Church Fathers 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)

John 1:3a

Alcuin of York: After speaking of the Son’s nature, he proceeds to His works, saying, All things were made by him—that is, everything, whether substance or property.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Or, to put it another way: some might say that while the Word was indeed in the beginning, perhaps He was not before the beginning. But what does John say? All things were made by him. He by whom everything that exists was made is infinite; and since all things were made by Him, time was as well.

St. John Chrysostom: Indeed, Moses, at the beginning of the Old Testament, speaks to us in great detail about the natural world, saying, In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth; he then relates how the light, the firmament, the stars, and the various kinds of animals were created. But the Evangelist, as if speaking to an audience already familiar with this, summarizes all of it in a single phrase. He then hastens to a loftier subject, making his entire book focus not on the works, but on the Maker.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Since all things were made by him, it is evident that light was also made by Him, when God said, Let there be light. The same is true for everything else. But if so, the command that God spoke, namely, Let there be light, is eternal.

For the Word of God—God with God—is coeternal with the Father, even though the world created by Him is temporal. Whereas our words “when” and “sometimes” belong to time, in the Word of God, the decision for when a thing ought to be made is eternal. The thing is made at the moment when, in that Word, it is determined that it ought to be made. This Word contains in Itself neither “when” nor “sometime,” since It is entirely eternal.

How then can the Word of God be made, when God made all things by the Word? For if the Word Himself were made, by what other Word was He made? If you say it was by a “Word of the Word” that He was made, then that is the very Word I call the Only-Begotten Son of God. But if you do not call It the “Word of the Word,” then you must grant that the Word by whom all things were made was not made.

And if He is not made, He is not a creature; but if He is not a creature, He is of the same Substance with the Father. For every substance that is not God is a creature, and whatever is not a creature is God.

Theophylact of Ohrid: The Arians are accustomed to say that all things are spoken of as made “by” the Son in the same sense that we say a door is made “by” a saw—that is, as an instrument, not as the actual Maker. They therefore speak of the Son as a thing that was made, as if He were created for the purpose of making all other things through Him.

To the inventors of this lie, we reply simply: If, as you say, the Father had created the Son to use Him as an instrument, it would follow that the Son is less honorable than the things He made, just as things made by a saw are more noble than the saw itself, which was made for their sake. In the same way, they speak of the Father creating the Son for the sake of created things, as if God would not have produced the Son had He not decided to create the universe. What could be more insane than such language? They argue, however, “Why was it not said that the Word made all things, instead of using the preposition by?” It is for this reason: so that you would not imagine an unbegotten and unoriginated Son, who would be a rival God.

St. John Chrysostom: If the preposition “by” perplexes you, and you wish to learn from Scripture that the Word Himself made all things, listen to David: You, Lord, in the beginning have laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. That he spoke this of the Only-Begotten, you learn from the Apostle, who applies these words to the Son in the Epistle to the Hebrews.

But if you say that the prophet spoke this of the Father and that Paul applied it to the Son, it amounts to the same thing. For Paul would not have applied it to the Son unless he considered the Father and the Son to be of equal dignity. Furthermore, if you imagine that the preposition “by” implies any subjection, why does Paul use it in reference to the Father? For instance, God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son; and again, Paul an Apostle by the will of God.

Origen of Alexandria: Here, too, Valentinus errs, saying that the Word supplied the cause of creation to the Creator. If this interpretation were true, it should have been written that all things had their existence from the Word through the Creator, not the other way around: through the Word from the Creator.

John 1:3b

St. John Chrysostom: So that you do not suppose, when John says, All things were made by Him, that he meant only the things Moses spoke of, he appropriately adds, And without Him was not any thing made. This means nothing was made that is cognizable either by the senses or by the understanding. Alternatively, lest you suspect the sentence All things were made by Him refers only to the miracles related by the other Evangelists, he adds, and without Him was not any thing made.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Or, to put it another way: some might say that the statement all things were made by him claims too much. After all, there is the Unbegotten, who is made by no one, and there is the Son Himself, begotten from the One who is Unbegotten. The Evangelist, however, implies the Son's role as Author again when he speaks of Him as being associated with the act of creation, saying, without Him was not any thing made. I understand this phrase—that nothing was made without Him—to mean that the Son was not alone in the work, for “by whom” is one thing, and “not without whom” is another.

Origen of Alexandria: Alternatively, so that you might not think that the things made by the Word had a separate existence and were not contained in the Word, John says, and without Him was not any thing made. This means that nothing was made externally to Him, for He encircles all things as their Preserver.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Or, by saying, without Him was not any thing made, John tells us not to suspect that the Son is in any sense a thing that was made. For how can He be a thing that was made when, as it is said, God made nothing without Him?

Origen of Alexandria: If all things were made by the Word, and if wickedness and the entire influx of sin are included in “all things,” then these too would have been made by the Word—which is false. Now, “nothing” and “a thing which is not” mean the same thing. The Apostle seems to call wicked things “things which are not,” as when he says, God calls those things which be not, as though they were. All wickedness, then, is called “nothing,” because it is made without the Word.

However, those who say that the devil is not a creature of God are in error. Insofar as he is “the devil,” he is not a creature of God; but the being whose character it is to be the devil is a creature of God. It is as if we were to say a murderer is not a creature of God, when in fact, insofar as he is a man, he is a creature of God.

St. Augustine of Hippo: For sin was not made by Him, since it is clear that sin is nothing, and that people become nothing when they sin. Nor was an idol made by the Word. An idol does indeed have a kind of human form, and man himself was made by the Word, but the human form in an idol was not made by the Word, for it is written, we know that an idol is nothing. These things, then, were not made by the Word. Rather, whatever things were made according to nature—the whole universe—were made by Him, every creature from an angel to a worm.

Origen of Alexandria: Valentinus excludes from the things made by the Word everything that was made in the ages he believes existed before the Word. This is plainly false, because in his system, the things he considers divine are excluded from “all things,” while what he deems wholly corrupt are considered to be “all things”!

St. Augustine of Hippo: We must not listen to the folly of those who think “nothing” should be understood here as “something” simply because it is placed at the end of the sentence. It makes no difference whether it is said, “without Him nothing was made,” or, “without Him was made nothing.”

Origen of Alexandria: If “the word” is taken to mean the reason that is in each person, implanted there by the Word who was in the beginning, then we also commit “nothing” (that is, sin) without this inner “word” or reason.

For the Apostle says that sin was dead without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived, because sin is not imputed when there is no law. But neither was there sin when there was no Word, for our Lord says, If I had not come and spoken to them, they had not had sin.

For every excuse is withdrawn from the sinner if, with the Word present and commanding what is to be done, he refuses to obey. The Word is not to be blamed on this account, any more than a teacher whose instruction leaves no excuse for a disobedient student on the grounds of ignorance. All things, then, were made by the Word—not only the natural world, but also whatever is done by those acting with reason.