On Sat, 16 Dec 1995, RRRRRRR wrote:
Question:
In Col 1:15... The firstborn of all creation...
In Col 1:18... The firstborn from among the dead...
These phrases seem to be talking about a single event or maybe even two
events isolated by a great deal of time perhaps. Which?
The first one is probably JUST a title...the word 'firstborn' here (in
both passages) refers to the dominion of the 'firstborn'...not any event
of being 'born' (that would be a different word--based on "gennao"
probably)...
The second phrase (in the Greek) has a preposition ('out of') in it,
whereas the 1st one doesn't...the suggests that, although an event is
probably STILL NOT IN VIEW, that Christ is indicated as the one who
ascended to dominion FROM among the ranks of the dead--in other words, He
ALONE of those who died, was exalted to Lordship...
The first phrase has no preposition, but is still in the genitive
case...meaning something like 'Jesus, the lord of all creation'...
Are these the same
event? Are these events at all?
As I indicated above, the text certainly doesn't make any events explicit
in the phrases...they look more like titles (e.g. they are NOT verbal forms)
"The firstborn from among the dead" seems
to refer to Jesus Christ's resurrection when the seal was broken and the
stone was rolled away. That seems to be pretty clear.
There are those who take this view, and it is easily supported...as
above, the presence of the 'ek' (out of) preposition COULD be drawing
attention to the event that was THE BASIS FOR the title 'Lord'...
But the "The firstborn of all creation" is something else? There is another
phrase in the same passage "He is before all" the He here referring the Jesus
Christ and if "before all" then it was before creation... or what? Was that
in the beginning?
The phrase in 1.17, 'before all' is generally considered to be temporal priority...He existed BEFORE ALL CREATION (harkening back to 1.15--the same Greek phrase is used-- 'all things')...others think the 'before' refers to superiority (as in "the president ranks 'before' congressmen") ...either sense fits the passage...