Sophia Scriptura

Exegetical and Miscellaneous Fragments

Fragmenta exegetica et miscellanea · Ἐξηγητικὰ καὶ ἄλλα ἀποσπάσματα

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Contents

Reading pages: 1–4 · 5–13

  1. 1Against those who place paradise above the world, Dionysius asks how the earthly man could have been formed and brought into it and the creatures brought to Adam to be named.
  2. 2From a commentary on Job: Job's rebuke of his wife recalls Eve, deceived by the serpent's cunning; God's works surpass all number; and wisdom, hidden from most, comes from God alone, as Job, Proverbs, Wisdom, Sirach and Baruch testify.
  3. 3Fragments of a commentary on Ecclesiastes 1–4: true advantage lies in toil ‘above the sun’; worldly wisdom and pleasure are vanity; only God's wisdom stands fast; the wise man fixes the eyes of his mind on Christ; and the ‘times’ of chapter 3 are read of passion and resurrection, law and gospel.
  4. 4On the Song of Songs: the soul taken up by the Savior is the bride who comes up whitened, once black like the tents of Kedar while in this dark world.
  5. 5From a commentary on Luke 22:42–48: Christ asked that the cup pass, yet as the Father willed, the two wills being one in the divinity; his bloody sweat and the strengthening angel show his true humanity; ‘not entering temptation’ means not being overcome by it; and his gentle words to Judas teach forbearance.
  6. 6On Acts 5:4: what has once been vowed to God in prayer no longer belongs to the giver, though God wants nothing given under compulsion.
  7. 7On Rom 11:26: Dionysius took ‘all Israel’ to mean the greater part of Israel.
  8. 8On James 1 and 4: God tests to crown, the devil tempts to kill; God foreknows but leaves man free; and jealous rivalry shows people to be fleshly.
  9. 9On Rev 22:4: the blessed will see God face to face, as the apostles did, according to Dionysius.
  10. 10Broken excerpts from Dionysius's letter to Aphrodisius, with a saying that one who neglects his own household cannot educate strangers.
  11. 11Life is not happy for its brief respites from pain, but toilsome, as a recurrent fever is illness despite its remissions.
  12. 12Misfortunes deserve pity, not hatred.
  13. 13Sayings ascribed to Dionysius: mercy is most godlike; sweetness is won by toil; speak only what is better than silence.

About this work

Author
Dionysius of Alexandria
Attribution
disputed · Exegetical (E) and miscellaneous (Z) Greek fragments attributed to Dionysius of Alexandria in catenae, as edited by C. L. Feltoe. Feltoe himself finds the extracts on Job, Ecclesiastes, the Song and Luke 22 doubtful (the Luke commentary may in part be Chrysostom's or another's). Dionysius's letters and fragments that are preserved in Eusebius, Athanasius and Basil are on this site inside those works and are not repeated; the Letter to Basilides is a separate work.
Standing
Honoured by the Catholic and Orthodox traditions. Honoured as a saint or in a church calendar by: Catholic, Orthodox.
Date
ca. 248–265 (approximate) · Dionysius was bishop of Alexandria from 247/248 to 264/265; the fragments are transmitted in much later catenae.
Written at
Alexandria, Egypt (probable)
Language
Greek
Genre
other
Reference system
Feltoe's fragments in order: refs 1–5 = section E I–V (exegetical), 6–13 = Z I–VIII (miscellaneous)
SBL abbreviation
Frag.Not yet checked
Clavis
CPG number not yet checked
Text from
Charles Lett Feltoe, ed., The Letters and Other Remains of Dionysius of Alexandria, Cambridge Patristic Texts (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1904), pp. 199–262 (Printed edition in the public domain; Tesseract OCR of a public-domain scan (Internet Archive); E III and E V re-read from crops of the Greek zone of each page)
Critical editions
Karl Holl, ed., Fragmente vornicänischer Kirchenväter aus den Sacra Parallela, TU 20.2 (1899; cited only) (cited, not reproduced)