Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Colossians 1:15-20, Firstborn over creation, over thrones and powers
Paul describes the Son as the image of the unseen God and firstborn over all creation, through whom and for whom everything was made, thrones and powers included, and through whose cross God makes peace with all things.
Colossians 1:15-20, in every translation this tool compares.
In lines that read like a hymn, Paul presents the Son as the visible likeness of the unseen God and the one who holds first place over creation. Everything was made through him and for him, including every throne and spiritual power, and he keeps it all together. He is also the head of the church and the first to rise from death, and through his death on the cross God makes peace with all things. Whether Paul quotes an existing hymn or wrote the lines himself is debated.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/word-and-wisdom\/","n":"The Word and Wisdom","s":"Greek thinkers spoke of the logos, the reason that ordered the world, and Jewish teachers spoke of God's Word and Wisdom, through whom he made everything. John opens his Gospel with that language and then says the Word became flesh.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/messiah\/","n":"The Messiah, son of David","s":"The anointed king most Jews expected from David's line, who would free Israel from its enemies. Nobody expected him to be killed.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/powers-over-the-nations\/","n":"Rulers and powers over the nations","s":"Many Jews believed each nation had a spiritual ruler set over it, often hostile to God's people. Paul's rulers, authorities, powers and thrones belong to that picture.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/angels\/","n":"Angels","s":"God's messengers and his heavenly army. Jews of Jesus' day spoke of guardian angels, of the greatest angels standing before God's face, and of angels coming with God at the judgment.","r":""}
Paul describes Christ in the terms Judaism used for divine Wisdom, God's image through which he made the world, and Philo calls God's Logos his image and firstborn (Keener and his notes; the cultural backgrounds article). That article adds that "Many Gentiles deemed divine or partly divine a range of spirits", and Paul sets all such powers under Christ. Firstborn named rank and inheritance, not birth order (Keener and his notes; Wright and Bird; the ESV and CSB Study Bibles). Whether the thrones and dominions are good or evil is disputed: four classes of angels (the CSB Study Bible), ranks of angels with evil ones in view (the ESV Study Bible), or all hostile, the same rulers being defeated in 2:15 (Arnold); Heiser finds no agreed order. Keener writes that reconciling the powers "refers to their subordination rather than their salvation", and Arnold agrees: "They are subjected against their will." Whether verses 15-20 are an earlier hymn is debated: Keener reports a consensus short of proof, Carson, Moo and Morris note O'Neill's denial of hymnic form, the cultural backgrounds article that speakers turned to rhythmic prose when praising a deity, and Wright and Bird think Paul may have written it.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, introduction to Colossians 1:14-23, and on Colossians 1:15, 1:16, 1:18 and 1:20-22
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Colossians 1:15
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, article Background of Colossians 1:15-20
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on Colossians 1:15 and 1:16
- CSB Study Bible, word study on prototokos, and note on Colossians 1:16
- N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird, The New Testament in Its World, ch. 20, The Argument of Colossians, and box Emails from the Edge: Firstborn
- Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm, ch. 37, This Means War, endnote on thronoi
- Clinton E. Arnold, Powers of Darkness, ch. 10, The Connection of the False Teaching with the Powers, and ch. 12, Christ's Final Subjection of the Powers
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 13, Colossians, Colossians in Recent Study
