2 Maccabees 7:28
Ex nihilo is Latin for “out of nothing.” and it refers to the idea that God created the universe without using pre-existing materials, but rather that the universe was brought into being not from stuff, but from no thing at all. Catechism of the Catholic Church 296-298:
“We believe that God needs no pre-existent thing or any help in order to create, nor is creation any sort of necessary emanation from the divine substance. God creates freely “out of nothing.” If God had drawn the world from pre-existent matter, what would be so extraordinary in that? A human artisan makes from a given material whatever he wants, while God shows his power by starting from nothing to make all he wants. Scripture bears witness to faith in creation “out of nothing” as a truth full of promise and hope. Thus the mother of seven sons encourages them for martyrdom:
“I do not know how you came into being in my womb. It was not I who gave you life and breath, nor I who set in order the elements within each of you. Therefore the Creator of the world, who shaped the beginning of man and devised the origin of all things, will in his mercy give life and breath back to you again, since you now forget yourselves for the sake of his laws. . . Look at the heaven and the earth and see everything that is in them, and recognize that God did not make them out of things that existed. Thus also mankind comes into being.” [2 Mac 7:22-23, 28]
Since God could create everything out of nothing, he can also, through the Holy Spirit, give spiritual life to sinners by creating a pure heart in them, and bodily life to the dead through the Resurrection. God “gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.” [Rom 4:17] And since God was able to make light shine in darkness by his Word, he can also give the light of faith to those who do not yet know him (296-298).
The Scriptures teach that God brought the entire creation into existence from nothing. This is known as the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo (“creation from/out of nothing”). The passage referred to above is:
2 MACCABEES 7:28 – “I implore you, my child, to look at the heaven and the earth and see everything that is in them and recognize that God did not make them out of things that existed (οὐκ ἐξ ὄντων). And in the same way the human race came into being (καὶ τὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων γένος οὕτω γίνεται.).”
The Greek word ὄντων in the phrase ἐξ ὄντων literally means “of existing things.” It comes from ὤν, the participle of the verb “to be,” meaning “being” or “existing.” For example, in ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ὤν (“I am the One who is,” Book of Exodus 3:14), the word ὤν expresses simple, ongoing existence.
So ἐξ ὄντων means “out of existing things.” Therefore, οὐκ ἐξ ὄντων means “not out of existing things”—in other words, not from anything that already existed. That is why it can be understood as “out of nothing,” which is how the Latin Vulgate renders it.
The phrase “what is made was thus also (οὕτω) made” ties directly back to “not out of existing things” (οὐκ ἐξ ὄντων). The logic is tight: if what has come into being did not arise from pre-existing things, then its source is not prior material but God’s creative act itself.
In other words, God did not fashion humanity—or anything else—out of some independent, eternal stuff lying around the cosmos. Everything that exists owes its existence to God’s act of creation ex nihilo. The claim is absolute: God is the creator of all things without exception, not merely a craftsman rearranging pre-existing materials.
Genesis 2:7
Some appeal to Book of Genesis 2:7: “the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground.” The argument goes like this: if Adam was formed from pre-existing earth, then creation is from matter, not ex nihilo, and therefore Second Book of Maccabees 7 cannot be teaching creation out of nothing.
But that reasoning confuses two different levels of causation.
Yes, within the narrative of Genesis 2, the human body is formed from the ground. That is a mediate cause — God shapes man using material that already exists in the created order. The question is: where did that ground come from? Within the broader biblical framework, the earth itself is part of the totality of created reality, and 2 Macc 7:23 explicitly says God devised “the origin (γένεσιν) of all things.” The word γένεσις simply means “origin,” “beginning,” or “birth” — the same root as the title of Book of Genesis. The claim is sweeping: God is responsible for the coming-to-be of all things, including humanity.
The point being made is that man was not fashioned from some independent, eternal material that God did not Himself bring into existence. Whatever matter was involved in forming the human body ultimately traces back to God’s creative act from nothing. And the soul — which is not reducible to matter at all in this theological framework — even more clearly depends directly on God as its source.
Then comes the crucial phrase: ὅτι οὐκ ἐξ ὄντων ἐποίησεν αὐτὰ ὁ θεός — “that God did not make them from existing things.” Grammatically, οὐκ ἐξ ὄντων means “not from things that were.” It is a denial of pre-existing entities as the source.
There is simply no natural way to read that as creatio ex materia — creation out of pre-existent matter. It says the opposite. The force of the statement is polemical: the visible world did not arise from already-existing stuff. It came to be by God’s act, not by rearranging eternal materials.
In other words, the text draws a sharp metaphysical line. God is not a cosmic craftsman working with independent supplies. He is the originator of being itself. That’s not Neoplatonic emanation, and it’s not material pre-existence. It is a claim about absolute dependence: everything that exists does so because God brought it into being — full stop.
