1 Corinthians 8:6

The context

First Corinthians 8 addresses food offered to idols and the conscience of the weaker brother. Paul begins by granting that an idol is nothing, then recites what sounds like a fixed confession, setting it against the many gods and lords of the surrounding culture. The argument then turns to the risk of causing a brother to stumble.

What it establishes

The verse places the Father and Jesus together within the framework of Israel's confession of one God, distinguishing them by the prepositions "from" and "through" while including both in the work of creation. It is among the earliest evidence for a Christian adaptation of the Shema.

What it does not establish

It does not define the relation of the two. The prepositions describe origin and agency; whether that implies subordination of essence or only of order is not stated, and the creedal vocabulary comes later. Nor does it offer a full cosmology.

Short note, first pass, October 2026. Corrections welcome.

Cited in these answers

• Did Jesus really claim to be God, or did His followers just say that about Him? Might not Dan Brown have been on to something?
• So I'm to believe in a God who is one and three at the same time, with one of the three killing another of the three and then sending another to console humans? Why not just Allah instead?

Part of Scripture, Opened — the exegetical layer behind every citation on this site. Scripture quotations are from the ESV.