{The image} (eik(936e)). In predicate and no article. On
eik(936e), see  2Co 4:4  3:18  Ro 8:29  Col 3:10 . Jesus is the
very stamp of God the Father as he was before the Incarnation
( Joh 17:5 ) and is now ( Php 2:5-11  Heb 1:3 ). {Of the
invisible God} (	ou theou tou aoratou). But the one who sees
Jesus has seen God ( Joh 14:9 ). See this verbal adjective (a
privative and hora(935c)) in  Ro 1:20 . {The first born}
(pr(9374)otokos). Predicate adjective again and anarthrous. This
passage is parallel to the Logos passage in  Joh 1:1-18  and to
 Heb 1:1-4  as well as  Php 2:5-11  in which these three writers
(John, author of Hebrews, Paul) give the high conception of the
Person of Christ (both Son of God and Son of Man) found also in
the Synoptic Gospels and even in Q (the Father, the Son). This
word (LXX and N.T.) can no longer be considered purely "Biblical"
(Thayer), since it is found In inscriptions (Deissmann, _Light,
etc._, p. 91) and in the papyri (Moulton and Milligan,
_Vocabulary, etc._). See it already in  Lu 2:7  and Aleph for  Mt
1:25  Ro 8:29 . The use of this word does not show what Arius
argued that Paul regarded Christ as a creature like "all
creation" (p(8373)(8873) ktise(9373), by metonomy the _act_ regarded as
_result_). It is rather the comparative (superlative) force of
pr(9374)os that is used (first-born of all creation) as in  Col
1:18  Ro 8:29  Heb 1:6  12:23  Re 1:5 . Paul is here refuting the
Gnostics who pictured Christ as one of the aeons by placing him
before "all creation" (angels and men). Like eik(936e) we find
pr(9374)otokos in the Alexandrian vocabulary of the Logos
teaching (Philo) as well as in the LXX. Paul takes both words to
help express the deity of Jesus Christ in his relation to the
Father as eik(936e) (Image) and to the universe as pr(9374)otokos
(First-born).