Creation Ex Nihilo — Genesis 1:1-3

Gen 1:1-3 opens Scripture with God creating "the heavens and the earth" by his word: "Let there be light." The church reads this as creation out of nothing — no pre-existing matter constrains the Creator.

Augustine — Confessions, and Thomas Aquinas — Summa Theologiae. Irenaeus — Against Heresies.

The creating word of 1:3 is identified in the New Testament with the Logos of John 1:1-3 and the Son of Col 1:16. Creation and redemption share one agent: the Word through whom all things were made.