Paragraph 1:15–20
Theme: Jesus Christ has shown exactly what God is like. He is the great ruler over everything that he, with God, created.
In this paragraph Paul was emphasizing how great Jesus is. This was in order to oppose the following things that the false teachers were teaching the Colossian Christians.
(a) The Greek people believed that evil spirits created and then controlled the world. A summary of Paul’s response to that false teaching is: No, Jesus, who is equal to God, created the world and now controls it.
(b) The Greeks also said that God’s Messiah would never live in a human body. A summary of Paul’s response is: When Jesus, God’s Messiah, became a man, he retained all the character and power of God.
1:15a
The Son: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as The Son is literally the pronoun “he,” as in the New International Version. It refers back to “His beloved Son” in 1:13b. See the note in 1:14a about Paul’s use of pronouns in this section. Refer to Jesus in a way that is natural in your language.
the image of the invisible God: When Jesus, who is God, became a man, he retained all the characteristics of God, yet people could see him. Therefore, when people saw Jesus they saw exactly what God is like, that is, they saw the character of God. This is why Paul called Jesus the image of God. Be sure that your translation does not cause your readers to think that Jesus merely showed people what God looked like.
1:15b
the firstborn over all creation: This does not refer to when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, nor does it mean that Jesus was the first person that God created. No one created Jesus. He has always existed with God and is one with God.
Scholars interpret this phrase in one of three ways:
(1) Some biblical scholars believe that the word firstborn in this verse means, “the one who has the authority that the firstborn son has.” Therefore, the firstborn over all creation means, “the one who has supreme authority over all creation.” The word firstborn is used this way in Psalm 89:27:
And I will also appoint him my firstborn, the most exalted of the kings of the earth.
(2) Other scholars believe that the firstborn over all creation means, “the one who existed before anything was created.”
(3) The other main interpretation is that it means both, that is, “the one who existed from the beginning of time and who has supreme authority over all creation.”
Throughout this section Paul was emphasizing that Christ rules over everything, so the first interpretation is the most likely. The Good News Translation clarifies this by saying:
He is the first-born Son, superior to all created things. (Good News Translation)
Here are some other ways you could translate this part of the verse:
He is more important than everything God created.
-or-
He is higher in rank/authority than everything God created.
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