Paraphrase of Book Lambda, 1-2

Book Lambda of Aristotle’s Metaphysics is one of the most important compositions in the history of philosophy, as it contains Aristotle’s most comprehensive account of God. Despite the work’s importance in Aristotle’s corpus, as well as being a key event in Ancient Philosophy, it is nearly absent from the rich tradition of philosophical commentaries in Late Antiquity. Apart from Alexander of Aphrodisias’ systematic commentary on the Metaphysics Lambda, though modestly called a ‘paraphrase’, is in fact an influential reinterpretation of Aristotle’s text at greater length than the original, composed by him. Themsitius’ paraphrase of Metaphysics Lambda is known that had significant impact on subsequent medieval authors in the Arabic and Hebrew worlds. The translation you will read is a commentary of the first and second chapter of Book Lambda by Themistius. The Greek original commentary of Lambda was lost, and after the Arabic translation, it was transferred to Latin and Hebrew.