Whether Time Was Created Simultaneously with Formless Matter?
Objection 1: It would seem that time was not created simultaneously
with formless matter. For Augustine says (Confess. xii, 12): "I find
two things that Thou didst create before time was, the primary
corporeal matter, and the angelic nature. "Therefore time was not
created with formless matter.
Obj. 2: Further, time is divided by day and night. But in the
beginning there was neither day nor night, for these began when "God
divided the light from the darkness." Therefore in the beginning
time was not.
Obj. 3: Further, time is the measure of the firmament's movement;
and the firmament is said to have been made on the second day.
Therefore in the beginning time was not.
Obj. 4: Further, movement precedes time, and therefore should be
reckoned among the first things created, rather than time.
Obj. 5: Further, as time is the extrinsic measure of created
things, so is place. Place, then, as truly as time, must be
reckoned among the things first created.
_On the contrary,_ Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. i, 3): "Both
spiritual and corporeal creatures were created at the beginning of
time."
_I answer that,_ It is commonly said that the first things created
were these four--the angelic nature, the empyrean heaven, formless
corporeal matter, and time. It must be observed, however, that this
is not the opinion of Augustine. For he (Confess. xii, 12) specifies
only two things as first created--the angelic nature and corporeal
matter--making no mention of the empyrean heaven. But these two,
namely, the angelic nature and formless matter, precede the
formation, by nature only, and not by duration; and therefore, as
they precede formation, so do they precede movement and time. Time,
therefore, cannot be included among them. But the enumeration above
given is that of other holy writers, who hold that the formlessness
of matter preceded by duration its form, and this view postulates the
existence of time as the measure of duration: for otherwise there
would be no such measure.
Reply Obj. 1: The teaching of Augustine rests on the opinion that the
angelic nature and formless matter precede time by origin or nature.
Reply Obj. 2: As in the opinion of some holy writers matter was in
some measure formless before it received its full form, so time was
in a manner formless before it was fully formed and distinguished
into day and night.
Reply Obj. 3: If the movement of the firmament did not begin
immediately from the beginning, then the time that preceded was the
measure, not of the firmament's movement, but of the first movement
of whatsoever kind. For it is accidental to time to be the measure of
the firmament's movement, in so far as this is the first movement.
But if the first movement was another than this, time would have been
its measure, for everything is measured by the first of its kind. And
it must be granted that forthwith from the beginning, there was
movement of some kind, at least in the succession of concepts and
affections in the angelic mind: while movement without time cannot be
conceived, since time is nothing else than "the measure of priority
and succession in movement."
Reply Obj. 4: Among the first created things are to be reckoned those
which have a general relationship to things. And, therefore, among
these time must be included, as having the nature of a common
measure; but not movement, which is related only to the movable
subject.
Reply Obj. 5: Place is implied as existing in the empyrean heaven,
this being the boundary of the universe. And since place has
reference to things permanent, it was created at once in its
totality. But time, as not being permanent, was created in its
beginning: even as actually we cannot lay hold of any part of
time save the "now."
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