Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Will Wagers <hyle AT gte.net>]

Jonathan writes:

>Colo 1:15(NASB) And He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of
>all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created, [both] in the heavens
>and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers
>or authorities--all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17 He
>is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
>
>This naturally raises some puzzles. If all things were created by him -
>including things in the heaven and invisible things, how can he belong to
>the class of created things, as verse 15 seems to imply? I imagine that the
>translators of the REB decided that the context shows that the main theme
>here is the primacy of Christ, and that they considered the use of the
>genitive, which has a fairly broad class of possible meanings, and
>concluded that this meant "firstborn over all creation", in the sense of
>the birthright of kings, where the firstborn inherits the right to rule.

This *puzzle* will not be solved by reading the Bible (unless one is both
smart and unbiased), but by reading Greek philosophy in which the Logos
is the embodiment of the intersection of spirit and matter, i.e. the first
creation, but of a special sort--the creation of creation or of Existence
itself, if you will. Once "created",  the Logos proceeds to create what we
know of as (ordinary) Creation. Like it or not,  that was the scheme, and
believe it or not it survives even unto today--in the Christian and other
religions. It cannot be expunged of logical contradictions, because it *is*
a contradiction, and remains so despite thousands of years of efforts by
philosophers, scholars, theologians, and reformers.  It is a fascinating
intellectual tale--the development of Logos over the millennia--but,
it doesn't begin with Cl 1:15, which is only a footnote in its history.


Will Wagers     hyle AT gte.net    "Reality is the best metaphor."