"), image—exact likeness and perfect Representative. “seems to require either a collective noun or a plural”. He, and He alone, is the Creator, Redeemer and Sovereign of all beings in the universe, including these angelic powers. Negatively. In which sense Christ’s words to Philip also (John 14:9) are to be understood: He that hath seen me hath seen the Father, as our Lord manifestly shows, when he adds, I am in the Father, and the Father in me: the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Paul’s goal in this passage is to give the Colossian church an accurate picture of who Jesus is and what he accomplished on the cross and to encourage them to remain faithful to Jesus in spite of the pressures they are facing.. The first-born of every creature; or, the first-born of all creation. is more than resemblance or likeness: it is the exact counterpart of the being imaged, perfectly representing his attributes and essential nature, with, therefore, in the present case, the same substance, power, and eternity. The subject is the Son of God, but ‘in Colossians 1:15-17, the reference is rather to the pre-incarnate Son in His relation to God and to His own creatures, in Colossians 1:18-20 to the incarnate and now glorified Son in His relations to His Church’ (Ellicott). In Revelation 1:5, πρωτότοκ. The ethical(33) interpretation of the passage appears all the more mistaken, since according to it, even if πρωτότοκ. It was on this basis that Paul could ask Philemon, the slave master, to forgive and recei… The polemic purpose of the Apostle also sustains the former sense. Colossians 1:15. Who — That is, the Son of God, in whose blood we have redemption; is the image of the invisible God — By the description here given of the glory of Christ, and his pre-eminence over the highest angels, the apostle lays a foundation for the reproof of all worshippers of angels. the heavens and the earth, with all that is made in them: neither angels, nor inanimate and irrational creatures, are excluded; as in the apostle’s reason immediately following this expression. Vine p. 104 states "...His eternal relationship with the Father is in view, and the clause means both that He was the Firstborn before all creation and that He Himself produced creation....". "Image" always supposes a prototype, which it not merely resembles, but from which it is drawn: the exact counterpart, as the reflection of the sun in the water: the child the living image of the parent. O the grandeur of that redemption of which He is the author, and the magnificence of that kingdom of which He is head! Thus as the Firstborn of all creation, Christ is seen to have precedence to, and authority over all, creation. That is, he existed before creation began. Superiorto all created things. The firstborn was likewise lord of his brethren, who were all his servants. Jesus not only reflects God, He reveals God. The ‘outshining’ refers to light that comes from a glorious object, of the same essence and revealing its glory, like the rays of the sun. Besides, in the cases in which the term πρωτότοκος marks him who bears it, as one of a class referred to, such a class is usually expressed in the plural number, as in the 10th verse, and Romans 8:29, Revelation 1:5, but the apostle does not here say τῶν κτισμάτων. 1. The context of Colossians 1:15-20 demands that the word "firstborn" refers to position and not to origin. пояснения к Пс. 20 And through him to reconcile all things to himself, Having made peace through the blood of his cross, Through him, whether the things on the earth or the things in the heavens. Priority and superlative dignity is implied (Psalms 89:27). They would also see Him as part of the creation rather than the creator. He has revealed His glory. i. See on Revelation 13:14. all things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made! Perhaps its only parallel is John 1:1-14 where Christ is portrayed as the Logos of creation, equal to God. 10. The word "firstborn" is often used in the Scriptures with no reference to "time", but rather to a position of preeminence (Exodus 4:22; Hebrews 12:23). Its existence and arrangements are His, and the supervision of it belongs to Him. And when believers are regarded as sons-as a vast and happy brotherhood-He who loved them, and died for them, who has won for Himself special renown in their adoption, and has imprinted His image on all the children, stands out as chief in the family, and is “the first-born among many brethren,” Romans 8:29. “He is the image of the invisible God, …” We come to a grand and lofty section of Colossians. It has been, also, and especially in oriental countries, a common thing for the oldest son to succeed to the estate and the title of his father. Yet more distinctly Christ is the image of God, either: 1. Anselm explains that the words apply to Jesus only as man, for as God He is unigenitus non primogenitus. So, in Colossians 1:18, it is said that he was "the first-born from the dead;" not that he was literally the first that was raised from the dead, which was not the fact, but that he might be pre-eminent among those that are