Creation in Basil of Caesarea

How did early Christians view the cosmos? In this first analytical commentary on Basil’s Hexaemeron 6-9, Colten Cheuk-Yin Yam shows how the fourth-century bishop of Caesarea reads stars and animals as divine wonders, bringing Christian faith and natural science together in his exegesis of the six days of creation.

Colten Cheuk-Yin Yam provides the first analytical commentary on Homilies 6-9 of Basil of Caesarea’s Homiliae in hexaemeron. The first four chapters are a content-focused, chapter-by-chapter analysis of Basil’s text, whereas the latter five chapters offer an integrated analysis on Basil’s relationships to philosophical traditions and his theology of creation.
Yam’s findings challenge prevailing narratives about Basil’s intellectual sources. He identifies Oppian’s Halieutica and Aristotle’s Historia animalium 1.1 as Basil’s first-hand blueprint for zoological examples. He demonstrates that Posidonius had become part of the common heritage of Stoic tradition by Basil’s time and functioned as a standard Stoic framework rather than as a direct influence. He also re-evaluates Origen’s influence, identifying Didymus the Blind as the more likely target of Basil’s anti-allegorical polemics. Moving beyond textual analysis, he reconstructs Basil’s theology of creation from its two organizing concepts – God’s wisdom as nature and as wonder. He details how Basil conceives of nature as a generated cosmic force and organizing principle that acts as a mediator for ongoing creation, allowing Basil to maintain God’s transcendence while explaining the world’s immanent order. The author also demonstrates Basil’s use of wonder as an epistemological model to justify the Bible as a scientific authority superior to rationalist pagan philosophy, establishing a knowledge system in which explanation and spiritual edification converge. The commentary shows how early Christianity engaged with Hellenistic natural science in the literal interpretation of the six days of creation.

