DIDYMUS OF ALEXANDRIA'S ENARRATION ON THE THIRD EPISTLE OF SAINT JOHN
A Ver. 11. “Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God; but he that doeth evil hath not seen God.”
Since there is no communion of light with darkness, nor concord of Christ with Belial, he who does good both practically and contemplatively, having Christ the God, who is the true light, is far from darkness and Belial. But also, since evil is contrary to doing good, the evildoer, by the very act of so operating, being of Belial and of darkness, has not seen God, nor has he any knowledge of Him according to any quality. For everyone who sins has not seen God, nor known Him. B And since seeing is a bodily function, and not seeing consists in using or not using the sense of sight, when some sensible object is seen even by the one who does evil, if he has sight; and if he who is deprived of sight does not see, even if he be a good man: it is indubitably shown that God is not a body. For when the doer of good, because he has a pure heart, sees God, although he be deprived of carnal sight, while he who does evil does not see Him, even though his physical sight be exceedingly sharp; it is proven from this (that is, from the discourse on doing good and doing evil) that things which do not coexist are contrary. Likewise, it is demonstrated from the saying: “Depart from evil and do good,” and from other similar expressions in the divine Scripture.
ENARRATION OF DIDYMUS THE ALEXANDRIAN ON THE EPISTLE OF BLESSED JUDE THE APOSTLE
Ver. 4. “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, etc.”
C Truly, because Jesus once delivered the people from the land of Egypt and subsequently destroyed those who did not believe. Certain ungodly men, using the divine Scripture with a certain deceit and malice, D pretend to be vindicated. This, however, if one should compare the enarrations of Didymus with the scholia more accurately, will escape no one: that the composers of the scholia have followed Didymus in many places. ...so that he took upon himself to explain not only the fourth, but the fifth verse of the Epistle at the same time.
A have crept in, pretending to preach it, being—so it is said—pre-written, that is, ordained for this judgment, whereby, being judged by themselves, they were delivered to a reprobate mind. For these men, on account of their immense impiety, being unchaste, have turned the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ into licentiousness, by their very filthiness denying the one Master, the Lord Jesus Christ of those who have been called by the Gospel. Hence, in order to recall those who believed in the wicked and impious, he shows how great is the majesty of the Lord whom they have denied, making it plain that it is He who led the people out of Egypt and provided salvation. Secondly, because some of them were unstable and changeable, bearing in their mind the desire they had held in Egypt, He destroyed those who wavered in the wilderness, even though they had been delivered from Egypt through faith. Having touched upon these things in advance, it is necessary to seek out who those are whom he says have turned the grace of God into licentiousness—that is, the impious and hypocrites of divine doctrine—unless perhaps these are the leaders of the heresy of the Nicolaitans, who leave behind no species of impudence. Whether the heresy itself is polluted in its will, of which memory is made in the Apocalypse by Jezebel, who is described as being over fornication, or whether it is another, must be considered. I think, however, that this is spoken of many heresies that began in the times of the Apostles, and of their authors, who certainly followed impudence and much luxury, so that they mingled their own filthiness and luxury with the sacrifices of idols. For Paul also says of such men: B "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them: for the things which are done of them in secret, it is a shame even to speak of." For they do shameful and vehemently shameful things, as if in a mystical way, those who follow the sect of Simon Magus. Moreover, after this, both the Marcionites and the Valentinians and the Sethians commit unspeakable deeds. Hence, in another Epistle, he writes concerning them, saying: "These are they who creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts," and under the guise of religion they do shameful things. Wherefore he says of them that they turned the grace of the Lord into licentiousness, through which licentiousness and its effect they deny the only Master and our Lord Jesus Christ.
