John 1:3Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Thus Moses touches only the lesser part of creation, for he told us nothing about the invisible powers, and stopped there. But the Evangelist, hastening to ascend to the Creator Himself, rightly passes over everything else. He gathers both what Moses said and what he left unsaid into one brief utterance: “All things came to be through Him.”

But lest you think he speaks only of what Moses mentioned, he adds: “and without Him nothing came to be that came to be.” That is, no created thing, visible or contemplated by the mind, received being except by the power of the Son. He says that, of everything that exists, nothing came to be without Him.

Do you see how, by this brief addition, the Evangelist removes every possible absurdity? Having said, “without Him nothing came to be,” and having added, “that came to be,” he thereby embraced all creatures, even those perceived by the mind, and excluded the Holy Spirit from their number.

Such an addition was necessary. Otherwise, after his words, “All things came to be through Him, and without Him nothing came to be,” someone might say: “If all things came to be through Him, then the Spirit also came to be through Him.” He says, as it were: I said that everything created came to be through Him, whether invisible, bodiless, or heavenly. Therefore I did not simply say “all things,” but “all things that came to be,” that is, all created things. But the Spirit is not created.

Do you see the precision of the teaching? The Evangelist merely mentioned the creation of visible creatures, since Moses had already taught this before. The Evangelist raises people already instructed in this matter to higher creations, that is, to the bodiless and invisible. He entirely excludes the Holy Spirit from their number.

In the same way Paul, inspired by grace, also spoke: “For by Him all things were created” (Col 1:16). Here again is the same precision, because the same Spirit guided Paul’s soul. Lest anyone exclude anything created from the creation of God, since there are invisible creatures, and lest anyone include the Comforter among them, Paul passes over the sensible creatures known to all. He enumerates the heavenly creations and says: “whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers” (Col 1:16).

The particle “whether” expresses nothing other than those words: “All things came to be through Him, and without Him nothing came to be that came to be.” If the expression “through Him” seems to diminish His dignity. Then hear what Paul says: “In the beginning, Lord, You founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands” (Heb 1:10).

Thus what was said by the prophet (Ps 101:26) about the Father as Creator, Paul says about the Son. He depicts Him only as Creator, not as though He had the rank of a merely ministering being. If it is said here “through Him,” this expression is used only so that no one should suppose the Son to be unbegotten.

But that in creation He possesses a dignity in no way less than the Father’s, hear Him Himself: “As the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom He will” (Jn 5:21).

Therefore, if the Old Testament says of the Son, “In the beginning, Lord, You founded the earth” (Heb 1:10), His dignity as Creator is evident. If you say that the prophet spoke these words properly about the Father, and that Paul only attributed to the Son what was said of the Father, the result is still the same. Paul would not have dared to attribute this to the Son unless he were fully assured of the equality of honor between the Father and the Son.

It would be exceedingly rash to apply what belongs to an incomparable nature to a lesser and subordinate nature. But the Son is not less than the Father, nor lower than Him in essence. Therefore Paul dared to say not only the words already mentioned about Him, but also something else.

The expression “from Him,” which you recognize as worthy of the Father alone, Paul also uses of the Son, saying: “and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through joints and ligaments, grows with the increase of God” (Col 2:19).

Nor is he content with this. On the other hand, he shuts your mouths by applying to the Father the expression “through whom,” which, according to you, signifies lesser dignity. “God is faithful,” he says, “through whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son” (1 Cor 1:9). Likewise: “by His will.” And again: “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things” (Rom 11:36).

But “from Him” is said not only of the Son, but also of the Spirit. Thus the angel said to Joseph: “Do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit” (Mt 1:20).

Likewise the expression “in Him,” which refers to the Spirit, the prophet does not refuse to apply also to God the Father, saying: “In God we shall do valiantly, and He will bring low those who oppress us” (Ps 59:14). Paul also said: “always asking in my prayers that, by the will of God, I may at last prosper and come to you” (Rom 1:10). He also applies the same expression to Christ: “in Christ Jesus.”

