Sometimes 2 Maccabees 7.28,
dated between 78 and 63 B.C.E. by Jonathan Goldstein, is cited as an example,
but a close reading does not support the assertion:
I pray you, son, look to heaven and
earth and seeing everything in them, know that God made them from non-being,
and the human race began in the same way. (2 Maccabees 7.28)
Non-being refers to the non-existence
of the heavens and earth before God’s creative act. It does not express
absolute non-existence, only the prior non-existence of the heavens and earth.
They were made to exist after not existing. The use of εκ ουκ
οντος in this relative
sense can be found in Aristotle who refers to the generation of a new substance
εκ ουκ
οντος (de Generatione Animalium
741 b 22 f.), although he denies that something can come from absolutely nothing
(Physics 187 b 26 ff., for discussion see below, chapter 4). (James Noel Hubler, “Creatio
ex Nihilo: Matter, Creation, and the Body in Classical and Christian Philosophy
Through Aquinas” [University of Pennsylvania, PhD diss., 1995], 90)
