This book is an in-depth study of the stages of man's fall from the original blessed glory which adorned him at his creation. It took the form of a Commentary of GENESIS 1-11, exclusively from the text of SEPTUAGINT, richly adorned with comments and thoughts from the illuminated pen of the Holy Fathers of the Church.

The mindset governing its writing is based on the belief that any interpretive approach to the divine Scriptures must help the reader to know better, to understand more deeply, and ultimately to love the benevolent God “with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his mind.”

At the same time, through the submission of new interpretive suggestions regarding many still undefined biblical issues, it aims at the dynamic expansion of the hermeneutic experience, assisting contemporary Orthodox Theology to respond to the growing interest of our brethren both in and outside of our holy Church.

These interpretive suggestions include:

• Τhe interpretation of Gen. 1: 2-8. Compatibility of Septuagint with contemporary cosmology.
• The incorruptibility of plants and animals created within Hexaemeron.
• The singular and plural versions of the divine image on man.
• The interpretation of the divine likeness of man.
• The scope of man’s “*dominion over all the earth*”; its connection with the completed work of Christ, and the possibility of life in other worlds.
• The soil of the Third Day of Hexaemeron, as the component of Adam’s body.
• Man is perfect and also praying from his conception.
• The placement of the devil’s fall after Hexaemeron.
• The decay and death brought to creation by the fall of the devil, before the planting of Paradise and the Fall of man.
• The extraordinary divine creative energy of planting Paradise, as a bulwark against the decay and death that prevailed in the rest of the earth.
• The re-creation of plants and animals in Paradise with their original incorruptibility.
• The interpretation of the two trees “*in the midst of the Paradise*.”
• The interpretation of the anonymity of the great river of Paradise in contrast to its named tributaries.
• The interpretation of the divine command to Adam to “*work and guard*” the Paradise.
• The interpretation of ecclesiastical dating “*from the creation of the world*.”
• The course to the Fall.
• The role of the serpent.
• The interpretation of the presence of the devil in Paradise and his dialogue with the woman.
• The interpretation of the tunics of skin and of eating from the tree of life after the Fall.
• The interpretation of the sacrifices of Cain and Abel. Their connection with the two kinds of Priesthood. Melchizedek and St. Simeon the God-receiver.
• God’s dialogue with Cain after the fratricide. The potential killers of Cain. The inhabitants of the city of Enoch.
• The interpretation of Noema’s mention among Cain’s descendants.
• The interpretation of common names in the genealogies of Cain and Seth.
• The interpretation of Mathusala’s longevity.
• The interpretation of the “120 years” of Gen. 6: 3.
• The interpretation of Noe’s drunkenness.
• Why Noe had no further procreation.
• The interpretation of verses 9: 22-27. The eschatological restoration of the fraternal unity of Shem, Ham, and Japheth within the Church.
• The interpretation of tower building and the confusion of languages.
• The interpretation of the longevity of Sem and his descendants.