John Italos on the eternity of the world

Abstract

Abstract The paper discusses John Italos’ (d. after 1082) position on the eternity of the world. Italos was condemned for a series of heretical views including the thesis that the visible world was eternal. However, a treatise of Italos has been transmitted, in which he refutes the idea of an eternal kosmos and argues for its createdness in the beginning of time. The present study provides a critical edition of the Greek text of Italos’ treatise (Quaestio 71 of his Quaestiones quodlibetales), provided with a first English translation and followed by a commentary that develops Italos’ main arguments and identifies some of his sources. It is argued that Italos sincerely defended an anti-eternalist standpoint by adopting arguments, first and foremost, of the sixth-century philosopher John Philoponos. Moreover, Italos seems to react in Quaestio 71 to specific charges that had been brought up against him during his repeated synodal investigations in 1076/77 and 1082. His treatise against the eternity of the world appears to be a comprehensive apology of his orthodoxy.