Commentary on Job 40:17

This part of the commentary is concerned with interpreting the tail and nerves of the serpent.

He sets up his tail (զագին) as a cypress tree (40:17)

He sets up his his tail (զտուտն) like the sail of a ship and goes where we wants to go.

But also [it refers to] the angel of light and those who are deceived by him, for these are called a tail. It is for this reason that it says in the law of Moses, ‘you will be his tail and not his head.’ (Deuteronomy 28:44) He cautions us lest they believe them to be like the saints.

His nerves (the lemma has գիրք instead of ջիղք) are wrapped together (40:17)

He means the cunning frauds that are intertwined and are very hard. For just as the nerves and joints connect the members of the body, and the members of virtue are made to fit by the joint of Jesus’ peace and love, so too you should understand the nerves, as Isaiah says ‘I loosen the knots of injustice.’ (Isaiah 58:6). You should not be amazed that since the saints are said to be members of Christ, as He is always with them, that also certain wicked people and sorcerers are [said to be] parts of the serpent.

Stepanos' commentary follows closely the commentary of Olympiodorus the deacon, including the reference of Isaiah:

[Olymp. 361.18-21: His knavery is his nerves. He is full of complication (intertwining) and  is hard to dissolve.

There are some people who are like members of Satan and are wrapped together by his nerves. The one who destroys these people’s trap fulfilled the words of Isaiah: ‘loosen every bond of injustice and dissolve the hardening of violent transactions.’ (Isaiah 58:6)]

Commentary on Job 40:16

I had taken a brief break from translating the fragmentary commentary on Job of Step‘anos Siwnets‛i, but have now returned. The next fragment is on the serpent of chapter 40. The Armenian word that I translate as 'whale' is a transliteration of the Greek κῆτος, 'sea monster, large fish'.

Behold his power is in his loins and his strength in the navel of his belly. (40:16)

Although it is true that the whale (կետոս [= κῆτος]) is the strongest of the terrestrial and aquatic animals, scripture calls this animal a serpent because it is speaking allegorically about the rebellious serpent. 

William Blake, Book of Job

Armenian Ալադացիք and its meaning

One of the pleasures of studying ancient texts is the discovery of words that are not in any lexicon or other reference work. Just recently I came across Ալադացիք (Aladats'ik') in a commentary on the Neoplatonist David's Prolegomena to Philosophy. The commentary is attributed to the eighth century Armenian theologian Stepanos Siwnets'i. In commenting on David's allegorical interpretation of the myth of the giants Otos and Ephialtes and their attempt to attack the gods, Stepanos says that the giants are Aladats'ik'. According to Iliad 5.385 they were sons of Aloeus (Ἀλωεύς), though Odyssey 11.352-371 notes that Poseidon, Aloeus' father, was their true father. Being either sons or stepsons of Aloeus, the two were called Aloadai, with the Greek patronymic suffix -ιδης attached to Aloeus' name. The Armenian Aladats'ik' has kept the Greek suffix and appended to it the Armenian suffix of origin -ացի to form a nice example of a bilingual redundancy.

Gustav Doré, Inferno plate 65, Ephialtes in chains on left (PD-US-not renewed).

The holy rhinoceros (Commentary on Job)

Stepanos follows Olympiodorus the deacon in interpreting the unicorn as a symbol of a holy man focused on God. Olympiodorus explicitly connects the "one-horned creature" with the rhinoceros, an unruly and wild animal that men cannot tame and which cannot be used for human purposes. The rhinoceros' lack of concern for human and worldly ends makes it a symbol of the holy man, perhaps an ascetic, who lives in the untamed wilderness and has contempt for the commerce of the world. Stepanos adds the detail that this animal drives away serpents. He also seems to place the creature among the clouds at the second coming.

Also the unicorn is a holy man who looks only upon God, and makes Him the cause of salvation, and through His power strikes Satan. For this animal drives away serpents.

But also [it is] with the clouds at the meeting of the righteous at the Lord’s coming.

The quest for the biblical unicorn (Commentary on Job 39:9)

One of the curious features of the Greek version of the Old Testament is the appearance of the word μονόκερος, literally 'a one-horned [creature]', which the King James translators translated as 'unicorn,' a word that at least modern English speakers associate with a mythical and fanciful beast. This translation has mystified many. The eighth-century Armenian exegete Stepanos of Siunik, whose fragmentary commentary on the book of Job I have been translating here has this to say about the appearance of 'unicorn' in Job 39:9:

Symmachus translates it as ‘saw-horn’ (սղոցեղջիւր). There is a lake in the land of the Philistines from which every venomous beast and reptile of the fields drinks, and in which birds and quadrupeds cannot approach until the unicorn comes and heals the water with its horn. It drinks first. Anyone who wishes to hunt it must place in its path an adorned and perfumed virgin. It is in this way that they capture it.

Symmachus was a Jewish translator of the scriptures into Greek. I'm not sure which Greek word would correspond to 'saw-horn' here. It should be a calque on πρινόκερως, a word I've been unable to find in any extant Greek text. That word though is very close to ρινόκερως, 'rhinoceros,' literally, a nose-horn, so perhaps that is our biblical unicorn.

Commentary on Job, part 26

The first is somewhat obscure. Stepanos' comment seems to relate the heavenly brightness to the Aurora borealis or Northern lights. The explanation of the second verse is standard allegory--the morning star or Venus is a figure for John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ.

Bright in the ancient [heavens] (37:21)

This wind hardens and becomes pure in the gathering of clouds and is colored like gold when it is blowing from the north. By this he signifies the God-like coloring of the elements blown from the north.

Did the morning star see its rank? (38:12)

Before whom John [the Baptist] came like the morning star and saw his rank in this because he said “I am not the Christ” (Jn. 1:20).