In what sense did the Father create the world?

[Daniel]

John's gospel (1:3, at least the English translation... presumably it's the same in the Latin and Greek) says that Jesus created the world.
Genesis (1:1) says that Elohim created the world. And Elohim is Jehovah a.k.a. Jesus, right?
So Jesus created the world.

However, the creed seems to say that the Father created the world.


How is this to be understood?

Is it saying that because creation is an act of Jesus's divine will, and because Jesus's divine will is the same thing as the Father's will, that when Jesus created the world then the Father also created the world?

Or something else?

[Michael Wilson]

God created the world out of nothing "ex-nihilo"; The creation of the world was the work of the Blessed Trinity, attributed to the Father. All the works outside of the Blessed Trinity are done by all three persons. Therefore the Eternal Son also created the world and well as the Holy Ghost.

[Jayne]

The word "elohim" is generally recognized as a plural since it uses the Hebrew plural ending "-im" and, in the context of referring to false gods, is clearly used as a plural.  However, Elohim who created the world takes a singular verb.  So the grammar here is showing something that is both plural in a way and singular in a way.  Some use this (reasonably so, I'd say) as Scriptural support for God as Trinity.

When we think or speak of specific works of God in terms one of the Divine Persons, that is a concession to our human limitation.  It is easier for us to think about the Persons by attributing different roles to them, but, as Michael said, the works are done by the all the Persons of the Trinity.

I think this is one of the reasons that people cannot validly baptize in the name of the Creator, the Redeemer and the Comforter (as some have foolishly tried to do in order to avoid "gendered language"). Speaking that way is an inherently flawed understanding of the Trinity.

[The Theosist]

John's gospel (1:3, at least the English translation... presumably it's the same in the Latin and Greek) says that Jesus created the world.
Genesis (1:1) says that Elohim created the world. And Elohim is Jehovah a.k.a. Jesus, right?
So Jesus created the world.

John 1:3 says through not by him. You can look at the Genesis 1:1 targums to get a clearer picture of the Memra and Hebrew background foreshadowing John's prologue. The Son has always been the mediator between transcendent creator and creation, and he can be argued to appear in the Hebrew of Genesis 1:1 in the word את, the "Alpha and Omega", connecting Elohim's act of creation with its definite direct object. Elohim is just a generic term which can be both plural or singular in meaning and refers to God, gods, angels, etc. depending on context.

However, the creed seems to say that the Father created the world.

God is not three I am's, whatever you're told by the tritheist dolts who use the modern English person in place of hypostasis and understand it to mean the same as the modern English person.