1 Corinthians 15:45-47

15:45 So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living person”; ¹  the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 15:46 However, the spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and then the spiritual. 15:47 The first man is from the earth, made of dust; the second man is from heaven.

Colossians 1:18-19

1:18 He is the head of the body, the church, as well as the beginning, the firstborn ²  from among the dead, so that he himself may become first in all things. ³ 

1:19 For God ⁴  was pleased to have all his ⁵  fullness dwell ⁶  in the Son ⁷ 

Colossians 2:3

2:3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Colossians 2:9

2:9 For in him all the fullness of deity lives ⁸  in bodily form,

Hebrews 1:3

1:3 The Son is ⁹  the radiance of his glory and the representation of his essence, and he sustains all things by his powerful word, ¹⁰  and so when he had accomplished cleansing for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. ¹¹ 

¹ tn Grk “living soul”; a quotation from Gen 2:7.

² tn See the note on the term “firstborn” in 1:15. Here the reference to Jesus as the “firstborn from among the dead” seems to be arguing for a chronological priority, i.e., Jesus was the first to rise from the dead.

³ tn Grk “in order that he may become in all things, himself, first.”

⁴ tn The noun “God” does not appear in the Greek text, but since God is the one who reconciles the world to himself (cf. 2 Cor 5:19), he is clearly the subject of εὐδόκησεν (eudokhsen).

⁵ tn The Greek article τό (to), insofar as it relates to God, may be translated as a possessive pronoun, i.e., “his.” BDAG 404 s.v. εὐδοκέω 1 translates the phrase as “all the fullness willed to dwell in him” thus leaving the referent as impersonal. Insofar as Paul is alluding to the so-called emanations from God this is acceptable. But the fact that “the fullness” dwells in a person (i.e., “in him”) seems to argue for the translation “his fullness” where “his” refers to God.

⁶ tn The aorist verb κατοικῆσαι (katoikhsai) could be taken as an ingressive, in which case it refers to the incarnation and may be translated as “begin to dwell, to take up residence.” It is perhaps better, though, to take it as a constative aorist and simply a reference to the fact that the fullness of God dwells in Jesus Christ. This is a permanent dwelling, though, not a temporary one, as the present tense in 2:9 makes clear.

⁷ tn Grk “him”; the referent (the Son; see v. 13) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁸ sn In him all the fullness of deity lives. The present tense in this verse (“lives”) is significant. Again, as was stated in the note on 1:19, this is not a temporary dwelling, but a permanent one. Paul’s point is polemical against the idea that the fullness of God dwells anywhere else, as the Gnostics believed, except in Christ alone. At the incarnation, the second person of the Trinity assumed humanity, and is forever the God-man.

⁹ tn Grk “who being…and sustaining.” Heb 1:1-4 form one skillfully composed sentence in Greek, but it must be broken into shorter segments to correspond to contemporary English usage, which does not allow for sentences of this length and complexity.

¹⁰ tn Grk “by the word of his power.”

¹¹ sn An allusion to Ps 110:1, quoted often in Hebrews.