NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works - Holy Bible Institute

Exegetic.II.—Exegetic.(i) As of the De Spiritu Sancto, so of the Hexæmeron, no further account need be givenhere. It may, however, be noted that the Ninth Homily ends abruptly, and the latter, andapparently more important, portion of the subject is treated of at less length than the former.Jerome 472 and Cassiodorus 473 speak of nine homilies only on the creation. Socrates 474 saysthe Hexæmeron was completed by Gregory of Nyssa. Three orations are published amongBasil’s works, two on the creation of men and one on Paradise, which are attributed to Basilby Combefis and Du Pin, but not considered genuine by Tillemont, Maran, Garnier, Ceillier,and Fessler. They appear to be compositions which some editor thought congruous to thepopular work of Basil, and so appended them to it.The nine discourses in the Hexæmeron all shew signs of having been delivered extempore,and the sequence of argument and illustration is not such as to lead to the conclusionthat they were ever redacted by the author into exact literary form. We probably owe theirpreservation to the skilled shorthand writers of the day. 475(ii) The Homilies on the Psalms as published are seventeen in number; it has howeverbeen commonly held that the second Homily on Ps. xxviii. is not genuine, but the compositionof some plagiarist. The Homily also on Ps. xxxvii. has been generally objected to. Theseare omitted from the group of the Ben. Ed., together with the first on Ps. cxiv., and that oncxv. Maran 476 thinks that none of these orations shew signs of having been delivered in theepiscopate, or of having reference to the heresy of the Pneumatomachi; two apparently pointdirectly to the presbyterate. In that on Ps. xiv. he speaks of an ἀμεριμνία which would betterbefit priest than the primate; on Ps. cxiv. he describes himself as serving a particular church.Both arguments seem a little far-fetched, and might be opposed on plausible grounds. Bothliteral and allegorical interpretations are given. If Basil is found expressing himself in termssimilar to those of Eusebius, it is no doubt because both were inspired by Origen. 477 The472 De Vir. Illust. cxvi.473 Instit. Div. i.474 Ecc. Hist. iv. 26.475 cf. Letterccxxiii. § 5, p. 264. It is believed that tachygraphy was known from very early times, and Xenophonis said to have “reported” Socrates by its aid. The first plain mention of a tachygraphist is in a letter of FlaviusPhilostratus (A.D. 195). It has been thought that the systems in use in the earlier centuries of our era weremodifications of a cryptographic method employed by the Christians to circulate documents in the Church.No examples are extant of an earlier date than the tenth century, and of these an interesting specimen is theParis MS. of Hermogenes described by Montfaucon, Pal. Gr. p. 351. The exact minutes of some of the Councils—e.g.Chalcedon—seem to be due to very successful tachygraphy.476 Vit. Bas. xli. 4.477 cf. Fessler, p. 512.76