  One of the most contentious doctrines presented by Greek and Islamic philosophy to thinkers in the early thirteenth century is that of the eternity of the world, the view that the world had no beginning but existed over an infinite past. This view seems to contradict the opening words of the Bible: “In the beginning God created heaven and earth.” In response, a number of thinkers in the early thirteenth century, including the Franciscan Alexander of Hales, argued that Aristotle, at least, had been misunderstood and had never proposed the eternity of the world. But William, like his Oxford contemporary, Robert Grosseteste, would have none of this: “Whatever may be said and whoever may try to excuse Aristotle, it was undoubtedly his opinion that the world is eternal and that it did not begin to be, and he held the same view concerning motion. Avicenna held this after him” (OO I, 690b; Teske 1998a, 117).