We can often find many such expressions used without distinction in Scripture. This could not happen unless one and the same essence were everywhere presupposed.

Do not think that the words, “All things came to be through Him,” refer here to miracles. The other Evangelists narrated those. After these words John adds: “He was in the world, and the world came to be through Him” (Jn 1:10). He means the world, not the Spirit, for He is not a creature, but above every creature.

What shall we say to them simply and directly? If the Father, as you say, created the Son in order to have Him as an instrument for making creation, then the Son will be lower in honor than creation. When a saw is used as an instrument, what is made by it is more honorable than the saw. The saw was made for the products, and not the products for the saw. So also creation would be more honorable than the Only-begotten. For, according to them, the Father created Him for creation, as though God would not have brought forth the Only-begotten from Himself if He had not intended to create all things. What could be more senseless than these words?

Why then, they say, did the Evangelist not say, “This Word created all things,” but used the preposition “through”? He said that the Father created all things through the Word so that you would not suppose the Son to be unbegotten, without beginning, and opposed to God.

Imagine a king who has a son and intends to build a city, and entrusts its construction to his son. The one who says that the city was built by the king’s son does not lower the king’s son into a servant. Rather, he shows that this son has a father and is not alone. So also here, when the Evangelist said that all things were created through the Son, he showed that the Father, so to speak, used Him as mediator in creation. He did this not as though He were lesser, but, on the contrary, as one equal in power and able to fulfill so great a charge.

I will also tell you this. If the preposition “through” troubles you, and you wish to find in Scripture some passage saying that the Word Himself created all things, then hear David: “In the beginning, Lord, You founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands” (Ps 101:26). Do you see? He did not say, “Through You the heavens were created and the earth founded,” but, “You” founded, and the heavens are the work of “Your hands.”

That David says this of the Only-begotten, and not of the Father, you may learn from the Apostle, who uses these words in the Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb 1:8-10). You may also learn it from the psalm itself. For when David says that the Lord looked down upon the earth to hear groaning, to loose those appointed to death, and to proclaim the name of the Lord in Zion, whom else does he indicate but the Son of God?

He looked down upon the earth, whether by this you understand the earth on which we move, or our earth-bound nature, or our flesh. For it is said, “You are earth” (Gen 3:19), and He assumed it to Himself. He also loosed us, who were bound by the chains of our own sins, the children of Adam and Eve appointed to death. He proclaimed the name of the Lord in Zion. For standing in the temple, He taught about His Father, as He Himself says: “I have manifested Your name to men” (Jn 17:6).

To whom are these actions fitting, the Father or the Son? All are fitting to the Son, for in His teaching He proclaimed the name of the Father. Having said this, blessed David adds: “In the beginning, Lord, You founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands.” Is it not evident that he presents the Son as Creator, and not as an instrument?

If again, in your opinion, the preposition “through” introduces some diminution, what will you say when Paul uses it of the Father? “God is faithful,” he says, “through whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son” (1 Cor 1:9). Does he make the Father an instrument here? Again: “Paul, an Apostle by the will of God” (1 Cor 1:1).

This is sufficient, but we must return to the place from which we began. “All things came to be through Him.” Moses, speaking of visible creation, explained nothing to us about intelligible creatures. But the Evangelist, embracing everything in one word, says that “all things” came to be through Him, both visible and intelligible.

“And without Him nothing came to be that came to be.” Since the Evangelist said that the Word created all things, he added this lest anyone think that He also created the Holy Spirit: “All things came to be through Him.” What are “all things”? Created things. It is as if he said that everything in created nature received being from the Word. But the Spirit does not belong to created nature. Therefore He did not receive being from Him.

Thus, without the power of the Word nothing that received being came to be, that is, nothing that belonged to created nature.

He only showed that the Son, like the Father, is Creator. This is common to all three Persons, because it is a property of the Godhead, as was said above.

