Commentary on the Hexameron

The Commentary on the Hexameron of Pseudo-Eustathius was written by an unknown person between 375 and 500 AD. More than 26 medieval Greek manuscripts exist containing it, all of which give Eustathius of Antioch as the author. The work is supposedly about the Hexameron or the Six Days of Creation. In reality it contains rather more material than this, down to the time of Alexander the Great, all excerpted from earlier Christian writers, and has been titled Liber Chronicorum. It contains material by Alexander Polyhistor, possibly direct. It is also a useful witness for the Bestiary or Physiologus.

The work was discovered in Sicily by Cardinal Gugliemo Sirleto in 1583, who intended to publish it[1] but did not do so. The first and only edition was printed in 1629 by Leo Allatius, with copious notes and a Latin translation, but also many misprints. The text and translation were reprinted by Migne in the Patrologia Graeca vol. 18. No edition has been printed since. No translation exists in any modern language.

A study of the work exists by Friedrich Zoepfl.

Authorship

The work includes substantial extracts from the Homilies on the Hexameron of Basil the Great, delivered around 370 AD. Eustathius of Antioch was deposed in 330 AD. In addition Eusebius of Caesarea is labelled "holy" in the work, despite being an enemy of Eustathius. These factors mean that the name passed down in the manuscripts as author cannot be right. No other obvious candidate is available.

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References
  1. Latino Latini, Epistolae..., vol. 2, p. 116.

Bibliography
  • Leo Allatius, S. P. N. Eustathii archiepiscopi Antiocheni et martyris in hexahemeron commentarius, Lugduni (1629)
  • J.-P. Migne, Patrologia Graeca, vol. 18, cols.707-794.
  • F. Zoepfl, Der Kommentar des Pseudo-Eustathius zum Hexameron, Munster (1927).
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