Part 13 Answering objections: Colossians 1:15 and Revelations 3:14

Ben,
The following is my second email (See my previous reply about Colossians 1:15), this time addressing your comments on Revelations 3:14. As you did in your comments on both passages, you only express your opinion and fail to cite scholarly resources. What are your resources?

In context, this is one of a series of letters as Jesus addresses seven churches. These verses deal with the church at Laodicea. Revelations 3:14: “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation.

As my previous email states, much has been written Revelations 3:14 that directly contradicts your position.

New American Standard Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek Dictionaries
ἀρχή archē; from 757; beginning, origin:—beginning(38), corners(2), domain(1), elementary(1), elementary*(1), first(1), first preaching(1), principalities(1), rule(4), rulers(6).

Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words:
arche (ἀρχή, 746) means “a beginning.” The root arch primarily indicated what was of worth. Hence the verb archo meant “to be first,” and archon denoted “a ruler.” So also arose the idea of “a beginning,” the origin, the active cause, whether a person or thing, e.g., Col. 1:18.

Rob Bowman (Why You Should Believe in the Trinity): The main argument presented by the JW booklet (Should Believe in the Trinity) for taking the “beginning of the creation” in the sense of “first creation is that John (the author of the Book of Revelation) always uses arche “with the common meaning of ‘beginning.’” However, if by “beginning” one understands ‘first thing,” this is not so. In fact, it has this meaning only once in John’s writings (John 2:11). Elsewhere in John’s Gospel and Epistles, it always refers to a beginning point in time (John 11:1, 2; 6:64; 8:25, 44; 15:27; 16:4; 1 John 1:1; 2:7, 13, 14, 24; 3:8, 11; 2 John 5, 6), not the first thing in a series.

In the Book of Revelation, in fact, arche is used only three other times, and always of God as “the beginning and the end” (Rev. 1:8; 21:6; 22:13). Yet Witnesses will rightly deny that God is a first thing in a series of other things.

Bruce Metzger (The Jehovah’s Witnesses and Jesus Christ): The New World Translation, in harmony with its bold twisting of Colossians 1:15-17, is also in error at Rev. 3:14, where it makes the exalted Christ refer to himself as “the beginning of the creation by God.” The Greek text of this verse (ὁ ἀρχή ὁ κτίσις ὁ θεός) is far from saying that Christ was created by God, for the genitive case, ὁ θεός means “of God and not “by God” (which would require the preposition ἐν). Actually, the word arche, translated “beginning,” carries with it the Pauline ideas expressed in Colossians 1:15-18 and signifies that Christ is the origin, or primary source, of God’s creation (compare with John 1:3, “Apart from him not even one thing came into existence”).

Ron Rhodes (Reasoning from the Scriptures with Jehovah’s Witnesses): In responding to the Watchtower’s interpretation of Revelation 3:14, it is critical to note that there is a wide range of meanings for the Greek word arc he, which is translated “beginning” in the New World Translation. Though arche can mean “beginning,” the word is truly unique and also carries the important active meaning of “one who begins,” “origin,” “source,” “creator,” or “first cause.” Evangelical scholars agree that this is the intended meaning of the word in Revelation 3:14. The authoritative Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature by William Arndt and F. Wilbur Gingrich says the meaning of arche in Revelation 3:14 is “first cause.” Indeed, in Revelation 3:14, arche is used to refer to “the active beginning of the creation, the One who caused the creation, referring to Jesus Christ not as a created being, but the One who created all things (John I :3).”

Based on our study of the scriptural context, I believe that arche in Revelation 3:14 carries the primary meaning of “beginner,” “first cause,” or “originator” of God’s creation. And a second possible meaning is that Christ is the “ruler” over God’s creation. It may be that in the case of Christ, both senses are intended inasmuch as Christ is elsewhere portrayed in Scripture as both the Creator (Hebrews 1:2) and Ruler (Revelation 19:16) of all things.

The interpretation that Christ is the “beginner” of God’s creation harmonizes with other New Testament passages about Christ as Creator-whereas the Watchtower interpretation simply doesn’t fit the whole of Scripture. For example:
• “For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:16,17).
• “But in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe” (Hebrews 1:2).
• “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made” (John 1:3).

Did you know that the same John who wrote Revelation 3:14 wrote John 1:3-“Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made”?

Since the use of arche with God Almighty does not mean that He had a created beginning (Revelation 1:8; 21:6; 22:13), why go against John’s usage in Revelation and insist that when used of Christ the word arche indicates a created beginning?

Steve Bruecker