raised; compare Exodus 4:22. According to this interpretation of the terms firstborn and heir, the apostle’s reasoning is perfectly just: for the creation of all things, (Colossians 1:16,) and the making of the world, (Hebrews 1:3,) through the Son, is a direct proof that he is the firstborn, heir, or Lord of the whole.” See Whitby and Macknight. Paul describes Him-. As Dean Wormer said, “Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life.”1 To put it another way (call it the Colossians way), “Estranged, hostile, and evil-deed-doing (21) is no way to go through life.” Colossians 1:15-28 is a Christological proclamation, ode, and solution to these existential dangers. Meyer, however, says: ‘The only correct reference is to His whole Person, which in the theanthropic status of His present heavenly Being is continuously what His Divine Nature (considered in itself) was before the Incarnation, so that by virtue of the identity of His Divine Nature, we can attribute the same predicates to the Exalted One as to the Logos.’ But this virtually concedes all that is claimed above. But a perfect man isn"t the "image of the invisible God". См. So the Gnostics believed that God put forth a series of emanations, each a little further away from God until at last there was one so distant from God, that it could handle matter and create the world. l. 3. He mounts up higher in discoursing as to the glory of Christ. He held out an image of God in the love He displayed, which was too tender and fervent, too noble and self-denying, to have had its home in any created bosom-in the power He put forth, which was too vast to be lodged in other than a Divine arm, and also in His wisdom and holiness, and in those blessed results which sprang from His presence. For the word is used again in 1:18, "the firstborn from the dead". He is the Son of God. Now, we have shown that the preceding clause, “image of the invisible God,” implies Christ's divinity, and we might say with Anselm that this refers to His humanity. b) By a consideration of Christ in God’s eternal decree and purpose, as the common womb of him who is God-man, and all creatures; being fore-ordained before the foundation of the world, 1 Peter 1:20, he may be looked upon as the first-born amongst those who are predestinated to be conformed to his image, Romans 8:29, with Ephesians 1:4,5; for upon this account he is the first-born of the first-born creatures or church, (but this, as hinted before, is considered more specially, Col 1:18), Hebrews 12:23, therefore the first-born of all others: and this may be one respect in which he is before them, Colossians 1:17, with Proverbs 8:22; yea, all of them of the old, as well as the new creation. Compare Psalm 89:27; Hebrews 1:2. Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. of Colossians 1:18 ought to have dissuaded from such an idea, to say nothing of the unfitness and want of delicacy of the figure(34) as relating to Christ’s agency in the creation of the world, and of the want of reference in the πρῶτον to the idea of a δεύτερον—an idea which, with the usual interpretation, is implied in κτίσεως. He created the creation, and therefore existed before all creation. monogenes) means alone of His kind, not "first-created" (protoktiskos). 15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. From this essential conception, by a natural contrast, the thought immediately passes on to distinction from, and priority to, all created being. He is the heir of all things. It seems not supported by sufficient evidence. Colossians 1:15. ὅς ἐστιν, who is) He describes the glory and excellence of Christ as even above the highest angels, and hereby scatters those seeds by which he will prove, next in order, the folly of the worshippers of angels. The Holy Spirit presents the Son of God in all his towering preeminence. 4:22; Иер. But it should be considered, that in other passages in Scripture, the word image denotes likeness, if not sameness of nature and properties, as 1 Corinthians 15:49 : As we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Both before creation and after his ascension, from eternity to eternity, he is what is here asserted. (Trench), Colossians 1:16-17, "He is before all things." A common argument in favour of this exegesis is, that where this epithet is used, it is implied that he who bears it is not only compared with others, but is one of them. 1 Corinthians 11:7 (Trench); John 1:18; John 14:9; 2 Corinthians 4:4; 1 Timothy 3:16; 1 Timothy 6:16; Hebrews 1:3). Hence the idea contained in the word “firstborn” is not only sovereignty “above all the kings of the earth” (Psalm 89:28; comp. "Image" (eicon) involves "likeness" (homoiosis); but "likeness" does not involve "image." The next verse asserts that He is the conditional cause of the Universe, but this one seems to intimate that in virtue of His immanent relation to the Father, as the ‘Image’ and ‘First born,’ He holds the relation to the creation, which is subsequently defined. Hesychius defines εἰκών by χαρακτήρ and τύπος. The lunar reflection is but a feeble resemblance of the solar glory. In John 3:16 the word "only begotten" (Gr. But it must be added that while His priority in time shows His independence of creation, creation is not independent of Him, as He is here described. The ‘stamped out image’ refers to that which is an exact representation of what is stamped out by a seal. God is a pure Spirit, without body, or bodily parts, but yet was clearly manifested in Christ tabernacling amongst us, John 1:14 1 Timothy 3:16: he represents him to us in his understanding and wisdom, Proverbs 8:14,15; almightiness and eternity, Isaiah 9:6 John 1:1 8:58, permanency and unchangeableness, Hebrews 1:11,12 13:8, omnipresence and omnisciency, John 2:24,25 13:18 Revelation 2:13. 