What Does Colossians 1:15 Mean?

”He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation” (Col. 1:15 NASB2020).

There have been debates about this verse. While  some believe that this verse proves that Jesus was the first person brought into existence by God, others believe this verse is talking about his pre-eminence over the whole creation of God. Does this verse prove that Jesus was indeed brought into existence, that is, created by God?

One writer had this written in an online article captioned “What Does Colossians 1:15 Mean?”:

“Readers often pause and puzzle over Colossians 1:15 and its statement that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is “the firstborn of all creation.” Firstborn of all creation? Does that mean that Christ was “born” and that, therefore, there was a time when he did not exist? Sure, he would then still be the first to exist, which would be a place of primacy of sorts, yet he would be a created, finite being. But then wouldn’t that mean that he isn’t the second person of the Trinity, that he isn’t “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God,” as the ancient Nicene Creed puts it? What would this all mean for what the orthodox Christian church has always otherwise confessed concerning the person of Christ? (Christopher A. Beetham, “What Does Colossians 1:15 Mean?”).

Beetham’s words here are typical of the way many Christians, including theologians and Bible translators now reason. They now use the Trinitarian creeds as the basis for interpreting and understanding the Bible. Without their knowing it, they place the creeds above the Bible. So, their line of thought is something like this: if the interpretation of the Bible is correct, it must conform with the Trinitarian creeds. Can we see how Trinitarianism has subverted the Bible, the inspired word of God?

Does Colossians 1:15 mean that Jesus was brought into existence, that is, created by God? Let the Bible interpret itself.

To start with, the word “firstborn “ (Greek: πρωτότοκος prōtotokos) is defined in Strong’s Greek Lexicon #4416 as the firstborn (a) of man or beast; (b) of Christ, the first born of all creation.

The Bauer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (BDAG), third edition, defines πρωτοτοκος (prōtotokos) on page 894 in two senses: 1. Literally, pertaining to birth order, firstborn; 2. Figuratively, pertaining to having special status associated with a firstborn.

The word under consideration is πρωτοτοκος (prōtotokos). It is made up of two words, πρωτό (proto), meaning first, and τοκος (tokos), derived from the root word τίκτω (tikto), meaning “to give birth.” Put together, the word prototokos literally means the first or eldest child born to a parent.

In the Hebrew Bible the firstborn child usually has a preeminent position in the family in the sense that the firstborn has a double portion in the inheritance of the father. If the father is a king, the firstborn is usually the heir apparent to the throne on the death of the king. Therefore, the literal and the figurative senses in which prototokos (firstborn) is defined in Bauer’s Lexicon (BDAG) are not mutually exclusive. An example is seen in Deut. 21:15-17 which says, [15] “If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have borne him sons, and the firstborn son belongs to the unloved, [16] then it shall be on the day that he wills what he owns as an inheritance to his sons, he is not allowed to treat the son of the loved wife as the firstborn, at the expense of the son of the unloved, who actually is the firstborn son. [17] On the contrary, he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved wife, by giving him a double portion of everything that he owns, for he was the beginning of his strength; to him belongs the right of the firstborn.” (Deut. 21:15-17 NASB).

