Trinity, Economy, and Scripture: Recovering Didymus the Blind

Description

The 4th-century teacher, Didymus the Blind, enjoyed a fruitful life as head of an episcopally-sanctioned school in Alexandria. Author of numerous dogmatic treatises and exegetical works, Didymus was considered a stalwart defender of the Nicene faith in his heyday. He duly attracted the likes of Jerome and Rufinus to his school. Contemporary scholarship has focused most of its attention on understanding him as an exegete, especially focusing on his exegetical vocabulary and the driving assumptions behind his particular method of reading Scripture. The theological literature has been somewhat neglected. In this study, Jonathan Hicks makes the claim that Didymus’s exegesis can only be understood in all its fullness in light of his theological commitments. His acute differences with Theodore of Mopsuestia on the proper reading of the prophet Zechariah cannot be understood as merely methodological. Animating Didymus’s reading of the prophet is a lively understanding of Trinitarian missions. Recognizing the comings of the Son and the Spirit to Israel is essential in locating the prophet’s message properly within the one divine economy of revelation and salvation that culminates in the Incarnation of Christ. Hicks argues that Didymus is instructive here for today’s Church both on the level of praxis (we should adopt some of his reading practices) and on the level of theoria (his Trinitarian account of Scripture’s origin and ends is fundamental to a fully Christian understanding of what Scripture is). ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xii ABBREVIATIONS xiii Ancient Texts xiii Journals, Sections, Series, Versions, Editions, and Libraries xiv INTRODUCTION 1 Theologically-Motivated Recovery 1 On the Place of This Study 4 Retrieval for the Sake of Praxis 7 Recovering an Ontology 7 A Baptismal Ontology: Participation in Christ 9 From Ontology to Praxis 11 Summary 13 A Précis of the Study 14 1. DIDYMUS’ AUTHORSHIP OF DE TRINITATE: STATUS QUAESTIONIS 20 Internal Evidence for a Terminus post Quem 22 The Reference to Basil’s Death 22 Macedonians and the Intra-Novatian Schism 25 Toward a Terminus ante Quem 26 An Anti-Nestorian Argument? 27 Chalcedonian and Proclian Allusions? 32 The Literary Reception of De Trinitate 36 The Date of Didymus’ On the Trinity 39 Occasion 39 “Toil and Danger” 40 Didymus’ Circle in the 390s 43 Evidence for Provenance 44 “Then Will the Nile’s Flowing Be Full” 45 The Arguments for Antioch 47 The Arguments for Cappadocia 51 The Arguments for and against Didymus 53 The Traditional Argument: Its Problems and Strengths 54 The Reference to De Spiritu Sancto 54 The Sources of De Trinitate 57 Style 58 Recent Arguments 64 Christ’s Human Soul as a Point-of-Comparison 64 Differing Attitudes toward Philosophy? 66 Conclusion: the Basis of the Attribution 68 2. GOD THE TRINITY: IDENTITY AND ACTIVITY 70 The Three Hypostaseis 70 From the Father’s Hypostasis 71 The Only-Begotten Son 74 Not Created 75 Atemporally and Non-Spatially 75 Without Suffering or Change 76 Immediately 77 A Natural Relation with the Father 79 Summary 80 The Spirit Who Proceeds from the Father 80 He Proceeds rather than Proceeded 81 Inseparably 82 Not from the Father’s Activity, by Nature and in Truth 83 Summary 84 The Begetting Father 84 Not the Cause of the Son and the Spirit 85 The One Who Begets 88 Summary 88 The Missions of the Son and the Holy Spirit 89 The Father as Sender of the Son and the Holy Spirit 89 Freely and Willingly 90 Knowingly 91 In the Presence of the Father 92 The Co-Missions of the Son and the Spirit 94 Embracing the Whole Narrative of Scripture 96 Divine Activity: Identical or Inseparable? 