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John 1:10
He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

John 5:17-19
But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work…

Genesis 1:1,26
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth…

and without Him nothing was made
This part of the verse reinforces the totality of Christ's involvement in creation. It negates any possibility of creation occurring independently of Him, emphasizing His sovereignty and indispensability. This echoesHebrews 1:2, which states that God made the universe through His Son. The phrase also counters early heresies like Gnosticism, which suggested a lesser deity or emanation was responsible for the material world. By affirming that nothing was made without Him, the text asserts the goodness of creation and Christ's authority over all.

that has been made
This phrase concludes the thought by encompassing all of creation, both seen and unseen. It includes the physical universe and spiritual realms, as suggested inEphesians 6:12, which speaks of spiritual forces. The comprehensive nature of this statement highlights the scope of Christ's creative work, leaving no room for exceptions. It also points to the ongoing sustenance and governance of creation by Christ, as seen inHebrews 1:3, where He is described as upholding all things by His powerful word. This affirms the continuous and active role of Christ in the world.

John begins with the simple phrase, “Through Him,” identifying Jesus—the eternal Word just introduced inJohn 1:1–2—as the active agent of creation. Rather than being a spectator, Christ is the divine channel through whom the Father brought everything into existence (seeColossians 1:16–17, “For in Him all things were created… all things have been created through Him and for Him.”). This teaching elevates Jesus far above a moral teacher; He shares in the work of God Himself, echoingGenesis 1:1 where “God created the heavens and the earth.”

The scope is sweeping: “all things” embraces every galaxy, mountain, atom, and human soul. Nothing lies outside His creative touch.

• Physical creation—land, sea, and sky (Psalm 33:6).

• Spiritual realities—thrones, dominions, rulers, and authorities (Colossians 1:16).

• Time itself, for “before the mountains were born… from everlasting to everlasting You are God” (Psalm 90:2).

John leaves no room for an evolutionary process independent of God; everything owes its existence to Christ’s purposeful act.

John restates the truth negatively to drive it home. If Christ did not act, nothing would exist.Hebrews 1:2 confirms this: God “has spoken to us by His Son… through whom He made the universe.” The redundancy guards against any thought that Christ merely improved or reorganized pre-existing matter.

Three implications come into focus:

• Christ is indispensable—remove Him, and creation collapses.

• Creation is not self-generating—there is no autonomous “nature” apart from its Maker (Acts 17:24-25).

• Worship is due to Jesus as Creator—He is worthy of the same honor as the Father (John 5:23).

The final clause seals the argument: anything that “has been made” falls under Christ’s creative authority.Revelation 4:11 echoes this celebration: “You are worthy, our Lord and God… because You created all things.” The phrase points backward to the completed act of creation and forward to Christ’s sustaining power (Colossians 1:17, “in Him all things hold together”). It excludes the possibility of eternal matter and underscores creation ex nihilo—out of nothing—by the Word’s command.

John 1:3 declares that Jesus is the divine Agent through whom every part of creation came into being. All things owe their existence to Him, and nothing exists apart from His intentional act. Because of this, He deserves our full trust, obedience, and worship as Lord, Sustainer, and eternal Creator.

All things.--The words express in the grandeur of an unthinkable array of units what is expressed in totality by "the world" inJohn 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, comp. Note onColossians 1:15-16.

For the form of this verse, which is technically known as antithetic parallelism, comp.John 5:20;John 5:23;John 8:23;John 10:27-28;1John 2:4;1John 2:27,et al. 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,e.g., in the Psalms (Psalm 89:30-31,et al.) will be familiar to all. . . .

