subjects were completed, after Bashyazi's death, by his disciple, Caleb Afendopolo. Theological System Bashyazi's theological system is a masterpiece of clarity and logical precision. Following the example of Judah Hadassi and probably of still older masters of Karaism, he set up ten articles of belief, the veracity of which he demonstrates philosophically as follows: Physical existence (1) All physical existence—that is to say, the celestial spheres and all that they contain—has been created. Views on creation There are two kinds of creations: creation from something else, and creation from nothing. The things now existing are creations from something else, such as the chicken created from the egg; but creation from nothing is by the will of God alone. All compound beings have been produced from the elements and the first matter by the movement of the spheres. But the question is whether the spheres and the first matter were created. The philosophers assert that they are eternal, because, they say, "nothing can be created from nothing." In Bashyazi's opinion this is an error arising from judging the past by the present. The philosophers, knowing of no creation from nothing in their own experience, conclude that such a creation never could have been. Supposing then that they had never seen the chicken emerge from the egg, they might as well maintain that the chicken was eternal, because they could not explain how it lived in the egg. The fact is that inferior beings can not be compared with superior ones which the reason is unable to conceive. In these things reliance must be placed upon revelation, which even philosophyadmits to be true; and all prophets declare that the spheres have been created from nothing. Relies upon Philosophy However, not satisfied with religious proofs only, Bashyazi tries to give philosophical arguments, and being unable to furnish them in the strictly Peripatetic way, he demonstrates his article of belief by Avicenna's theory of "the necessary" and "the possible," which he wrongly attributes to Aristotle. Since philosophy proves that the existence of all beings, except God, is only "possible," the spheres, as well as the first matter, must have been created; otherwise their existence would be a "necessary" one like that of God. God (2) All beings have a creator who has not created himself. This is the corollary of the first article of belief. As it was demonstrated that beings were created, they