“Nothingness” is something?
Aquinas refutes a similar objection in the Summa (I, q. 45, a. 1, arg 3):
Objection 3: The preposition “from” [ex] imports relation of some cause, and especially of the material cause; as when we say that a statue is made from brass. But “nothing” cannot be the matter of being, nor in any way its cause. Therefore to create is not to make something from nothing.
The answer: Reply to Objection 3.
When anything is said to be made from nothing, this preposition “from” [ex] does not signify the material cause, but only order; as when we say, “from morning comes midday”—i.e. after morning is midday. But we must understand that this preposition “from” [ex] can comprise the negation implied when I say the word “nothing,” or can be included in it. If taken in the first sense, then we affirm the order by stating the relation between what is now and its previous non-existence. But if the negation includes the preposition, then the order is denied, and the sense is, “It is made from nothing—i.e. it is not made from anything”—as if we were to say, “He speaks of nothing,” because he does not speak of anything. And this is verified in both ways, when it is said, that anything is made from nothing. But in the first way this preposition “from” [ex] implies order, as has been said in this reply. In the second sense, it imports the material cause, which is denied.
Creatio ex nihilo does not mean that “nothingness” is some kind of ghostly raw material God used, as if “nothing” were a weird cosmic substance sitting on a shelf. “Nothing” is not a thing. It has no properties, no potential, no shadowy half-existence. It is simply the absence of being.
What the phrase actually means is this: creation marks the absolute beginning of all finite being. Before creation, no created thing existed—no matter, no energy, no space, no time. Only God existed. So “ex nihilo” is a way of denying that there was any pre-existing stuff alongside God.
When theologians say the phrase expresses a “logical relation of order, not a real one,” they mean this: we speak as if there were a “before” and “after”—first nothing, then something. But “nothing” isn’t a real state or entity standing in relation to creation. It’s just a way of saying that created being has no prior material cause. The terminus a quo (“that from which”) is not an actual thing at all. It’s simply the denial of any prior thing.
So the phrase guards a radical claim: creation is not God reshaping materials. It is the originating of all finite being. The universe doesn’t come from “nothingness.” It comes from God, and prior to that act, there simply wasn’t anything else. That’s metaphysically explosive in the calmest possible way.
1 Corinthians 8:6
In First Epistle to the Corinthians 8:6, when Paul says “one God, the Father, ἐξ whom are all things,” the preposition ἐκ (“from”) does not automatically mean “out of” in a material or metaphysical sense, as if creation were an emanation from God’s substance in the Neoplatonic way. In systems like those of Plotinus, reality “flows out” of the One by necessity, like light from the sun. That is not Paul’s framework.
In ordinary Greek, ἐκ often indicates source or origin, not material composition. Paul’s point is that all things have their origin in the Father’s will and agency, not that they are metaphysical extensions of God’s essence. The emphasis is sovereignty, not emanation. The same logic appears in Book of Revelation 4:11: creation exists because God willed it. That’s volitional causation, not ontological overflow.
You can see this clearly in Gospel of John 7:22: “Moses gave you circumcision—not that it is ἐκ Moses, but ἐκ the fathers.” No one imagines circumcision is literally made out of the fathers’ substance. The meaning is that the practice originates from them as a tradition. The preposition marks historical source, not material extraction.
So in 1 Cor 8:6, ἐκ signals personal origin and causal source—“from” in the sense of authorship or will. It does not imply that creation is carved out of God’s being. The grammar itself resists the leap to emanationism. Greek prepositions are flexible tools; metaphysics should not be smuggled in where the syntax does not demand it.
Isaiah 57:15
When people appeal to Book of Isaiah 57:15 — “the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity” — they sometimes treat “eternity” (Hebrew ʿad) as if it were a literal location, a sort of metaphysical address where God resides. But that presses the poetry too woodenly.
Most translations render it “who lives forever,” and that’s because ʿad in Hebrew often refers to duration — perpetuity — not a spatial realm. To say God “dwells in eternity” is much like saying humans “dwell in time.” Time is not a building we rent space in. It describes the mode of our existence. Likewise, eternity describes God’s mode of being: unbounded, not subject to succession or decay.
The same pattern appears in First Epistle to Timothy 6:16, where Paul says God “dwells in unapproachable light.” That light is not presented as a geographic coordinate. It expresses divine transcendence, purity, and inaccessibility. It is theological imagery, not celestial cartography.
Notice also that Isaiah 57:15 itself distinguishes between “the high and holy place” and “eternity.” The verse pairs them, but they are not equated. Elsewhere, “high and holy place” language is clearly temple or Zion imagery — see Book of Deuteronomy 26:15 or Book of Revelation 21:1–3, where God dwells with His people in the renewed creation. That is spatial-symbolic language tied to covenant presence.
