But throughout the OT writings is manifested the feeling that some intermediary is needed in the operations of God's government (cf. Jg G""'- 13^ [an angel ; but note 6"] and Ezk 1 P [the Spirit]). Later Jewish thougiit went further and developed a de- tailed angelology ; but the NT reproduces the simpler thought "^of the OT (cf. Ac 21^ [an angel ; so in 12^] or W [the Holy Spirit]). And with regard to the original act or acts of creation, the simple ' And Jahweh formed ' or * breathed ' of Gn 2, and the even simpler ' And God said ' of Gn 1, are extended even in the OT by the well-known references to the brooding Spirit (Gn 1'^ ; perhaps, like the rest of the chapter, containing a purified echo of pagan cosmologies) and to Wisdom ( Pr 8^<* etc. ) ; a hint of a primal man as an assessor at creation has been found by Ewald in Job 15^. On such foundations as these, later Jewish thought built its theology of the Memra or Divine Word, and of the Logos as it appears in Alexandrian Judaism.
In contrast, perhaps in opposition, to all this, the apostolic writings prefer the language of continual reference to God Himself. They are troubled by no Jewish (or Gnostic) fears as to God's contact with the world of matter (Ro l'^" 4", He V^ [quot- ing Ps 10225-27] S-*). Note also He 11^ : ' the worlds — alQves — have been framed by the word of God ' (cf. Ro 1 136, I Co 126, Eph 123 46). The practical de- ductions from this view, that all things made by God are good, and work together for good, are found in Ro 8^8, 1 Ti 4*.
This insistence on God's sole activity makes the more remarkable the relation of the Father to the Son in the work of creation — a concept which, like so many others, owes its most definite formulation to St. Paul, but is represented in every other stratum of apostolic teaching. Thus in 1 Co 8^ we read : ' to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we unto him ; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through (5ta) whom are all things, and we through him.' It is perhaps Avorth notice that this great sentence occurs in the discussion of things offered to idols, as if St. Paul expected the Cor- inthians to recognize the truth as something quite familiar (cf. Ro ll^s, where the expression isiK, not dir6, Beov). In Col P* we read that all things have been created in Christ and through Him and unto Him (^i', 8id, els). In v.^^ jjg jg called the TrpurdroKOi irdffris Krlffem — a term which recalls Rev 3'^ but goes far beyond it ; with this should be compared the lj.ovoyev7)s of Jn !'•* ; see also Ro 8-'' [eh t6 elvai avrbv TTpuTbroKov ev ttoWoTs dde\(j)oU), Eph 1^, and 1 P 1^°. The same thought appears in somewhat difterent language in He l^'- (the Son 'through [5id] whom lie made the worlds . . . upholding all things by tlie word of his power'). In the locus classicus of the Johannine writings (Jn P) the preposition is still * through ' {Sid). In these passages we have what_ may be termed the distinctively Christian contribution to the theistic doctrine of creation. Instead of a word, or spirit, or angels, the great in- strument of creation is a living Divine Person — the Son. And the difierence is not simply what the Christian might express by saying that the instru- ment is not the word but the Word. The Son is
not merely the instrument, He is the end ; 5t' airrov, and also eh airrbv ; cf. Eph 1^" ' to sum up all things in Christ' ; i.e. He is also the final cause, while at the same time, from another aspect, with regard to His manifestation (1 P l^* quoted above), the final cause of the appearance of Christ in the world is to be found in the Church. Christ is also Lord of the created world, in this present time (Eph 1^, Col 117-18) ; all things consist, have their ordered being, in Him ; He is the head of all principality and power (Col 2i"), just as ' all the fulness of God' dwells in Him (2^). And of all this created order the Church is the crowning work ; of the Church Christ is the Head (Eph l^^) ; i.e. the Church, as in some way distinct from the rest of creation, stands in a unique and timeless relation to Christ.
It is impossible to enter into these daring thoughts without asking, What then of evil? Was evil too created by God, and through Christ ? To the childlike thought of the OT, evil was, or rather is, created by God, like good (Is 45^ ; cf. Am 36). And the NT writers were too fully steeped in the thought of the OT to feel the prob- lem as we feel it to-day. But it was felt none the less. In 1 P 4^^, indeed, the sufferings of the good only suggest the thought of a ' faithful Creator.' Ps 86 is quoted three times in the Epistles : once in Eph r-2, with simple approval ; in 1 Co \b^ it is recognized that the subjection of all things to Christ is not yet complete ; so in He 2^'', where this recognition is joined to the author's characteristic teaching with regard to the sufterings of Christ. For the most part, St. Paul refers moral evil to the 'spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places' (Eph 6^2 ; cf. 2-, also 2 Th 2", 2 Co 4^). But in one pregnant passage, illuminating yet ob- scure, Ro 8^"^-, he hears in the long wail of the misery of creation the cries of the birth-pangs which herald a new order, of which the leaders and inaugurators are the sons of God ; and in the apparent vanity (fruitlessness) of natiure (in which ' of fifty seeds she often brings but one to bear '), he sees the preparation for a new revelation of the creative order and purposefulness of God ; while no created thing is able even now to separate us from the love of Christ (v.^^). It is therefore not surprising that, in contrast to the old order, St. Paul should speak of the appearance of a new, here and now. If the whole of creation is through Christ, much more is the new character or self a new creation (Gal 6i« ; cf. 2 Co 5'^, Eph 42* with Eph 2^5 and Ps SP"). The 'new man in Christ' explains and satisfies the longing of the created and imperfect world.*