Chapter XXIX. That the World is Created

MOSES declared that this universe had a beginning as having been made by God; he says at all events in the commencement of his own writing, ‘In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,’ [1] and after the particulars he adds, ‘This is the book of the generation of heaven and earth, when they were created, in the day that God made the heaven and the earth.’ [2] And now listen to Plato, how close he keeps to the thought, when himself writing as follows: [3]

‘And again all that comes into existence must of necessity proceed from some cause; for it is impossible for anything to have been generated without a cause.’

And he adds: [4]

‘The whole heaven then or world, or by whatever other name it would most acceptably be called, so let us call it----we have first to ask a question concerning it, which it is assumed that one must ask on every subject at the outset----did it always exist, without any beginning of generation, or has it been generated and had some beginning?

‘It has been generated: for it is visible, and tangible, and has a body; and all such things are sensible: and all sensible things were shown to be apprehensible by opinion and generated. But that which is generated must, we say, have been generated by some cause. It is a hard task, however, to discover the maker and artificer of this universe, and after discovering Him it is impossible to speak of Him to all men.’

And again afterwards he says: [5]

‘Thus therefore we must say, according to probable reason, that this world was in truth made through the providence of God a living being endowed with soul and mind.’