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Chapter 6 Listening to the Audience: The Six Days of Creation Among Basil's many extant orations is a series of nine sermons on the Hexaemeron, the "six days" described in the first chapter of Genesis during which God created the heaven and the earth. For Jewish intellectuals and then for Christian theologians, the first chapter of Genesis had long posed as many problems of interpretation as opportunities for exegesis and speculation. Basil was of course familiar enough with classical philosophy and current Christian theology to have written commentaries on books of the Bible. But he apparently decided to display his biblical exegesis instead in treatises on particular subjects, in polemical works that refuted others' ideas, in epistolary responses to others' questions, and in his sermons. Once published, however, later readers considered this series of sermons about the first chapter of Genesis to be a nearly definitive commentary . Even though Peter of Sebasteia,one of Basil's younger brothers, raised questions about some interpretations, and even though Gregory of Nyssa, another brother, responded to those questions with supplemental comments , both admired "the sublime voice of the teacher." Modern scholars have tended to follow the brothers' lead and have likewise evaluated these sermons of Basil as a work of systematic exegesis or "scientific popularization " for a Christian audience, a commentary in disguise about the first chapter of Genesis and the theological meanings of creation. As such, these sermons have been assumed to be "the clearest expression of his mature thought," an attempt "to present a complete cosmology," and the natural culmination of his convictions about "the interplay between individual and community." One result of these assumptions is to turn Basil's sermons on the Hexaemeron into a lasting monument to his erudition and intellectual insight. Another, more problematic consequence is to diminish their immediate significanceand meaning for both the preacher and his audience.' The deepest difficulty with these assumptions is in fact the presence of a large audience of ordinary people, among them municipal notables, Chapter 6 Listening to the Audience: The Six Days of Creation Among Basil's many extant orations is a series of nine sermons on the Hexaemeron, the "six days" described in the first chapter of Genesis during which God created the heaven and the earth. For Jewish intellectuals and then for Christian theologians, the first chapter of Genesis had long posed as many problems of interpretation as opportunities for exegesis and speculation. Basil was of course familiar enough with classical philosophy and current Christian theology to have written commentaries on books of the Bible. But he apparently decided to display his biblical exegesis instead in treatises on particular subjects, in polemical works that refuted others' ideas, in epistolary responses to others' questions, and in his sermons. Once published, however, later readers considered this series of sermons about the first chapter of Genesis to be a nearly definitive commentary . Even though Peter of Sebasteia, one of Basil's younger brothers, raised questions about some interpretations, and even though Gregory of Nyssa, another brother, responded to those questions with supplemental comments , both admired "the sublime voice of the teacher." Modern scholars have tended to follow the brothers' lead and have likewise evaluated these sermons of Basil as a work of systematic exegesis or "scientific popularization " for a Christian audience, a commentary in disguise about the first chapter of Genesis and the theological meanings of creation. As such, these sermons have been assumed to be "the clearest expression of his mature thought;' an attempt "to present a complete cosmology;' and the natural culmination of his convictions about "the interplay between individual and community." One result of these assumptions is to turn Basil's sermons on the Hexaemeron into a lasting monument to his erudition and intellectual insight. Another, more problematic consequence is to diminish their immediate significance and meaning for both the preacher and his audience.! The deepest difficulty with these assumptions is in fact the presence of a large audience of ordinary people, among them municipal notables, 106 Preachers and Audiences manual laborers, and rural peasants, who would not have been very familiar either with the philosophical and theological traditions that Basil drew upon or with Basil's own earlier inner musings about individual ideals and a disciplined community, and perhaps did not care that much about these ideas either. With its emphasis on a careful explication of the theological themes or philosophical echoes modern scholarship has often distorted the immediate impact and significanceof ancient sermons. This misrepresentation...

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