John 1:3 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

All things were made by him;— Although the word make is capable of an extensive sense, yet, as in other passages Jesus is said to have created all things, Colossians 1:16 we cannot doubt that St. John uses the word εγενετο in the sense of creation, a meaning which it often has in the Jewish scriptures. It is true, this and the other passages which speak of Christ's making all things, are by some explained of his erecting the Christian dispensation. But let it be observed here, once for all, that if the Socinian explication of the texts, which attribute to the Lord Jesus the names, perfections, and actions of the true God, be admitted, it will be impossible to clear the evangelists from the imputation of having laid in man's way a most violent temptation to idolatry: for it is well known that, as in all ages men have been exceedingly prone to worship false gods, so it was the prevailing vice of the Gentile world when the New Testament was written: that the grossest corruption of morals has ever flowed from this poisonous spring, Romans 1:24; Romans 1:32 and that to destroy idolatry, and bring mankind to the spiritual worship of the true God, was the great end proposed by God in all the revelations which he made of himself to men. This being the case, is it to be imagined, that either Christ himself, who brought the last and best revelation of the divine will, or his apostles, who committed that revelation to writing, would on any occasion have used such expressions, as in their plainand obvious meaning could not fail to lead the believers in that revelation to ascribe to Christ the names, perfections, and actions of the true God, and to pay him divine worship as the true God; while in reality they meant no more than that he was miraculously formed, was commissioned to deliver a new religion to the world, was endowed with the power of miracles, and, in consideration of his exemplary death, was raised from the grave, and had divine honours conferred upon him? Instead of reforming the world, this was to have laid in their way such a temptation to idolatry as they could not well resist; nor has the effect been any other than what was to be expected: for the generality, even of nominal Christians, moved by these expressions, have all along considered Christ as God, and honoured him accordingly, as the God who made all things, and without whom was not any thing made that was made: "not so much as any single thing (ουδε εν) having existence, whether among the noblest or meanest of God's works, was made without him." But, if all things were madeby him, he cannot be himself of the number of the things that were made: he is superior therefore to every created being. Besides, it should be remembered, that in the Old Testament the creation of the heavens and the earth is often mentioned as the prerogative of the true God, whereby he is distinguished from the heathen idols. The design of the evangelist in establishing so particularlyand distinctly the dignity, but especially the divinity of Christ, was, first, to give due weight to the fundamental doctrine of his atonement, and, secondly, to raise in mankind the profoundest veneration for his instructions: and without doubt he who is the Word of God, the interpreter of the divine counsels, and who is himself God, ought to be heard with the deepest attention, and obeyed with the most implicit submission. It is this circumstance,—that the Son of God, who is God, came down from heaven to earth, and in person instituted the Christian religion,—which gives it a dignity beyond any thing that can be imagined by men. It would be the work of a treatise rather than of a note, to represent the Jewish doctrine of the creation of all things by the divine Logos, to which, rather than to the Platonic, there may be some reference here.