Andrew Louth - Syriac Christian Church

C
1185A
D
did not begin to be, then it is without beginning of any kind; if
it is without beginning, then it is infinite; if it is infinite, then
it is certainly unmoved (for the infinite is certainly unmoved,
for what is not limited can have no place in which to be
moved); and if this is the case, then there are assuredly two
infinites, unmoved and without beginning, God and matter,
which is inconceivable. For the dyad 105 could be neither
infinite, nor without beginning, nor unmoved, nor the
beginning of anything at all, for it is circumscribed in
accordance with unity and division. It is circumscribed by
unity since it has existence as the composition of monads,
which it contains as parts, and into which it can be divided as
parts (for nothing that is infinite could be divisible or divided,
or composite or compounded, by nature or arrangement or in
any other way, nor could it simply be division or composition
itself, because it is neither sole and simple, nor numerable, nor
numbered, nor co-numbered, nor simply free from any kind of
relationship; for all these things are beheld in relationship one
to another, but the infinite is unrelated, for it cannot be held in
any kind of relationship at all). It [the dyad] is circumscribed
by division, since it is moved by number, from which it begins
and in which it is contained, since it does not possess being by
nature and free from any relationship.
41
On the dyad and the monad 106
TEXTS 139
For each dyad is established by number and so is each monad,
as a part completing it, so that together the monads take away
uncircumscribability. No-one who thought about it would
assign infinity to anything, alongside which from eternity and
by nature there could be seen and posited difference, for they
would know that this is completely excluded from the nature
of the infinite. For the infinite is infinite in every kind of way—
in respect of being, potentiality, and activity, 107 and in respect
of both limits, I mean both above and below, that is in respect
of both beginning and end. For the infinite is unbounded in
respect of being, incomprehensible in respect of potentiality,
and uncircumscribed in respect of operation, and without
beginning from above, and without end from below, and simply
to put it most truthfully, it is completely without limit, since
nothing can be thought together with it in any of the ways of
numeration. Accordingly we say that it can have no kind of
meaning or mode, and no kind of essential difference can be