Qui est imago Dei invisibilis

1. Qui est imagoDei invisibilis Col. 1.15-17

2. v15 grammatical commentary οϲ εϲτιν εικων του θυ του αορατου πρωτοτοκοϲ παϲηϲ κτιϲεωϲ ὅς ἐστιν εἰκὼν τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ἀοράτου, πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. eikon- a likeness (lit. statue) (fig. representation—image) nominative singular feminine Codex Source: http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/manuscript.aspx?book=43&chapter=1&lid=en&side=r&verse=15&zoomSlider=0#43-1-16-35

3. v15 grammatical commentary οϲ εϲτιν εικων του θυ του αορατου πρωτοτοκοϲ παϲηϲ κτιϲεωϲ ὅς ἐστιν εἰκὼν τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ἀοράτου, πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. aoratou [root: aoratos]: not visible [a thing] adjective, genitive singular masculine Codex Source: http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/manuscript.aspx?book=43&chapter=1&lid=en&side=r&verse=15&zoomSlider=0#43-1-16-35

4. v15 grammatical commentary οϲ εϲτιν εικων του θυ του αορατου πρωτοτοκοϲ παϲηϲ κτιϲεωϲ ὅς ἐστιν εἰκὼν τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ἀοράτου, πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. prototokos: first-born (usually as a noun, literally or figuratively) adjective, nominative singular masculine Codex Source: http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/manuscript.aspx?book=43&chapter=1&lid=en&side=r&verse=15&zoomSlider=0#43-1-16-35

5. v16 grammatical commentary οτι εν αυτω εκτιϲθη τα παντα εν τοιϲ ουρανοιϲ και επι τηϲ γηϲ τα ορα τα και τα αορατα ˙ ειτε θρονοι ειτε κυριοτητεϲ ειτε αρχαι ειτε εξουϲιαι τα παντα δι αυτου και ειϲ αυτον εκτι ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ ἐκτίσθη τὰ πάντα ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς τὰ ὁρατὰ καὶ τὰ ἀόρατα, εἴτε θρόνοι εἴτε κυριότητες εἴτε ἄρχαι εἴτε ἐξουσίαι· τὰ πάντα δι’ αὐτοῦ καὶ εἰς αὐτὸν ἔκτισται· For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. ektisthe [ktizo]: to found (originally), to create, to make verb, aorist passive indicative, third person Codex Source: http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/manuscript.aspx?book=43&chapter=1&lid=en&side=r&verse=15&zoomSlider=0#43-1-16-35

6. v16 grammatical commentary οτι εν αυτω εκτιϲθη τα παντα εν τοιϲ ουρανοιϲ και επι τηϲ γηϲ τα ορα τα και τα αορατα ˙ ειτε θρονοι ειτε κυριοτητεϲ ειτε αρχαι ειτε εξουϲιαι τα παντα δι αυτου και ειϲ αυτον εκτι ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ ἐκτίσθη τὰ πάντα ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς τὰ ὁρατὰ καὶ τὰ ἀόρατα, εἴτε θρόνοι εἴτε κυριότητες εἴτε ἄρχαι εἴτε ἐξουσίαι· τὰ πάντα δι’ αὐτοῦ καὶ εἰς αὐτὸν ἔκτισται· For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. ezousiai [ktizo]: to found (originally), to create, to make verb, perfect passive indicative, third person singular Codex Source: http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/manuscript.aspx?book=43&chapter=1&lid=en&side=r&verse=15&zoomSlider=0#43-1-16-35

7. v17 grammatical commentary ϲται και αυτοϲ εϲτιν προ παντων και τα παντα εν αυτω ϲυνεϲτηκεν καὶ αὐτός ἐστιν πρὸ πάντων καὶ τὰ πάντα ἐν αὐτῷ συνέστηκεν, He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. sunesteken [root: sunistao]: to set together, to exhibit or to [fig.] constitute verb, perfect active indicative, third person singular Codex Source: http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/manuscript.aspx?book=43&chapter=1&lid=en&side=r&verse=15&zoomSlider=0#43-1-16-35

8. the image of God in Jewish literature Logos or Wisdom [lit. or fig.]? The Lord by wisdom founded the earth, by understanding He established the heavens. [Prov. 3.19] “The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His work, the first acts of old. 23Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth… 27When He established the heavens, I was there; when He drew a circle on the face of the deep… 29aWhen He marked the foundations of the earth; 30aThen I was beside Him, as a master workman.” [Prov. 8.22-23, 27, 29a, 30a] the firstborn of creation Consecration and Inheritance Ex. 13; Num. 3; Deut. 21

9. creatio ex nihilo for by Him all things were created The absolute sense of the Hebrew word בָּרָ֣א [bara] in Gen. 1.1 • The impossibility of forming an actual infinite [mathematical/philosophical] • The series of events in time is a collection formed by successive addition. • A collection formed by successive addition cannot be actually infinite. • Therefore, the series of events in time cannot be actually infinite. • The Kalam cosmological argument [philosophical/scientific] • Whatever begins to exist has a cause. • The universe began to exist. • Therefore, the universe has a cause.

