# John 1.3

<!-- type: passage | created: 2026-04-26 | updated: 2026-05-28 -->

**Book:** [John](/codex/john-the-apostle/) · NASB95

## Verse

> All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. (John 1:3, NASB95)

## Immediate context (±2 verses)

**NASB95** ([NASB95](/codex/nasb95/))
> 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2. He was in the beginning with God.
>
> **3. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.**
>
> 4. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. 5. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. (John 1:1-5, NASB95)

## Setting

- **Speaker:** John the Apostle (the Evangelist).
- **Audience:** late-first-century Christian readership.
- **Location:** traditionally Ephesus.
- **Time period:** late first century, c. AD 85-95.

## Theological reading

The verse continues the prologue's high Christology, asserting **Christ as the agent of all creation**. Three claims:

1. **All things through Him.** *Panta di' autou egeneto*, "all things through Him came into being." The instrumental *dia* with genitive, through, by means of, by the agency of. The Father's creative act is mediated through the Son.
2. **Not even one thing apart from Him.** *Chōris autou egeneto oude hen*, "apart from Him not even one thing came into being." Triple emphasis: *not even one thing*. The exclusion is total; nothing created came into being without the Son's mediation.
3. **The verb contrast: *egeneto* vs *ēn*.** The verse uses *egeneto* (came into being / became) for created things, sharply contrasting with the *ēn* (was) of vv. 1-2 for the Word. Created things *came into being*; the Word *was*. Different verbs, different ontological categories. Christ is not part of *panta* (all things); He is their cause.

The verse functions as a **decisive refutation of Arianism**. If Christ were a created being:
- He could not be the agent through whom *all* things came into being (He would have created Himself, which is incoherent).
- The exclusion *oude hen* (not even one thing) leaves no escape: every created thing came through the Word, including (per Arius's claim) the highest pre-cosmic creature.
- Athanasius's argument (*Discourses Against the Arians* II.20-21): the verb difference (*egeneto* / *ēn*) is John's deliberate vocabulary marking the Creator-creature distinction. The Word is on the Creator side; everything else on the creature side. This is the exegetical core of the Nicene formula "begotten, not made" (*genitum, non factum*).

**Connection to OT, wisdom and word in creation:**

John's claim has rich OT roots:
- **Genesis 1**, God creates by *speech*: "And God said, 'Let there be…'" Ten times in the chapter. The "word" is the medium of creation. John identifies that creative Word with the personal pre-incarnate Son.
- **Psalm 33:6**, "by the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host."
- **Psalm 148:5**, "let them praise the name of the LORD, for He commanded and they were created."
- **Proverbs 8:22-31**, Wisdom personified; "with [the LORD] when He marked out the foundations of the earth"; "the master workman" (cf. Proverbs 8:30).
- **Wisdom of Solomon 7:21-22** (deuterocanonical), Wisdom as the "fashioner of all things."

John identifies the personal Logos with this OT creating-word / wisdom tradition.

**Parallel NT statements:**
- **[Colossians 1.16](/codex/colossians-1-16/)**, "for by Him all things were created… all things have been created through Him and for Him"
- **Hebrews 1:2**, "[God] in these last days has spoken to us in His Son… through whom also He made the world"
- **1 Corinthians 8:6**, "one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him"

The four NT loci form a coherent doctrine: Christ is the Creator-mediator. Father wills, Son executes, Spirit perfects (the patristic *opera trinitatis ad extra* structure).

**Apologetic significance:**

The verse anchors:
- **Christ's deity**, Creator, not creature.
- **Christ's pre-existence**, He must exist *before* the act of creation that He mediates.
- **The Trinity's economic structure**, distinct persons working in concert, with the Son as the Father's creative agent.
- **The cosmological argument's biblical anchor**, *all things* came into being through Him; the universe is contingent, dependent, mediated; the Word is necessary, self-existent, original. See [Kalam Cosmological Argument](/codex/kalam-cosmological-argument/).

