Didymus the Blind

In his own words on Wisdom of Solomon

• Wisdom of Solomon 1:15

  I saw a godless person who said, "By the power of my own hand I have acted, and with my wisdom, for I am shrewd. I have removed the boundaries of the peoples, and I have pillaged their treasures." I saw him exalted. I went forward in my thoughts to the next life and considered the arrangements of Providence. I saw him no longer, nor did I find his place, even though I looked for it. Godlessness will come to an end and will be no more. It is not included in what is immortal, as is said of righteousness, "Righteousness is immortal."

  ON THE PSALM 36:35-36

• Wisdom of Solomon 1:15

  When I prospered, sowing in righteousness and reaping the fruits of righteousness, I was in such a state that I could never waver. If "whoever does the will of God remains forever" and his "righteousness is immortal," I indeed said this when I received the fruits of righteousness and prospered. I spoke thus to my soul, just as with the word according to which "no one can say 'Jesus is Lord' …" I confessed this with my soul and with my life when I prospered and bore fruits of virtue, because I will never waver, according to the word: "Whoever believes, and whoever lives and believes, will never die," and "The righteousness of the Lord remains forever."

  ON THE PSALM 29:7

• Wisdom of Solomon 6:24

  Only God is declared to be wise. He is defined as wise because he does not receive wisdom from another, nor does he participate in the wisdom of another. Many in fact are called wise, not by their nature but by the fact that wisdom is communicated to them. God, by contrast, who did not become wise by participation in the wisdom of another or by having gotten it somewhere else, is called the only wise, who generates wisdom and makes others wise. This wisdom is our Lord Jesus Christ, who is called the power and the wisdom of God. But the Holy Spirit is also proclaimed to be wisdom. In fact, even in the books of the Old Testament it is said that Joshua, son of Nun, was full of the spirit of wisdom. Only God, therefore, is wise, in that he does not receive wisdom from another principle but makes wise and generates wisdom. He alone is wise, as opposed to the other beings who are considered wise by his gift ("An abundance of wise people is the salvation of the world," and, further, "Those who know themselves are wise" and, finally, "If you walk with the wise, you will become wise"). Likewise the Holy Spirit, because he does not receive wisdom from another principle, is called the Spirit of wisdom. His very being is Spirit of wisdom, and his nature is none other than Spirit of truth and Spirit of God.

  ON THE HOLY SPIRIT 1:21

• Wisdom of Solomon 8:8

  Because there is no ignorance in Him, Daniel makes this clear, saying about Him: "He who knows what is in the darkness, and light is with Him," (Dan. 2:22) and also: "Blessed is the knower of secrets, knowing all things before they happen." (Dan. 13:42) For if He has knowledge of secrets and things hidden in darkness and of all things that are to be done, of what could He still be ignorant? Therefore, this light has no communion with ignorance of intelligible things. Therefore it is written: "What communion has light with darkness?" (2 Cor. 6:14) If the heretics wish to say, in order to detract from the divinity, that the presence disagrees with what was said: "He made darkness His hiding place" (Ps. 18:12), this is God; and also: "Moses entered the cloud where the Lord was" (Ex. 24:18), let them know that in these passages, darkness signifies the obscurity of His incomprehensibility. For it is possible that this obscurity arises for us through our ignorance of the reasons, not in God, who is light. Attention must also be paid to the very words, because what is meant by saying that God is in darkness and in a cloud or gloom, and that He made darkness His hiding place, is signified by these words: "And in Him there is no darkness at all." (1 Jn. 1:5) Therefore, in Him there is no darkness, because it is not in His nature to have any; but He seems to us to be in darkness and gloom, since we do not have comprehension of Him, whose substance is known to exist.

  Commentary on the first epistle of John 2:4, PG 39

• Wisdom of Solomon 11:26

  It is written, "Not a messenger or an angel but the Lord himself saved them." He forgave them, for no other reason than that he loved them. Indeed, it says "forgive," as with his own children, according to that verse that is referred to in another book, "You have compassion on all things, Lord, lover of souls, because they are yours, nor do you nourish hatred toward the beings you have created." For their salvation, therefore, the Father, not sparing his own Son, gave him over to death, so that by the death of his own Son, having reduced to powerlessness him who had power over death, that is, the devil, he would free all those who were subject to him through the bonds of slavery. For this reason it is added, "He himself rescued them, he comforted them and raised them up." He in fact comforts and exalts those who are saved and lifts the redeemed on wings of virtue toward the most sublime heights. He dwells in them and with them, through both instruction and knowledge of the truth, not only for a day or two but for all the days of eternity, communicating life to them "until the end of the world," because he is the cause of salvation.

  ON THE HOLY SPIRIT 2:46

• Wisdom of Solomon 12:10

  In the time of judgment, which is to say always, he judges everyone, sometimes calling this time the "time of judgment," sometimes "the day of wrath" and "the day of rendering account." "Until" this "punishment arrives," while "the punishment has not yet come," repent. There is "room for repentance." "The Lord does not delay in fulfilling his promise, as some believe, but is patient toward you, not wanting that anyone should perish but that all should come to repentance." Since therefore an extension is given to you for repentance, repent before "the punishment comes."

  ON ECCLESIASTES 12:1c

• Wisdom of Solomon 13:5

  God has a face that shows itself through his creatures. It is said, in fact, "one knows the author by analogy from the greatness and beauty of creatures." One knows him by the analogy of faith. Just as, looking at a boat, we imagine its maker even if he is not present, or spotting an approaching ship, we immediately think that there is someone who steers it, or seeing a coach driven well, even if we cannot make out the coachman, we imagine him—in the same way, faced with the fact that the world moves in an orderly way and with the beauty of nature, we derive an image of the beauty and greatness of God. If present things are great, how much greater will the one who made them be! Thus, if one gains an image of God from the world, from the order and arrangements of providence, then the hidden side of his face is no longer hidden. The Greek philosophers also reasoned in this way, deducing an image of God from creatures and their beauty.

  ON THE PSALM 30:21