Therefore in Holy Scripture creation is sometimes ascribed to the Father, sometimes to the Son, and sometimes to the Holy Spirit.

For the Father wills, the Son acts, and the Holy Spirit cooperates.

In the fifth chapter (Jn 5:17), Jesus Christ says: “My Father works until now, and I work.”

Some blasphemers said that the expression “through Him” (δι αυτου) lowers the Son, indicating not creation but service.

But they did not know that the same expression is used equally of the Father. The Apostle Paul said: “God is faithful, through Whom (δι ου) you were called into the communion of His Son” (1 Cor 1:9).

So that no one would remain perplexed as to how so many and such great creatures were created by the Word, the Evangelist says: “In Him was life...”

For the excellence of God lies in this: He needs no other instruments for producing what has been created.

His own Word is capable and sufficient for the creation of all things, as John, the disciple of the Lord, says concerning Him: “All things came into being through Him, and without Him nothing came into being.”

In “all things” our world was included. Therefore He created it by the Word, as Genesis says (Gen 1:3), that God created all that exists with us by His Word.

David speaks similarly: “He spoke, and they came to be; He commanded, and they were created” (Ps 32:9; Ps 148:5).

Whom should we believe more concerning the creation of the world: the above-named heretics, who chatter such foolish and absurd things, or the disciples of the Lord?

Should we not believe the faithful servant of God, the prophet Moses, who from the very beginning set forth the creation of the world?

He said: “In the beginning God created heaven and earth” (Gen 1:1), and all the rest. He did not say gods and angels.

“All things,” he says, “came into being through Him.” In “all things” is included the creation around us.

One must not concede to them, the heretics, that “all things” means what is within their Pleroma.

For if their Pleroma contains this creation also, then, as I showed in the preceding book, it is not outside it.

But if it is outside the Pleroma, which has proved impossible, then their Pleroma is no longer “all things.” Therefore this vast creation is not outside the Pleroma.

Therefore John the Theologian, to present this more clearly, adds: “He was the true Light, which enlightens every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him” (Jn 1:9-10).

From the beginning, he says, God was everywhere, enlightening and giving life to every man who comes into the world. He existed before the creation of the world. All things were with God before their manifestation in being. Then, when God created this sensible world, He did not withdraw from it in place, for He is everywhere present and fills all things. Yet nothing among all that exists in the world came near to Him by nature or by the glory of His Godhead.

God, though not distant from anything that exists, is manifestly in all things. Yet no one knows Him, as our Lord says: “No one knows the Father except the Son, and he to whom the Son wills to reveal Him” (Mt 11:27).

Therefore God, who was in the world and was not known by it, “came,” he says, “to His own, and His own did not receive Him.” He calls the world and the people in the world His own because He is their Creator and Master. He also calls them His own because of the kinship He entered into with men through His Incarnation.

Reflect carefully on what we have said. Know that God the Word, who in the beginning was with God and the Father, who has life in Himself, who created all things, and who is the Light enlightening every man, is Himself the One who existed before the world. He created the world. He is in the world, yet is neither known by the world nor comprehended by it. He came into the world and became man, so that He might appear as God and be known as He is by those who receive Him as God with faith and keep His commandments.

Therefore the holy Evangelist says: “As many as received Him, to them He gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in His name; who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us; and we beheld His glory, glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (Jn 1:12-14).

Take it! Here is the mirror of which I spoke before: these very words. Look, I beg you, at the precision in the Evangelist’s words. How clearly he marks the signs by which the faithful are known, so that we may know both ourselves and our neighbors.

“As many,” he says, “as received Him,” that is, through faith, and confessed Him as God and not merely as man, “He gave power” through Baptism “to become children of God,” freeing them from the tyranny of the devil. Thus they should not only be faithful, but, if they wish to live according to His commandments, they should add holiness to faith through the practice of His commandments. As the Lord says elsewhere: “You shall be holy, for I am holy” (Lev 19:2). Again: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Lk 6:36).

