Colossians 1:15 - Firstborn of the World?

This is regarding a link given to us related to Colossians 1:15

It is claimed that Paul's reference to Jesus as "the firstborn of all creation" rhymes with a Jewish phrase בכורו של עולם , which is claimed to mean "the firstborn of the world". It is claimed that "the general idea is clear: Jesus is above all of creation."

Literally בכורו של עולם translates as: "firstborn of the age". The Hebrew word "olam" (Strong's #5769) is in reference to time, and as such would correspond to the Koine Greek word often transliterated as aion (Strong's Greek #165). The Hebrew "olam" could refer to "world" as related to time, making an age equivalent to a world. The Greek word often transliterated as kosmos (meaning world) is used in this sense in 2 Peter 3:6, which speaks of the world that was before the flood of Noah's time as having passed away. 

At any rate, the claim appears to be that "firstborn of the world" is used of God as meaning  "Eternal and Primordial Being who precedes all creation", and thus the same or similar meaning is used in reference to firstborn in Colossians 1:15. In effect, it appears to claiming that the genitive in Colossians 1:15 is not partitive, but rather that is a genitive that makes Jesus above all creation. Perhaps this is meant to refer to the genitive of possession.

Actually, as far as the two phrases rhyming, we do not see any "rhyme" of these two phrases. We should also note that we cannot know what such a phrase as בכורו של עולם sounded like in Jesus' day. Scholars have disagreed even regarding the later Masoretic Hebrew sounds. We cannot even be certain that the Latinized transliteration as "Bekoro shel olam" actually would represent the sounding as given in the Masoretic text, although it is certainly based on somebody's method of transliteration from the Masoretic text.

Likewise, we cannot be 100% what the Koine Greek that Paul used in Colossians 1:15 sounded like. The Westcott & Hort (Transliterated) Interlinear present the phrase as "prwtotokos pasees ktisews". We are not sure how this is supposed to rhyme with "Bekoro shel olam". The tranliteration given, however, certainly do not rhyme with each other.

At any rate, the argument appears to be that Paul was presenting the same Hebrew form "Bekoro shel olam" as "prwtotokos pasees ktisews" in Greek. The claim is that these two terms mean the same thing. The phrase "Bekoro shel olam" is not found in the Hebrew Scriptures. We did find that the Jewish Midras evidently has a phrase that is given in the English translation as "firstborn of the world". However, this phrase is used of Adam, not God. We were not able to find how that phrase appeared in its original written form, but evidently this is from a manuscript dated back to the 9th century AD.

We haven't been able to find any evidence that in the first century the Jewish Rabbis used such a designation as "Bekoro shel olam" of God. Thus, it is highly unlikely that Paul was acquainted with such an application.

We should note also that the Hebrew word transliterated as "olam" does not mean "world". It usually refers to a period of time.

A reference is given regarding the usage of Bekoro shel olam as referring to Jehovah, not from the first, second, or even the third centuries AD, but rather from the 13th century. It is from a Jewish rabbi by the name of Bahiá ben Asher. This Jewish rabbi was a Kabbalist who gave a Kabbalist interpretation of the Torah. It is reported that Kabbalism promotes forms of what is often called occultism, as well as pantheism. Of the Jews, however, Paul stated: "I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge." (Romans 10:2) Kabbalism, however, includes not only the Jewish adaptation of Hellenistic philosophies, but appears to also be associated with some kind of mysticism akin to occultism. At any rate, we do not see how this could have had any influence on what Paul presented in Colossians 1:15.

For related studies, see our Links to Studies Related to Colossians 1:15