SUBJECT: Colossians
1:15-16 and Revelation 3:14
QUESTION: Do these
verses state that Jesus was created?
ANSWER:
No, it does not.
Revelation 3:14
And unto the angel of the
church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen,
the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation
of God;
Notice the commentaries:
Revelation 3:14
[The beginning of the
creation of God] That is, the head and governor of all
creatures; the king of the creation. See the note at Col
1:15. By his titles, here, he prepares them for the
humiliating and awful truths which he was about to declare,
and the authority on which the declaration was founded.
~from Adam Clarke's Commentary
Revelation 3:14
Beginning of the creation of
God-not He whom God created first, but as in Colossians
1:15-18, the Beginner of all creation: its originating
instrument. All creation would not be represented adoring
Him, if He were but one of themselves (Revelation
5:8,11,13). His being the Creator is a guarantee for His
faithfulness as 'the Witness and Amen.' ~from Jamieson,
Fausset, and Brown Commentary
Note:
In both of these commentaries, it is clearly stated that we
are not talking about God, the Father creating Jesus Christ.
Here is the reference to
Colossians 1:15-16
Colossians 1:15-16
15 Who is the image of the
invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
16 For by him were all
things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth,
visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or
dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were
created by him, and for him:
Notice the commentary referenced above:
Colossians 1:15
[The first-born of every creature] I suppose this
phrase to mean the same as that, Phil 2:9: God hath given
him a name which is above every name; he is as man at the
head of all the creation of God; nor can he with any
propriety be considered as a creature, having himself
created all things, and existed before anything was made. If
it be said that God created him first, and that he, by a
delegated power from God, created all things, this is most
flatly contradicted by the apostle's reasoning in the 16th
and 17th verses. Since the Jews call Yahweh: bªkowrow
(OT:1060) shel (OT:7945) `owlaam (OT:5769), the first-born
of all the world, or of all the creation, to signify his
having created or produced all things; (see Wolfius in loc.)
so Christ is here termed, and the words which follow in the
16th and 17th verses are the proof of this. The phraseology
is Jewish; and as they apply it to the supreme Being merely
to denote his eternal pre-existence, and to point him out as
the cause of all things; it is most evident that Paul uses
it in the same way, and illustrates his meaning in the
following words, which would be absolutely absurd if we
could suppose that by the former he intended to convey any
idea of the inferiority of Jesus Christ. ~from Adam
Clarke's Commentary
As we can see, Jesus was not
a created being.
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