INTRODUCTION
I. The importance of the Homiliae in hexaemeron in Basil studies
II. Homiliae in hexaemeron 6-9: A Critical Gap in the Scholarship
III. Methodologies, Scope, and Structure of the Study
IV. Editions and Citations
PART I: COMMENTARY
CHAPTER 1: COMMENTARY ON HOMILIA IN HEXAEMERON 6
Overview of Homilia in hexaemeron 6
Hex. 6.1: The World as a Great City of Wonders
Hex. 6.2: Meaning of "For Illumination" (Gen. 1:14)
Hex. 6.3: The Nature of the Light; the Moon (Gen. 1:14)
Hex. 6.4: Luminaries as Signs (Gen. 1:14b)
Hex. 6.5-7: Digression in the Form of an Anti-Astrology Discourse (Gen. 1:14b)
Hex. 6.5: The Ridiculousness of Horoscopes
Hex. 6.6: Ridiculousness of Celestial Influence on People
Hex. 6.7: Ridiculousness of Fatalism
Hex. 6.8: For the Fixing of Seasons, Days, and Years (Gen. 1:14b)
Hex. 6.9: Two Great Lights (Gen. 1:16a)
Hex. 6.10-11: Lesson From the Moon: the Vicissitudes of Human Life
CHAPTER 2: COMMENTARY ON HOMILIA IN HEXAEMERON 7
Overview of Homilia in hexaemeron 7
Hex. 7.1: The Waters Following the Command of God
Hex. 7.2: The Great Variety of Fishes
Hex. 7.3-4: Exhortations Concerning Wealth and Social Justice
Hex. 7.5-6a: Animal as Wonders and Further Exhortations
Hex. 7.6b: Wonders of Creation as a Conclusion
Basil's Fish Examples in Light of the Aristotelian Tradition
CHAPTER 3: COMMENTARY ON HOMILIA IN HEXAEMERON 8
Overview of Homilia in hexaemeron 8
Hex. 8.1-8.2a: How the Earth Brings Forth Animal Souls
Basil's Engagement with Manichaeism
Hex. 8.2b: Returning to the Winged Creatures
Hex. 8.3: The Wide Variety of Birds
Hex. 8.4: Imitating the Bee
Hex. 8.5: Cranes, Storks, Swallows, Halcyons, and Poverty
Hex. 8.6: Turtledoves, Lammergeiers, Crows, and the Virgin Birth
Hex. 8.7: Birds as Wonders and the Wisdom of God
Hex. 8.8: Basil's Defence of His Sermon
CHAPTER 4: COMMENTARY ON HOMILIA IN HEXAEMERON 9
Overview of Homilia in hexaemeron 9
Hex. 9.1: The Laws of Allegory
Hex. 9.2: The Word of God Moving Through All Creation
Hex. 9.3: Distinctive Characteristics of Land Animals
Hex. 9.4: Oikeiōsis in Animals
Hex. 9.5: Animals as Wonders of Creation
Hex. 9.6: Creation of Humans and the Trinitarian Debate
Homiliae de creatione hominis 1-2: Continuities and Distinctiveness
PART II: BASIL IN CONTEXT. HIS USE OF OTHER THINKERS
CHAPTER 5: BASIL AND ARISTOTLE
5.1 Basil's Attitude Towards Aristotle's Cosmology and Meteorology
5.2 Basil's Dependence on Aristotle's Zoology
5.3 Aristotle's Historia animalium 1.1 as the Blueprint for Basil's Animal Examples
5.3.1 The Concept of Genus in Historia animalium 1.1 and the Homiliae in hexaemeron
5.3.2 Detailed Analysis of the Similarities Between Hex. 7-9 and Hist. anim. 1.1
5.4 An Explanation of Basil's Choice of Animals in Light of Aristotle's Hist. anim. 1.1
CHAPTER 6: BASIL AND POSIDONIUS
6.1 Previous Views of Posidonius's Influence on the Homiliae in hexaemeron
6.2 The Image of Posidonius in Diogenes Laertius's Stoic Doxography
6.3 Galen's image of Posidonius
6.4 Cleomedes's Image of Posidonius
6.5 Concluding remarks: Basil's Selective Use of Posidonius and Stoic Ideas
CHAPTER 7: BASIL AND ORIGEN
7.1 Astrology
7.1.1 Review of Previous Scholarship
7.1.2 A Comparison of the Anti-Astrological Discourses of Basil and Origen
7.1.3 The traditional nature of Basil's anti-astrological arguments
7.2 The allegorical interpretation
7.2.1 Previous scholarship on the relationship between Basil and Origen
7.2.2 Basil's reference to the "laws of allegory"
7.2.3 Basil's Interpretation of the Waters in Hex. 3.9
7.2.4 Basil's "Sun of Justice"
7.3 Conclusions
PART III: BASIL'S THEOLOGY OF CREATION
CHAPTER 8: GOD'S WISDOM AS NATURE
8.1 An Overview of Nature in the Homiliae in hexaemeron
8.2 The command of God, rather than the Son, as mediator
8.3 Nature as a cosmic force
8.3.1 Nature as a cosmic force in the Homiliae in hexaemeron
8.3.2 The cosmic force in Christian creation: Basil's use and transformation of the Stoic tradition
8.4 Nature as the organizing principle in animals
8.4.1 Nature and animals in the Homiliae in hexaemeron
8.4.2 Basil's transformation of traditions regarding the nature of animals in the Christian creation account
8.5 Concluding Remarks: Basil's Eclecticism and Contributions
CHAPTER 9: GOD'S WISDOM AS SOURCE OF WONDER
9.1 A Lexical Analysis of Wonder in the Homiliae in hexaemeron
9.2 Basil's Wonder Language in Light of the Paradoxographical Tradition
9.3 Wonder as a Justification for the Literal Interpretation of the Bible
9.4 Basil's Sermons as Wonders
9.4.1 The pedagogical purpose of wonder
9.4.2 Wonder as a justification for Basil's sermons
9.5 Conclusions
FINAL CONCLUSIONS
APPENDIX: EXAMPLES OF FISHES AND ANIMALS IN HOMILIAE IN HEXAEMERON 7-9

• By (author) Colten Cheuk-Yin Yam