ei; ge evpime,nete th/| pi,stei teqemeliwme,noi kai. e`drai/oi kai. mh. metakinou,menoi avpo. th/j evlpi,doj tou/ euvaggeli,ou ou- hvkou,sate( tou/ khrucqe,ntoj evn pa,sh| kti,sei th/| u`po. to.n ouvrano,n( ou- evgeno,mhn evgw. Pau/loj dia,konojÅ
If you remain in the faith, steadfast and firm and not moving from the hope of the gospel which you heard, the one preached in all creation/ to every creature, the one under the heaven, of which I Paul have become a servant. [a woodenly literal translation]
What is the meaning of the Greek phrase ‘en pase ktisei te hypo ton ouranon.’ It is translated into English as follows, falling into two groups:
in all creation under heaven (RV)
in all creation under heaven (HCSB)
in all the creation that is under heaven (Douay-Rheims)
in all creation under heaven (NASB)
in all creation under heaven (ESV)
to every creature which is under heaven (AV)
to every creature under heaven (NAB)
to every creature under heaven (NIV)
The first group of translations takes the Greek preposition ‘en’ in a very usual and normal way, and that it denotes location, being the sphere in which the verbal idea of preaching happens. By contrast, taking ‘en’ as ‘to’ is somewhat forced, and there were good alternatives that would mean ‘to’, such as ‘pros’, ‘eis’ or the simple dative (eg Mark 16:15). The AV, NAB and NIV no doubt chose to translate Greek ‘en’ as English ‘to’ because of their rendering of ktisis as individual ‘creature’ rather than collective ‘creation’.
The entry for ktisis in Thayer is as follows, and note particularly meanings 2a (singular, creature) and 2b (collective, creation):
kti,sij, kti,sewj, h` (kti,zw), in Greek writings the act of founding, establishing, building, etc.; in the N. T.
1. the act of creating, creation: tou/ ko,smou, Rom. 1:20.
2. equivalent to kti,sma, creation i. e. thing created (cf. Winer's Grammar, 32); used
a. of individual things and beings, a creature, a creation: Rom. 1:25; Heb. 4:13; any created thing, Rom. 8:39; after a rabbinical usage (by which a man converted from idolatry to Judaism was called hv'd'x] hy"rIBi (cf. Schöttgen, Horae Hebrew 1:328, 704f)), kainh, kti,sij is used of a man regenerated through Christ, Gal. 6:15; 2 Cor. 5:17.
b. collectively, the sum or aggregate of created things: Rev. 3:14 (on which see avrch,, 3; (h` kti,sij tw/n avnqrw,pwn, Teaching of the Twelve etc. c. 16)); o[lh| h` kti,sij, Sap. 19:6; pa/sa h` kti,sij, Judith 16:14; and without the article (cf. Grimm on 3 Macc. (2:2), p. 235; (Lightfoot on Col. as below)), pa/sa kti,sij, Col. 1:15; 3 Macc. 2:2; Judith 9:12; swth,r pa,shj kti,sewj, Acta Thomae, p. 19 edition Thilo (sec. 10, p. 198, Tdf. edition) (see pa/j, I. 1 c.); avpV avrch/j kti,sewj, Mark 10:6; 13:19; 2 Pet. 3:4; ouv tau,thj th/j kti,sewj, not of this order of created things, Heb. ix, 11; accusative to the demands of the context, of some particular kind or class of created things or beings: thus of the human race, pa,sh| th/| kti,sei, Mark 16:15; evn pa,sh| (Rec. adds th/|) kti,sei th/| u`po, to,n ouvranou/, among men of every race, Col. 1:23; the aggregate of irrational creatures, both animate and inanimate (what we call nature), Rom. 8:19-2. (Sap. 5:17 (18); 16:24); pa/sa h` kti,sij, Rom. 8:22; where cf. Reiche, Philippi, Meyer, Rükert, others (Arnold in Bapt. Quart. for Apr. 1867, pp. 143-153).
3. an institution, ordinance: 1 Pet. 2:13; cf. Huther at the passage ((Pindar, others.))*
Colossians 1:15 has a similar construction to 1:23, in that it uses pa,shj kti,sewj\, , albeit in the genitive not the dative. The two different translations of this verse in English are the rendering as a collective ‘all creation’ (HCSB, RV, ESV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NJB), or of the singular, ‘every creature’ (Douay-Rheims, AV). Taking ktisis as the collective noun in 1:15 is preferred by most modern translations and is more likely, as if Paul wanted to emphasise the number of persons which the gospel was preached to, which is most likely Paul’s objective as shown by his use of the adjective ‘pas’, all, then he would have used the plural, not the singular, ‘all creatures’, not ‘every creature’. It is likewise probably more likely that Paul intends a collective noun in 1:23, as Thayer does.
It is perhaps possible to take ktisis in 1:23 as referring to ‘every city’. PT O’Brien adopts this view. However, this is not likely given the usage of ktisis in 1:15 – it is less likely it means ‘creation’ in 1:15 and ‘city’ in 1:23.
The phrase ‘under heaven’ is also used in Luke 17:24, Acts 2:5 and 4:12. It means ‘on earth’, ‘on the land’, ‘accessible to humanity’, rather than in heaven, the abode of God and the angels. That is, the preaching is to humans, not to the angels nor the powers.
The articular aorist passive participle, tou/ khrucqe,ntoj governs the clause. The participle is adjectival, modifying the phrase ‘the gospel’.
The aorist is not strictly a time based tense. It is a strictly a tense without definition, literally meaning ‘indeterminate’, without limit, without completion or continuation, duration or repetition (a – orist , ἀόριστ-ος , ον, meaning without definition, without limit: LSJM).
Usually the aorist participle expresses action that occurs before the action of the leading verb. That fits here, where the Colossians have heard the gospel (note Aorist of hvkou,sate) and to hear the gospel, one must have it preached first (tou/ khrucqe,ntoj). However, I wonder if the word order points away from the aorist marking a circumstance antecedent to the main verb. Perhaps it would have been more likely that Paul would have put the participle before the main verb if that was the case, but this is perhaps not a strong argument, as placing the participle after the main verb could make it explanatory, ‘you heard because it was preached’.
The construction doesn’t require that Paul personally has preached in all creation under heaven, for the phrase qualifies the gospel which Paul serves, not Paul himself. In the indicative, aorist verbs can be gnomic or even present.
So I wonder if it is possible that the aorist participle here describes the sphere of gospel preaching without reference to when it is preached. That is, the gospel is to be preached ‘in all creation under heaven’, ie, in all the earth.
If my last hunch is correct, then Paul is not making a statement about whether the gospel has indeed gone to every creature under heaven, nor even that it is gone through all creation, and certainly not that he personally has preached to every creature, both animate and inanimate, but that the gospel is fitted for and will indeed be preached in the sphere of the whole creation under heaven, that is, the world habited by humans, or the human world. If so, there is indeed no exaggeration at all in Paul’s words, as indicated by many commentators, but that Paul is simply giving the sphere in which the gospel is to be preached without reference to the time in which it is preached.