Colossians 1:18

[ἡ] ἀρχή. The article is inserted by B alone of the uncials, and by the cursives 47, 67**, bscr. Its addition is easily accounted for on subjective grounds, after ἡ κεφαλή. But see commentary.

A few cursives read ἀπαρχή with Chrys.398 and Oecum.

18. καὶ αὐτός. In Colossians 1:14-20 αὐτός occurs twelve times, besides ὅς three times, in every case (vide infra) referring to Christ. St Paul will leave no loophole for another to creep in and steal His glory. In the present verse the thought is—He who is the image of God and the means and aim of all creation, He, and no other, is the source of life to believers. See the Letter to Diognetus, § 7, in Lightfoot.

ἡ κεφαλὴ. Colossians 1:15-17 seem to enlarge on τοῦ υἱοῦ τῆς�, Colossians 1:18 on the preceding words τὴν βασιλεἱαν (Colossians 1:13).

κεφαλή is used of Christ only in 1 Corinthians 11:3-4, where He is called the Head of an individual man, and here, Colossians 2:10; Colossians 2:19; Ephesians 1:22; Ephesians 4:15; Ephesians 5:23, where He is regarded as the Head of all spiritual powers as well as of the Church.

τοῦ σώματος. Had this been omitted κεφαλή might have appeared to be a mere figure of speech. Its insertion makes it clear that He stands to the Church in the relation of Head to body. He is “the centre of its unity and the seat of its life” (Lightfoot).

Observe that although St Paul compared the company of believers (or perhaps the local community of believers, see Hort, The Christian Ecclesia, p. 145) to a body in 1 Corinthians 12:12-27; Romans 12:4-5, following therein Greek and Roman precedents (for Latin examples see Wetstein on Romans 12:5), yet he now speaks rather of Christ as its Head; i.e. in that Second Group St Paul was laying stress on the relation of Christians to each other, here rather on the dignity of Christ and their relation to Him (cf. Beet).

Observe that “the relation thus set forth under a figure is mutual. The work which Christ came to do on earth was not completed when He passed from the sight of men: He the Head needed a body of members for its full working out through the ages: part by part He was, as St Paul says, to be fulfilled in the community of His disciples, whose office in the world was the outflow of His own. And on the other hand His disciples had no intelligible unity apart from their ascended Head, who was also to them the present central fountain of life and power” (Hort, The Christian Ecclesia, p. 148). See further on Colossians 1:24.

It is, by the way, somewhat strange that St Paul should here introduce the simile of the body as though it were well known to the Colossians. Perhaps Epaphras had heard St Paul use it at Ephesus about the time 1 Cor. was written.

τῆς ἑκκλησίας. In apposition to τοῦ σώματος and explanatory of it. Cf. Colossians 1:24; Ephesians 1:22-23. For ἑκκλησία in the Epp. and Apoc. see Hort, The Christian Ecclesia, pp. 116–118, Swete on Revelation 22:16.

ὅς ἐστιν, an epexegetic relative clause. “Like the more usual ὅστις, the simple relatival force passes into the explanatory, which almost necessarily involves some tinge of causal or argumentative meaning” (Ellicott). Only by His resurrection, and all that this meant, did He enter into this relation to the Church.

[ἡ]ἀρχή. See the notes on Textual Criticism. Lightfoot shows by examples that the article is generally omitted when ἀρχή is predicate; e.g. Tatian, ad Graec. 4, θεὸς … μόνος ἄναρχος ὤν καί αὐτὸς ὑπάρχων τῶν ὅλων�.

For ἀρχή used of Christ see Revelation 3:14; Revelation 21:6; Revelation 22:13†, but hardly Hebrews 6:1.

It has been suggested that ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν is to be taken not only with πρωτότοκος but also with ἀρχή, thus limiting the reference of ἀρχή to the Resurrection.

But the thought is wider. The Son is regarded as the ἀρχή of all the beings that are reconciled (Colossians 1:20) and presented blameless (Colossians 1:22) in glory, i.e. of what is elsewhere called the new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17, εἴ τις ἐν Χριστῷ, καινὴ κτίσις, cf. Galatians 6:15). Hence ἀπαρχή is avoided here, for He is more than “first-fruits” as regards the new creation. Contrast 1 Corinthians 15:20. Hence, rather, ἀρχή is parallel to εἰκών (Colossians 1:15), and πρωτότοκος ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν to πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως, and, as will be seen, ἵνα γένηται ἐν πᾶσιν αὐτὸς πρωτεύων, with its expansion in Colossians 1:19-20, to Colossians 1:16-17.

We must thus attribute to ἀρχή its fullest meaning, including, as in Proverbs 8:22-23, and perhaps in Genesis 49:3; Deuteronomy 21:17, that of time (which however is but subordinate here), and that of dignity and worth, Hosea 1:11 (= Colossians 2:2), besides its connotation of supreme source and originating power, cf. ἄρχηγος, Acts 3:15.

Observe that this full meaning would come more naturally to St Paul than to a Gentile, accustomed as he would be to the Hebrew equivalent of ἀρχή, viz. רֶאשִׁית. Compare e.g. Rashi’s manifold interpretation of the first word in Genesis, b’reshith.

πρωτότοκος, Colossians 1:15 note; in conformity with St Paul’s words at Antioch in Pisidia that God had fulfilled the promise made unto the fathers, ἀνάστησας Ἰησοῦν, ὡς καὶ ἐν τῷ ψαλμῷ γέγραπται τῷ δευτέρῳ· υἱός μου εἶ σύ, ἐγὼ σήμερον γεγέννηκά σε (Acts 13:33).

ἐκ. Not to be confused with the simple genitive (Revelation 1:5, ὁ πρωτότοκος τῶν νεκρῶν), but expressly implying that He was among the dead, and came up from them leaving them there.

τῶν νεκρῶν. ἐκ νεκρῶν is very common, but the article is very rare, the exact phrase occurring only in Ephesians 5:14, καὶ�, and perhaps in 1 Thessalonians 1:10, ὅν ἥγειρεν ἐκ [τῶν] νεκρῶν. Compare also ἀπὸ τῶν νεκρῶν, Matthew 14:2; Matthew 27:64; Matthew 28:7†, and μετὰ τῶν νεκρῶν, Luke 24:5†. The article has almost the sense of “all.” Contrast Colossians 2:12.

ἵνα. The final object of His inherent supremacy, and His priority in Resurrection.

γένηται, not ᾗ. For this He becomes (contrast preceding ἐστιν), partly at once on His Resurrection and Ascension (compare Philippians 2:9), but completely only at the consummation of all things. Cf. ib. Colossians 1:10.

ἐν πᾶσιν. Certainly neuter, because of τὰ πάντα in Colossians 1:17; Colossians 1:20. Compare Philippians 4:12. Observe that by position the stress is on ἐν πᾶσιν, not on αὐτός.

αὐτὸς, vide supra.

πρωτεύων†, “holding the first place.” Vulg. primatum tenens, cf. 3 John 1:9, ὁ φιλοπρωτεύων αὐτῶν Διοτρέφης. πρωτεύειν has precisely the same meaning in Esther 5:11 (B). Lightfoot quotes appositely from Plut. Mor. p. 9, σπεύδοντες τοὺς παῖδας ἐν πᾶσι τάχιον πρωτεῦσαι.