Tractates on the Gospel of John

^7. We have got clear of this question. Mark ye that rightly we say the works of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit are inseparable. But as you understand it, lo, God made the light, and the Son saw the Father making light, according to your carnal understanding, who wilt have it that He is less, because He said, “The Son cannot of Himself do anything, but what He sees the Father doing.” God the Father made light; what other light did the Son make? God the Father made the firmament, the heaven between waters and waters; and the Son saw Him, according to your dull and sluggish understanding. Well, since the Son saw the Father making the firmament, and also said, “The Son cannot of Himself do anything, but what He sees the Father doing,” then show me the other firmament made by the Son. Have you lost the foundation? But they that are “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone,” are brought into a state of peace in Christ; nor do they strive and wander in heresy. Therefore we understand that the light was made by God the Father, but through the Son; that the firmament was made by God the Father, but through the Son. For “all things were made through Him, and without Him was nothing made.” Cast out your understanding, which ought not to be called understanding, but evidently foolishness. God the Father made the world; what other world did the Son make? Show me the Son's world. Whose is this world in which we are? Tell us, by whom made? If you say, “By the Son, not by the Father,” then you have erred from the Father; if you say, “By the Father, not by the Son,” the Gospel answers you thus, “And the world was made by (through) Him, and the world knew Him not.” Acknowledge Him, then, by whom the world was made, and be not among those who knew not Him that made the world.