The Hidden Teaching of Maimonides

Some ancient rabbis believed that the world as we see it was created from some kind of pre-existing material. This leaves us in a state of uncertainty, which can be dispelled only by recourse to the sacred scriptures. Maimonides observes that these rabbinical interpretations of Genesis seem to agree with Plato's timeus. But why would maimonides argue in this way from a premise he doesn't even accept? He announces that in order to prove these things, he will simply assume something false, namely that the universe is eternal.