So, in Colossians 1:15, where the Son is called the “firstborn” of/over all creation, Paul’s mind was that the Son was both the first in time and the preeminent one in the group of God’s creation. It does not matter whether the preposition “of” or “over” is used by any translator. The truth is that no one in the Bible is called “firstborn” of/over a group of people  of which he is not a member. For example, what made Paul and John call Jesus Christ “the firstborn of/from the dead” (Col. 1:18; Rev. 1:5) is the fact that Jesus Christ had tasted death. Therefore, among those who died, Christ is the greatest. The apostles would not have used that title for him if he had not died, and resurrected. By calling Christ the “firstborn of God’s creation,” Paul has regarded our Lord Jesus Christ to be the first and the greatest of God’s creation. Insomuch as the Son was brought forth out of God’s own being, he was created by God. Humans beget humans, and Spirit begets spirit (John 3:6). So too, God begets God (Psa. 45:6-7). The Godhood of Jesus is different from that of the Father. While the Father, whose name is YHWH (or Yahweh), is the only self-existent being, thus making Him the one, Supreme God, Jesus is God because he was begotten by the one God. Jesus is not the one God. He is the only begotten Son of God. God brought him forth out of Himself before creating all other beings and things through him. When Paul wrote, “he is before all things” (Col. 1:17), the apostle was simply stating the fact that Jesus was already existing before other things were created by God through him. But Paul didn’t  mean that Jesus self-existed or that God did not pre-exist him. If Jesus self-existed, making him coequal and coeternal with the Father, then he couldn’t have been the Son of God. Moreover, our faith cannot be said to be monotheistic. If Jesus was indeed begotten by God, which is what the Bible has revealed, we cannot deny the fact that he was first created by God, before God created all other things through him. This is affirmed by other Scriptures. Proverbs 8:22 says, “The LORD brought me forth as the first of his works, before his deeds of old.” (Prov. 8:22 NIVUK). The NASB2020 renders it, “The LORD created me at the beginning of His way, before His works of old.” This verse reveals that the first thing God ever did was the bringing forth of His only begotten  Son.

Another wisdom book says the same thing about the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ was first created by God before God did any other thing. It says, “Then my Creator, who created the universe, told me where I was to live. ‘Make your home in Israel,’ he said. ‘The descendants of Jacob will be your people.’ [9] He created me in eternity, before time began, and I will exist for all eternity to come.”  (Sirach 24:8-9 GNTD).

Some people say these are mere personifications of wisdom. But the truth is that the Son of God, in his pre-incarnate existence, is the one personified as Wisdom in Prov. 8:22-31 and Sira 24:1-12. He is the wisdom of God and the power of God (1 Cor. 1:24, 30; Col. 2:2-3).

Let me state here now that I am not a Jehovah’s Witness, neither do I agree with all their doctrines. But I am fully convinced that they got it right when they said that God first created Jesus Christ  before God created other things through him.

Do the verses that follow Col. 1:15 prove that Jesus was uncreated? Not at all! In Col. 1:15, Paul made us know that Jesus is the first and the preeminent one among God’s creation. He then gave proof of what he wrote in verse 15 in the next five verses. Verses 16-20 do not contradict the fact that Jesus Christ was created. What Paul described in verses 16-20 serve as proof that Jesus Christ is the preeminent one among God’s creation. Once again, I need you to know that Jesus Christ could not have been the preeminent one over God’s creation if he was not one of the beings created by God. This is an indisputable fact.

The Testimony of other Scriptures

There are other Bible passages which testify to the fact that Jesus is indeed created by God. Here are a few of them:

“I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.” (Psa. 2:7 NKJV).

Apostle Paul quoted this verse three times in Acts 13:33, Heb. 1:5, and Heb. 5:5. The Hebrew word יָלַד (yalad) used in Psalm 2:7 is defined in Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon at #3205 as “to bear young, to beget, medically, to act as midwife, to show lineage.” Its Greek translation in the Septuagint (or LXX) is γεγέννηκά (gegennēka) which is defined in Strong’s Greek Lexicon at #1080 as “to procreate; figuratively, to regenerate.” The same Greek word γεγέννηκά  (gegennēka) is used by Paul in all the three places where he quoted Psa. 2:7. It is evident that the concept of procreation of a young one is used both in the Hebrew and the Greek. Having seen these verses, we are left no ground of arguing that our Lord Jesus Christ self-existed, making him coequal and coeternal with the Father.

“And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, ‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God” (Rev. 3:14 NKJV).

Here, our Lord Jesus Christ called himself “the beginning of the creation of God.” The word “beginning” is a translation of the Greek word ἀρχὴ (archē or arkhē). The word archē or arkhē has five basic meanings:

• Beginning, origin;
• The person or thing that commences, the first person or thing in a series, the leader;
• That by which anything begins to be, the active cause, the originator;
• The extremity of a thing, as of the corners of a sail;
• The first place, principality, rule, primacy, magistracy, as of angels and demons.