**Watchtower (NWT) refutation.** The NWT insertion of "[other]" into Colossians 1:16 ("all *[other]* things were created in him") is also relevant here. John 1:3's *oude hen* (not even one thing) makes the bracketed "[other]" impossible: there are no "other" things outside the *panta*. Every created thing is in the set *panta*; the Word is not.

**Patristic.** Origen (*Commentary on John* II.6, c. AD 230) develops the verse extensively: the Word's role in creation is constitutive of His identity as Logos. Athanasius (*Discourses Against the Arians* II.20-21, c. AD 358) makes John 1:3 one of his key anti-Arian texts. Augustine (*Tractates on John* 1, c. AD 414) and Cyril of Alexandria (*Commentary on John*, c. AD 425) develop the verb-contrast (*egeneto* / *ēn*) into formal doctrine.

**Reformed / modern.** Calvin (*John* commentary): "if all things were created by the Word, He must Himself be uncreated." D. A. Carson (*The Gospel According to John* PNTC, 1991), Andreas Köstenberger (*John* BECNT, 2004) develop the modern conservative reading.

## Key words

- [G3056 - logos](/codex/g3056-logos/), *logos* (Word), the Christological subject
- [G1096 - ginomai](/codex/g1096-ginomai/), *ginomai* (come into being), *egeneto*; the creature verb
- [G1510 - eimi](/codex/g1510-eimi/), *eimi* (be), *ēn*; the Word's verb
- [G2316 - theos](/codex/g2316-theos/), *theos* (God), implicit; the Father whose creative act is mediated

<!-- BACKLINKS:START -->
## Quoted in

**Arguments and defeaters:**

- [100 Questions for Evolutionists](/codex/100-questions-for-evolutionists/)
- [Anointing Implies Subordination Objection Defeater](/codex/anointing-implies-subordination-objection-defeater/), via [John 1.1-18](/codex/john-1-1-18/)
- [Argument from Cosmology (Guillen)](/codex/argument-from-cosmology-guillen/), via [John 1.1-3](/codex/john-1-1-3/)
- [Argument from Intelligibility](/codex/argument-from-intelligibility/), via [John 1.1-3](/codex/john-1-1-3/)
- [Argument from Mathematical Truth](/codex/argument-from-mathematical-truth/), via [John 1.1-3](/codex/john-1-1-3/)
- [Argument from Mathematics (Guillen)](/codex/argument-from-mathematics-guillen/), via [John 1.1-3](/codex/john-1-1-3/)
- [Argument from the Apophatic Limit of Formal Systems](/codex/argument-from-the-apophatic-limit-of-formal-systems/), via [John 1.1-3](/codex/john-1-1-3/)
- [Argument from the Continuance of Being](/codex/argument-from-the-continuance-of-being/)
- [Argument from the Costly-Signal Convergence](/codex/argument-from-the-costly-signal-convergence/), via [John 1.1-18](/codex/john-1-1-18/)
- [Argument from the Observer-Demand Convergence](/codex/argument-from-the-observer-demand-convergence/), via [John 1.1-18](/codex/john-1-1-18/)
- [Argument from the Pre-Given Logos](/codex/argument-from-the-pre-given-logos/)
- [Argument from the Reality of Mathematical Infinity](/codex/argument-from-the-reality-of-mathematical-infinity/), via [John 1.1-3](/codex/john-1-1-3/)
- [Argument from the Trans-Instinctual Agency Convergence](/codex/argument-from-the-trans-instinctual-agency-convergence/), via [John 1.1-3](/codex/john-1-1-3/)
- [Argument from the Universal Imagination Convergence](/codex/argument-from-the-universal-imagination-convergence/)
- [Argument from the Universal Storytelling Convergence](/codex/argument-from-the-universal-storytelling-convergence/), via [John 1.1-14](/codex/john-1-1-14/)
- [Argument from Thermodynamics](/codex/argument-from-thermodynamics/)
- [Biogenesis Argument](/codex/biogenesis-argument/), via [John 1.3-4](/codex/john-1-3-4/)
- [Build the Cosmological Argument](/codex/build-the-cosmological-argument/)
- [Cumulative Case for the Deity of Christ](/codex/cumulative-case-for-the-deity-of-christ/), via [John 1.1-3](/codex/john-1-1-3/)
- [Evil as Privation of Good](/codex/evil-as-privation-of-good/)
- [Hand of God Argument](/codex/hand-of-god-argument/), via [John 1.1-3](/codex/john-1-1-3/)
- [Interdependency Argument](/codex/interdependency-argument/)
- [Jesus Has a God Therefore Not God Objection Defeater](/codex/jesus-has-a-god-therefore-not-god-objection-defeater/), via [John 1.1-18](/codex/john-1-1-18/)
- [Kalam Cosmological Argument](/codex/kalam-cosmological-argument/), via [John 1.1-3](/codex/john-1-1-3/)
- [Manuscript Variants Bible Corruption Objection Defeater](/codex/manuscript-variants-bible-corruption-objection-defeater/), via [John 1.1-3](/codex/john-1-1-3/)
- [Nag Hammadi Suppressed Gospels Objection Defeater](/codex/nag-hammadi-suppressed-gospels-objection-defeater/)
- [Necessary Being is an Intelligent Mind](/codex/necessary-being-is-an-intelligent-mind/), via [John 1.1-3](/codex/john-1-1-3/)
- [Quran Confirms Jesus is God Argument](/codex/quran-confirms-jesus-is-god-argument/)
- [Six Day Creation Falsified Objection Defeater](/codex/six-day-creation-falsified-objection-defeater/), via [John 1.1-3](/codex/john-1-1-3/)
- [Stealing from God Argument](/codex/stealing-from-god-argument/), via [John 1.1-3](/codex/john-1-1-3/)
- [Transcendental Argument for God](/codex/transcendental-argument-for-god/), via [John 1.1-3](/codex/john-1-1-3/)
- [Trinity Coherence Defense (Latin-Thomist)](/codex/trinity-coherence-defense-latin-thomist/), via [John 1.1-18](/codex/john-1-1-18/)
- [Unitarian Oneness Binitarian Objection Defeater](/codex/unitarian-oneness-binitarian-objection-defeater/)
- [Why Didnt Jesus Write Anything Himself Objection Defeater](/codex/why-didnt-jesus-write-anything-himself-objection-defeater/), via [John 1.1-14](/codex/john-1-1-14/)

