Augustine's account of time and creation in Confessions Book XI remains one of the most profound philosophical analyses of time in the ancient world. Against the question "what was God doing before creation?" he argues that time itself is a creature — before creation there was no "before," since time only exists with the universe. His definition of time as a "distension of the soul" — the present stretching backward in memory and forward in expectation — anticipates modern phenomenological analysis by fifteen centuries and has significant implications for how creation ex nihilo should be understood.
The philosophical analysis of time and the eternal Now: "You made all time... there was no 'then' when there was no time" — Augustine's response to the question "what was God doing before creation?" is that the question is grammatically improper, since "before" is a temporal concept and time did not exist before creation.
On creation ex nihilo and the eternity of the Creator over against all temporal creatures — God is not subject to time but is its creator and lord, existing in an eternal present that encompasses all times without succession.
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