Creatio ex nihilo : On the formation of this idea

It is generally assumed that the idea of a "creatio ex nihilo" did not come from Greek philosophy but from the Hebrew religion. It is certain that this idea is not found in any Greek philosopher, but it does not follow that this expression as such has its origin in the Hebrew Bible. As a matter of fact, this expression "creatio ex nihilo" cannot be found as such in the original Canon of the Jewish Scriptures. The only place where a similar expression appears in the sacred writings of the Hebrews is in the Second Book (7, 28) of the Apocrypha of the Machabees, which was written in the later Hellenistic age. Hence, we are rather inclined to think that this idea of a "creatio ex nihilo" might be the product of the encounter of Greek and Judaic speculation during the later Hellenistic period. Therefore, the question we intend to raise in this paper is how far and in what manners Greek philosophy and the Hebrew religion respectively contributed to the elaboration of this concept of a "creatio ex nihilo". After having carefully perused the texts of Aristotle, of Plato and of Philo of Alexandria concerned with that problem, we have presently reached the following conclusions. 1-The main contribution of Greek philosophy to the formulation of this idea of a "creatio ex nihilo" seems to be the conception of "non ens" as opposed to "ens". This does not mean of course that this "non ens" is already imagined as a "nihil", for it still remains a sort of "ens", but it implies nevertheless an inference towards the absolute "nihil". 2-As for the contribution of the Hebrew religion, it seems to have come from a transcendent conception of the absoluteness of the divine power of Yahveh. This divine power was believed by the Hebrew religion to be so omnipotent that it could not be thought of as presupposing anything like matter for the creation of the world. 3-Finally, under the impact of Hellenistic speculation, the encounter of Greek philosophy with the Judaïc teaching, combining the idea of the absoluteness of a divine power creating the world from "nothingness" with the Greek conception of a "non ens", succeeded in coining this new expression of a "creatio ex nihilo". We surmise that the absoluteness of the divine power as conceived by the Hebrew religion brought the Greek philosophical conception of "non ens" far beyond its original meaning by adopting in its stead the new word "nihil"