Hexaemeron (Basil of Caesarea)

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Hexaemeron are the nine homilies on the six-day work - the six days of creation of Genesis (1.1–1.31) - which Basil of Caesarea probably wrote in 378 in ancient Greek .

Subject and structure

The sermons are an exposition of an important part of the Old Testament of the Bible . (The following biblical quotations are taken from the standard translation published by the Catholic Biblical Works, unless otherwise stated.) During Lent, the nine homilies were given on five consecutive days, with one morning and one evening sermon each except for the third day. Basil responded to his audience, asking about the evening how the morning sermon had gone. On the fifth evening he announced the final sermons on the creation of man for the following day, which, however, did not survive. The sermons refer to these scriptures:

  • 1. In the beginning God created heaven and earth ( Gen 1,1  EU )
  • 2. but the earth was desolate and confused. "Let there be light" ( Gen 1, 2–5  EU )
  • 3. "Let a vault arise in the middle of the water and separate water from water" ( Gen 1,6–8  EU )
  • 4. "The water below the sky gathers in one place so that the dryness becomes visible" ( Gen 1, 9–10  EU )
  • 5. "Let the water grow young greenery, all kinds of plants" ( Gen 1,11-13  EU )
  • 6. "There should be lights in the vault of heaven" ( Gen 1: 14-19  EU )
  • 7. Hexaemeron (translation by Anton Stegmann): "The waters bring forth the crawling animals with living souls according to their kind ..." ( Gen 1: 20–23  EU )
  • 8. Hexaemeron (translation by Anton Stegmann): "Let the earth bring forth a living soul of its kind, four-footed, reptile animals ..." ( Gen 1, 24–25  EU )
  • 9. Continuation of 8. and "Let's make people ..." ( Gen 1.26  EU )

Basic attitude and sources

Basilius studied at the famous philosophical schools of antiquity in Constantinople and Athens and used the educational material acquired there, in particular the writings of Plato , Aristotle and Plotinus . In doing so, he deals critically with the traditional content, e.g. B. in Homily 3.3: Those who have philosophized about heaven ... This is how those who give the Creator an uncreated matter mad, and from the first swindle they fall for the following lie .

Basil's Hexaemeron is the earliest traditional work devoted exclusively to the creation account. However, earlier discussions exist in more extensive theological writings. In part, an allegorical interpretation of the Bible text is sought. Basil rejects this in favor of a literal interpretation, e.g. Homily 3.9: Under the pretext of higher enlightenment and sublime insight they have taken refuge in allegory ... we reject such speeches as old women chatter, understand by water water and ...

Homily 1, 2, 3 - Cosmogony

Basil carries out an exegesis of the important concepts mentioned in the opening lines: beginning, creation, God, heaven, earth, light; in doing so he raises important questions that have already been discussed by Aristotle, Plotinus and other thinkers. In addition, he offers his listeners instructive and probably also entertaining geographical information. He describes the major rivers of the world known to him, starting from the northeastern Indus , on the Baktros which (according to the ancient conception) in the Pyrenees springing Danube to the Nile . This information is provided by several ancient geographers, but it is believed that Basil of Aristotle adopted it.

Homily 5, 7, 8, 9 (beginning) - Plants and Animals

In these homilies, Basil discusses theological questions concerning plants, birds, aquatic and land animals. Here, too, he spreads a great deal of scientific information for his listeners. Sources are several ancient writings, the Historia naturalis of Pliny the Elder , but mainly De partibus animalium , Historia animalium and De generatione animalium of Aristotle.

Homily 6 - Astronomy and Star German

God made the two great lights, the larger one that rules over the day, the smaller one that rules over the night, and also the stars ( Gen 1.16  EU ) and ( Gen 1.14  EU ) encourage Basil to a series of astronomical observations on, weather signs , ebb and flow , size of the moon etc. A source for the weather signs is u. U. the didactic poem Phainomena des Aratos by Soloi , for example for the bright weather after a fine crescent moon on the 3rd day of the waxing moon (Phainomena, 780) or the ancillary suns (Phainomena, 880) . Basil does not go into the main theme of scripture, the constellations . In his detailed (6.5 - 6.7) refutation of Sterndeuterei, however, he speaks about the zodiac and some signs of the zodiac .

Living on and tradition

Ambrose of Milan processed the homilies, which were translated into Latin at the end of the 4th century AD , in his Hexaemeron ; later they were also used again and again because of the abundance of natural history observations. In the series Library of the Church Fathers in 1925 a translation appeared in the German language.

expenditure

translation

  • Anton Stegmann: The nine homilies on the Hexaemeron (six-day work) in the Library of the Church Fathers Volume 47, Munich 1925.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Anton Stegmann: The nine homilies on the Hexaemeron (six day work) , introduction
  2. ↑ Wolf-Dieter Hauschild: Basil of Caesarea , p. 302
  3. ^ G. Bardy: Basil of Caesarea , Col. 1264
  4. ^ Jacobus CM van Winden: Hexaemeron , Sp. 1260
  5. ^ Jacobus CM van Winden: Hexaemeron , Sp. 1255
  6. ^ Jacobus CM van Winden: Hexaemeron , Sp. 1260f
  7. ↑ Anton Stegmann: The nine homilies on the hexaemeron (six days' work) , p.52-note 3
  8. ^ Anton Stegmann: The nine homilies on the hexaemeron (six days' work) , notes on pp. 71-88, 109-150
  9. ↑ Wolf-Dieter Hauschild: Basil of Caesarea , p. 311