(2)The creation of all things through the Logos, as the instrument of the eternal counsel and activity of God.Verse 3. -All things (Πάντα, notτὰ πάντα) taken one by one, rather than all things regarded in their totality - "all things,"i.e. all beings and elements of things visible or invisible, in heaven, earth, and under the earth (seeColossians 1:16, etc.),came into being through him, through the Logos, who was in the beginning with God, and was God. The Logos is the organ or instrument by which everything, one by one, was made. Two other words are used in the New Testament to denote "creation" -κτίζειν, used inRevelation 4:11 andColossians 1:16, a word indicating the mind and act of the Creator; andποιεῖν, which, as inMark 10:6, points generally to the thing made. The parts of the verbγίγνεσθαι indicate the progress of the work, the process of some creative order, the occurrence of some event in the evolution of Divine providence. This word does not by one solitary expression dogmatically convey the creative act, but the fact of the "becoming," from, it may be, the region of pure thought to that of existence, or from non-observation into prominence, or from an inchoate to a perfect development, or from nothing to something. The context must determine the fulness of its meaning. Occasionally, as inJohn 8:58, it is powerfully contrasted with existence: "Before Abraham was [had come into being] I am." The context here does not allow us to affirm that St. John repudiated the prior existence of theυ}λη, stuff, of whichπάντα were made. He does not affirm nor deny such a prior existency or condition, but by referring the universe in all its parts and items to theLogos, he absolutely ignores the Platonic notion of eternal matter. He could scarcely be ignorant of the speculation as it entered into the Philonic interpretation and formed the basis of the Gnostic speculations which were beginning to infest the early Church. By giving, however, a Divine origin and instrument to the "becoming" ofπάντα, and strengthening his statement by the negative coassurance, he absolutely excludes the dualism of Philo and of Gnostic tendency. In asserting that the Logos is he or that through whom all things were made, the writer does not lower the dignity of the Logos by regarding him merely as theὄργανον of the Father, because the same preposition is used of the relation of the Father to the world or to his servants (Romans 11:36;Galatians 1:1;Hebrews 2:10). Elsewhere St. Paul powerfully affirms the same application ofδιά (1 Corinthians 8:6) to Christ's part in the Creation, reserving for the One God, the Father, the prepositionἐκ.From God andby orthrough God are all things, still "all things" derive their existence "through" the activity, the will, the thought, of the Logos. "The sphere contracts as the blessing enlarges [query, 'intensifies']: existence for everything; life for vegetable and animal world; light for men" (Plummer). The same idea is made more explicit by the negative form in which it is restated:and without him - that is, independently of his cooperation and volition (cf.John 15:5) -not evenone thing came into being. Theὕλη could hardly be spoken of as "one thing," seeing, according to the theory, it was not a unit as opposed to a multiplicity, but the condition of all things. Theἐγένετο would drive harder against any recognition of theὕλη than would theἕν. There is not the faintest approach to any supposition on John's part of the existence of such a primeval entity or eternal reality. Theγέγονεν gives the student of the text and of the meaning grave difficulty. From very early times the Alexandrine Fathers and numerous uncial manuscripts, and an immense group of quotations and versions, unquestionably close the sentence we have just considered withἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν, and consider theὅγέγονεν as the subject of the following clause, translating it either,That which has come into being in him was life; or,that which has come into being was (oris)life in him - for one manuscript,א, has rendered the text more grammatical by readingἔστι instead ofη΅ν. This, adopting the supposed early punctuation, Tregelles and Westcott and Hort have introduced into the text; but R.T. has coincided with T.R. Dr. Westcott has an elaborate note affirming the deep thought involved in the "ancient punctuation," to the effect that theὅγέγονεν refers, not merely to the original creation,ἐγένετο, but to the continued existence of that which has come into being. Of this, it is said, it derives its life, has its life in the Logos, and that this idea is expressed in a profounder way than by sayingἔχει ζωὴν; that itwas life (before it was called into being, or became)in him. This profound and mysterious statement is affirmed by Dr. Moulton and Dr. Westcott to find different but clear expression inRevelation 4:11, "Thou art worthy, our Lord and our God, to receive glory, etc.; for thou didst create all things, and for thy pleasure they were [η΅σαν, the reading preferred by Tisehendorf (8th edit.) and Westcott and Herr, instead ofεϊσι, 'they are'] and were created." Dr. Westcott thinks that "life" here represents "the Divine element in creation, that in virtue of which things 'are' each according to the fulness of its being." What has been created represents the eternal thought, the life that it had in the Logos before the world was. Unless one were compelled to take this thought by the exigencies of the textual criticism, we should hesitate to affirm that this can be the author's intention. To us the common punctuation is far more satisfactory m meaning:Apart from him there came into existence not one thing which has come into existence. This, in its grand comprehensiveness and individualizing of every molecule and every force, brings the mind of the reader down from eternity to time, from the creation to the preservation and providence of the world, and it prepares the way for the great assertion of the following verse.

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