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Colossians 1:16 -- A Misleading Text would not have contradicted them by asserting that the
in Standard Versions Son had actually created the universe. Paul was a
staunch believer in Israel's creed: "There is no God but
One...There is One God, the Father" (I Cor. 8:4, 6). Ye-
Colossians 1:16 in the King James (Authorized) shua is the human Lord Messiah (Ps. 110:1, adoni, not
version of the Bible is likely to be misleading. It reads: adonai) according to Peter in Acts 2:34-36 and the
"By him [Yeshua] were all things created that are angel in Luke 2:11.
on the earth, visible and invisible, whether they be
thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. Accurately translated, Colossians 1:16 does not
All things were created by him and for him." Al- say that all things were created by Yeshua. The Ex-
though the creation in question is that of the hierarchy positor's Greek New Testament Commentary on Co-
of the universe, the average reader is likely to receive lossians says directly of Colossians 1:16: "This does
the impression that Yeshua was the creator in Genesis not mean 'by him.'" The margins of many Bibles will
1:1. "All things were made by him."
show that the text actually reads: "In [en] him all things
were created... All things have been created through
Such a view contradicts a mass of biblical texts and [dia + gen.] him and with a view to [eis] him." Paul's
threatens the unique position of YEHOVAH, the Father chief purpose in this passage is to speak of Yeshua's
of Yeshua. work in redemption and his supreme position in the hi-
erarchy of authority, i.e. the Kingdom in which Chris-
To say that Paul thinks of Yeshua as the creator ac- tians have been promised a share and which they await
tive in Genesis 1:1 contradicts a number of other bibli- as an inheritance (Col. 1:13; 3:24). Yeshua has a su-
cal passages. Firstly, in Hebrews 4:4, where preme position over all created beings and rival pow-
YEHOVAH and Yeshua are quite distinct personalities, ers. Paul describes the position of Yeshua as
the writer says that "God [not Yeshua] rested on the "firstborn" (prototokos) and founder or chief (arche)
seventh day from all His works." This text makes the of the new creation. Yeshua is to head up the Kingdom,
Father the active agent in creation. The same book says the "Kingdom of God's dear Son" (v. 13). The issue
in its opening verses that YEHOVAH spoke by a Son here is authority and rule. "Firstborn" is a Messianic ti-
only in "the end of these [earlier, Old Testament] days." tle drawn from Psalm 89, in which the Father (YEHO-
YEHOVAH did not speak or act through a Son until the VAH) speaks of the coming Messiah: "He will cry to
ministry of Yeshua in Israel. me, 'Thou art my Father, my God and the rock of my
salvation.' I will make him my firstborn, the highest of
The Son is associated not with Old Testament the kings of the earth. I will establish his seed for ever
times but with the historical ministry of Yeshua. Ye- and his throne as the days of heaven" (Ps. 89:26, 27,
shua himself referred to someone other than himself 29).
"who made them male and female." He stated in Mark
10:6 that "from the beginning of the creation God [YE- Because Yeshua is God's eldest Son, he is the rea-
HOVAH] made them male and female." He positively son for the creation. All things were created "in" him.
did not say, "I made them..." This view is exactly in line The exact force of these prepositions is difficult to
with the Old Testament assertion that the One God of specify, but one distinguished authority suggests that it
Israel, YEHOVAH, the Father, created everything and should be taken here in a causal sense: "For because of
was alone in the act of creation of Genesis 1:1: "YE- him the universe was created" (Moulton, Milligan,
HOVAH who makes all things, who stretches forth the Grammer of the New Testament, Vol. III, p. 253).
heavens all alone, who spreads forth the earth by My-
self. Who was with Me?" (Isa. 44:24, RSV). The im- The creation was designed and brought into exis-
plied answer is that no one assisted the Father at the tence with Yeshua in mind. As firstborn he inherits it
creation of the universe. In Isaiah the promised Mes- as a gift from the Father. But Yeshua would have been
siah is a personality DISTINCT from the God who the first to RENOUNCE the idea that he had made the
claims to have been unaided and unaccompanied at universe for himself!
creation. The Messiah is the Son who is to be born to
Israel (Isa. 9:6). In Malachi 2:10 the one God of the
Hebrew Bible is defined as the Father and it was He
who created all things alone. Paul knew these texts and

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