Doesn't Colossians 1:15 say Jesus was the first created being?
Colossians 1:15 calls Jesus 'the firstborn of all creation'. A firstborn is the first one born in a family, so Jesus is part of creation: the first thing God made. God then made everything else through him, which is why verse 16 rightly says 'all other things' were created by means of him.
— New World Translation (2013), Colossians 1:15-17 and study notes
'Firstborn' in Scripture often means the one with first rank and inheritance, not the first one made. God calls David his 'firstborn' though he was the youngest son. And Paul immediately explains why Christ is firstborn: 'for' by him all things were created. Paul doesn't say 'all other things'. That word is added in the New World Translation. In Paul's Greek, Christ stands outside the whole created order as its Creator and heir.
What Scripture says
15The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16For in Him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. 18And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and firstborn from among the dead, so that in all things He may have preeminence. 19For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, 20and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through the blood of His cross.
The full hymn: Christ is the image of God, Creator of all things, before all things, sustainer of all things and preeminent in everything.
27I will indeed appoint him as My firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.
God makes David, the youngest son of Jesse, his 'firstborn', the highest of the kings of the earth. Firstborn here means rank.
9They will come with weeping, and by their supplication I will lead them; I will make them walk beside streams of waters, on a level path where they will not stumble. For I am Israel’s Father, and Ephraim is My firstborn.”
God calls Ephraim his firstborn, although Manasseh was born first (Genesis 41:51-52).
22Then tell Pharaoh that this is what the LORD says: ‘Israel is My firstborn son,
The nation of Israel is God's 'firstborn son', a title of privileged status, not of birth order.
3Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made.
Nothing that came into being came into being apart from the Word. If he made everything made, he was not made.
24Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer who formed you from the womb: “I am the LORD, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who by Myself spread out the earth,
The LORD made all things alone and by himself, with no created helper.
2But in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe.
God appointed the Son 'heir of all things', the firstborn's privilege, through whom he also made the world.
The case
What the New World Translation says
The New World Translation (NWT) renders Colossians 1:15-17 so that Christ is "the firstborn of all creation", and "by means of him all other things were created". Its study notes explain that "firstborn" typically means born first in time, and that the Greek word "all" can contextually mean "all other". Witnesses therefore read the passage as teaching that Jehovah first created the Son, then created everything else through him.
Earlier printings of the NWT set "other" in square brackets, the usual way of signaling words added for sense. The 2013 revision prints it without brackets, so many readers today won't know it isn't in the Greek.
Three keys in the text
1. "Firstborn" is a title of rank
The firstborn son in Israel received the double inheritance and the family's leadership (Deuteronomy 21:17). Over time "firstborn" became a title for the one with that status, whether or not he was born first:
- David, the youngest of Jesse's sons, is made God's "firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth" (Psalm 89:27).
- Ephraim is called God's firstborn (Jeremiah 31:9), though his brother Manasseh was older.
- Israel, one nation among many, is God's "firstborn son" (Exodus 4:22).
So the word itself doesn't settle the matter. Context does.
2. Paul explains his own meaning
Verse 16 begins with hoti, "for" or "because": Christ is firstborn of all creation because in him all things were created. Paul's reason is not that Christ was made first but that he made everything. Verse 18 states the purpose: "that in everything he might be preeminent". The Greek genitive "of all creation" is therefore best read as "over all creation", the way an heir is firstborn over an estate. Hebrews uses the same logic: God appointed the Son "heir of all things", through whom he made the world (Hebrews 1:2).
3. "All things" means all things
Paul's description is total: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, thrones, dominions, rulers, authorities (1:16). He is "before all things" and in him "all things hold together" (1:17). If Christ were a creature, he would be one of the "all things" that hold together in himself, which is incoherent.
| Verse | Greek | NWT |
|---|---|---|
| 1:16 | ta panta ("all things") | "all other things" |
| 1:17 | pantōn, ta panta | "all other things" (twice) |
| 1:18 | en pasin ("in all things") | "in all things" |
| 1:20 | ta panta | "all other things" |
The NWT adds "other" where the doctrine needs it and leaves it out in 1:18, where Christ's being first "in all things" causes no difficulty. A consistent translation would treat the same phrase the same way.
The Creator in Isaiah
The Old Testament is emphatic that creation was the LORD's work alone: "who stretched out the heavens alone, who spread out the earth by myself" (Isaiah 44:24). If God created everything else through a created Son, then he did not create alone. Colossians, John 1:3 and Hebrews 1:10 all assign the work of creation to the Son, which only makes sense if he shares the identity of the one Creator.
How to talk about this kindly
Many Witnesses have never compared their Bible with the Greek, and it can feel like an attack to raise it. Instead of saying "your Bible is wrong," ask a question: "Would you read Colossians 1:16-17 with me in a few other translations, and see whether 'other' appears?" An interlinear Greek-English text, including the Watchtower's own Kingdom Interlinear Translation, will show the word is absent.