So the grammar and the wider biblical usage suggest this: “eternity” in Isaiah 57:15 speaks of what God is like — His everlasting nature — not the name of a heavenly district. If Paul had wanted to specify a tiered heaven (as in references to a “third heaven”), he had the vocabulary to do so. Instead, both prophets and apostles often describe God’s “dwelling” in ways that reveal His character.
Scripture frequently uses “dwell” metaphorically: “dwell in safety” (Psalm 4:8), “dwell in prosperity” (Psalm 25:13). Safety and prosperity are not places on a map; they describe conditions of existence. In the same way, “dwelling in eternity” points to God’s timeless, transcendent being.
The larger theological point is this: biblical language about God’s dwelling often oscillates between two registers — poetic description of divine nature and covenantal imagery of God’s presence with His people. Flattening that into literal spatial metaphysics misses the genre and the intent. The text is less interested in giving us God’s coordinates and more interested in telling us who He is.
The Church Father’s
Early Fathers
Shepherd of Hermas
“Believe first of all that God is one, that he created all things and set them in order and brought out of non-existence into existence everything that is, and that he contains all things while he himself is uncontained”
(The Shepherd 1:1 [A.D. 140]).
Aristides of Athens
“Let us proceed, then, O King, to the elements themselves, so that we may demonstrate concerning them that they are not gods, but corruptible and changeable things, produced out of the non-existent by him that is truly God, who is incorruptible and unchangeable and invisible, but who sees all things and changes them and alters them as he wills”
(Apology to the Emperor Hadrian Caesar, par. 4 – 140 AD)
Theophilus of Antioch
“Furthermore, inasmuch as God is uncreated, he is also unchangeable; so also, if matter were uncreated, it would be unchangeable and equal to God. That which is created is alterable and changeable, while that which is uncreated is unalterable and unchangeable. What great thing were it, if God made the world out of existing matter? Even a human artist, when he obtains material from someone, makes of it whatever he pleases. But the power of God is made evident in this, that he makes out of what does not exist whatever he pleases, and the giving of life and movement belongs to none other but to God alone”
(To Autolycus 2:4 [A.D. 181]).
Origen of Alexandria
5. But that we may believe in the authority of holy Scripture that such is the case, hear how in the book of Maccabees, where the mother of seven martyrs exhorts her son to endure torture, this truth is confirmed; for she says, I ask of you, my son, to look at the heaven and the earth, and at all things which are in them, and beholding these, to know that God made all these things when they did not exist. In the book of the Shepherd also, in the first commandment, he speaks as follows: First of all believe that there is one God who created and arranged all things, and made all things to come into existence, and out of a state of nothingness. Perhaps also the expression in the Psalms has reference to this: He spoke, and they were made; He commanded, and they were created. For the words, He spoke, and they were made, appear to show that the substance of those things which exist is meant; while the others, He commanded, and they were created, seem spoken of the qualities by which the substance itself has been moulded.
(De Principiis, Book 2, par. 5)
Irenaeus of Lyons
“Men, indeed, are not able to make something from nothing, but only from existing material. God, however, is greater than men first of all in this: that when nothing existed beforehand, he called into existence the very material for his creation”
(Against Heresies 2:10:4 [inter A.D. 180-199]).
Tertullian of Carthage
“The object of our worship is the one God, who, by the Word of his command, by the reason of his plan, and by the strength of his power, has brought forth from nothing for the glory of his majesty this whole construction of elements, bodies, and spirits; whence also the Greeks have bestowed upon the world the name Cosmos”
(Apology 17:1 [A.D. 197]).
“He is the unique God for this reason alone, that he is the sole God, and he is the sole God for this reason alone, that nothing existed along with him. So too he must be the first, because all else is after him. All else is after him because all else is from him–and from him because they are created out of nothing. The account of Scripture, then, is correct: ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord? or who has been his counselor? or whom has he consulted? or who showed him the way of wisdom and knowledge? who gave, and recompense will be made to him?’”
(Against Hermogenes 17:1 [inter A.D. 200-206]).
“Firmly believe, therefore, that he made it wholly out of nothing; and by believing that he has such powers, you will have found the knowledge of God”
(The Resurrection of the Dead 11:5-6 [inter A.D. 208-212]).
Tertullian goes one step farther in arguing that creation ex nihilo is not only true but a part of the “rule of faith” (Latin regula fidei), which he states on three different occasions (Against Hermogenes, 33; The Prescription Against Heresies, 13; The Veiling of Virgins, 1). The “rule of faith” represented those key doctrines held in common by all believers (distinct from debatable issues) and served as an important dividing line between Christian orthodoxy and heresy.
