On the Eternity of the World

A catalogue of Greek arguments that the world can never perish, closing with a promise of rebuttals that do not survive.

by Philo of Alexandria69 passages held

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Original title: De aeternitate mundi
Original language: Ancient Greek

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Overview

The treatise ends with a promise. Having set out, as best he could, the arguments that the world will never be destroyed, Philo says that in the treatises to follow he will show what can be said against each of them. Those treatises do not survive, and without them this one is hard to place. What remains is a set of arguments that often sits uneasily with Philo's other books. He lays out three positions: that the world was never made and will never perish, the view he credits to Aristotle, whom he praises for his piety, though On the Creation of the World lists it among the errors Moses refutes; that it was made and will be destroyed, held by Democritus, Epicurus and most Stoics, who expected the whole cosmos to be consumed in fire and reborn; and that it was made but will never be destroyed, the view of Plato's Timaeus, of Hesiod before him, and long before either, Philo says, of Moses. Then come the proofs, some of them known today only from these pages: the arguments of Critolaus, head of Aristotle's school in the second century BCE, the Stoic Boethus, who abandoned his school's doctrine of cosmic fire, and a report from Theophrastus, Aristotle's successor, of four arguments for the world's destruction, with their refutations. The German classicist Jacob Bernays judged the treatise spurious in the nineteenth century, and the Jewish Encyclopedia of 1905 called its spuriousness beyond doubt. In 1981 David Runia argued that it is Philo's, a dialectical exercise meant to be answered, and the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy now treats it as his, though its authenticity is still discussed.

Key concepts

What are the three positions in On the Eternity of the World?

That the world was never made and will never perish, credited to Aristotle; that it was made and will be destroyed, held by Democritus, Epicurus and most Stoics; and that it was made but will never be destroyed, the view of Plato's Timaeus, of Hesiod and, Philo says, of Moses. The treatise sets them side by side before gathering the arguments that the world is imperishable.

What is the Stoic conflagration?

The doctrine that the whole cosmos will periodically be consumed in fire and then reborn. Most Stoics held it, which put them among those who think the world was made and will be destroyed. Philo reports that Boethus abandoned it, and the treatise objects that a destroyed world would leave its maker idle, while a better world made afterwards would imply a worse maker before.

Why can nothing destroy the world, on the argument from whole and parts?

Because a cause of destruction must come either from inside or from outside, and neither is possible. From inside, a part would have to be stronger than the whole, which is absurd. From outside, there is nothing left: the world contains the whole of each element and leaves no portion beyond itself. With no possible cause of destruction, the world is imperishable.

What is a dialectical exercise, as scholars read this treatise?

A work that sets out one side of a question in full so that it can be answered. The treatise ends by promising rebuttals of every argument it has presented, in treatises that do not survive. Read that way, the arguments for an imperishable world are not simply Philo's settled view but a case prepared for examination, which is how David Runia argued it is Philo's own.

Themes of the book

What this book returns to, gathered into themes and ordered by how much of the text each one occupies.

Made, and Never to Be Unmade

Will the world end? The treatise sets three answers side by side, and the one it credits to Plato and to Moses holds that what God made he will not destroy.

Philo lays out three positions. The world was never made and will never perish: the view he credits to Aristotle, whom he praises for his piety. It was made and will be destroyed: held by Democritus, Epicurus and most Stoics, who expected the whole cosmos to be consumed in fire and reborn. It was made but will never be destroyed: the view of Plato's Timaeus, of Hesiod before him and, long before either, of Moses. Against the Stoic fire the treatise presses a dilemma about God: a destroyed world would leave its maker idle, and a better world built afterwards would mean the maker had been worse before.

cosmology
creation
eternity
world eternity
platonism
stoicism
conflagration
world regeneration
providence

Enter a dialogue

Mountains, Seas and Elements as Evidence

Can the shape of the earth tell us whether the world will last? The treatise gathers the ancient arguments on both sides, some of them known today only from these pages.

The proofs are philosophers' proofs, some preserved nowhere else. Nothing destroys the world from inside, since no part is stronger than the whole, and nothing from outside, since the world contains all the elements whole and leaves nothing outside it. Critolaus, head of Aristotle's school in the second century BCE, argues that what causes human beings to exist forever must itself be everlasting. Boethus, a Stoic, abandoned his school's cosmic fire. And Theophrastus reports four arguments for the world's destruction, from the unevenness of the earth, the retreat of the sea, the dissolution of the parts and the dying out of animal kinds, set down with their refutations.

argumentation
incorruptibility
destruction
elements
whole and parts
geology
human origins
natural change

Enter a dialogue

Within this work

passages held: 69
distinct concepts: 101
by passages held, corpus-wide: #585

What this book thinks together

The wheel takes this book’s leading concepts and shows how often they come up together. The wider the band between two, the more of its passages speak of both. Among them, most often together: “cosmology” and “creation”.

Concept co-occurrence, strongest first 8 concepts, joined by 15 pairings. 67 pairings reach beyond these concepts and are not drawn.
Concept	Paired concept	Shared passages
cosmology	creation	10
cosmology	eternity	10
cosmology	stoicism	8
causation	cosmology	6
cosmology	elements	5
cosmology	fire	4
creation	eternity	4
causation	eternity	2
cosmology	nature	2
elements	stoicism	2
eternity	stoicism	2
fire	stoicism	2
causation	fire	1
causation	stoicism	1
elements	fire	1

Works held

The author's work in order, this book marked in place. Your-language title first, the original beneath it where the two differ; side chips show which full texts are held.