Then the Evangelist shows the manner in which such people become children of God, saying: “who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (Jn 1:13). Here he calls birth the spiritual change accomplished and seen through Baptism in the Holy Spirit. As the truthful Lord Himself says: “John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:5).

Therefore those baptized in the Holy Spirit become like light in light, and they know Him who begot them because they see Him. Hear what the Evangelist says about this: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Those born by the grace of the Holy Spirit need to be nourished also by the holy communion of the most pure Body and precious Blood of our Lord.

That these words speak of the most pure Mysteries, hear the Lord, who says: “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him” (Jn 6:56).

When we are born spiritually by the grace of the Holy Spirit and become children of God, then Christ, the incarnate Son and Word of God, enters and dwells in us as Light through communion of the most pure Body and precious Blood of the Lord. Then this also follows: “We beheld His glory, glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father.”

For when we are spiritually born from Him, when He dwells in us through the Mysteries, and when we consciously abide in Him, then, in the very hour this comes to pass in us, we suddenly behold the glory of His Godhead. It is “glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father,” that is, such glory as no other possesses, neither angel nor man.

Since the Father and His Only-begotten Son are one, it is clear that the glory of Both is also one. This glory is revealed and made known to all to whom the Son wills to reveal it, through the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father.

The Evangelist explained this thought in the following words. After saying, “All things came into being through Him,” he immediately added: “and without Him nothing came into being.”

Since nothing came into being without Him, it follows that all things came into being with Him and through His cooperation.

Let this preposition “through,” that is, “through Him” or “by Him,” not offend you.

For this preposition is also used of God the Father, yet it does not signify any mediating or servile ministry.

“God is faithful,” says Paul, “through Whom you were called into the communion of His Son” (1 Cor 1:9).

Likewise the Patriarch Joseph says, “Do not interpretations belong to God?” or “through God?” (Gen 40:8).

The phrase “that came into being” may seem superfluous, since it has already been said that without Him nothing came into being.

Yet in Holy Scripture there is nothing superfluous or idle. All its words contain divine thoughts and a purpose worthy of God.

This phrase, “that came into being,” was added so that when we hear, “All things came into being through Him,” we might not mistakenly think that the Holy Spirit also came into being through the Son.

Nor should we think that He is a thing that comes into being or is created, like the other creatures.

For the All-Holy Spirit is not created and does not come into being. He is God by nature, proceeding from the Father, and creative together with the Father and the Son.

The Prophet bears witness: “By the Word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the Spirit of His mouth all their power” (Ps 32:6).

This phrase can be understood more clearly if read in this way: “and nothing that came into being came into being without Him.”

That is, no thing created and produced was created without the Son of God.

Having presented to us in these words the Son and Word of God as almighty and as the Creator of all creatures, the divine Evangelist describes the other properties of His Godhead in the following words.

Verse 4. “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.”

The phrase “through Him” or “by Him” does not mean that the Word is a dependent Creator of the world, or not the first active cause of the world’s creation.

It does not mean that God created the world by the Word as an artist works with an instrument.

Such a turn of speech is used in Scripture even when the first cause is meant, one that acts in a self-existent and independent manner (cf. 1 Cor 1:9; 1 Cor 12:8, 11; cf. Chrysostom and Theophylact).

Here, however, “it is expressed in this way only so that no one might begin to consider the Son unbegotten” (Chrysostom).

By this turn of speech the relation of the Word to the Father is indicated.

God the Father, invisible and dwelling in unapproachable light, is manifested and always acts in the Son, Who is therefore the image of the invisible God (Heb 1:3).

The Son never acts as though detached or separated from the Father. Thus the creative activity of the Son is at the same time the activity of the Father.

The will of the Father is also the will of the Son (Jn 5:19-20).

“Without Him nothing came into being that came into being.” This is a repetition, explanation, and strengthening of the preceding expression about the creative activity of the Word.

