# That the world and time had both one beginning, and the one did not anticipate the other explained — The City of God

> Chapter companion for The City of God by Augustine of Hippo.

## What happens

Augustine argues that the world was created not in time but simultaneously with time, since time requires change and motion, which began with creation. He references the six days of creation and the seventh day of rest, noting the difficulty of conceiving what kind of days these were.

## Themes in this chapter

### Divine Providence and History

Augustine emphasizes God's eternal nature as the Creator and Ordainer of time, linking creation to divine order.

### True Worship and the One God

The chapter contrasts the unchanging eternity of God with the temporal, created order, underscoring the uniqueness of the Creator.

## Character check-ins

### Augustine

Author of the chapter, arguing that time began with creation.

### Holy Scripture

Cited as the sacred and infallible source that says 'in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.'

## Key lines

> For if eternity and time are rightly distinguished by this, that time does not exist without some movement and transition, while in eternity there is no change, who does not see that there could have been no time had not some creature been made, which by some motion could give birth to change?

Time requires change and motion; without a created being to undergo change, time could not exist.

_Augustine distinguishes time from eternity, grounding time in the motion of creatures._

> But simultaneously with time the world was made, if in the world's creation change and motion were created, as seems evident from the order of the first six or seven days.

The world was created at the same moment as time, because change and motion—the basis of time—began with creation.

_Key argument that creation and time are coextensive._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_city_of_god_se/chapters/part-ii-vi
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_city_of_god_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_city_of_god_se/chapters