 12. Foolish is the atheist, who has lost the theoretical; lawless, the one who has lost the practical. Verse 1. Guard in common, so that, he says, you may both live an eternal life and become discerning. For the observances of divine commandments shine forth to us much more brightly than the light of the eyes. Verse 3. Hand, the general action; finger, the more particular. And if you obey me, you will have a broad heart for the reception of virtues. Verse 19. She pretends to cohabit with a man, as if living according to law; and she removes all fearful and hindering things, using the absence of the cohabitant as a pretext. Verse 27. For her house is the ways of Hades, leading down to chambers of death. For those who obey her, becoming earthy and earthly by her, will thus perish. And, "On the plank of Hades," the rest said in the depths. Verse 22.

The beginning, signifying many things as we have said, now indicates the eternal, the cause, and the efficient. But the beginning is the beginning of some things, and signifies a relation, not a substance. For relative terms are such, as right and left. Therefore, being substance, the wisdom of God is not the beginning of some things; for even before creation it has its being as wisdom. But when it receives a relation to generated things, then it becomes the beginning of the ways of God that are creative and providential, toward the works which have their existence from the Creator, contributing nothing to it for being wisdom. But the relation according to which it is called beginning and creator subsisted then, when the things that came to be also did. For a beginning does not pre-exist the things of which it is the beginning; nor are these said to exist after it, if the creatures have their substance in time. For being eternal, wisdom is not subject to time. Thus the beginning is coeval with the creatures. The Son of God, pre-existing creation, being wisdom, if he says, "The Lord created me," let the understanding not be of substantialization, but of relation to the creatures. For he says he was created for works, to be the beginning of the creative and providential ways of God, that is, the cause, though still speaking in an introductory manner. The Son of God became man, assuming the form of a servant; and being before the ages and eternal, as he is God Logos, he is said to have been created because he had a birth from Mary, becoming flesh, so that those who wish to walk according to God and toward God may use him as a teacher, providing a pattern of the best life and teaching to those who follow. And that "created" does not always indicate substantialization, David declares, saying:

Create a pure heart in me, O God.” For he asks not as one who does not have, to receive, but as one who has sullied it, to take it up again purified. And Paul, when he says that the two are created into one new man, indicates not a substantial creation of men, but a union from concord; just as those who translated “He created me” have rendered it. Verse 23. Instead of, He laid down both a cause and a foundation of the creations; according to, “All things have their coherence in him, and he is before all things.” And the Lord himself says: “I am the beginning of the creation of God.” For just as, wishing to be a foundation of the Church, he endured becoming a man, so that upon him it might be established, not shaken; so also, wishing to provide being to creation, he came to be according to it, introducing the aforementioned relation, becoming for the things that will be a beginning and a cause. But even if, he says, according to these things I was created, yet before all things God begets me, which is Son. Verse 27. He calls his own kingdom a throne, and the winds the noetic spirits; or as also David: “The one who walks upon the wings of the winds,” wishing to represent the lighter and incorporeal aspect of his substance. Verse 29. See the works being divided, wisdom and God. One made, he says; I fitted together. And “strong,” how? Not needing any base; for they are held by the will of God alone. Verse 35. Either that at the moment of appearing I provide life, or that by revelation, descending to the weakness of someone, then he comes forth; for being life, and having come outside to those able to see him, he gives life.

Will or love he says, or that he made us self-determined to be ready to do what must be done. Verse 2. Let him incline, so that he may acquire prudence; for the imperfect one is strengthened by the words and mysteries of wisdom. Verse 5. The same food is called both meat and bread and milk and wine. However, the foolish are said to partake of it as bread and as mixed wine; if this is so, how shall we understand, "A man ate the bread of angels"? Understand bread as the solid commandments of God, and wine as the knowledge of him derived from study of the divine Scriptures; and likewise also his divine body and precious blood. Verse 5. The natural intellect hears, "The sun will not burn you by day, nor the moon by night." He calls the cares of life burning; and those dried up by it he calls grass; the Saviour through the parable indicates afflictions; he called the attacks against the Word and the persecutions burning. Verse 13. The wise man by a reproachful speech leads the heavy-hearted one to awareness. Verse 7. Do you see that it is not desiring that is evil, but desiring in such a way is evil? The hopes of the impious are also evil; for everything they hope for is destruction. Verse 8. The phrase, "Instead of him," is not as though the pious man is subject to justice, but because the trap is set by the wicked against the righteous; the pious man is rescued from it by God, while the impious man, abandoned by divine providence, falls into it.