In the created world everything was created by Him, with nothing excepted, but only in the created world, that is, “that came into being.”

“Lest anyone think that, since all things came into being through Him, the Holy Spirit also did, the Evangelist found it necessary to add, ‘that came into being.’

That is, what was created. But the Spirit is not a created being” (Chrysostom; cf. Theophylact).

“Nor will I be frightened by the statement that all things received being through the Son, as though the Holy Spirit were included under the word ‘all.’

For it is not said simply ‘all things,’ but ‘all things that came into being.’ Not the Father through the Son, and not through the Son all that had no beginning of being” (Gregory the Theologian).

Only He who Himself, by nature, is He Who Is can create and give being. He is God, unoriginate and infinite. But lest He again give occasion to separate Him from the Father and the Holy Spirit, Saint John deepens the thought concerning the Godhead of the Word and adds: “And without Him nothing was made that was made.” No creature received being without Him. Apart from Him, or without His participation, as Saint Hilary says in his treatise on the Trinity.

The Son of God is not Creator separately from the other hypostases of the Godhead, but acts as one with Them. God the Word created all things in the communion of the one divine creative nature with the Father and the Holy Spirit. The outward acts of the Godhead are the indivisible acts of the three hypostases. Therefore the Father is Creator, the Son is Creator, and the Holy Spirit is Creator. Yet there are not three Creators, but one Creator, according to the one creative act of the Godhead.

Depicting this in one saying, the Prophet David sings: “By the Word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the Spirit of His mouth all their host” (Ps 32:6). Our feeble thought, contemplating omnipotence in creatures, is ready to refer it to God the Father. Contemplating wisdom, it is ready to refer it to God the Son. Contemplating vitality, it is ready to refer it to God the Spirit. But sound confession does not dare distinguish separate acts of the divine hypostases in creation. It believes that creation is the indivisible work of God worshiped in Trinity.

The Son and the Holy Spirit are not helpers of the Father in creation, but indivisible co-actors with Him. Creation of all things was accomplished by the one act of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Therefore in creation there are no traces that would reflect separate actions of the hypostases. But there is a sharp trace pointing to the tri-hypostatic God. This is the threefoldness found everywhere, passing through every degree of creatures.

There are three cosmic forces: light, heat, and gravity. There are three planetary forces: electricity, magnetism, and chemistry. There are three elemental seats of these forces: air, water, and earth, and three divisions of bodies in the inorganic realm. There are three functions in plants and three chief divisions among them. There are three functions in animal organisms, over and above the three plant functions. There are three parts in man: spirit, soul, and body, and three functions in each. Concerning the Angels it is also known that they have three chief ranks, each of which is again divided into three. Is this threefoldness not a testimony to the tri-hypostatic Creator God?

What moved God to creation? The tri-hypostatic God, as the fullness of being and perfections, is all-sufficient in Himself and all-blessed. He can have no need whatever, because He possesses all things. If He was moved to create the world and everything in it, He did this not from any necessity, but according to His completely free will, “according to the good pleasure of His will” (Eph 1:5).

There can be no question here of outward compulsion. If there were some inward necessity, as though there were some need in the divine nature, then creativity would have to be recognized as an inseparable essential property of the Godhead. Then the act of creation would have to be acknowledged as acting unoriginately or eternally in God, and creation as coeternal and co-unoriginate with God. This cannot be admitted.

By the creation of this world, immeasurable to us, nothing was added to the divine fullness, and nothing was taken from it. Yet the world is not alien to God, but His own. The good pleasure of goodness, which gave the world its beginning, also lies at the foundation of the continuance of its being.

The expression of this is every possible beatification of creatures. This constitutes the basic idea of the world’s order and the fundamental tone in the movement of the phenomena of worldly being, both physically and morally. This is the goal of God’s providential actions. Faith points to it, and the mind strives to see it clearly, though so far without success. Yet the mind does not lose hope of success.

