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interlinearVerse INT GEN EXO LEV NUM DEU JOS JDG RUTH 1SA 2SA 1KI 2KI 1CH 2CH EZRA NEH EST JOB PSA PRO ECC SNG ISA JER LAM EZE DAN HOS JOEL AMOS OBA YNA MIC NAH HAB ZEP HAG ZEC MAL YHN MARK MAT LUKE ACTs ROM 1COR 2COR GAL EPH PHP COL 1TH 2TH 1TIM 2TIM TIT PHM HEB YAC 1PET 2PET 1YHN 2YHN 3YHN YUD REV
Note 1 topic: grammar-connect-time-sequential
αὐτός ἐστιν πρὸ πάντων
he is before all_‹things›
The word before refers to time, not location. It means that the Son did not come into being when God created everything, but rather he existed as God before anything was created. If it would be helpful in your language, you could use a word or phrase that refers to prior time. Alternate translation: “before God created anything, the Son existed as God”
Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / metaphor
τὰ πάντα ἐν αὐτῷ συνέστηκεν
the_‹things› all in him /has/_consisted
Paul is speaking here as if all created things hold together because they are inside the Son. By speaking in this way, Paul means that everything that God created continues to exist because the Son actively works to preserve everything. If it would be helpful in your language, you could express the idea plainly. Alternate translation: “he controls everything so that it works the way it should” or “he is the one who makes sure everything has its proper place”
1:15-20 Paul presents Jesus as the supreme creator (1:15-17) and redeemer (1:18-20). The series of short statements, the exalted conceptions of Christ, and the parallelism in language and thought strongly suggest that these verses quote an early Christian hymn about Jesus that Paul applied to the situation of the Colossian Christians.
Note: The OET-RV is still only a first draft, and so far only a few words have been (mostly automatically) matched to the Greek words that they’re translated from.
Acknowledgements: The SR Greek text, lemmas, morphology, and VLT gloss are all thanks to the SR-GNT.