6. The reason of this appellation is immediately added — For in him all things are created, as he is, three verses afterwards, called the first-begotten from the dead, because by him we all rise again. I am well aware in what manner the ancients were accustomed to explain this; for having a contest to maintain with Arians, they insist upon the equality of the Son with the Father, and his ( ὁμοουσίαν) identity of essence, (303) while in the mean time they make no mention of what is the chief point — in what manner the Father makes himself known to us in Christ. Could the Infinite dwarf itself into the finite, or the Eternal shrink into a limited cycle? Colossians 1:15-20 1 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation, for all things in heaven and on earth were created by him – all things, whether visible or invisible, whether thrones or dominions, whether principalities or powers – all things were created through him and for him. Павел страстно сражается против этой вызывающей осуждение ереси. Contrary to what the Jehovah Witnesses advocate, Jesus isn"t an angel or even an archangel (Hebrews 1:4-14). ‘Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.’. И в греческой, и в иудейской культурах первенец получал право наследия от своего отца независимо от того, рождался он первым или нет. In Christ is found a God who is near, who cares, who hears, who pities, and who saves." Traces of the same idiom are found in the Jewish Kabbala-in which Jehovah Himself is called the “first-born of the world,” that is, in all probability, the Divine representative of essential and immanent perfection to the world. (4) As to the union of the two clauses. The word is is the word of eternity. — No man hath ever seen God: the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, hath himself manifested him to us. In Christ he fixes in solid reality the floating vision of the “image of God.” (4) There is an emphasis on the words “of the invisible God.” Now, since the whole context shows that the reference is to the eternal pre-existence of Christ, ancient interpreters (of whom Chrysostom may be taken as the type) argued that the image of the invisible must be also invisible. The passage does not deal with the eternal relations of the Son to the Father, but with the Son’s relations to the universe and the Church. "Likeness" [homoiosis] implies mere resemblance, not the exact counterpart and derivation; hence, it is nowhere applied to the Son, while "image" is (cf. One cannot create himself. At variance with the words, therefore, is the Arian interpretation, that Christ is designated as the first creature; so also Usteri, p. 315, Schwegler, Baur, Reuss. ", First-born of every creature (Hebrews 1:6) - "the first-begotten:" 'begotten of His Father before all worlds' ('Nicene Creed'). It is the exalted Christ of whom Paul is speaking, as is suggested, though not necessarily implied by the present, but more forcibly by the previous relative clause. The former regards Him as the Creator (Colossians 1:15-16) and Sustainer (Colossians 1:17) of the natural world; the latter, as the source and stay of the new moral creation. It is applied to first child, first raised to life and first group raised to life. At the same time, we gather also from this his ( ὁμοουσία) identity of essence, for Christ would not truly represent God, if he were not the essential Word of God, inasmuch as the question here is not as to those things which by communication are suitable also to creatures, but the question is as to the perfect wisdom, goodness, righteousness, and power of God, for the representing of which no creature were competent. The Gnostics went further. Oltramare says that such a genitive after a substantive is a pure invention, but it is explained to be after the or in (cf.John 1:15, ). Since Christ is the creator of all things, verse Colossians 1:16, he is not himself one of the creation. Lightfoot urges in favour of the former that . От греческого слова «eikon», имеющего значение «образ», происходит слово «икона», которое означает «копия» или «подобие». (2) Next we observe that although, speaking popularly, St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:7 calls man “the image and glory of God,” yet the allusion is to Genesis 1:26; Genesis 1:28, where man is said, with stricter accuracy, to be made “after the image of God” (as in Ephesians 4:24, “created after God”), and this more accurate expression is used in Colossians 3:10 of this Epistle, “renewed after the image of Him that created him.” Who then, or what, is the “image of God,” after which man is created? "Not a commencement of existence, but an eternal relation to the Father, ... there never having been a time when the Son began to be, or when the Son did not exist as God with the Father." But he is first-born of every creature, that is, born before every creature—having come to personal existence,(28) entered upon subsistent being, ere yet anything created was extant (Romans 1:25; Romans 8:39; Hebrews 4:13). The firstborn of (or, ‘before’) every creature (or, ‘all creation’). 