0. Introduction
I shall discuss the roles of the persons of the Holy Trinity in creation, and whether the language of the New Testament on the matter contradicts passages in the Old Testament. God the Father is often described as the origin of creation. (1 Cor. 8:6; Acts 4:24; Eph. 3:14; Rev. 4:11; 14:7) There are many passages which identify Christ as the mediator and sustainer of creation. (St. Joh. 1:3, 10; 1 Cor. 8:6; [Eph. 3:9]; Col. 1:15-17; Heb. 1:1-3, 10-12) The Holy Ghost is similarly the agent of the Son in creation. (Gen 1:2; Job 33:4; Psa. 33:6; 104:30)
1. Roles of the Persons
It is plain that the Father did not create the world without the involvement of another, he spoke to another involved in creation and said, "Let us make man in our image." (Gen. 1:22 cf. 3:2) The Rabbis often understood this passage to refer to the holy angels, and suggest that they had a role in the creation of humankind, Rashi says, "because the man is in the likeness of the angels and they might envy him, therefore He took counsel with them." (Bereshit Rabbah 8:1, 8.) The New Testament authors never implicate angels in the creation of the world, rather they attribute to Christ the role of mediator in creation. The Son is the one "in (εν)," "through (διά)" and "for (εις)" the universe was created; this is the language of agency. (Col. 1:16, 17) God the Word and God the Holy Spirit are jointly mentioned in creation in Psa. 33:6 "By the Word of the Lord the heavens were made, their host by the Spirit of his mouth." The persons of the Trinity take different yet overlapping roles in creation, the preposition εξ is reserved for the Father's role in creation, and the preposition διά is used most often for the role of the Son, while in the Creeds εν is the common preposition for the role of the Spirit.
The Second Council of Constantinople (553) "For there is but one God even the Father of (εξ) whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ through (διά) whom are all things, and one Holy Spirit in (εν) whom are all things." Creation originates from the Father and is mediated by the Son and is perfected in the Holy Ghost. St. Gregory of Nyssa says that every energy of God has “an origin from the Father, and proceeds through the Son, and is perfected in the Holy Spirit.” (Not Three Gods) Their respective roles are reflected in the use of prepositions for their roles in the New Testament. Bindley explains,
"δι΄ού τά πάντα εγένετο. The phrase is taken from the Caesarean Creed, and is based upon 1 Cor. viii. 6; St. John i. 3; Col. i. 16. In theological language the Son of God is the "instrument of creation," the mediate Agent of its "becoming." His action is thus co-ordinate and co-operant with that of the Father (St. John v.17). All finite being, phenomenal and noumenal, springs from (ἐκ) the Father through (διά) the Son. To write ἐξ ού of the Son would be Sabellianism." (The Oecumenical Documents of the Faith, p. 34, 35.)
The Socinians and Photinians deny the pre-existence of Christ and claim that Isa. 44:24 and similar passages prove that the Son was not actually involved in creation. It should be noted that the Jews never considered Isa. 44:24 to contradict the concept that angels were involved in creation, the passage says:
"I, the Lord, am the maker of all things, stretching out the heavens by myself And spreading out the earth alone."
This language does not mean that others were not present or involved in the actions described. In the Scriptures performing an action "alone" often signifies that the actor is ultimately responsible or is the final cause of the action. Solomon said that "God alone works wonders." (Psa. 72:18) And yet we read that the prophets and apostles worked wonders and miracles by the power of God. (Acts 6:8; 15:12; Rom. 15:19; 2 Cor. 12:12) The meaning of Solomon's words is that God is the sole source of true miracles, in this way "God alone works wonders," but he did not mean to preclude agency, the Lord God often works wonders through the agency of others.
We may say something similar regarding Isa. 44:24, that while the Father "alone" is the creator, he made the world through the agency of his Son and Spirit. The Father himself is the final cause of the creation of the universe, but he acted through his Son. In the same way Nebuchadnezzar boasted, "Is not this great Babylon, which I have built for a royal residence, by the might of my power?" (Dan. 4:30) Nebuchadnezzar did not mean to suggest that he himself constructed every building in Babylon, he meant that he built Babylon through the agency of masons, artisans, carpenters and slaves.
The apostle St. John says of him, "He was in the world, and the world came into being through Him, and yet the world did not know Him." (St. Joh. 1:10) He speaks of the world of mankind because he says "the world did not know him," ignorance and knowledge could only be attributed to persons. Those who deny the pre-existence of Christ endeavor to explain away this passage and ones like it by claiming it is actually about the "new creation," or the "new heavens and new earth." (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15; 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 3:12; 21) But the new creation could not be in mind in St. Joh. 1:10 because it "did not know him."
2. The Epistle of the Hebrews
The epistle of Hebrews begins by saying that the "ages (αιών) were made through his Son." (Heb. 1:2) To support this claim, Heb. 1:10-12 then quotes from Psa. 102:26-28 to prove his point and demonstrate that the heavens and earth were made through the Son.
"And you, O Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of your hands: They will perish; but you remain; and they will all wear out as does a garment; And as a garment you will fold them up, and they shall be changed: but you are the same, and your years shall not fail." (Heb. 1:10-11)
These words are a quotation from Psa. 102:26-28 [101:25-27] but there is a significant difference between the Masoretic text and the Septuagint. In the MT, these words are addressed by the prophet David to God himself, in verse 23 he says that he was "afflicted (עִנָּ֖ה)" by God. However, the Septuagint reads that God "answered (απεκρίθη)" the prophet David and spoke these words to him. In other words, the MT reads that God afflicted David while the LXX reads that God answered David and then spoke the words which follow. The words of Psa. 102:26-28 [101:25-27] apply to God in the MT however in the LXX they apply to the Messiah, Guthrie concludes,
"Thus, in the LXX the words of our quotation can be taken as the words of Yahweh spoken to the one addressed as "Lord," and in that case they must refer to divine Wisdom or the Messiah.” (G. Beale and D. Carson, Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007, pp. 940.)
St. Paul quoted from this text to support what he had said just before, that God had 'created the worlds through his Son.' (Heb. 1:2) This is undoubtedly a reference to the creation of the universe, not to the new creation; the new creation will never come to an end or be 'rolled up like a garment.' Therefore, the Socinian claim that Heb. 1:10-12 is somehow about the new creation is baseless.
St. Paul drew a parallel between the role of Christ in creation and salvation in his epistle to the Colossians which was written to combat the error of Judaizers and Gnostics. The Judaizers rejected the pre-existence of Christ, and rejected the canonicity of St. John's gospel, while the Gnostics affirmed the pre-existence of Christ but denied his role in creation because they regarded the material world as wicked.
"He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation. For by him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and he is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, so that he himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him, and through him to reconcile all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross; through him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven." (Col. 1:15-20)
He is the "first-born of all creation," in his humanity, for in his divine nature he is uncreated and eternal, the deity of the Son is elsewhere directly confirmed in the same epistle, "in him the whole fulness of deity dwells bodily." (Col. 2:9) St. Paul forbids "worship of the angels" by which it is proven that Christ could not possibly be an angel, for he is worshipped frequently in the New Testament. (Col. 2:18) The pre-existence of Christ is further proven by the mention of "rulers" and authorities" which refer to angelic beings as in Ephesians 6:12 and Romans 8:38.
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