**Concepts:**

- [Arianism](/codex/arianism/), via [John 1.1-3](/codex/john-1-1-3/)
- [Big Bang](/codex/big-bang/)
- [Borde-Guth-Vilenkin Theorem](/codex/borde-guth-vilenkin-theorem/), via [John 1.1-3](/codex/john-1-1-3/)
- [Christ Was Made (Misread Proof-Texts)](/codex/christ-was-made-misread-proof-texts/)
- [Christianity](/codex/christianity/)
- [Christology](/codex/christology/)
- [Christs Deity](/codex/christs-deity/)
- [DNA](/codex/genetic-code/)
- [Doctrine](/codex/doctrine/), via [John 1.1-18](/codex/john-1-1-18/)
- [Father-Son Authority Asymmetry](/codex/father-son-authority-asymmetry/), via [John 1.1-3](/codex/john-1-1-3/)
- [Genesis Hermeneutics](/codex/genesis-hermeneutics/), via [John 1.1-3](/codex/john-1-1-3/)
- [Genetic Code](/codex/genetic-code/)
- [Idealism](/codex/idealism/)
- [Incarnation](/codex/incarnation/), via [John 1.1-18](/codex/john-1-1-18/)
- [Islamic Dilemma](/codex/islamic-dilemma/), via [John 1.1-18](/codex/john-1-1-18/)
- [Jesus Said](/codex/jesus-said/), via [John 1.1-14](/codex/john-1-1-14/)
- [Kalimatullah](/codex/kalimatullah/), via [John 1.1-18](/codex/john-1-1-18/)
- [Laws of the Universe as Witness to Design](/codex/laws-of-the-universe-as-witness-to-design/), via [John 1.1-3](/codex/john-1-1-3/)
- [Lesson 2.4, Christology in One Lesson](/codex/lesson-2-4-christology-in-one-lesson/), via [John 1.1-18](/codex/john-1-1-18/)
- [Logos Christology](/codex/logos-christology/)
- [Mathematical Intelligibility of Nature](/codex/mathematical-intelligibility-of-nature/), via [John 1.1-18](/codex/john-1-1-18/), [John 1.1-3](/codex/john-1-1-3/)
- [Old Testament Christology](/codex/old-testament-witness-to-the-deity-of-christ/), via [John 1.1-18](/codex/john-1-1-18/)
- [Old Testament Witness to the Deity of Christ](/codex/old-testament-witness-to-the-deity-of-christ/)
- [Oneness Pentecostalism](/codex/oneness-pentecostalism/), via [John 1.1-3](/codex/john-1-1-3/)
- [Origins and Cosmology](/codex/origins-and-cosmology/)
- [Pantheism](/codex/pantheism/), via [John 1.1-3](/codex/john-1-1-3/)
- [Process Theism](/codex/process-theism/)
- [Tahrif](/codex/tahrif/), via [John 1.1-18](/codex/john-1-1-18/)
- [Trinity OT Stack (Five Texts)](/codex/trinity-ot-stack-five-texts/)
- [Trinity vs Oneness vs Modalism vs Arianism](/codex/trinity-vs-oneness-vs-modalism-vs-arianism/), via [John 1.1-3](/codex/john-1-1-3/)
- [Two Powers in Heaven](/codex/two-powers-in-heaven/), via [John 1.1-18](/codex/john-1-1-18/)
- [Young's Literal Translation](/codex/ylt/)
- [Zero and the Metaphysics of Nothing](/codex/zero-and-the-metaphysics-of-nothing/)

