ACC ~ Colossians 1 v17

THE AGENT OF THE FATHER’S PROVIDENCE. THEODORET OF CYR: Paul did not say, “he was made before all things,” but “he is before all things.” He is not only the maker of all, but also he manages the care of what he has made and governs the creature, which exists by his wisdom and power. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

ATHANASIUS: For after making mention of the creation, he naturally speaks of the Framer’s power as seen in it, which power, I say, is the Word of God, by whom all things have been made. If indeed the creation is sufficient of itself alone, without the Son, to make God known, see that you don’t err in thinking that without the Son it has come to be. For if through the Son it has come to be, and “in him all things consist,” it must follow that he who contemplates the creation rightly is contemplating also the Word who framed it, and through him begins to apprehend the Father. DISCOURSES AGAINST THE ARIANS 1.4.12.

AMBROSE: Now we come to that laughable method, attempted by some, of showing a difference of power to subsist between Father and Son. … It is urged that no small difference in degree of divine majesty is signified in the affirmation that all things are “of” the Father and “through” the Son. Whereas nothing is clearer than that here a plain reason is given of the omnipotence of the Son, inasmuch as while all things are “of” the Father, nonetheless are they all “through” the Son. The Father is not “among” all things, for to him it is confessed that “all things serve Thee.” Nor is the Son reckoned “among” all things, for “all things were made by him,”and “all things exist together in him, and he is above all the heavens.” The Son, therefore, exists not “among” but above all things. Indeed, after the flesh, he is of the people, the Jews. Yet at the same time he is God over all, blessed forever, having a name which is above every name, it being said of him, “You have put all things in subjection under his feet.” OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 4.11.138-39.

PSEUDO-DIONYSIUS: Hence, with regard to the supra-essential being of God—transcendent goodness transcendently there—no lover of the truth which is above all truth will seek to praise it as word or power or mind or life or being. No. It is at a total remove from every condition, movement, life, imagination, conjecture, name, discourse, thought, conception, being rest, dwelling, unity, limit, infinity, the totality of existence. And yet, since it is the underpinning of goodness and by merely being there is the cause of everything, to praise this divinely beneficent Providence you must turn to all of creation. It is there at the center of everything, and everything has it for a destiny. It is there “before all things, and in it all things hold together.” THE DIVINE NAMES 1.5.

Col