Philonis Judaei Opera Omnia (Vol. 8)

PHIL. IUD. ON PROV. BOOK I. §. 22—24. 17

P. A. 12

Plato, however, (said that matter existed as the cause of the world), Thales of Miletus (said) water; Anaximander the Milesian (likewise) the infinite; Anaximenes the air; Anaxagoras of Clazomenae (said) homoeomeriam parts of like kind; Pythagoras, the son of Mnesarchus, (said) numbers, proportions, and harmony; Heraclides and Hippasus of Metapontum (said) fire; Empedocles of Agrigento (said) fire, water, air, earth, and two principles, love and strife. Aristotle, the son of Nicomachus, (said) form, matter, privation, the four elements, and a fifth, the aether the celestial upper atmosphere. Empedocles (said) the world is one, and yet not that whole, but a smaller part of this universe, and the rest is vacuum devoid of matter. Zeno, the son of Mnaseas, (said) air, God, matter, and the four elements. But he said above:
"That whose part lies under corruption, it is necessary that the whole also be subject to corruption. For neither can the parts exist without the whole, nor the whole without the parts; for the world is a single body composed of many parts by God."

And yet, unlike some other wise men, the world should not be considered an animal, but one joined together by a certain artificial harmony.

§. 23. But indeed, they have asserted the beautiful causes of its creation: namely God, From whom; matter, Out of which; the instrument, By which. But the instrument of God is the Logos Word/Reason. Finally, To what end? That it might be an argument (i.e., that God might manifest Himself). Therefore, the cause of creatures is God, as creator: but of corruption (the same God), as judge.

§. 24. But that the creator has a providential nature and is fit for creating things by the power of His wisdom, it is by no means necessary to seek anxiously. For the creatures themselves, which are agents, and the parts of the world, which are wiser, and the particles, sufficiently insinuate this to us.