Philo Judaeus, De Aeternitate Mundi, ed. Siegfried Reiter, ed. Leopold Cohn, 52

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[52] 15 Μεγίστην μέντοι παρέχεται πίστιν εἰς ἀιδιότητα καὶ ὁ χρόνος. εἰ γὰρ ἀγένητος ὁ ὁ χρόνος, ἐξ ἀνάγκης καὶ ὁ ὁ κόσμος ἀγένητος. διὰ τί; ὅτι, ᾗ φησιν ὁ μέγας Πλάτων, ἡμέραι καὶ νύκτες μῆνές τε καὶ ἐνιαυτῶν περίοδοι χρόνον ἔδειξαν. ἀμήχανον δέ τι τούτων συστῆναι δίχα ἡλίου
κινήσεως καὶ τῆς τοῦ παντὸς οὐρανοῦ περιφορᾶς· ὥστ’ εὐθυβόλως ἀποδεδόσθαι πρὸς τῶν εἰωθότων τὰ πράγματα ὁρίζεσθαι χρόνον διάστημα τῆς τοῦ κόσμου κινήσεως. ἐπεὶ δὲ τοῦθ’ ὑγιές ἐστι, γίνεται ὁ κόσμος ἰσῆλιξ τοῦ χρόνου καὶ αἴτιος.

De Aeternitate Mundi. Philo Judaeus. ed. Siegfried Reiter, ed. Leopold Cohn. Germany. 2014.

Funding provided by European Social Fund Saxony.

Current edition First1KGreek

De Aeternitate Mundi (Greek) (Philo Judaeus. Opera quae supersunt, Volume 6. Cohn, Leonard; Reiter, Siegfried, editors. Berlin: Reimer, 1915.)

Translations (1)

On the Incorruptibility of the World First1KGreek (The works of Philo Judaeus, the contemporary of Josephus, volume 4. Yonge, C. D., translator. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1855.) — 52 focus

10 15

However, time also affords a very great argument in favour of the eternity of the world, for if time is uncreated, then it follows of necessity that the world also must be uncreated. Why so? Because, as the great Plato says, it is days, and nights, and months, and the periods of years which have shown time, and it is surely impossible that time can exist without the motion of the sun, and the rotary progress of the whole heaven. So that it has been defined very felicitously by those who are in the habit of giving definitions of things, that time is the interval of the motion of the world, and since this is a sound definition, then the world must be co-eval with time and also the cause of its existence.

Philo Judaeus De Aeternitate Mundi 52

ed. Siegfried Reiter, ed. Leopold Cohn

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