Complete Works of Philo Judaeus (Vol. 6)

original: "ἂν ἔχοι, τὸ γενητὸν εἶναι τὸν κόσμον ἐναργέστατα παρ' Ἡσιόδῳ μεμήνυται." Meaning: "...would have, [the fact] that the world is generated is most clearly indicated in Hesiod." Long before this, the lawgiver of the Jews, Moses, declared in the sacred books 491 M.—of which there are five—that the world is generated and imperishable. He begins the first one, which he titled Genesis, in this manner:

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth; and the earth was invisible and unformed" original: "Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν· ἡ δὲ γῆ ἦν ἀόρατος καὶ ἀκατασκεύαστος" Gen. 1, 1..

Then, proceeding further in the following sections, he reveals again that days and nights, and seasons and years, and the moon and sun, which received the nature of the measurement of time, continue on as imperishable, having obtained their share of the immortal heaven. 942 P. Those who argue that the world is ungenerated and imperishable, out of reverence for the visible world, should be placed first, having taken their own starting point. For all things capable of decay, two causes of destruction lie in wait: one internal, the other external. You would find iron, bronze, and similar substances being destroyed from within when rust, like a creeping disease, runs over them and eats them away; or from without, when a house or city burns and, being set ablaze by the violent rush of fire, they are dissolved. Similarly, death befalls animals as well: through sickness from within, or when they are slaughtered by external forces, or stoned, or burned, or suffer an impure death by hanging. If the world is also corrupted, it must necessarily be corrupted either by something external or by one of the powers within it. But both are impossible. For there is nothing outside the world, as all things have been contributed to its completion. For thus it will be one, whole, and ageless: one, because if anything were left out, it would become something other than what it now is; whole, because of the entirety of the substance...