πάσης κτίσεως· ^{16} ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ ἐκτίσθη τὰ πάντα, [τὰ]
16. ὅτι κ.τ.λ.] We have in this sentence the justification of the title
given to the Son in the preceding clause, πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως. It
must therefore be taken to explain the sense in which this title is
used. Thus connected, it shows that the πρωτότοκος Himself is not
included in πᾶσα κτίσις; for the expression used is not τὰ ἄλλα or τὰ
λοιπά, but τὰ πάντα ἐκτίσθη–words which are absolute and comprehensive,
and will admit no exception.
ἐν αὐτῷ] ‘_in Him_,’ as below ver. 17 ἐν αὐτῷ συνέστηκεν. For the
preposition comp. Acts xvii, 28 ἐν αὐτῷ γὰρ ζῶμεν καὶ κινούμεθα καί
ἐσμεν. All the laws and purposes which guide the creation and government
of the Universe reside in Him, the Eternal Word, as their meeting-point.
The Apostolic doctrine of the Logos teaches us to regard the Eternal
Word as holding the same relation to the Universe which the Incarnate
Christ holds to the Church. He is the source of its life, the centre of
all its developments, the mainspring of all its motions. The use of ἐν
to describe His relations to the Church abounds in St Paul (e.g. Rom.
viii. 1, 2, xii. 5, xvi. 3, 7, 9, etc., 1 Cor. i. 30, iv. 15, 17, vii.
39, xv. 18, 22, etc.), and more especially in the Epistles to the
Colossians and Ephesians (e.g. below ii. 7, 10). In the present passage,
as in ver. 17, the same preposition is applied also to His relations to
the Universe; comp. Joh. i. 4 ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν (more especially if we
connect the preceding ὃ γέγονεν with it).
Thus it is part of the parallelism which runs through the whole passage,
and to which the occurrence of πρωτότοκος in both relations gives the
key. The Judæo-Alexandrian teachers represented the Logos, which in
their view was nothing more than the Divine mind energizing, as the
τόπος where the eternal ideas, the νοητὸς κόσμος, had their abode; Philo
_de Mund. Op._ 4 (I. p. 4) ὅσαπερ ἐν ἐκείνῳ νόητα, _ib._ § 5 (p. 4) οὐδὲ
ὁ ἐκ τῶν ἰδεῶν κόσμος ἄλλον ἂν ἔχοι τόπον ἣ τὸν θεῖον λόγον τὸν ταῦτα
διακοσμήσαντα, _ib._ § 10 (p. 8) ὁ ἀσώματος κόσμος ... ἱδρυθεὶς ἐν τῷ
θείῳ λόγῳ; and see especially _de Migr. Abr._ I. p. 437) οἶκος ἐν ᾧ
διαιτᾶται ... ὅσα ἂν ἐνθυμήματα τέκη, ὥσπερ ἐν οἴκῳ τῷ λόγῳ διαθείς. The
Apostolic teaching is an enlargement of this conception, inasmuch as the
Logos is no longer a philosophical abstraction but a Divine Person: see
Hippol. _Hær._ x. 33 ἄιτιον τοῖς γινομένοις Λόγος ἦν, ἐν ἑαυτῷ φέρων τὸ
θέλειν τοῦ γεγεννηκότος ... ἔχει ἐν ἑαυτῷ τὰς ἐν τῷ πατρὶ προεννοηθείσας
ἰδέας ὅθεν κελεύοντος πατρὸς γίνεσθαι κόσμον τὸ κατὰ ἒν Λόγος ἀπετελεῖτο
ἀρέσκων Θεῷ: comp. Orig. _in Ioann._ i. § 22, IV. p. 21.
ἐκτίσθη] The aorist is used here; the perfect below. Ἐκτίσθη describes
the definite historical act of creation; ἔκτισται the continuous and
present relations of creation to the Creator: comp. Joh. i. 3 χωρὶς
αὐτοῦ _ἐγένετο_ οὐδὲ ἔν with _ib._ _ὃ εγέονεν_, 1 Cor. ix. 22
ἐγενόμην τοῖς ἀσθένεσιν ἀσθενής with ib. τοῖς πᾶσιν γέγονα πάντα, 2 Cor.
xii. 17 μή τινα ὧν ἀπέσταλκα with ver. 18 καὶ συναπέστειλα τὸν ἀδελφόν,
1 Joh. iv. 9 τὸν μονογενῆ _ἀπέσταλκεν_ ὁ Θεὸς εἰς τὸν κόσμον ἵνα
ζήσωμεν δι’ αὐτοῦ with ver. 10 ὅτι αὐτὸς ἠγάπησεν ἡμᾶς καὶ
_ἀπέστειλεν_ τὸν ὑιὸν αὐτοῦ.
τὰ πάντα] ‘_the universe of things_,’ not πάντα ‘all things severally,’
but τὰ πάντα ‘all things collectively.’ With very few exceptions,
wherever this phrase occurs elsewhere, it stands in a similar connexion;
see below, vv. 17, 20, iii. 11, Rom. xi. 36, 1 Cor. viii. 6, xi. 12,
xii. 6, xv. 27, 28, 2 Cor. v. 18, Eph. i. 10, 11, 23, iv. 10, Heb. i. 3,
ii. 8, Rev. iv. 11. Compare Rom. viii. 32 τὰ πάντα ἡμῖν χαρίσεται, 2
Cor. iv. 15 τὰ πάντα δι’ ὑμᾶς, with 1 Cor. iii. 22 ἔιτε κόσμος ... ὑμῶν;
and Phil. iii. 8 τὰ πάντα εζημιώθην with Matt. xvi. 26 ἐὰ τὸν κόσμον
ὅλον κερδήσῃ. Thus it will appear that τὰ πάντα is nearly equivalent to
‘the universe.’ It stands midway between πάντα and τὸ πᾶν. The last
however is not a scriptural phrase; for, while with τὰ πάντα it involves
the idea of connexion, it suggests also the unscriptural idea of
_self-contained_ unity, the great world-soul of the Stoic pantheist.
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