The interpretation timeline

Judg 13:22

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

1 Patristic · 1 Catholic

Judg 13:22 · Douay-Rheims
“And he said to his wife: We shall certainly die, because we have seen God.”
Patristic before A.D. 750
389
A.D.
A.D. 329–390
“Must you not show respect for Manoah, the Old Testament judge.… Manoah was overwhelmed by the sight of God in a vision. "Wife," he said, "we are lost, we have seen God"—meaning by this that even a vision of God is too much for human beings, let alone God's nature.”
1,460 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
Post-Reformation c. 1650 – 1900
1849
A.D.
1774–1849
“Seen God: not in his own person, but in the person of his messenger. The Israelites, in those days imagined they should die if they saw an angel, taking occasion perhaps from those words spoken by the Lord to Moses, (Exodus xxxiii. 20.) No man shall see me and live. But the event demonstrated that it was but a groundless imagination. (Challoner) — Elohim is applied to angels and men, as well as to God. (Calmet)”
Source
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.