Andrew Louth - Syriac Christian Church

1177A
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TEXTS 135
behind all these things. For though he cannot accomplish the
complete transition with his mind, or receive without
intermediary the object of his desires which he knows through
the mediation of its effects, he can readily put away the error
that the world is without beginning, as he reasons truly that
everything that moves must certainly begin to move. No
motion is without beginning, since it is not without cause. For
motion has a beginning, and a cause from which it is called
and an end to which it is drawn. If the beginning of the
movement of every moving thing is its motion, and its end the
cause to which what is moved is borne (for nothing is moved
without cause), then none of the beings is unmoved, except that
which moves first (for that which moves first is completely
unmoved, because it is without beginning), and none of the
beings then is without beginning, because none is unmoved. 96
For every kind of being is moved, except for the sole cause
which is unmoved and transcends all things, those beings that
are intelligent and rational in a way in accordance with
knowledge and understanding, because they are not
knowledge itself or understanding itself. For neither is their
knowledge or understanding their being, but something they
acquire as they consider their being with correct judgment in
accordance with mind and reason (what I call their constituent
powers 97 ).
37
Contemplation of being, quantity and quality
But that which is simply called being itself is not only the
being of those things subject to change and corruption, moved
in accordance with change and corruption, but also the being
of all beings whatever that have been moved and are moved in
accord ance with the reason and mode of expansion and
contraction. For it is moved from the most universal kind
through the more universal kinds to the forms, by which and
in which everything is naturally divided, proceeding as far as
the most specific forms, by a process of expansion [diastolê],
circumscribing its being towards what is below, and again it is
gathered together from the most specific forms, retreating
through the more universal, up to the most universal kind, by
a process of contraction [systolê], defining its being towards
what is above. 98 Thus it can be described either way, either
from above or from below, and is shown as possessing both
beginning and end, not at all capable of being defined by