PHILO, the Alexandrian contemporary of Jesus,
closes his treatise, De Opificio Mundi, with a summary
of the five supremely important lessons which are
taught by Moses in the Genesis-story of the creation.
(i) To refute atheists, he teaches that God really
exists; (ii) to refute polytheists, he shows that
God is one; (iii) in opposition to those who hold
that the universe is eternal and self-existing, he
emphasises its creation by God, (iv) and also its
unity, as the work of the God who is Himself
one, in opposition to speculations about a plurality
of worlds; (v) finally, we learn the truth of provi-
dence, 'for it must needs be that the Maker should
duly care for what He has made, just as parents
take thought for their children! Jesus never called
God the creator. He believed the Genesis-tradi-
tion, as is evident from His references to sex and
the sabbath, but He generally states in other forms
the moral and religious significance which attaches
to the doctrine of creation. God is the Father, for
Jesus, but not because He is creator. The truth of
the divine providence is connected specifically with
the Fatherly interest of God. Jesus assumes the
Jewish belief in the existence and the unity of God;
He did not require to teach men that God forgave
sins, and His teaching contains no theories about

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