Without doing arbitrary cherry-picking, the second definition is the most appropriate in this verse. Here  Jesus was saying that he was the first of God’s creation. This second definition is the one that harmonises with other Scriptures. It is instructive to note that, even though all things were created by him, he was never found at any time vaunting himself. So, he couldn’t here be telling John to write to the Laodiceans and remind them that he was their creator or originator. The message he was sending here is that he was the first of God’s creation. And as the Laodiceans themselves  are the creation of God, it is expected of them to be faithful witnesses just like himself who was also created by God, albeit in a different form.

The last Bible passage I want to cite is the most telling but also the most controversial of the passages:

[22] “The LORD created me at the beginning of His way, before His works of old. [23] From eternity I was established, from the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth. [24] When there were no ocean depths, I was born, when there were no springs abounding with water. [25] Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I was born; [26] while He had not yet made the earth and the fields, nor the first dust of the world. [27] When He established the heavens, I was there; when He inscribed a circle on the face of the deep, [28] when He made firm the skies above, when the springs of the deep became fixed, [29] when He set a boundary for the sea so that the water would not violate His command, when He marked out the foundations of the earth; [30] then I was beside Him, as a master workman; and I was His delight daily, rejoicing always before Him, [31]  rejoicing in the world, His earth, and having my delight in the sons of mankind.” (Prov. 8:22-31 NASB2020).

The common argument is that Solomon was personifying wisdom in this passage which forms a part of the immediate context  from verses 8:1 to 9:18. That is true. But there is more to verses 22 to 31 of chapter 8. The ten verses are an allusion to the Lord Jesus Christ, the power of God and the wisdom  of God (1 Cor. 1:24, 30; Col. 2:2-3). As one of the prophets of Israel,   Solomon wrote Prov. 8:22-31 as he was carried along by the Spirit of God (2 Pet. 1:21). He was carried in the Spirit back in time to the pre-incarnate existence of the Messiah.

The Hebrew word קָנָה (qanah or kanah) used in verse 22 is defined in Strong’s Hebrew #7069 as “to erect, create, to procure, by purchase, to own.” It should be noted that wisdom is one of the attributes of God. It has been part of God right from dateless eternity. We therefore do not expect it to be erected or created. The word qanah or kanah only makes sense in this verse when used in relation to something created. As an indirect reference to the Son of God, it clearly shows that he was created and owned by God “at the beginning of His way, before His works of old;  when there were no ocean depths, I was born (or brought forth).” Then in verse 30 wisdom said, “Then I was beside Him, as a master workman; and I was His delight daily, rejoicing always before Him.” This was the person who God was giving the command “let there be …” in Genesis 1 and 2. He is the one through whom  God created the heavens and the earth (Heb. 1:2). Wisdom, as an attribute of God, does not stay beside God. It is a part of God. The one who was talking in Prov. 8:22-31 must be  a literal being, not an abstract thing. In verse 31 “she” said, “Rejoicing in the world, His earth, And having my delight in the sons of mankind.” Compare this verse with Job 38:4-7 where we are told that the sons of God, also known as the morning stars, rejoiced when they saw what God created. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the bright morning star (Rev. 22:16) said in verse 31 that he also rejoiced over “the world, His [God’s] earth.” The words in Prov. 8:22-31 are too pungent and too telling to be waved away as mere poetical personification of wisdom by Solomon. They affirm the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ has an origin which is God Himself. God brought him forth out of Himself, unlike the other creation of God who were brought forth out of nothing (Rom. 4:17b) before the breath of God gave them life (Gen. 2:7; Job 33:4). The Bible has no iota of support for the Trinitarian teaching that Jesus self-existed.

