Previously Unpublished Works, Fascicle 1

40 b 1.

...our secrets. Since in the 24th year of Octavian Augustus, considering the course of events, he said: "That in the sixth year following, a prophet should be born of a virgin." He understood this, as written in that book Bacon refers to De Vetula (The Old Woman), a medieval poem falsely attributed to the Roman poet Ovid, which Bacon believed contained genuine ancient wisdom. through the power of astronomy, as will be explained more fully later. If we take the reign of Augustus in a strict sense, the Lord was born in his 30th year. However, many say he was born in the 42nd year. This is done by extending the years of his empire to include the 12 years that passed from the death of Julius Caesar until the Battle of Actium. According to many, those 12 years are not ascribed to his imperial reign because he did not hold the kingdom in peace during that time; instead, he was fighting for it, and he acquired it by war rather than possessing it. Therefore, the contradiction is resolved, and this is clear from reliable histories.

AFTERWARD that is, after they truly demonstrate the creation and production of the world from nothing. They do not claim that the world existed from eternity without a beginning, as is clearly shown by Avicenna Ibn Sina (c. 980–1037), a Persian polymath whose philosophical works were highly influential in the medieval West.. Rather, they show it had a beginning. This is also clear through Aristotle, since he posits a Creator and created things, as has been stated. He says it was not possible for infinite motions to have preceded the present. As he demonstrates, it is not possible to pass through infinite things, but all past motions have been passed through, and all past time is finite. If there were no first motion, there would be none of the subsequent motions, as is clear from the end of On Generation and Corruption, the fifth book of Physics, and the beginning of Metaphysics.

It is true that he might wish the world to be eternal if "eternal" is taken to mean a "created eternity." This is how he uses the term in the second proposition of The Book of Causes, where he says that the First Cause is above eternity and before it. Furthermore, if "eternal" is taken for the entire extension of time from the beginning of the motion of the heavens, which can be made perpetual according to the will of God, then it is possible to posit an eternal world. For this reason, he argues in the eighth book of Physics against those who posited that an infinite chaos was at rest for an infinite time before the formation of the world. It is certain that nothing is measured by time except successive things. This refers to motion by its own nature, and rest by accident, which occurs alongside some motion. For even if the heavens stood still, another motion would be renewed if time were to continue.