It must be observed that Christ is the only Master, because He alone is the true God. For so, since He alone is the Master and Lord Jesus, He does not exclude the Father by authority, saying to Him, "Lord of heaven and earth." So neither C does the Father, since He alone is the true God, make the Son a stranger to the true deity. For it was said before these things concerning Him, that this only Master and Lord Jesus Christ is true God, who led the people out of Egypt through Moses, to whom these things being said, it follows that there is no other God of Moses. For there is no other God besides the Trinity. Moses himself is also recognized as serving the One, according to what was said: "He wrote of Me." And that which Moses wrote, we find Jesus to have fulfilled. Wherefore he also, having foreseen by the virtue of prophecy the cross, thought the reproach of Christ to have great riches; and not otherwise than he who said: "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of Christ." Since, therefore, it is Jesus who led the Hebrews out of Egypt, it is certain that this does not refer to the humanity proceeding from Mary: according to what is said of God the Word as Jesus, just as he said just before: "But to us one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things."
As to what he says, "that they are pre-written who turned the grace of God into licentiousness," to whom they are subject, that is, ordained for this judgment, etc. (as was recently proclaimed), it is to be considered lest perhaps this can be explained also of those who are similar to the ones pre-written by Jude, namely in the prophecies. For of that one it is said: "And his bishopric let another take"; and that: "He lifted up his heel against me," eating his bread, as if even of such impious ones it were pre-written, as of the impious of the Old Testament.
D Ver. 9. "Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses; he dared not bring against him a judgment of blasphemy, but said: The Lord rebuke thee." If the devil is substantially evil, just as those who introduce earthly natures think, who say that something is against him, it is a matter of crime, not of the substance of blasphemy. If neither does the Lord reasonably rebuke him, since he has no nature, that he might receive rebuke for a work not good. But while he is even rebuked by the Creator and Lord of all, as if some utility could come from this, and the great archangel thought it [not?] to offer any blasphemy against him, although he was contending for the body of Moses. And the devil is not an earthly substance.
A For he once possessed divine glory and the holy knowledge of God, although by turning away from such great magnitude, he fell. It is shown, therefore, from the common sense which we have concerning all rational beings, that since they have free will, and the turning away of the devil has taken place, his nature is not evil, just as he himself, who surpasses all in malice, is not of this kind, even though the adversaries of this contemplation argue against the present Epistle and the Assumption of Moses B by citing that place where the archangel’s word concerning the body of Moses is directed against the devil. For it is not from these [events] alone, but in every divine Scripture that his fall is demonstrated; and there is now one discourse, for which reason he is also named the devil. For the name of the devil signifies his will, not his essence, as has been frequently stated. For just as in Jude, when we signify his substance, we call him a man, but when we call him the devil, we recognize his ways, from the Savior who said to the disciples: “One of you is a devil”; so in this case, the name of the devil signifies his evil will, while perhaps another name might insinuate his substance. And therefore I said “perhaps,” since we do not have in divine Scripture clearly stated proper names for rational beings. Even if this is not the case, his substance is nonetheless declared by the common name of angel—that is, possessing some existence apart from his evil operation—which, when he performed [evil], he was called the devil.
VERS. 11. < Woe to them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, and have rushed into the error of Balaam for reward, and have perished in the contradiction of Core! >
Since it has been declared in every way that the heretics have fallen from the word of truth, he shows them to be subject to various evils. For he says that they walk in the way of Cain, who on account of envy and impiety slew his brother. He, when he ought to have been saddened by the fact that his sacrifice was not accepted—which he had impiously, without a doubt, offered—and [ought to have] imitated his brother, so that he too might piously offer his gift to God, being seized rather by envy against him, appeared as the first murderer. And he did not rest in this alone, but extending his impiety, having become a sinner C before God by his own will, and being expelled from His presence, thinking that nothing came to pass in him by the providence of God, he believed himself with regard to all that he possessed to be his own authority and his own will. Therefore, he says, the present heretics walk in his way, and, by placing themselves before the Creator—claiming that He is of an animal nature, but that they themselves are spiritual—they do not rightly divide those things which they wish to offer in sacrifice; for they offer the firstfruits to themselves, but the remaining parts to God. For from such wickedness and deceit are the murderers of their brothers made, offering to them things that are not to be known, but rather calling them to their own imitation, when they say: “Let us cross over into the field.” He says, therefore, that these same men are like Balaam, preferring to piety the reward offered to him by the Midianite king, that he might curse those who were enjoying God’s blessing. They also have rushed into the reward of injustice, for they are found to be prophesying, and having a spirit of error instead of the Holy Spirit, whence they too give counsel of fornication and idol worship, just as he did by the betrayal of the people of God. Whoever speaks these things concerning the heretics may advance to higher matters, and not only in the word, but in the letter in which they stand, in which they are also touched upon in the Apocalypse of John, because these false teachers possess them intellectually, since they are lovers of leadership and pride, and are resistant to the prelates of the Church—nay rather, to the apostles, who have it from God that they should be priests. For these indeed erred in the contradiction of Core. He, to be sure, resisted the priesthood, which had been conferred upon Aaron by the will of God, and on account of the contradiction he himself, and those who seemed to be with him, were punished with a new death.
