Hebrews 11:3 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Through faith we understand, &c.— "By faith we understand that the worlds were adjusted by the word of God, and the several revolutions of them directed by the operations of his secret providence; as the whole universe was at first created by his power, wisdom, and goodness, and the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. It is certain that no visible cause could produce these things, which would be in effect to suppose them to have produced themselves: we therefore by faith refer them to a divine invisible original." Ihave no doubt but By the word of God, ρηματι Θεου, is meant, by the word of the Divine Logos. This will appear by comparing the present passage with chap. Hebrews 1:2-3 of this epistle, where the same word ρηματι is used by the apostle, when he describes the Son as upholding all things by the word of his power, and as the glorious Person by whom the Father made the world. So Philo, speaking of the framing of heaven and earth, says, "God made them both, by his illustrious and splendid Logos, ρηματι, with a word," that is, by the word of his power. Now whether this word ρημα, be the word of the Father speaking to the Son or Logos, or the word of the Logos himself, saying with power, Let them be made, and they were made, it is hence evident, that this Logos must be a Person, and not an attribute. It was this Logos or eternal Word and Son of God, who by the word of his power produced out of a confused chaos all the visible things of the creation, such as the sun, moon, and stars, the earth, and all the objects of our senses: and that chaos itself he created by the same word of his power, when nothing had existed from eternity but GOD.