About this text
A commentary on the six days of creation, credited to Eustathius of Antioch but printed among works not by him.
This commentary was written in Greek under the name of Eustathius of Antioch (fl. c. 320–337), the bishop of Antioch in the early fourth century. The text as it survives was composed later, between the late fourth and early fifth centuries, and draws on Basil the Great's Homilies on the Hexameron, Josephus, and other sources. It was written to defend the biblical account of creation against Greek philosophical and mythological alternatives and to show God's order and providence in the world.
The work is a verse-by-verse exposition of the six days of creation in Genesis, followed by a long retelling of biblical history from Cain and Abel through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses to the conquest of Canaan under Joshua. Along the way the author argues that Moses is older than all Greek sages, so his account is the most ancient and divinely inspired truth. A reader will meet the patriarchs, Pharaoh, Mary and her parents Joachim and Anna, Herod, Zechariah, John the Baptist, and many others, with direct quotations from figures such as Abraham, Isaac, Tamar, Judah, Zechariah, and Herod.
The translation uses 'providence' for God's ordering care of creation, 'creator' for God as maker, 'firmament' for the structure made on the second day, 'light' for the great lights of sun and moon, 'flood' for Noah's deluge, 'ark' for Noah's vessel, 'covenant' for God's binding promise, 'circumcision' for the sign of that covenant, 'genealogy' for the line from Abraham to Christ, 'virgin' for Mary, 'resurrection' for the rising of the dead, 'authority' for the power given to sun and moon, 'sign' for heavenly and divine markers, 'first-fruits' for offerings like Abel's, and 'blessing' for Jacob's words to his sons. The author uses Septuagint book names and Psalm numbering, so where the Hebrew numbering differs, the notes will indicate it. Some unexplained names and terms from Greek myth and ancient science appear in the text, such as Inachus, Cecrops, the rape of Kore, Sesostris, Darius the Mede, the Wain, counter-suns, Aspidochelone, forty stadia, eutokion, peridexion, seleucis bird, and charadrius; readers can pass over these without losing the main argument.
We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Greek on any section to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.
Report a mistake