Numenius of Apamea: The Father of Neo-Platonism

Stranger: If this principle of endurance itself were a body, it seems to me that, as the body (by itself, naturally) tends to become dispersed, it would need a savior that was a divinity.

8. Philosopher: If then this principle of endurance must be freed from the body’s tendency to become dispersed, so as to be able to hold the body together and prevent its destruction (especially at times when bodies are born or tested by strain), then it seems to me that it can be absolutely nothing else than the incorporeal. For among all other natures, this incorporeal nature alone can stand (or endure); it is the only self-adjusted (or poised) nature; and in no way is it subject to the tendencies of other bodies. It is not generated, nor is it increased, nor disturbed by any sort of motion. On this account, I believe we are justified in reserving the highest rank for the Incorporeal.

14. GOD’S POWER AS SOLUTION OF THE ELEATIC PUZZLE.

Numenius, who came out of the school of Pythagoras, asserts that the teachings of Plato agree with those of Pythagoras, and he uses the latter’s teachings to refute the Stoics’ views on the principles of existence. He says that Pythagoras applied the name "Unity" to the divinity, and "Doubleness" (or multiplicity) to matter. If this doubleness is indeterminate, then it cannot have been generated—which could only have been the case if it were determinate or limited. In other words, it was unborn and ungenerated before it was adorned; but when created and adorned, or irradiated by the adjusting divinity, it was generated. However, inasmuch as the state of being generated must surely fall into a time that is posterior, then that unadorned and ungenerated matter must be considered as contemporary with the divinity by which it was organized. Numenius also insisted that some Pythagoreans had not correctly understood this statement, for they thought that even that indeterminate and...