Chapter II.
Moses' opinion on the beginning of things, the author of the world, and the creation of matter. The same is recommended by many names: to whom alone, with atoms and ideas expelled, it is shown that belief must be given.
5. Therefore, foreseeing by the divine spirit that these errors of humanity would happen, and perhaps have already begun, the holy Moses, at the beginning of his discourse, says this, 'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth' (Gen. 1:1); this beginning of things comprehends the author of the world, the creation of matter, so that you may know that God existed before the beginning of the world, or that He Himself is the beginning of all things; just as in the Gospel the Son of God, when the people asked Him, 'Who are You?', answered, 'The beginning, which I also speak to you' (John. 8:25); and that He Himself gave the beginning to things to be born, and that He Himself is the creator of the world, not as an imitator of matter led by some idea, from which He would form His works not according to His own will, but according to the proposed form. And beauty, he says, God made in the beginning; so that by the incomprehensible swiftness of the work He might express the effect of a completed operation before He had indicated the beginning of the work.
6. Who must we pay attention to when saying this? Surely that educated Moses, who was knowledgeable in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, whom Pharaoh's daughter loved as a son and supported with royal assistance, desired to be informed and instructed in all the secular disciplines of prudence. And although he received his name from water, he did not think that everything consisted of water, as Thales said. And even though he was raised in the king's court, he preferred to voluntarily undergo exile for the sake of justice, rather than acquire the enjoyment of sin through the height of tyranny. Finally, before he was called to the task of liberating the people, he was provoked by a natural sense of justice, avenging the injury inflicted upon his fellow citizens. Giving in to envy and denying himself pleasure, he avoided all the disturbances of the royal house and withdrew to the secret depths of Ethiopia. Removed from all other responsibilities, he directed his entire mind towards the knowledge of the divine, desiring to see the glory of God face to face. Scripture testifies to this, saying that no prophet has arisen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face (Deut. XXXIV,10). Not in a vision, nor in dreams, but face to face with the highest God; not in a form, nor through riddles, but endowed with the clear and evident presence of divine favor.
7. So Moses opened his mouth and poured out what the Lord spoke in him, according to what He had said to him, when he was directing him to Pharaoh the king: 'Go therefore, and I will open your mouth, and teach you what you must speak' (Exod. IV, 12). For if he received what he spoke about releasing the people from God, how much more what he spoke about from heaven? Finally, he dared to say not in the persuasion of human wisdom, nor in the deceitful disputes of philosophy, but in the manifestation of spirit and power, as a witness of the divine work: 'In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.' He did not, as if the world were created by the collision of atoms, expect a late and lazy task; nor did he think that by contemplating matter, he could shape the world according to a certain discipline, but that he should express God the creator. For the man full of wisdom observed that the mind alone contains the substances, origins, and causes of visible and invisible things, not as philosophers argue, that the more powerful combination of atoms provides a constant cause of persistence, but he judged that those who give such small and insubstantial principles to the heavens and the earth would be weaving a spider's web, which would be connected by chance and dissolved by chance and haphazardly, unless they relied on the divine power of their governor. And not without reason they do not know the governor, who do not know God, through whom all things are ruled and governed. Let us therefore follow Him, who knows both the author and the governor, and let us not be led astray by empty opinions.