10. creatio continuansGod’s causal relationship to creation And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.[Heb. 1.3] • Thomistic thought on creation • God’s causal relationship to existence is immediate • Problems with Aquinas’ thought • Occasionalism—If something is created at a time t only if t is the first moment of the thing’s existence, then creatio coninuans implies that at each instant God creates a brand new individual, numerically distinct from its chronological predecessor.

11. creatio originans original creation and conservation • How ought we interpret Col. 1.17? • Holding all things together [as God’s causal relation] should be interpreted as conservation • Creation involves bringing something into being. • If God creates some entity e (thing or an event) at a time t (whether an instant or finite interval), then e comes into being at t. E1: e comes into being at t iff (a) e exists at t, (b) t is the first time at which e exists, and (c) e’s existing at t is a tensed fact Accordingly, E2: God creates e at t iff God brings it about that e comes into being at t. In conservation God acts on an existing subject to preserve its existence. This is a denial of secondary causation (Islam). God maintains the existence of the things He has created.

12. creatio originans God’s causal relationship to time A theory of time (dynamic): The ultimate reality of time is tensed (God is in time) B theory of time (static): The ultimate reality of time is atemporal (God is outside of time) The doctrine of creation implies an A theory of time (dynamic, tensed) • If one adopts B theory of time, then things do not literally come into existence. The whole four-dimensional spacetime manifold exists coeternally with God. • Since creatio continuans fails, can B theory make more sense of conservation? • Can God act tenselessly on e to sustain it from t1 to t2? [a time interval] • No. What if e exists only at t? Or what if e is the whole four-dimensional spacetime block? On a B theory of time, no such lapse occurs, and so conservation is unnecessary, indeed, excluded. • This is “one of the most neglected, but also one of the most important questions in the dialogue between theology and science,” which is the relation between the concept of eternity and the spatiotemporal structure of the universe.1 • As physicists Barrow and Tipler observe, “At this singularity, space and time came into existence; literally nothing existed before the singularity, so, if the universe originated at such a singularity, we would truly have a creation ex nihilo.”2 1Wolfhart Pannenberg, “Theological Questions to Scientists,” in The Sciences and Theology in the Twentieth Century, ed. A.D. Peacocke, Oxford International Symposia (Stocksfield, England: Oriel Press, 1981), 12. 2John D. Barrow and Frank J. Tipler, The Anthropic Cosmological Principle (Oxford: Clarendon, 1986), 442.

13. divine relation does God really relate to us? Aquinas agrees that if God were really related to the temporal world, then He would be temporal. If these relations are real for God, He must be temporal in light of His undergoing relational change. Thus, Aquinas denies that God has any real relation to the world. Like the incarnation, the creation of the world is an act of condescension on God’s part for the sake of His creatures…His timeless, free decision to create a temporal world with a beginning is a decision on God’s part to abandon timelessness and to take on a temporal mode of existence…He stopped to take on a mode of existence inessential to His being or happiness in order that we might have being and find supreme happiness in Him. His taking a human nature into intimate union with Himself in the incarnation of the Logos…was thus not what the Danish philosopher Kierkegaard regarded as “the Absurd,” union of eternity with time, for God was already temporal at the time of the incarnation and had been since the inception of creation… As a result of God’s creation of and entry into time, He is now with us literally moment by moment as we live and breathe, sharing our every second. He is and will be always with us. He remembers all that has transpired, knows all that is happening, and foreknows all that is to come, not only in our individual lives but [also] through the entire universe…He is, as Isaac Newton said, the Lord God of dominion throughout His universe. Well did Jude exclaim, “To the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time, and now and forever! Amen!”1 1William Lane Craig, Time and Eternity: Exploring God’s Relationship to Time (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2001), 241.

14. so what? If we say that God is essentially characterized by His self-giving love, creation becomes necessary. This view is false. God is not a monad, but in the tri-unity of His own being, God enjoys the full and unchanging love relationships among the persons of the Trinity. Creation is unnecessary for God and is a sheer gift, bestowed for the sake of creatures, that we might experience the joy of fulfillment of knowing God. He invites us, as it were, into the intratrinitarian love relationship as His adopted children. Thus creation, as well as salvation, is sola gratia. • This view is false. God is not a monad, but in the tri-unity of His own being, God enjoys the full and unchanging love relationships among the persons of the Trinity. • “God is the only Person for whom self-exaltation is an act of love. ‘He exalts Himself to show mercy to you.’” (Is. 3.18) Your purpose in life is for Jesus Christ [Col. 1.16]. The text is a demonstration of God’s supreme sovereignty. Jesus is literally [by essence and power] with us moment by moment holding all things together.