Jesus therefore answered them, "Most assuredly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father doing. For whatever things he does, these the Son also does likewise.
 Again, it is not said that in the beginning He was, in the sense of then coming into being ( ἐγένετο ),   but He existed ( ἦν ). Thus before all time the Word was. When the great truth of the incarnation is noted in verse 14, it is said not that the Word came into existence, but that He was  made  ( ἐγένετο ) flesh began so to be. This, therefore, so much the more contrasts with verses 1 and 2.
