Explainer / Messiah
Colossians 1:16
for in him all things were created, in the heavens and on the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and to him;
ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ ἐκτίσθη τὰ πάντα ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, τὰ ὁρατὰ καὶ τὰ ἀόρατα, εἴτε θρόνοι εἴτε κυριότητες εἴτε ἀρχαὶ εἴτε ἐξουσίαι· τὰ πάντα δι’ αὐτοῦ καὶ εἰς αὐτὸν ἔκτισται.
What we did
We kept the ASV's wording, in modern English ("to him" for "unto him").
Why
Three prepositions, each rendered by its own English word
More
- ἐν αὐτῷ, "in him." The ASV has "in him"; the KJV has "by him." We kept "in," the usual sense of ἐν.
- δι’ αὐτοῦ, "through him." Paul uses the same preposition in 1 Cor 8:6, where the Father is the one "of whom (ἐξ οὗ) are all things" and the Lord Yeshua the one "through whom (δι’ οὗ) are all things."
- εἰς αὐτόν, "to him" (ASV "unto him"): direction or goal.
The verbs are passive
ἐκτίσθη, "were created," and ἔκτισται, "have been created" (perfect).
More
The English keeps both the passive and the change of tense.
The list
θρόνοι, κυριότητες, ἀρχαί, ἐξουσίαι are words for ranks of rule: "thrones, dominions, principalities, powers." We kept the ASV's terms.