Commentary on Job, part 16

We get more allegorical readings of precious substances in the next fragment:

“Its stones are the place of sapphires and its dust gold for him.” (28:6)
 You will understand this verse according to the earlier verse concerning precious stones. The intelligent [reader] will understand the Holy Spirit's powerful relic, the Theotokos, as Jeremiah says: “Her Nazarites were made purer than snow, they were whiter than milk” (Lamentations 4:7). And gold dust is the holiness of the body, as he says: “Holy is your temple, wondrous in righteousness” (Psalm 64:4-5). And also those purified of this earthen nature shine brightly with virtue and become a place of the word of truth. This is why the prophet says: “Holy stones shall roll on the land” (Zechariah 9:16), meaning the turning of stones. 

Commentary on Job, part 15

Verse 5 of chapter 28 refers to the bread that comes from the earth. Here again we have an allegorical reading relating to the Incarnation:

“The earth, out of it shall come bread, and below it, it has been changed as if fire.” (28:5)

As was said above that from the earth come precious substances, so too also here bread grows from the earth. And the fire is the warmth of spring by which the shoots blossom forth, and which brings to mind the womb of the Holy Virgin. And the bread is the Lord’s Body while the fire is the Word of God.

Commentary on Job, part 14

The extant fragments now jump ahead to chapter 28. Here Stepanos provides an interpretation in terms of precious gemstones. 'Chrysolite' is a translation of ոսկեքար, a calque on χρυσόλιθος, which is identified with the topaz in the Liddell-Scott lexicon, but corrected (in the revised supplement) as 'a yellow precious stone, perhaps peridot'. The reference to a practice of liquefaction or melting of the stone here is obscure.

“the stone, and darkness, and the shadow of death. The trench is flooded by dust.” (28:3-4)
 The stone is a precious gem, and the darkness is a pearl, which exists in secret as though in darkness and shadows, because they are hidden deep inside the earth. And chrysolite is cut by the trench, and is collected and thrown in a dusty form on a stone and through an excessively hot fire so that it becomes like a flood.  

Commentary on Job, part 13

One fragment is on chapter 18. Here Stepanos relates the verse to Psalm 61 (according to the numbering of the Septuagint).

“he will strengthen those who thirst for him.” (18:9)

They are the ones of whom David says, “They ran in thirst” (Ps. 61:5), that is, the demons that drink the blood of man.

Commentary on Job, part 12

The next three fragments are on chapter 16. One notable departure from the Septuagint in the Armenian version of Job and the commentary lemma is ստուերք մահու 'shades of death' for σκιά 'shadow'.

“The arrows of his robbers fell [upon me].” (16:9)

The arrows are the tribulations and the robbers are the demons of the thieves of the adversary.

“My belly has been burned by weeping...” (16:16)

It has been burned because through his sufferings he lamented the expulsion and ruin of the people of Abraham.

“and upon my eyelids shades of death.” (16:16)

The ability to see is obscured by abundant tears.

Commentary on Job, part 11

Stepanos relates Job's claim that God commanded the sun not rise to the darkening of the earth and the failure of the sun's light at Christ's death on the cross (Luke 23:44-45). So according to Stepanos, Job's words are anticipations of Christ's crucifixion rather than a reference to an event in the relative past (as, for example, Isho'dad of Merv's conjecture that the passage refers to the plague of darkness of Exodus 10:21).

"...who commands the sun and it does not rise; [who seals up the stars.]" (9:7)

He made the earth quake [cf. Matthew 27:50-51) by crying out on the Cross and commending his spirit, and sealed them up so that from now on the souls are in the hands of God. Until the fulfillment of the Mystery there was a presumption of fear among the angels concerning the fall of the adversary. Having sealed them up, he released their presumption of fear at the time of the Cross, and as a leaf on a vine is shaken the luminaries requested that it not be by the stretching out of the arm of the almighty power that he sealed them up. And the one who did this is the same as he who in the beginning established all things. 

 

Commentary on Job, part 10

Next come the two fragments from chapter 8. The second fragment, on 8:17, connects the "gathering of stones" upon which the impious lie down to the seeds of Christ's parable of the sower (Mt. 13.3-8; Mk. 4.3-8; Lk. 8.5-8).

“If your children sinned against him, he sent them into the hands of their lawlessness.” (8:4)

Because they were lawless, he sent them into their sins.

“He lies on a gathering of stones…” (8:17)

As a seed that has fallen on a gathering of stones is choked or shoots forth but immediately withers, so too is the life of impiety.