Numenius of Apamea: The Father of Neo-Platonism

B. If this (principle) were also a body, it seems to me that it would need a divine savior, as it would be prone to dissolution and scattering.

A. If, however, it must be freed from the condition of bodies so that it may be able to defend against destruction and hold together things that are becoming, it seems to me it can be nothing other than the Incorporeal. For this, among all natures, is the only one that stands firm, is poised, and is not at all bodily. It is not generated, it does not grow, and it is not moved by any other motion. For these reasons, it seemed rightly and justly to be given the highest honor.

XIV.

CCXCIII. Numenius, drawing from the teaching of Pythagoras and refuting the dogma of the Stoics concerning first principles with the Pythagorean dogma—with which he says the Platonic dogma agrees—says that Pythagoras called the deity "Unity," and matter "Duality." He says that this Duality, while indeterminate, is not generated, but when limited, it is generated. That is, before it was adorned and attained form and order, it was without birth and generation; but once adorned and illuminated by the arranging God, it was generated. And thus, because the fortune of being generated is subsequent, that unadorned and ungenerated thing must be understood as coeval with the God by whom it was ordered. But some Pythagoreans, not correctly grasping the force of this statement, thought that even that indeterminate and immense Duality was instituted by the one Unity, with the Unity receding from its own nature...