The First Apology

To understand that it was from our teachers—specifically, the account given through the prophets—that Plato borrowed his idea that God, having shaped matter that was formless, created the world, listen to the words spoken through Moses, who, as previously shown, was the first prophet and is older than the Greek writers. Through him, the Spirit of prophecy indicated how and from what materials God first formed the world, saying: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was invisible and unfurnished, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God moved over the waters. And God said, Let there be light; and it was so.” Therefore, both Plato and those who agree with him, as well as we ourselves, have learned, and you can also be convinced, that by the word of God, the entire world was made from the substance mentioned before by Moses. What the poets call Erebus, we know was formerly mentioned by Moses.