For this, one must perceive the invisible through the visible. But the visible arrests sight and blocks its path. Therefore everything is dark. Faith alone firmly believes that in the end all will appear in the light of complete perfection and blessedness. Joining this awaited end with the beginning, faith sees the pre-inscription of all that exists and occurs in the original plan of the world.

When and how all that is temporal was pre-inscribed in the eternal, and then brought into actuality, is God’s mystery. But it was pre-inscribed, and what now exists and occurs exists and occurs according to that pre-inscription. In this is the wisdom of God.

The Wisdom of God speaks of herself in the Wise One: “The Lord possessed me as the beginning of His ways, for His works. Before the ages He established me, in the beginning, before He made the earth.” Then she adds: “When He prepared the heaven, I was with Him. When He made firm the foundations of the earth, I was beside Him, ordering all things. I was she in whom He rejoiced, when He rejoiced, having completed the inhabited world” (Prov 8:22-23, 27, 29-31).

Thus the beginning, continuation, and completion of creation are all according to the wise pre-inscription laid down before the ages. When God, having finished creation, said, “Behold, all things are very good” (Gen 1:31), this meant that everything fully corresponded to God’s wise plan and intentions.

The time has not yet come to set this seal of approval upon all that occurs, or upon the movement of worldly being. Only the all-seeing eye of God sees how everything is directed toward this end. At the end of the whole movement it will be said, “Behold, all things are very good,” so that all may see and confess it. And this will be.

How the mind would desire to comprehend all this and express it definitely. But this has not been given to it. Human language does not even possess words to express it. Revelation too is silent, telling only a little from this hidden depth of God’s mysteries. Receive that with your whole soul. Be content with it for now, and await fuller clarification in the age to come.

Considering all that is known to us about the beginning of the world, and from the beginning of the world until now, we can say with assurance that the material world is destined to be the arena for the development of rational and free creatures. It is also subject to transfiguration together with their elevation to higher degrees of perfection.

Rational and free creatures are destined for Godlike perfection, and therefore for living communion with God and blessedness in every respect. Yet this destiny must be reached through struggle with trials on the way to this goal. Limited rational freedom cannot be established at the beginning of God-pleasing good except through experiences of combat with what may turn it aside.

Struggle is the means. But since it stands in front, it becomes the nearest goal, behind which the further and final goal is seen. One may say that this struggle served as the norm for the ordering of the world and its governance. Everything is directed so that rational and free creatures may stand firm in struggle against adversities.

God’s will is not that there should be no adversities for created freedom. His will is that freedom should be able to withstand them, however strong they may be. And so throughout the whole expanse of the world, in the present period of worldly being, struggle is underway. The first-created, soon after their creation, encounter struggle. In the world of spirits, it had occurred even before this. From then until now, and from now until the end of the world, everything will be struggle.

Its final act is indicated in the following words: “To him who conquers I will grant to sit with Me”; to him who conquers “I will give the crown” (Rev 3:21; 2:10), and so on. Therefore struggle, without dreaming of rest while the breath of life is in you, looking toward the great recompense.

Our forefathers, as soon as they were brought into life and began to act, immediately encountered battle and struggle. They did not stand firm. Yet even if they had stood firm, the battle would not have ceased, but would have accompanied them step by step. It would also have accompanied their descendants.

After the fall, only the form of the battle changed. Extraordinary divine actions and institutions became necessary to aid those who struggle. But the substance of life, or the task of man’s life, remained one and the same: struggle. Struggle all the more willingly and zealously because, for your success in this battle, the Son of God became incarnate and suffered.

According to the Apostle, even “before the foundation of the world” you were chosen for this, because you were chosen for holiness and purity, which cannot be conceived without struggle (Eph 1:4-5). Thus everything in you is from the Lord. You were created by Him, redeemed, adopted as a son, called to eternal blessedness, and furnished with the means to attain it. Therefore love Him and give yourself to Him with all your soul, all your thoughts, and all your heart. Serve Him, sparing not your life.