With regards to the use of the feminine pronouns “she” and “her” for wisdom, I  remind my fellow Christians of the fact that Hebrew is one of the gendered languages in which every noun is given either the masculine or feminine gender. The law of the gendered language is that a masculine noun must have a masculine pronoun, and a feminine noun must have a feminine pronoun.. Since חָכְמָה (chokhmah, wisdom) is feminine, it must be assigned feminine pronouns. Therefore, the feminine pronouns which chokhmah (wisdom) has do no make it a literal being with a biological gender. As an abstract thing, wisdom is neither a male nor a female being. If a dynamic translation of Proverbs had been done, the pronoun that should have been used should have been the neuter “it.” No one should therefore be confused by the fact that the pronouns “she” or “her” used for wisdom means the passage cannot be applicable to our Lord Jesus Christ, who was a male being.

Conclusion

Our Lord Jesus Christ, according to the Bible, was brought forth out of the being of God. As an offspring of God, he possessed the nature of God. Therefore, the Bible was not wrong when he is called God. But it should be noted that in the place where he is called God is the very place where God, that is the Father, is said to be his God (Psa. 45:6-7). So, Jesus is a God that has someone else as his God and Father. His Godhood is therefore derived from, subordinate to, and subsumed in the Godhood of the Father. Nothing could be  further from the truth than to teach that Jesus Christ self-existed, making him coequal and coeternal with the Father. If that were the case, he couldn’t have been called the Son of God. Neither would YHWH God have been his God and Father. If we believe in more than one self-existed, Almighty, God we cannot claim to believe in one God.

Inasmuch as Jesus was not self-existent, Trinitarians are left with no tenable ground of claiming that he was not created. The Father who brought him into existence automatically  becomes the one who created him. In the Nicene Creed, they confess their “belief in Jesus Christ as the only begotten Son of the Father, before all worlds;…begotten, not made.”  But in their doctrine of eternal generation of the Son, they deny the begottenness of the Son. They say that the eternal generation of the Son means that the Son and the Father have been coexisting eternally, and that there was never a time the Father was without the Son. In other words, the Son was never the offspring of God. They expressly stated this in the Athanasian Creed where they wrote, “And in this Trinity none is afore [before] or after another; none is greater or less than another. But the whole three persons are coeternal, and coequal.” (Lines 25-26).

To me, this amounts to a denial of the sonship of Jesus Christ (cf. John 20:31; 1 John 2:23). See also John 14:28 where our Lord Jesus Christ said, ”the Father is greater than I.” So long as the Trinitarian  Creeds are diametrically opposed to the ipsissima verba of our Lord Jesus Christ, who says or teaches nothing except what  God has commanded him to say or teach (John 12:48-50; 7:16), the Trinitarian doctrine is a human supposition and a false one. Its orthodoxy does not confer on it any truthfulness.

In the Bible, the word πρωτότοκος (prōtotokos, firstborn) is used either literally of the first child born to a parent, or figuratively as the preeminent child. The first child can still be the preeminent  child. But whichever the sense in which “firstborn” is used, no one can be called “firstborn” unless the person belongs to the group, family, or class of/over which  he or she is the firstborn. The phrase “firstborn of (or over) the creation of God” used by Paul in Col. 1:15 necessarily means that our Lord Jesus Christ is one of the creation of God.  This is an irrefutable fact.

Too often, Bible scholars fail to bring together the many passages of the Bible which teach on a subject and draw out the truth revealed in them. They focus on the semantic of just one word in a verse and make their conclusions based on that word alone. The result of this unsatisfactory exegesis  is that many learned men are ever studying but not getting the truth taught in the Bible. While a sound knowledge of the original words used in the Bible is necessary, it should not be the only basis on which we draw our conclusions. Good biblical hermeneutics demands the consideration of many factors in determining the truth in the Bible.

There are Bible passages which explicitly show that the Lord Jesus Christ was the first creation of God. They include Prov. 8:22-31, Sira 24:8-9, Rev. 3:14, and this passage under discussion, Col. 1:15. God first created him before using him as a creative agent.

The Trinitarian phrase, “begotten, not made” is dubious. If he was begotten, it automatically means he was made or created. Conclusively, what Paul wrote in Col. 1:15 is that our Lord Jesus Christ is the first of God’s creation. God brought him into existence before using him as a creative agent.