Bible Encyclopedias
Potential

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

is opposed to actual. This antithesis is a fundamental doctrine of the Peripatetic philosophy. "Aristotle saith that divided they (i.e. bodies) be in infinitum potentially, but actually not" (Holland's Plutarch, p. 667). "Anaximander's infinite was nothing else but an infinite chaos of matter, in which were either actually or potentially contained all manner of qualities" (see Cudworth, Intellectual System, 1, 128).

Bibliography Information
McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Potential'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/​encyclopedias/​eng/​tce/​p/potential.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.