or that, since the righteous man is subject to certain sins as a human being, when the impious man came and did evil to the righteous man, he delivered him from the sins and from the impending punishments, and took the penalties upon himself; and he is handed over not by someone else, but by his own wickedness, as one who has previously handed himself over to a worthless mind. Verse 24. Those who gather corruption are diminished in virtues; or those who gather words and do not share them. Verse 29. He who is vexed at each of the defects of his own household will be homeless; and a foolish man will serve a prudent one. Verse 31. An impious man, then, he says, is one who hates God; a sinful man is one who is wicked in his actions; and here he calls "righteous" the man of action with reason and knowledge; for the precision of righteousness is great. Verse 2. "Better" is not comparative, but stands for "good." Verse 9. The man of action and the layman is more honorable than the man of words and the refined but inactive man. Verse 12. The roots of the righteous will not be uprooted, that is, the good habits. Verse 17. Whatever he says, he says, is confirmed by deeds; and if it is a matter of deed, it is more trustworthy; or it means to show it as manifest, tested, irrefutable, sufficient; and a witness of unjust men is one who attempts to establish whatever unjust things he may do; and a deceitful man is one who has nothing straightforward. Verse 25. The discourse on punishments disturbs the one who is newly entering the practical life; but the discourse on promises delights him. For the perfect righteous man will not be frightened by an evil report, having a fear of the Lord that surpasses all things. Verse 26. The righteous man, knowing human weakness, makes allowances, even if the offense from a friend is a sin.

or that, recognizing that the friend is in the image of God, he is in harmony with himself, being moderate, and guarding himself, and having nothing of hostile wickedness, he keeps his thoughts free from strife. Verse 2. For one will have the end of virtue, but the others will not have ripe fruit; and he will terrify himself, not finding how to stand firm in his own sin. Verse 14. The natural law, from which the cause of life springs; for no law is laid down for the righteous man; but punishment unto death for the one ensnared by evils; the spring of life, the works of the commandments. The wealth of those of the circumcision will accrue to the righteous among the nations. Verse 10. The mind, perceiving sin, pains the soul; and the houses of the impious are habits and dispositions; and the tents are the choices; and there is a road which seems to be straight, that which prefers what seems to be to what is. He considers with endurance what must be done. They will have a share, or they will share; for the bold man would not be cowardly. Verses 20, 23. This seems to me not to have been placed in the order of exhortation, but to report what happened; then the corrective addition: "He who dishonors a poor man sins"; for the evils there are obvious; and no one corrects himself, nor would he condemn such things; and who would praise the others? He who cares for virtue excels in action and knowledge. For he who always considers what must be done will have something more; but the one who is pleasant and insensible, that is, the one who shuns labors, will be in need of virtues. Verse 16. The word "nest" sometimes signifies the place, sometimes the nesting animals. So either the place of wisdom, the theorems in which it dwells, is more choiceworthy than false knowledge.

or the offspring of wisdom. For just as gold is superior to silver, so also wisdom is superior to prudence: the one consists in knowing, the other in interpreting what is known. Or the nest of wisdom, the Churches, or the abodes of the saints there; wisdom is Christ. Verse 17. For having the uninterrupted quality of actions, they have the length of life that is appropriate, turning away from evils, that is, from death. Verse 29. Here he calls the lawless man the devil, who tempts men, wishing to know which of them are like him and wish to break the law, and leads them away into ways, that is, into actions that are not good; he is the same one who fixes his eyes on each man, and accurately perceives to which passion each is prone; and having learned from their movements, he sets his traps; and having caught them, he leads them away into all evils. He said "to define with the lips" because by his evil suggestions he hastens to complete through men all that is agreeable to him; and this is the furnace of wickedness, which burns the one who receives it with the