98 A Developing Doctrine 100 Indivisibility and Particularity 101 “The Same Activity Differently” 104 Conclusion 107 3. THE ECONOMY AND SCRIPTURE 111 The sine Qua non of Theological Knowledge 111 Beyond the Seeing of the Cherubim 113 The Mutual Comprehension of the Hypostaseis 115 How then Is God Known? 116 Summary 119 The Saving Economy of the Trinity 120 Salvation: the Gift of the Trinity 121 Creation Old and New 124 In the Image 125 The Loss of the Image 129 The Restoration of the Image 130 The Saving Inhumanation 131 The Saving Visitation of the Holy Spirit 133 Baptism and Its Ongoing Implications 135 Sanctification 135 Deification 137 Summary 139 The Authors of Scripture as Participating Witnesses 140 The Divine Authorship of the Scriptures 141 The Prophets and Apostles 145 Communicant with the Spirit 145 Illumined 147 Morally Sanctified 149 More than Human 150 Conclusion: a Scriptural Ontology 153 4. THE MORAL LIFE AND ITS END 157 Humanity and Virtue 158 Anthropology: a Brief Sketch 158 On Virtue 161 The Contemplative and the Active Life 163 The Incarnation and the Moral Life 166 Clouds and Heavens 166 Building the House of God 170 “My House Will Be Rebuilt in Her” 170 “Let Your Hands Be Strong” 171 “Come to Him, the Living Stone” 173 Crowned with Many Crowns 176 Keeping the Festival 179 Summary 184 Divine Constancy and Human Mutability 184 The Earliest Vision 185 “Return to Me, and I Will Return to You” 185 The Man on the Red Horse 186 The Earth Is at Peace 188 Watchtowers Ensuring Salvation 190 Ashkelon: the Praiseworthy Stronghold 190 The Church as Fortress 191 Completing the Tower 192 Summary and Critique 193 5. THE CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE AND ESCHATOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE 197 Zechariah: from Word to Vision 198 The Stages of the Contemplative Life 202 The Vision of the Lamp-Stand 202 The First Treatment of the Vision 203 The Second Treatment of the Vision 205 The Inner and Outer Walls 207 The Former and the Latter Rains 208 Summary 210 Eschatological Vision 211 “The Lord Will Be One, and His Name One” 212 Forming a Single Man 213 Lights Illumining Themselves 214 The Humanity of Christ in the Psalms 217 He Hands over the Kingdom of His Humanity 218 Not That He Has Wounds 221 Summary and Critique 226 A Composite Sketch of the Dogmatic and the Exegetical 229 The Prophets and the Trinitarian Economy 230 An Instructive Account of Scripture? 231 The Results of the Christological Problem 234 6. “CULLING THE FLOWERS” 235 Didymus on Zechariah 3 236 Establishing the Interpretive Frame 236 Matters neither Sensible nor Human 236 The Dynamics of Spiritual Struggle 237 Satan as Instrument in the Divine Pedagogy 240 Summary 241 Sketching the Interpretive Skopos 241 The Joshua of the Exile 241 The Vestments of Jesus, the Great High Priest 244 Summary 246 Perfect Holiness, Perfect Vision 247 “Established in Holiness” 247 “Seers” 249 Vine and Fig Tree 250 Summary 251 Retrieving Didymus the Blind 252 On the Content of the Literal Sense 252 Israel’s High Priest 252 On the Inordinate Pressure of the “Useful” 256 The Sinfulness of Joshua Reconsidered 259 Reasons for Didymus’ Limitation of the Literal Sense 261 Summary 263 On the “Mind” of Zechariah 3 264 Sharing in Christ’s Victory over Satan 264 The Problem with the Spiritual Sense 267 Conclusion: Divine Economy, Interpretive Skopos 269 EPILOGUE 273 BIBLIOGRAPHY 279 Texts and Translations: Ancient Authors 279 Secondary Sources 283 AUTHOR AND SUBJECT INDEX 289 SCRIPTURE INDEX 299