**People:**

- [Bart Ehrman](/codex/bart-ehrman/), via [John 1.1-18](/codex/john-1-1-18/)
- [Jesus](/codex/jesus/), via [John 1.1-14](/codex/john-1-1-14/)
- [John the Apostle](/codex/john-the-apostle/), via [John 1.1-18](/codex/john-1-1-18/)
- [Philo of Alexandria](/codex/philo-of-alexandria/), via [John 1.1-18](/codex/john-1-1-18/)

**Lexicon:**

- [G0746 - arche](/codex/g0746-arche/), via [John 1.1-3](/codex/john-1-1-3/)
- [G1096 - ginomai](/codex/g1096-ginomai/)
- [G2936 - ktizo](/codex/g2936-ktizo/)
- [G2937 - ktisis](/codex/g2937-ktisis/)
- [G3004 - lego](/codex/g3004-lego/), via [John 1.1-14](/codex/john-1-1-14/)
- [G3056 - logos](/codex/g3056-logos/), via [John 1.1-3](/codex/john-1-1-3/)
- [G3956 - pas](/codex/g3956-pas/)
- [G4314 - pros](/codex/g4314-pros/), via [John 1.1-3](/codex/john-1-1-3/)
- [H0001 - ab](/codex/h0001-ab/), via [John 1.1-18](/codex/john-1-1-18/)
- [H1697 - dabar](/codex/h1697-dabar/)

**Guides:**

- [Ris3n Arguments](/codex/ris3n-arguments/), via [John 1.1-18](/codex/john-1-1-18/)

**Passages:**

- [1 Corinthians 8.6](/codex/1-corinthians-8-6/)
- [Colossians 1.15-17](/codex/colossians-1-15-17/)
- [Colossians 1.15-20](/codex/colossians-1-15-20/)
- [Colossians 1.16](/codex/colossians-1-16/)
- [Colossians 1.18](/codex/colossians-1-18/)
- [Genesis 1](/codex/genesis-1/)
- [Hebrews 11.3](/codex/hebrews-11-3/)
- [Psalms 33.6](/codex/psalms-33-6/)

<!-- BACKLINKS:END -->
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_Scripture quotations taken from the **New American Standard Bible®** (NASB), Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by **The Lockman Foundation**. Used by permission. All rights reserved. [www.lockman.org](https://www.lockman.org)_