Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. -- John 1:3, World English.
He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. -- John 1:10, World English.
The claim is often made that John 1:3 tells us that without Jesus Christ (the Word) absolutely nothing was created. An author on one site states:
Some heretical cults deny Christ’s eternal existence, claiming that He was a created Being. In contrast to this false doctrine, the Bible presents Him as the uncreated Creator: “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3). In the beginning He was not created or made. In the beginning He already was (John 1:1-2)! The Apostle Paul declares that “He is before all things” (Col. 1:17)."
Thus, according to this reasoning, Jesus could not be created since absolutely nothing was created without him. However, this reasoning evidently overlooks that the other spirit "sons of God" were also present at the beginning of the world mankind that God created through his firstborn Son. -- Job 38:4-7; John 1:10.
The fact is that there is nothing in John 1:3 that presents Jesus as uncreated; he is being presented as the instrument that God used in the creation being spoken of.
We wish to first point out that the word "creator" is never used of Jesus in the Bible. The Bible nowhere, not even once, presents Jesus as the "uncreated Creator." That thought is being imagined, assumed, added to, and read into the scriptures. Jesus himself applied the words "creator" and "creation" to his God and Father, but never to himself. -- Mark 10:6; 13:19.
The verse reads from the Westcott & Hort Interlinear:
panta di autou egeneto kai chwris autou
ALL (THINGS) THROUGH HIM CAME TO BE, AND APART FROM HIM
3956 1223 0846_3 1096 2532 5565 0846_3
egeneto oude hen
CAME TO BE NOT BUT ONE (THING).
1096 3761 1520
ho gegonen
WHICH HAS COME TO BE
3739 1096
Westcott & Hort Interlinear
Actually, what John said was that without the Word not one was created. Notice that the words "things" and "thing" are in parenthesis above. This is because those words are not actually in the Greek text. Adding these words at least appears to most readers to make it appear to be all-inclusive of absolutely everything created.
Regardless, the creation being spoken of was "of God" -- the God and Father of Jesus (2 Corinthians 11:31; Ephesians 1:3,17; 1 Peter 1:3) through, by means of, Jesus. -- 1 Corinthians 8:6.
The word "one" is in Greek neuter form -- hen -- of the word "heis"; and "all" -- Greek, panta -- is a form of the Greek "pas". (The words "things" and "thing" are added by the translators.)
Another form of the Greek word "pas" is used in Romans 8:22: "For we know that all [pasa] creation groans and travails in pain together until now." The "all creation" or "whole creation" that is being referred to in Romans 8:22 does not include the angels, the stars, the sun, the moon, etc., but rather it refers only to the world of mankind that has been subjected to vanity (Romans 8:20) due to Adam's sin. (Romans 5:12-19) Thus, absolutely "all creation" in the universe is not included in "all creation", neither in Romans 8:20, nor in what is said in John 1:3. Indeed, if one does a study of the usage of all forms of the word "pas" in the New Testament, one will see that this word rarely means absolutely everything in the universe, but that it is always understood in the context as well as common evidence. John 1:10 indicates that in John 1:3, the "all" that is being referred to is the world of mankind, as it is in Romans 8:22. The only true God (John 17:1,3) is the Creator (Mark 10:6; 13:19); the prehuman Jesus is the instrument -- the agent -- that the Creator used to bring into being the creation that is being spoken of.
Additionally, the negative usage of terms such as "not one" is also subject to what is being spoken of. In Hebrews 2:8, for instance, in speaking of what has been subjected to man as spoken of in Psalm 8:6, we read: "For in that he subjected all things to him, he left nothing that is not subject to him. But now [due to the sin of Adam, man has been subjected to futility -- Romans 5:12-19; 8:20] we don't see all things subjected to him, yet." Note that the scripture says that God left nothing that is not subject to him (man). Does this mean that God subjected absolutely everything in the entire universe to man? Absolutely not! Psalm 8:7,8 describes the "all things" that were subjected to man, which corresponds with Genesis 1:26,28. All that was subjected to man pertains to all the earth, not absolutely all in the universe.
