THE WORDINGS OF THE STATEMENT ABOUT CREATING THE WORLD "FROM NOTHING": THEOPHILUS OF ANTIOCH AND LUCRETIUS CARUS
The author advances the hypothesis that the wording of the statement about the creation of the world «from nothing» by God, that was formulated in the Christian religious tradition by Theophilus of Antioch and later became dogma, was probably borrowed by Theophilus from Lucretius. The correctness of this hypothesis is supported as follows: firstly, by the coincidence of the expression «e nilo» used by Lucretius and «ejj[ x ouk ontwn» by Theophilus; secondly, Theophilus rejects the statement «everything exists by chance», while this formulation in antique philosophy is most clearly and distinctly presented by Lucretius.