Against Flaccus (In Flaccum)
Written as a demonstration of divine justice, this account of the Alexandrian riots of 38 CE and of the prefect Philo blamed for them stands with his historical and apologetic works.
EN
Allegorical Interpretation (Legum allegoriae I–III)
The first surviving treatise of the Allegorical Commentary, Philo's long verse-by-verse reading of Genesis, covering its second and third chapters in three books.
EN
Every Good Man Is Free (Quod omnis probus liber sit)
Written in the manner of the Greek schools rather than as commentary on Moses, it is, with On the Eternity of the World, one of Philo's philosophical treatises.
EN
On Abraham (De Abrahamo)
The first of Philo's lives of the patriarchs in the Exposition of the Law, following On the Creation of the World; its companions on Isaac and Jacob are lost, and On Joseph continues the set.
EN
On Cultivation (De agricultura)
Noah the farmer is a subject Philo splits across two treatises; this first one is built on the difference between near-synonyms, and On Planting continues it.
EN
On Dreams (De somniis I–II)
A treatise of the Allegorical Commentary, in two surviving books on the dreams of Jacob, Joseph and Pharaoh's court.
EN
On Drunkenness (De ebrietate)
Of the two books on drunkenness known in antiquity, this is the one that survives; it sits between On Planting and On Sobriety in the Allegorical Commentary's run on Noah and the vine.
EN
On Flight and Finding (De fuga et inventione)
Hagar's flight and the angel who finds her, Genesis 16:6–14, read within the Allegorical Commentary.
EN
On Joseph (De Josepho)
The life of the statesman in Philo's series of patriarch lives within the Exposition of the Law. It follows On Abraham; lives of Isaac and Jacob, now lost, once stood between them.
EN
On Mating with the Preliminary Studies (De congressu eruditionis gratia)
Philo's reading of Genesis 16 as a theory of education, set within the Allegorical Commentary; On Flight and Finding continues Hagar's story.
EN
On Planting (De plantatione)
The second of Philo's two treatises on Noah as farmer, turning from farming in general to the planting of the vineyard.
EN
On Rewards and Punishments (De praemiis et poenis et de exsecrationibus)
The closing treatise of the Exposition of the Law, on the rewards, punishments, blessings and curses the Law sets before its hearers.
EN
On Sobriety (De sobrietate)
A short sequel to On Drunkenness in the Allegorical Commentary, on Noah waking and pronouncing his blessings and curse. Its Greek title names exactly that: what Noah prayed for and cursed once sober.
EN
On the Change of Names (De mutatione nominum)
Genesis 17 and its renamings, from Abram and Sarai to Jacob and Joshua, read in the Allegorical Commentary; it also carries Philo's clearest statement that God has no proper name.
EN
On the Cherubim (De Cherubim)
Two short commentaries joined under one title: the cherubim at Eden's gate, then the birth of Cain. Within the Allegorical Commentary it picks up where the three books of Allegorical Interpretation stop.
EN
On the Confusion of Tongues (De confusione linguarum)
The Tower of Babel in the Allegorical Commentary, opening with a defence of Genesis against critics who likened it to Greek myth.
EN
On the Contemplative Life (De vita contemplativa)
A portrait of the Therapeutae, classed with Philo's historical and apologetic writings; it opens by referring back to his account of the Essenes, the active life to this contemplative one.
EN
On the Creation of the World (De opificio mundi)
The overture to Philo's Exposition of the Law, the series that goes on to lives of the patriarchs and a code of laws. It stands apart as his reading of the creation story in its literal order.
EN
On the Decalogue (De decalogo)
The hinge of the Exposition of the Law, turning from the lives of the patriarchs to the written law.
EN
On the Embassy to Gaius (Legatio ad Gaium)
The companion of Against Flaccus: an eyewitness history of the embassy Philo led to Gaius, and the fullest account he left of his own public life.
EN
On the Eternity of the World (De aeternitate mundi) you are here EN
On the Giants and On the Unchangeableness of God (De gigantibus; Quod Deus sit immutabilis)
Two treatises that editions usually separate but that read as one commentary, in the Allegorical Commentary, on the verses of Genesis leading up to the flood.
EN
On the Life of Moses (De vita Mosis I–II)
Philo's biography of Moses in two books, usually counted with the Exposition of the Law though it stands on its own.
EN
On the Migration of Abraham (De migratione Abrahami)
Abraham's call in Genesis 12, read as the soul's migration toward God; in the Allegorical Commentary it follows On the Confusion of Tongues in the order of Genesis.
EN
On the Posterity of Cain (De posteritate Caini)
The last of the Cain treatises in the Allegorical Commentary, following Cain from his exile through his descendants.
EN
On the Sacrifices of Abel and Cain (De sacrificiis Abelis et Caini)
One of the run of treatises on Cain and Abel in the Allegorical Commentary, taking up the brothers' offerings in Genesis 4.
EN
On the Special Laws (De specialibus legibus I–IV)
The largest work in the Exposition of the Law, in four books; it follows On the Decalogue and is followed by On the Virtues.
EN
On the Virtues (De virtutibus)
A pendant to On the Special Laws in the Exposition of the Law, gathering laws under the virtues they train rather than under the Ten Commandments.
EN
The Worse Attacks the Better (Quod deterius potiori insidiari soleat)
It follows On the Sacrifices of Abel and Cain in the Allegorical Commentary and carries the brothers' story on to the murder itself.
EN
Who Is the Heir of Divine Things? (Quis rerum divinarum heres sit)
Best known for its long passage on the Logos dividing the world into opposites, this reading of God's covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15 belongs to the Allegorical Commentary.
EN

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