Complete Works of Philo Judaeus (Vol. 6)

Some, however, think, by sophistry, that the world is called "begotten" according to Plato, not by having a beginning of generation, but by the fact that if it were to come into being, it could not have happened otherwise than the way described, or because its parts are observed in generation and change. But it is better and more true to assume the former, not only because throughout the entire treatise they call the divine artist the father, maker, and creator, and this world a beautiful work and offspring, a perceptible image from an archetypal and intelligible model, containing in itself all things that are intelligible there—the most perfect impression for the most perfect perception of the mind—but also because Aristotle testifies these things about Plato, having lied about nothing out of reverence for philosophy, and because no guide is more trustworthy than a student testifying, especially such a one, who did not treat education as a side-task with soulless laziness, but, having striven to surpass the discoveries of the ancients, innovated and discovered some of the most necessary things for each part of philosophy.

§. 5. Some consider the poet Hesiod to be the father of the Platonic doctrine, thinking that the world is said by him to be begotten and indestructible: begotten, because he says,

Truly, first of all, Chaos came to be, and then
Earth, broad-breasted, the secure seat of all things forever;

and indestructible, because he has not revealed its dissolution and corruption. But Aristotle thinks "Chaos" is a place, because it is necessary that what receives [them] must pre-exist for a body; and some of the Stoics think it is water, believing the name was made from the flowing original: "χύσιν". However, whichever...