have always existed, one thing after another; some of them also maintain that this is impossible in the future.

These are the theologians whom the philosophers who held that the world is eternal debated. When those philosophers believed that they had refuted and defeated them, they concluded that they had refuted the adherents of all religions without exception. This false belief arose from their ignorance of the positions held by the leading authorities of the religious communities—and even by the great masters of ancient philosophy—and from their supposition that (1) the leading authorities of the religious communities and of philosophy held no position other than that of these speculative theologians, the philosophers’ own position, that of the Magians and the Harranians (2), or the position of those who maintain that a particular matter is eternal, along with other such positions whose falsity may become apparent to those who examine them. This is discussed at length elsewhere.

The point here is that people of sound reason are generally agreed that knowing a particular thing to be an object of will and power necessarily entails knowing that it originated and came into being after not having existed. Indeed, rational people regard this as something known by necessity (3). Accordingly, merely conceiving of a thing as being within an agent’s power, willed by him, and brought about by his will and power entails knowing (4) that it originated. Indeed, merely conceiving of a thing as something brought about, created, made, or described by any similar expression necessarily entails knowing that it was originated and came into being after not having existed. Only thereafter may one consider whether the agent brought it about by his will and power; and when—