A friend of mine asked to see a paper I had written for a class here at Saint Meinrad. Maybe you'll find it interesting or helpful. Specifically, I would love to hear of other verses that help us understand this passage better.


When St. Paul writes “all things have been created through him” in his letter to the Colossians, St. Paul does not mean that creation is through Christ the Son of God considered as incarnate. Theodoret of Cyr agrees: “‘Created through him’ refers to the first creation, while ‘created in him’ refers to what has been accomplished through his incarnation,” indicating that that which was created through him was not created through him as incarnate. Theodoret continues, “Paul did not say, ‘he was made before all things,’ but ‘he is before all things.’”[1] Ambrosiater’s comments seem to oppose Theodoret’s, though. Ambrosiaster uses the term “born,” which sounds like an incarnation: “Before all things came to be, he was born.” However, his subsequent lines do not focus on creation as through Jesus Christ the Word made flesh. Rather, Ambrosiaster places all things coming “into existence through him,” meaning that the Word’s birth was simply an existence prior to the rest of creation, not necessarily a fleshly birth.[2] Many others use the word "begotten" rather than "born," which is more clear for our purposes here.

Considering a third Church Father, then, Gregory of Nyssa also comments on the passage from a similar perspective as Theodoret—and which does not oppose the reading presented above of Ambrosiaster. Gregory explains that only because human beings chose to sin was there need for the “second creation” that Theodoret also mentions. The “new” or “second” creation in Christ implies a later time when Christ would become flesh. Gregory makes it explicit: “Of this new creation… he was called the firstborn.”[3] Similarly, contemporary theologians Ocáriz and Blanco use another of St. Paul’s passages (Hebrews 1:1-4) concerning the first creation through Christ as not incarnate which sheds light on our discussion of the lines from Colossians. Concerning God’s creation through his Son, the authors make the case that St. Paul in Hebrews 1:1-4 is referring “obviously to Christ as God (the eternal Word before the Incarnation).”[4]

A final argument for the claim that St. Paul means creation through Christ as the Word of God not incarnate leans on the opening lines from the Gospel of John. In John 1:14, we read, “And the Word became flesh and lived among us.” As contemporary theologian William L. Portier puts it, “The doctrine of the incarnation (Jn 1:14) means that God became human in Jesus Christ,”[5] indicating his understanding that the Son of God was not already God, Jesus, as man. Even without Portier’s argument, the authority of Scripture alone indicates that before the acceptance of the Son of God’s entry into creation for the redemption of creation by the free consent of the Virgin Mary, the Word, the Second Person of the Trinity was not yet incarnate. He became so.[6]

If creation was “through him” as the Word of God not yet made man, what does St. Paul mean in the same line from Colossians by that all things have been created “for him”? Concerning the use of this pronoun “him”, Church Father Athanasius tells us, “For the Word of God was not made for us but rather we for him.”[7] Contemporary Catholic Scripture scholar Raymond Brown also him “through him all things can be reconciled to God.”[8] Here Athanasius and Brown both use “him” as the object of creation, and we should understand this him to be the Word of God as Christ incarnate, because Christ all of creation became his only after his incarnation when he became united with creation in this way as it’s Lord.

Here, we return to the Ocáriz and Blanco source from above: “All created things…are destined to constitute a certain glorious unity with Christ at the end of history.”[9] In naming Christ heir of all things, St. Paul “undoubtedly” refers to “Christ the Incarnate Word.” These authors explain that Christ can only be “heir” of creation after inheriting creation in his becoming man, and, therefore, Lord of creation.[10] Ocáriz and Blanco admit that not all Scripture scholars and theologians agree on St. Paul’s meaning concerning all of creation being created for him as before or after the Incarnation of the Son of God. However, they point out that it is most reasonable to hold the position that creation has been made for Christ “as God made man,” since the lines following Colossians 1:16 discuss Christ’s headship over creation after inheriting the title as heir, as Lord.[11]

Scripture scholars also agree with this position. Douglas J. Moo writes, “While it is likely, then, that the
assertion of Christ’s relationship to creation” has a debt to “the Jewish tradition of the Word of God as the “mediator of creation,” the assertion of all things being created through him “goes beyond” an Old Testament understanding. Christ, Moo writes, “stands at [creation’s] end as the goal of the universe.”[12] Creation is for Christ the man to be united with, to be its heir and Lord.


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