Hexaemeron

The term Hexaemeron (Greek: Ἡ Ἑξαήμερος Δημιουργία Hē Hexaēmeros Dēmiourgia), literally "six days," is used in one of two senses.

[2] This literature was dedicated to the composition of commentaries, homilies, and treatises concerned with the exegesis of the biblical creation narrative through ancient and medieval times and with expounding the meaning of the six days as well as the origins of the world.

[6] The word can also sometimes denote more passing or incidental descriptions or discussions on the six days of creation,[7] such as in the brief occurrences that appear in Quranic cosmology.

The Church Fathers primarily focused on the first two chapters of Genesis, as well as a few essential statements in the New Testament (John 1:1–4; 1 Corinthians 8:6).

[13] He opened his Hexaemeron as follows[14]:If sometimes on a bright night, whilst gazing with watchful eyes on the inexpressible beauty of the stars, you have thought of the Creator of all things; if you have asked yourself who it is that has dotted the heaven with such flowers, and why visible things are even more useful than beautiful; if sometimes in the day you have studied the marvels of light, if you have raised yourself by visible things to the invisible being, then you are a well prepared auditor, and you can take your place in this august and blessed amphitheatre.It was widely influential, being translated into multiple languages and resulting in the composition of many other Hexaemeron among his own contemporaries, including his brother Gregory of Nyssa and Ambrose.

[13][17] Later, the prolific Syriac theologian Jacob of Edessa wrote his own Hexaemeron in the first years of the eighth century as his final work.

[19] The genre extended into early modern times with the Sepmaines of Du Bartas, and Paradise Lost by John Milton.

Various ideas were circulated as to why God would create over the course of six days instead of instantaneously: a common one hinged on the necessity of gradual creation.

Next, Genesis states that the world was created "without form and void" or, in the Septuagint, "invisible and unfinished" (aoratos kai akataskeuastos).

The firmament also balances the evaporation and precipitation of water and served to separate different levels of atmospheric moisture enabling the existence of the correct climate needed for living things.

Saltwater was gathered into one place and dew watered the dry regions such that fruits and other foods for consumption could grow.

Ambrose argued that because the sun would only be created on the fourth day, the drying out of water over land regions must have been done directly by God.

Plant seeds contain specific principles that periodically mature, such that God endows nature with a long duration.

Philo sought to understand this in terms of the greater order, whereby the sun came after the plants: he found in this a refutation of astrology which tries to explain all things by the movement of such bodies.

John of Damascus believed that the moon took its light from the sun (a widely held view sometimes analogized to the Church taking its light from Christ, such as by Origen[27]): he also offers in his commentary on this statement an accurate description of lunar and solar eclipses, and the differences between a lunar and solar year.

[27] The creation of animals on the fifth day, for Philo, corresponded in some manner to their having five senses (sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch).

Basil also thought that the common origins of members like fins and wings from the waters helped to explain the similarities in their movements.

The reference to the making of man in the image of God (Gen 1:27) was taken by Augustine to have involved the endowment of humans with souls and intelligence.