[1][2] John, an advocate for Neoplatonism and a follower of the astronomy of Ptolemy, was interested in converging the six-day creation story with the philosophical theory of Aristotle and Plato[3] from a Miaphysite point of view.
Beginning his commentary, John argued that the purpose of Genesis was not to impart a scientific cosmogony but instead to correct the superstitious Egyptians that worshiped the sun, moon, and stars.
One of the main modes of thought he sought to criticize in this manner was astrology and the idea that the luminaries were divine beings who moved of their own volition and through their movements influenced worldly affairs.
[9] For his work on the impetus concept, he is often credited with being the first individual to present a unified theory of dynamics.
John sought for a more symbolic meaning of the "six" days, and considered many ways in which that might be so: it might have been that the number six was chosen because it corresponds to a combination of the single dimensions of a line or that it a sixfold hierarchy of entities emerging from formless matter.