Charles Ellicott Commentary John 1:3

"All things were made through him; and without him was not anything made that hath been made." — John 1:3 (ASV)

From the person of the Word we are guided to think of His creative work. The first chapter of Genesis is still present to the mind, but a fuller meaning can now be given to its words. All things came into existence by means of the pre-existent Word, and of all the things that now exist, none came into being apart from Him.

All things.—The words express in the grandeur of an unthinkable array of units what is expressed in totality by “the world” in John 1:10. The completion of the thought by the negative statement of the opposite brings sharply before us the infinitely little in contrast with the infinitely great. Of all these units not one is by its vastness beyond, or by its insignificance beneath His creative will. For the relation of the Word to the Father in the work of creation, compare the note on Colossians 1:15-16.

For the form of this verse, which is technically known as antithetic parallelism, compare John 5:20; John 5:23; John 8:23; John 10:27–28; 1 John 2:4; 1 John 2:27, and other passages. It is found not unfrequently in other parts of the New Testament, but it is a characteristic of St. John’s Hebrew style. Its occurrence in the poetry of the Old Testament, for example, in the Psalms (Psalms 89:30–31, and other passages) will be familiar to all.