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Hortatory Address to the Greeks
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Chapter 23: Plato's Self-Contradiction
BUT: perhaps, some who are unwilling to abandon the doctrines of polytheism will say that to these fashioned gods the maker said, “Since you have been produced, you are not immortal, nor at all imperishable; yet you will not perish nor succumb to the fatality of death, because you have obtained my will, which is a still greater and mightier bond.” Here Plato, out of fear of the followers of polytheism, introduces his “maker” speaking words that contradict himself. For having previously stated that he said that everything which is produced is perishable, he now introduces him saying the very opposite; and he does not see that it is absolutely impossible for him to escape the charge of falsehood.
For he either initially spoke falsely when he said that everything which is produced is perishable, or now, when he proposes the very opposite to what he previously said. For if, according to his earlier definition, it is absolutely necessary that every created thing be perishable, how can he consistently make possible what is absolutely impossible? So that Plato seems to grant an empty and impossible prerogative to his “maker,” when he proposes that those who were once perishable because made from matter should again, by his intervention, become imperishable and enduring.
For it is quite natural that the power of matter, which, according to Plato’s opinion, is uncreated and coeval with the maker, should resist his will. For he who has not created has no power, in respect of that which is uncreated, so that it is not possible that it (matter), being free, can be controlled by any external necessity.
Therefore, Plato himself, considering this, has written thus: “It is necessary to affirm that God cannot suffer violence.”