Colossians 1:17

he Emphatic in the Greek; He, and no other who could even seem to rival or obscure His sublime eminence.

is before all things ante omnes, Latin Versions. The Greek genitive form is ambiguous; it might be either masculine or neuter. But the mention in the last clause, in the unambiguous nominative, of "all things," decides for a similar reference here.

Lightfoot prints his rendering here, "andHe is before all things," comparing John 8:58, and Exodus 3:14, and adding, "The imperfect [- was"] might have sufficed, … but the present [- is"] declares that this pre-existence is absolute existence." He quotes Basil of Cæsarea (adv. Eunom., iv.) as emphasizing the special force of "is" (as against e.g. "was" or "became") in this very passage: "(the Apostle) indicates thus that He ever iswhile the creation came to be."

" Before:" i.e., as the whole context shews, in respect of priority of existence; the priority of eternity.

by him Lit. and better, in Him; see above on Colossians 1:16.

consist I.e., literally, stand together, hold together. The Latin-English "consist" (Latin versions, constant) exactly renders the Greek. "He is the principle of cohesion in the Universe. He impresses upon creation that unity and solidarity which makes it a cosmos instead of a chaos" (Lightfoot). And Lightfoot quotes Philo to shew that the "Logos" of Alexandrian Judaism was similarly regarded as the "Bond" of the universe.

"Christ was the conditional element of their creation, the causal element of their persistence… The declaration, as Waterland observes, is in fact tantamount to -in Him they live, and move, and have their being" " (Ellicott).

Natural philosophy, after all observation and classification of phenomena and their processes, asks necessarily but in vain (so long as it asks only "Nature"), what is their ultimate secret, what is, for instance, the last reason of universal gravitation. Revelation discloses that reason in the Person and Will of the Son of God.

Thus far the Apostle has unfolded the glory of Christ as the Cause and Bond of all being in the sphere of "Nature," material and otherwise. Now he turns to the sphere of Grace.