Now, with regard to this rule of faith— that we may from this point acknowledge what it is which we defend — it is, you must know, that which prescribes the belief that there is one only God, and that He is none other than the Creator of the world, who produced all things out of nothing through His own Word, first of all sent forth; that this Word is called His Son, and, under the name of God, was seen in diverse manners by the patriarchs, heard at all times in the prophets, at last brought down by the Spirit and Power of the Father into the Virgin Mary, was made flesh in her womb, and, being born of her, went forth as Jesus Christ; thenceforth He preached the new law and the new promise of the kingdom of heaven, worked miracles; having been crucified, He rose again the third day; (then) having ascended into the heavens, He sat at the right hand of the Father; sent instead of Himself the Power of the Holy Ghost to lead such as believe; will come with glory to take the saints to the enjoyment of everlasting life and of the heavenly promises, and to condemn the wicked to everlasting fire, after the resurrection of both these classes shall have happened, together with the restoration of their flesh. This rule, as it will be proved, was taught by Christ, and raises among ourselves no other questions than those which heresies introduce, and which make men heretics.
(The Prescription Against Heresies, 13)
Origen
“The specific points which are clearly handed down through the apostolic preaching are these: First, that there is one God who created and arranged all things and who, when nothing existed, called all things into existence”
(The Fundamental Doctrines 1: Preface: 4 [inter A.D. 220-230]).
Lactantius
“Let no one inquire of what materials God made those so great and wonderful works, for he made all things out of nothing. Without wood, a carpenter will build nothing, because the wood itself he is not able to make. Not to be able is a quality of weak humanity. But God himself makes his own material, because he is able. To be able is a quality of God, and, were he not able, neither would he be God. Man makes things out of what already exists, because he is . . . of limited and moderate power. God makes things from what does not exist, because he is strong; because of his strength, his power is immeasurable, having neither end nor limitation, like the life itself of the maker”
(The Divine Institutions 2:8:8, [circa 304AD]).
Augustine of Hippo
The highest good, than which there is no higher, is God, and consequently He is unchangeable good, hence truly eternal and truly immortal. All other good things are only from Him, not of Him. For what is of Him, is Himself. And consequently if He alone is unchangeable, all things that He has made, because He has made them out of nothing, are changeable. For He is so omnipotent, that even out of nothing, that is out of what is absolutely non-existent…
(On the nature of Good, ch.1)
Ambrose of Milan
Since, therefore, the words of the Apostle, One God the Father, from Whom are all things, and one Jesus Christ, our Lord, through Whom are all things 1 Corinthians 8:6, form an accurate and complete confession concerning God, let us see what Moses has to say of the beginning of the world. His words are, And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water, and let it divide the water from the water. And it was so, and God made the firmament and God divided the water through the midst. Genesis 1:6-7 Here, then, you have the God from Whom, and the God through Whom. If you deny it, you must tell us through whom it was that God’s work in creation was done, or else point for your explanation to an obedience in things yet uncreated, which, when God said Let there be a firmament, impelled the firmament to establish itself. Such suggestions are inconsistent with the clear sense of Scripture. For all things, as the Prophet says 2 Maccabbees 7:28, were made out of nothing; it was no transformation of existing things, but the creation into a perfect form of the non-existent. Through whom? Hear the Evangelist: All things were made through Him. If you ask Who this is, the same Evangelist will tell you: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him. John 1:1-3 If you are minded to combat the view that it was the Father Who said, Let there be a firmament, the prophet will answer you: He spoke, and they were made; He commanded, and they were created. The recorded words, Let there be a firmament, reveal to us that the Father spoke. But in the words which follow, And it was so, in the statement that God did this thing, we must recognise the Person of the Agent. He spoke, and they were made; the Scripture does not say that He willed it, and did it. He commanded, and they were created; you observe that it does not say they came into existence, because it was His pleasure. In that case there would be no office for a Mediator between God and the world which was awaiting its creation. God, from Whom are all things, gives the order for creation which God, through Whom are all things, executes. Under one and the same Name we confess Him Who gave and Him Who fulfilled the command. If you dare to deny that God made is spoken of the Son, how do you explain All things were made through Him? Or the Apostle’s words, One Jesus Christ, our Lord, through Whom are all things? Or, He spoke, and they were made? If these inspired words succeed in convincing your stubborn mind, you will cease to regard that text, Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is One, as a refusal of Divinity to the Son of God, since at the very foundation of the world He Who spoke it proclaimed that His Son also is God. But let us see what increase of profit we may draw from this distinction of God Who commands and God Who executes. For though it is repugnant even to our natural reason to suppose that in the words, He commanded, and they were made, one single and isolated Person is intended, yet, for the avoidance of all doubts, we must expound the events which followed upon the creation of the world.
(On the Trinity, Book 4)
In addition to those already quoted, we know that Minucius Felix, Victorinus, Athanasius, Ephrem the Syrian, John Chrysostom, and Basil also believed in creation ex nihilo.