Andrew Louth - Syriac Christian Church

138 DIFFICULTY 10
C
D
1184A
B
uncircumscribed, if something else can be thought of alongside
it. If no being is without beginning or uncircumscribed, as
follows naturally from the logos of the beings, then there was
certainly a time when each of the beings was not. And if it was
not, it certainly came into being, since [otherwise] it would not
be. For it cannot receive being and becoming apart from
change and alteration. For if it was and [then] became, it
changed, going over to what it was not by a process of
becoming, or it was altered, receiving an addition to its beauty
that it lacked. Nothing that has changed, or altered, or lacked
form, can be complete in itself. What is not complete in itself
certainly lacks some other thing that will allow it wholeness,
and then it is whole, but not complete in itself, since it has
wholeness not by nature but by participation. That which
needs another for wholeness stands in much greater need
when it comes to being itself. For if, as they say, 103 being is
established as better than form, any particular being can
either grant itself this or possess it simply, as they want to
say, but why is it not strong enough to possess simply or grant
itself what is worse, that is the form? And if any particular
being is not strong enough to grant itself what is worse, or
possess it simply, whether those who dare to regard as without
beginning beings that are after God and derived from him want
to call it being or matter (for they make no distinction), why
cannot it possess either simply or from itself what is better, by
which I mean being, when it cannot possess what is worse? If
matter can in no way possess, either from itself, or simply,
what is worse, still less can it possess being itself simply, or
from itself. How then can what is too weak to possess, as has
been shown, what is worse—that is form—or what is better —
that is being—ever possess anything? If this is so, then being
and form must be given to beings by God, for they exist. If then
all being and matter and every form is from God, no-one who
is not completely deprived of any sane thought could maintain
that matter is without beginning and ungenerate, since he
knows that God is the maker and fashioner of the beings.
40
Proof that nothing is without motion save God
and the monad
And again, if matter was [absolutely], 104 as some say, then it
clearly did not come into being; if it did not come into being, it
was not moved; if it was not moved, it did not begin to be; if it