Thursday, January 4, 2024

Thomas Gaston on Colossians 1:16

  

. . . the passage certainly would entail the pre-existence of Jesus if it is saying that Jesus is the creator, or agent of creation. All things were created “through” (dia) him, but also “in” (en) him and “for” (eis) him, not “from” (ek) him, the role 1 Cor. 8:6 ascribes to God. if the “all things” that are created through Jesus are the elements of the world then this passage presupposes that Jesus was present at that creation. Dunn asserts that “’all things’ (ta panta) was a familiar way of speaking about ‘everything, the universe, the totality of created entities’” (Dunn, Christology in the Making, 267) citing 1 Cor. 15:27-28, Eph. 3:9 and John 1:3. However, the “all things . . . in heaven and on the earth” that Jesus creates (Col. 1:16) are, presumably, the same “all things . . . whether in heaven or on earth” that Jesus reconciles to God (Col. 1:20). Since it is believers that are reconciled to God, it may be creation referred to is not the Genesis creation, but the new creation in Christ. (As per Whitely, Theology of St. Paul, 110)

 

Though it may seem a little strange to a modern reader, it is clear that in both Paul’s undisputed and disputed letters, creation language is used to talk about the spiritual re-birth of the believer (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15; Eph. 2:10, 14-15; 4:24; Col. 3:10). In fact, this passage is more easily understood as referring to the new creation. Gen. 1:1 describes God creating the heavens and the earth; Col. 1;16 refers only to things “in heaven” and “on” earth, not heaven and earth themselves. “Thrones or dominions or principalities or powers” are not the sort of thing that Genesis 1 talks about God creating, but these very terms are used in the New Testament to talk about the new creation, that is, the community of believers (cf. Eph. 3;10; 6:12; Col. 2:10). The phrase “all things” (ta panta) is also used by Paul in the context of spiritual regeneration (2 Cor. 5:17-18; Eph. 1:22-23; Col. 1:20), as is the phrase “in heaven and on earth” (Eph. 1:7-15; Col. 1:20). Believers are created “in” (en) Christ (Eph. 2:10, 15) and created by Christ (Col. 3:10) (Thomas Edmund Gaston, Dynamic Monarchianism: The Earliest Christology? [2d ed.; Nashville: Theophilus Press, 2023], 257-58)

 

Blog Archive