by his baits into every evil. Verse 30. An eye that beholds beautiful things, that is, a discerning eye; but what the beautiful things are must be investigated; and if it does not behold gold, it is grieved; or if a splendid body, again it is consumed; but what the beautiful things are, listen: the heaven, the earth, the sea, and the whole creation; so that such things as these you see delight the soul; for what benefit is it that the eye is pleased, but nothing more results, and the soul is corrupted? Verse 31. Having spoken above of the many aspects of his wickedness, we will add what is lacking to what has been said. Along with all his excesses, he also says these things to those who obey him: This matter is necessary (having sharpened the power of discernment toward evil), one must use it. Pleasure is natural, one must use it. Wealth is from God, one must enjoy it. But when he has fully persuaded his follower in everything, then he makes him boast in his mind, as if performing great acts of righteousness, and that he proposes these things to the aged. Verse 6. The faithful person who does not hasten after perceptible things is as one who has everything; but the one who hastens after them is as one who has nothing; for loving silver, he will not be filled with silver. Or also: The faithful person will see the words of this world, as wealth of the mind spoken of figuratively; but the unfaithful person will not touch even a random thing of the words on account of the impurity of his soul. Verse 28. A mute person is one who conceals his ignorance or his passion by silence, to himself or to his neighbors, and seems.

Verse 7. He will not accomplish every evil (for that is impossible), but he does what can coexist; moreover, he did not cease doing evil. Or he calls Christ a good thought; for he himself guarantees it; and everyone who does good deeds will find him; for he calls prudent the one who does every good work. Verse 24. The one who does not live rightly hides his hands unjustly in his soul; not wishing to work his own land, how will he be filled with bread? For the practical virtues hold the place of hands, bringing to our mouth the bread that came down from heaven. Therefore this one cannot be benefited even in the beginning, being lazy. Verse 21. That is, judgment covers the defense of the impious. For God surpasses those who do good with his rewards. Verse 26. Do not give yourself over to postponing repentance, being ashamed before someone. For if you die and you do not have time to repent, you will no longer have rest. Verse 23. He introduces the envious devil to himself, and he eats his own morsel with him, the one who does some good work with vainglory or people-pleasing; for such a person withholds his own reward. For the devil reveals these things to men, so that through the praise directed at the people-pleaser he may corrupt and deprive him of eternal goods. Verse 20. The wicked will not produce virtues and right doctrines (for these are offspring of the soul), because they do not fear the Lord; but those who are in fear of the Lord will have offspring all day long, and their hope will not depart. These things follow what has been said.

For the enemies, he says, being evil, rejoiced at the misfortunes of others; but do not emulate that which you blame. For their supposed brilliance and deceitfulness lasts only until this life, and is extinguished at death; and often it is extinguished even while they are still alive, when they are refuted. Verse 7. The wise man says these things to wisdom, or the servant of Christ to the Lord. Having made two requests, he asks for more; but the first request, as it seems, is a preliminary petition to obtain what he asks, saying: Do not disregard me, but grant the grace; upon which he added the first petition: Remove from me vain speech, that is, false wisdom, so that, being filled, I may not become false. Satiety produces arrogance, and the appearance of being beyond refutation; in word and deed, as if without error. For the phrase, "Who sees me?" is said instead of, "Who refutes me?" so that, being filled with wisdom, I may not seem incomprehensible to others, or even appear a liar when speaking of things beyond them. Verse 15. The leech is born in sweet waters, being a worm-like creature; it is very smooth to the touch, and it insinuates itself unnoticed by its smoothness into those who drink water greedily; then, having coiled itself around some internal part, it does not detach itself until it kills the man by the extraction of blood; for it is a blood-drinker, and is nourished and grows thereby. He has now compared the devil to this creature, who, being unable to take hold of men by force—for he uses three main instruments against them: pleasure, enchantment, and deception—and through these, little by little and unnoticed, destroys them.

