Over And Through And In Everything

Diversitas autem praepositionem in quibus dicitur: 'Unus Deus, et Pater omnium, qui super omnes et per omnes and in omnibus,' diversam intelligentiam sapit. Super omnes enim est Pater, quia auctor est omnium. Per omnes Filius, quia cuncta transcurrit, vaditque per omnia. In omnibus Spiritus sanctus, quia nihil absque eo est. Nec vero putandum, unum Deum, et Patrem omnium esse communiter, ut scilicet ad irrationabilia jumenta, nomen Patris possit aptari; sed quomodo si in decem hominibus, quinque filiis, et quinque servis, pariter diceremus: horum decem, unus est dominus, et unus et pater: non utique omnium patrem, nec dominum omnium vocaremus: sic et in eo quod ait: Unus Deus et Pater omnium, aliorum Pater, aliorum Deus accipiendum est. Tale quid de creaturis, et de Deo etiam Zeno cum suis Stoicis suspicatur. Quem secutus Virgilius ait:     Deum namque ire per omnes     Terrasque tractusque maris, etc  Et:     Principio coelum ac terras, camposque liquentes,     Lucentemque globum lunae, Titaniaque astra,     Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus     Mens agit molem, et magno se corpore miscet. Quidam hoc quod est scriptum: Super omnes, et per omnes, et in omnibus, ad Patrem, et Filium, et Spiritum sanctum sic aestimant esse referendum, ut super omnia Pater sit, quia auctor est omnium: per omnes, Filius, quia per Filium creata sunt omnia: in omnibus, Spiritus sanctus, ipse enim cedentibus datur, et templum sumus Spirtus sancti: et Pater et Filius habitant in nobis. Sanctus Hieronymus, In Epistolam Pauli ad Ephesios, Liber II, Cap IV Source: Migne PL 26.496d-497b

The differences in the passage in which it is said, 'One God and Father of all, who is over everything and through everything and in everything,' 1 permits a diversity of understanding. 'Over everything' is the Father, because He is the creator of everything. 'Through everything' is the Son, because He passes through everything and goes out through everything. 'In everything' is the Holy Spirit, because nothing is without Him. Nor should it be thought that one God and Father pertains to everything in general, as with irrational beasts the name of father is able to be applied, but it is as if with ten men, five are sons, and five servants, regarding them both we might say: 'Of these ten, one is the lord and one is the father,' not calling him the father of all of them, nor the lord of all of them, so even when it says, 'One God and Father of all,' the Father of some things and the God of other things is to be understood. For concerning creatures, so Zeno and the Stoics thought, and Virgil followed them, saying,     'For God passes through everything,     Lands and tracts of sea....' 2 And:     'In the beginning heaven and earth, dewy fields     And she shining globe of the moon, and the mighty stars,     The Spirit within nurtured, and all infused with art     The mind moved matter, and mixed itself with the great mass.' 3 For certainly that which is written: 'Over everything and through everything and in everything.' we judge to be referring to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and that the Father is 'over everything' because He is the creator of everything, and the Son is through everything because through the Son all things are created, 4 and the Holy Spirit is 'in everything' because He is given to the faithful, and we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and the Father and the Son dwell in us. Saint Jerome, Commentary On The Epistle of Saint Paul to the Ephesians, Book 2, Chap 4 1 Ephes 4.6 2 Virg, Georg 4. 221-222 3 Virg  Aen, 6. 724-727 4 Jn 1.10