Vers. 12, 13. < These are they, who in your feasts are apostate, feasting together without fear, pasturing themselves: clouds without water, which are carried about by winds, trees of the autumn, unfruitful, twice dead, plucked up by the roots, raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own confusions, wandering stars, to whom, etc. >
When he had shown those who walk in the way of Cain, and those who have been poured out by the unjust reward of Balaam, and those who have perished in the contradiction of Core; he follows up by saying: These are those celebrating banquets, when they have love-feasts, feasting together in their own spots, while they defile their own flesh, and transfer the grace of God to luxury. Accordingly, since they do all such things with much contempt, they pasture themselves without fear. For when they are, as it were, set under the true shepherd, they are constituted without fear and without reverence.
A And they compare themselves to the holy clouds, which rain down justice. These clouds are, of course, the clouds of truth, according to what is written: "Let the clouds rain down justice," and: "Your truth reaches unto the clouds." To those who are full of spiritual rain, it is commanded that they should not rain upon the unworthy. Yet, even though the aforementioned men strive to compare themselves to the holy clouds, they are, however, clouds without water, not having in themselves the knowledge of God. He who has perceived this has within himself a "fountain of water springing up into eternal life," so that from his intelligible belly there flow rivers of living water. They imitate, therefore, the clouds. B They also contend to compare themselves to autumnal trees which bring forth good fruits, since they are, indeed, good trees; and even though they do this, they are nevertheless autumnal trees without fruit. For although the liars promise that they have good fruit, they are refuted, since they cannot bear grapes or figs, being as they are thorns and thistles and trees without fruit. Moreover, all these things, both thorns and thistles, are fitting to be burned with fire. Furthermore, it results for them, because they are without fruit, that even being rooted up, they die a second death; for those who sin consequently have death; and these men sin a second time, that is, in act and in thought; they are said to die a second time. Therefore, concerning those who die a second time—or even in this way, since they had died before the faith, and having approached the Gospel they lived, but again giving themselves over to impiety and pleasure, they have died—he rightly says of them that they died a second time. C One thing is necessarily consequent, that, when they die a second time, they appear to be rooted up, so that they have no hope of budding again. For those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit have no remission of sins, neither now, nor in the world to come. This Scripture therefore represents the troubled morals and the troubled intellect of the heretics when it calls them "raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame," through which they base-mindedly linger, celebrating all kinds of fornication around them, with whom they hasten to be coupled, increasing their own malice, and pretending to be light among those who are established in darkness; D and imitating their own leader, Satan, who transforms himself into an angel of light. Yet, although they are able to celebrate this phantasy, they are nevertheless "wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness is reserved forever." For they shall be delivered unto outer darkness, when their light has been extinguished. "For the light of the wicked shall be extinguished." It is said of such stars: "Which fall as leaves from a fig tree and a vine," while true stars are not leaves, but the fruits of the true vine and fig tree. For it is written concerning such righteous ones: "They shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and they that are wise shall be as the stars"; for therefore the saints, rising from the dead, with an incorruptible and spiritual body, are compared to the glory of the sun and moon and stars. We said before concerning those who were called because they were predestined, and concerning what was predicted of them, this also must be said, just as concerning Judas the traitor: which is truly confirmed from these things which the apostle afterwards subjoins, saying (vers. 14-16): "And Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying: Behold, the Lord comes in his holy thousands, to execute judgment upon all, and to reprove all the ungodly for all the works of their ungodliness, whereby they have done ungodly, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against God. These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own desires, and their mouth speaks proud things, admiring persons for the sake of gain."