First, he leads them on the paths of false opinion to destruction, which he also calls Hades, showing by the outcome of justice the magnitude of the sin; then he envelops them in the pleasure of licentiousness, which he also calls the love of women. In addition to these, with love of money, that is, greed, which he said is like earth not filled with water; for such is the insatiable sandy soil. These, then, are the passions which the evil one has devised for the destruction of men, which he loves and cherishes as his own daughters. The fourth he calls the practice and habit of these; for it is not the one who has once held a false opinion, or committed fornication, or desired more, who immediately succumbs to the passions, but the one who is overcome by habit and sensation; for you would find such people buried in false opinions, never taking their fill, but always intensifying the passions, so as to incite others to them as well. Just as water and fire do not cease with the supply of what is suitable, nor do they say, "Enough," but rather increase; water does not stop with the inflow of water, but increases; and you, he says, O child, knowing this, abstain from these things, so that you may not, little by little, as by a very smooth leech, be robbed of your life by pleasure. Verses 19, 20. The tracks of a flying eagle, the soul of the wise man, which, being wise, is unable to know from itself the flights of the intelligible eagle; concerning which it is written: The great eagle, long in its extension and full of claws, having no trace of the presence of the devil, even if it flew before me from somewhere I do not know.

For when the evil one departs from me, I did not know, because I had no desire for him. Such is the path of an adulteress, the corrupted teaching. Verse 22. The people from the nations, being a slave of sin and of the devil formerly; thus: "Against a senseless nation I will provoke you"; and, "A fool is filled with the foods of life"; and, "A hateful woman," that is, a prostitute; for the Church from the nations was a prostitute, going after foreign gods; and "a maidservant casts out her own mistress," the Church from the nations casting out the Synagogue, which is the mistress; for her law and the prophets are needed. – The literal sense is a slave of the intellectual examination, which the Jews preferred as a mistress; but the nations, receiving the literal into the spiritual, cast out the bodily observance of the law, which was a mistress among them. Verse 25. He speaks of the nations, which have no strength, and they store up for themselves through good works eternal life. And the hyraxes: a kind of fish, or the hares called oistri, the formerly weak nations, having fled to Christ; for a rock is a refuge for hyraxes, which make their homes in rocks. And you, therefore, he says, even if you are a weak animal, take hold of the rock of true faith, and direct your life toward it. Relying on deeds, one enters the kingdom. Therefore, he says, do not, because of the weakness of faith, disbelieve in the kingdom of the heavens, but believing in the promise concerning it, pursue its productive commandments. Christ is a lion; for all rational creatures are beasts in relation to him; for Moses says:

I am irrational. The natural energy is said to pass through without hindrance. Verse 31. The one who is brought forward on account of sins and walks on high has the flock following him. "For when I am raised up," he says, "I will draw all to myself." The rooster bears the face of a teacher, who, sowing the word in souls, is strongly announcing the light. "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." This was the one who from the beginning was awakening the hearts of men and foretelling through many signs the day of his incarnate presence, and who was pressing out darkness and clearly pointing out the eternal light to all. Walking among females courageously, that is, in the Churches, courageously and nobly, as he says: "Behold, I am with you all the days until the end of the age." Verse 32. Or if you let yourself down into the mind of the Scriptures, or if you do not have a disciple's ear but are contentious, will you hear? "If someone is quarrelsome, we do not have such a custom." Verse 3. Do not give your wealth to alien pleasures or teachings. Drink wine with counsel. When drinking the wine of the true vine, the interpretation of the Scriptures and the contemplation of beings, approach the examination of the mind with much discernment. Verse 6. Now he called pain grief. Therefore those who labor and suffer for God, when they become drunk with the richness of the Lord's house, forget their pains. Verse 8. Have your choice to pay attention to my words, spoken by God. Verse 23.

The north wind, the devil, stirring up and tempting the saints who are high, and not wishing to work; or raising arguments against his own doctrines. Verse 3. Just as these things rather transfer the animals to what is well, so the rod, that is, censure, regulates the lawless nation. Verse 7. Of such persons, he says, it rather removes their dominion, and entrust to them neither practical nor rational authority. Verse 15. If from the fruits of righteousness a tree of life grows, everyone who hides righteousness with injustice, which is called a hand, will not eat from the tree of life. Verse 23. Of your disciples, so that you do not bring teaching to bear upon their condition. Verse 22. The contemplation of what has happened, and the contemplation of the holy Trinity, he says is a garment of a pure mind, made of fine linen and purple.