The Greek word "hen" refers to "the beginning" spoken of in John 1:1, which is the beginning, not of the universe, but of the world (kosmos spoken of in John 1:10), the six days of the creation of the land (earth) and the sky (heavens) and the things in them as seen from the surface of the planet. (Genesis 1:1,3-31; Exodus 20:11; 31:17)
The Greek "hen" -- one -- is a neuter adjective and probably refers to the Greek noun plasma or poiema, that is, of being formed.
The Greek word "panta" -- all -- always looks to the context and common evidence for what is included or excluded. The all being referred to is that which is spoken of as "the beginning", all pertaining to the six days of creation.
See also our study:
Panta and Kosmos
The beginning in John 1:1 is the same "beginning" that is spoken of in Genesis 1:1. That "beginning" is shown by Exodus 20:11 and Exodus 31:17 to be the entire "six days" spoken of in Genesis 1:3-31. (This "beginning" then is after Yahweh had created the universe.) The "beginning" is not in reference to the "beginning" of the material universe, and not even the planet earth itself. We need to realize that the word "earth" has more than one meaning in the scriptures, and also that the word heaven(s) has more than one meaning. The heavens where God and the angels live (1 Kings 8:30,39; 2 Chronicles 20:6; Psalm 11:4; Matthew 5:16,45,48; 6:1,9; 18:10; 22:30; 24:36; Mark 12:25; 13:32; ) already existed before that first day, but the heavens -- the sky -- above the dry land and the things and living creatures related to that "heavens" did not begin to exist until the second "day". (Genesis 1:6-8) Before the creative acts of 'day one' began, the planet earth already "was" (Genesis 1:2), but the "earth" -- the dry land -- upon that planet, and the things included upon that earth, did not begin to appear until the third day. (Genesis 1:9-13) It is the "heavens and earth" that are described as being created during the six days that is the "beginning" that is spoken of in Genesis 1:1, and also in John 1:1.
When speaking of creation, what does the expression "the beginning" usually refer to in the New Testament? Matthew 19:4; Mark 10:6 refer to "the beginning" in reference to the creation of the man and woman, which took place on the sixth day of creation as related in Genesis 1:26-31. In Matthew 19:8 "the beginning" refers to the original marriage arrangement as provided by God after creating Eve, which was also part of the sixth day of creation. Matthew 24:21 and Mark 13:19 refer to the beginning of the world (kosmos); this world is described in John 1:10 as the world into which the Word came, but which world did not recognize the Word in their midst. The Greek word "kosmos" as used in the Bible, almost always refers to the world existing upon the planet earth; indeed, we have no reference where is it is used to refer to the entire universe. Thus, it is speaking of the world of mankind, not the entire material universe, nor of the angels. This is the "world" that the Word came into, and that did not recognize him. (John 1:10) Thus, it can be seen that the NT writers in connection with "the beginning" of creation understood that this beginning was in reference to things upon the planet earth, not to the entire universe itself.
Please note that the 'creation' spoken of in Colossians 1:15,16 includes the living creation both in heaven and earth, while the beginning spoken of in John 1:1 and the creation spoken of in John 1:3,10 refer only to the world (Kosmos) of mankind, the creation that has been subjected to vanity, futility, because of Adam's sin. -- Romans 5:12, 8:20.
Since the angels were already in the existence (Job 38:4-7) at the beginning spoken of in Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1, we conclude the created spirit beings were created before that "beginning", which would include Jesus as the firstborn. (Colossians 1:15) In Isaiah 44:24, however, we read of the creation of the material universe (the big bang?), and it appears that Yahweh was alone when he created the material universe; therefore we conclude the material universe was created before the spirit world. Thus, the first of the creations recorded in the Bible would be the material universe; the second -- but the first living creature would be the pre-human Jesus; then through the prehuman Jesus, the rest of the living dominions, both visible and invisible, in heaven and on earth, were created through, by means of, the prehuman Jesus, so that Jesus was created before all. -- Colossians 1:16,17.
For links to more of our studies related to Jesus and Creation:
For links to some of our studies related to creation:
Creation
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