1, p. 335 f. The element of comparison is the relation of time ( πρὸ τοῦ τὸν κόσμον εἶναι, John 17:5), and that in respect of origin. Three times in these verses (Colossians 1:15,17,18), this imperative IS used with reference to Christ, strongly suggesting the great "I AM' s" of the Gospels and of Exodus 3:6,14. The only begotten Son alone represents the invisible God, and is Himself His image, invisible, according to the Divine nature; visible, according to the human nature [John 14:9], visible even before the incarnation, inasmuch as the invisible things of God [Romans 1:20] began to be seen from the creation, which was accomplished through Him [by Him as the instrument]. The division is at the end of, . 2 Corinthians 4:4. the firstborn of every creature; not the first of the creation, or the first creature God made; for all things in Colossians 1:16 are said to be created by him, and therefore he himself can never be a creature; nor is he the first in the new creation, for the apostle in the context is speaking of the old creation, and not the new: but the sense either is, that he was begotten of the Father in a manner inconceivable and inexpressible by men, before any creatures were in being; or that he is the "first Parent", or bringer forth of every creature into being, as the word will bear to be rendered, if instead of we read which is no more than changing the place of the accent, and may be very easily ventured upon, as is done by an ancient writer (g), who observes, that the word is used in this sense by Homer, and is the same as "first Parent", and "first Creator"; and the rather this may be done, seeing the accents were all added since the apostle's days, and especially seeing it makes his reasoning, in the following verses, appear with much more beauty, strength, and force: he is the first Parent of every creature, "for by him were all things created", &c. Colossians 1:16, or it may be understood of Christ, as the King, Lord, and Governor of all creatures; being God's firstborn, he is heir of all things, the right of government belongs to him; he is higher than the kings of the earth, or the angels in heaven, the highest rank of creatures, being the Creator and upholder of all, as the following words show; so the Jews make the word "firstborn" to be synonymous with the word "king", and explain it by , "a great one", and "a prince" (h); see Psalm 89:27. We behold God in the things Jesus said and the things He did, in what He essentially was, for the Father was in Him and working through Him uniquely. Colossians 1:15 REV and Commentary - He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, - Bible verse Il. “No man knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son shall reveal Him.” The Socinian hypothesis, advocated even by Grotius and Heinrichs, that only because He revealed so fully the will of God is He called the image of God, is far short of the full meaning, though as the “image” shines upon us we look and learn. Though the word itself does not necessarily imply a perfect image, both the context and many other Scriptures demand that meaning here. The meaning here is, that the being and perfections of God are accurately and fully represented by Christ. That the apostle did not mean to represent him as a creature, is also manifest from the reason which he assigns why he is called the first-born. The spirit of the statement is, that our only vision or knowledge of the Father is in His Son. For what Paul is concerned to prove is the superiority of Christ to the angels, and for this the idea of priority is not relevant, but that of dominion is. Jesus is unique in seven distinct ways. Lachmann's punctuation of Col 1:15-18 is best, whereby "the first-born of every creature" (Col 1:15) answers to "the first-born from the dead" (Col 1:18), the whole forming one sentence with the words ("All things were created by Him and for Him, and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist, and He is the Head of the body, the Church") intervening as a parenthesis. Thus His essential character as always "the image of God," (1) before the incarnation, (2) in the days of His flesh, and (3) now in His glorified state, is, I think, contemplated here by the verb "is. It was 160 kilometres(100 miles) east of the city called Ephesus. Image—An image of what is invisible must itself be invisible. 1:5) по нескольким причинам: 1) Христос не может быть и «первенцем», и «единородным» (ср. 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