 Boethius’ On the Eternity of the World is not about eternity in the theological a-temporal sense, but about sempiternity, existence in a time that neither had any beginning nor will have any end. The crucial question is “Does the notion of a temporal beginning, a creation, make philosophical sense”. Boethius holds that there is no way to definitely prove or disprove that the world is “new”, i.e., that it has come into existence a definite time ago. He refutes arguments purporting to show the actual sempiternity of the world, but not arguments adduced to show that such sempiternity is possible, while he characterizes traditional would-be proofs of a temporal beginning as invalid (“sophistic”).