Why it matters
Paul wrote Colossians to people tempted to add intermediary spiritual powers to their faith. His answer was that Christ is not one more power in the hierarchy. He is over all of it, "the fullness of deity" in bodily form (Colossians 2:9). A believer who has Christ needs no other mediator, because in him they have God himself.
Word study
greek · “firstborn” · Colossians 1:15
Literally 'first-born', and often used of birth order. But because the firstborn received authority and inheritance, the word also came to mean 'preeminent one'. The Greek Old Testament uses it for David (Psalm 89:27; 88:28 in the Septuagint), who was not born first. Paul supplies his own meaning in 1:18: 'that in everything he might be preeminent'.
greek · “other, another” · Colossians 1:16
The ordinary Greek word for 'other', which Paul uses often. It does not appear anywhere in Colossians 1:16-20. The Greek says ta panta, 'all things'. The NWT adds 'other' in verses 16, 17 and 20, but not in verse 18 ('first in all things'), where adding it would not serve the doctrine.
“But what about…?”
Can't 'all' sometimes mean 'all other'?
Yes, context can imply it, as in Luke 13:2, where Galileans are compared with 'all the [other] Galileans'. That is a fair point. But context must justify it. Here the context says Christ is 'before all things' and holds all things together (1:17). It puts him on the Creator's side of the line, not inside creation.
Doesn't Revelation 3:14 call Jesus 'the beginning of the creation of God'?
The Greek word archē can mean 'beginning' but also 'origin' or 'ruler', as in Colossians 1:18 and the related word archōn ('ruler'). Revelation itself calls both God and Christ 'the beginning and the end' (21:6; 22:13). Christ is the source and ruler of creation, not its first product.
What about Proverbs 8:22, where Wisdom is 'created' first?
Proverbs 8 is poetry that personifies wisdom as a woman (8:1). The point is that God never acted without wisdom. Early Christians did connect Christ with God's Wisdom, but Arius's use of this verse to make the Son a creature was rejected in the fourth century. Using poetry to establish that Christ was created reads too much into it.
Doesn't 'only-begotten' also mean Jesus was created?
The Greek monogenēs means 'only' or 'unique of its kind'. Hebrews 11:17 uses it of Isaac, though Abraham had another son, Ishmael; Isaac was the unique son of promise. 'Begotten' in Christian usage describes an eternal relationship (Son from Father), not a moment of creation. As C. S. Lewis noted, what is begotten is of the same kind as its parent; what is made is different.
Where Christians differ
Go deeper
- book · 1989Why You Should Believe in the Trinity: An Answer to Jehovah's WitnessesRobert M. Bowman Jr.
- book · 2008The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon (Pillar New Testament Commentary)Douglas J. Moo
- book · 1991Colossians and Philemon (Exegetical Guide to the Greek New Testament)Murray J. Harris
- book · 1993Reasoning from the Scriptures with the Jehovah's WitnessesRon Rhodes
- ancientOrations Against the AriansAthanasius
Sources (5)
- New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (Study Edition), Colossians 1:15-20 and study notes (jw.org)
- Septuagint, Psalm 88:28 (English Psalm 89:27) and Jeremiah 38:9 (English 31:9): prōtotokos used of David and Ephraim
- Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics (1996), on the genitive of subordination
- Athanasius, Orations Against the Arians 2, on Colossians 1:15 and Proverbs 8:22
- C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Book IV, ch. 1, on 'begetting' and 'making'
Related questions
Doesn't John 1:1 say the Word was 'a god'?
The missing article does not make theos indefinite. In Greek a predicate noun placed before the verb often lacks the article for reasons of word order and emphasis. Most grammarians read theos here as qualitative: the Word has the very nature of God. 'A god' also creates a problem the Bible won't allow: a second, lesser god beside the one true God, who says there is no other (Isaiah 44:6-8).
Isn't Jesus really Michael the archangel?
No text in the Bible says Jesus is Michael. The identification rests on an inference from 1 Thessalonians 4:16. Meanwhile Scripture draws a sharp line between them. Daniel calls Michael 'one of the chief princes', but the Son is unique. Michael would not rebuke Satan on his own authority, but Jesus did. And the letter to the Hebrews spends a whole chapter showing that the Son is not an angel at all, but the Creator whom angels worship.
Wasn't the Trinity invented at the Council of Nicaea?
Nicaea did not invent belief in Jesus' deity; it defended it. Christians were worshipping Jesus as God within weeks of the resurrection, as the New Testament letters show, and second-century writers called him God openly. The council met because Arius denied this inherited faith. Nearly every bishop rejected his view, and Constantine later favored Arius' allies anyway. The council clarified an old belief; it did not create a new one.
This entry is a draft and has not yet been theologically reviewed.