17. We are still waiting, Fisherman, for your full description of the Word. He was in the beginning, it may be said, but perhaps He was not before the beginning. To this also I will furnish a reply on my Fisherman’s behalf. The Word could not be other than He was; that was is unconditional and unlimited. But what says the Fisherman for himself? All things were made through Him. Thus, since nothing exists apart from Him through Whom the universe came into being, He, the Author of all things, must have an immeasurable existence. For time is a cognisable and divisible measure of extension, not in space, but in duration. All things are from Him, without exception; time then itself is His creature.

17. Tempus ab eo est, tempus quid.---Expectamus adhuc a te, piscator, plenitudinem Verbi. Erat quidem 0062B in principio, sed potuit non esse ante principium. Etiam hic tibi aliquid pro piscatore meo profero: Quod erat, non potuit non fuisse; erat enim non habet in tempore non fuisse. Sed quid pro se ille? Omnia per eum facta sunt (Ibid., 3). Ergo si nihil sine illo est; per quem universa 37 coeperunt; et in infinitum est, per quem quod est omne sit factum. Tempus enim est spatii, non in loco, sed in aetate manentis significata moderatio. Et cum ab eo omnia, res nulla non ab eo: et idcirco tempus ab eo est.