No Way to Treat a Lady: A Creed in Colossians 1 (Part One)

This early Christian statement of faith makes a shocking connection to Lady Wisdom, and she's very, very old

If we’re going to recite creeds in our church services, the question of “Are Creeds Biblical?” is a good question, and while we gave many good answers last time, the best argument we gave for using creeds in church revolved around the fact that the New Testament itself preserves “formulas of faith” with the basic elements of a creed in a number of passages. Naturally, the next thing we should do is this: show you those passages.

We should start with the hymn in Colossians (because it’s my favorite). It’s found in verses 15–20 of the first chapter.

A couple of comments are in order before we get going: first of all, I don’t want this to only be interesting.

In reality, if we can get interested in and excited over God’s Word, that’s a huge win, and so is learning more about it. In fact, I think getting excited over God’s Word can be a form of worship in itself.

I want this series on New Testament Creeds to be personally moving as well; I want you to learn something from this and be able to use it in your one-on-one time with God.

Secondly, you’ll notice that I called this passage a hymn. But aren’t we talking about creeds?

This passage is often called the “Christ-hymn” of Colossians. That’s right, many think that this passage preserves an early Christian tradition in the form of a hymn. So why bring it up here?

Because the form of a hymn doesn't change this passage's function. What's more, hymns in the ancient world were a bit different than how we think of them. They did not even have to be songs. Ancient hymns were first and foremost poems of praise. They were also—much like any good hymn we might sing today—useful for teaching just as much as they were used for worship. Even ancient thinkers like Aristotle used hymns to pass on their ideas.

So in light of what we said last time, when we remember that creeds are short summaries designed to be used in worship gatherings to teach believers about the basic truths of the God they worship, we can see why the function of early Christian creeds and ancient hymns could often be quite similar, and why they can both be considered examples of “early Christian confessions.” Both hymns and creeds are “traditional materials,” and more specifically, they are confessional materials, providing us with short statements of faith that can be found in the New Testament itself. For our purposes, it's these kinds of traditions we're interested in.

We already touched on some of the ways we can tell when a “creed-like summary” is being used in the New Testament last week, but let’s mention just a couple of these features that we can see in our passage today: for one, Paul is addressing his audience as “you” in verses 2–14, and he does the same in verse 21 onward. Our passage, verses 15–20, comes out of nowhere and interrupts this flow with a bunch of phrases beginning with “He is…”, indicating that Paul is bringing in a summary statement about Christ that could stand on its own apart from the letter. The passage also repeats the phrase “He is the firstborn” twice, and this repetition suggests that we’ve suddenly been introduced to some kind of poetic piece.

And one final comment: today we’ll see the background to this passage. Paul uses some pretty amazing ideas here, and knowing them will both immediately help us understand how he views Jesus and help us grasp the depth of this passage when we dive deeper next time. When we meet again, we’ll go through each verse line by line in this beautiful statement of who we believe Christ is.

You see, this passage brings together a bunch of different themes, both from the Old Testament and from things Paul learned from early Judaism, but none of them stand out as clearly as the Wisdom tradition that began in Proverbs 8. It’s no exaggeration to say that there’s really nothing like this chapter in the entire Old Testament!

Proverbs 8 describes Wisdom. I know, shocker—it’s Proverbs after all. But more specifically, it personifies Wisdom, which is why I’m capitalizing it. In Proverbs 8, Wisdom is described as a person. Perhaps you are familiar with this passage and the idea of “Lady Wisdom.”

Now, this isn’t to say that Proverbs thinks of Wisdom as an actual person; that idea would come later in Jewish thought. But sticking with this chapter for the moment, Lady Wisdom is a symbol, and she's praised about as highly as the Jewish worship of only one God allows.

We can especially focus on verses 22–31. Several times, they tell us that Wisdom was “before” all of creation. One writer says that these verses describe “Genesis 1, verse 0,” so to speak. In other words, we’re literally told that Wisdom was by God’s side even before the events of creation that we read about starting in Genesis 1:1. So when Paul tells us that Christ is “before all things” in Colossians 1:17, we’re already starting to see a connection.

Why does Proverbs stress how old Wisdom is? That’s no way to treat a lady.

If you think about it, we tend to feel that what comes first in time is also first in rank or class. We may even say things like “there’s nothing like the original.” In ancient Israel, it was all the more so, especially with the elders of the community. Even today, we have no trouble appreciating that we have much to learn from those who have lived long and godly lives!

So it is with Proverbs: the fact that Wisdom was with God from the beginning of time gives us the impression that she has learned all that a fruitful and lasting relationship with the Lord has to offer. And we need to listen to what she knows.

She was also with God throughout creation itself, and when we recall Proverbs 3:19’s claim that “by wisdom the Lord laid the earth’s foundations,” we certainly get the impression that Wisdom was somehow involved in God’s creative work. And again, the same is said about Christ: “in Him all things were created” (Colossians 1:16; Paul is actually going a step further here, as we'll see next time).

Finally, Proverbs 8:31 mentions that Wisdom was “delighting in mankind.” In other words, she wasn’t just at God’s side; she came down into our world as well. In this way, Lady Wisdom is spoken of like a bridge, a mediator uniting God and those who seek Him.

But here’s where things get really fascinating. Centuries after Proverbs was written, and especially between the last books of the Old Testament and the first books of the New, Jewish writers like Philo and the author of Wisdom of Solomon became increasingly inspired by this character of Wisdom. As they thought and wrote about what these passages might mean, they said things like she “pervades all things,” “can do all things,” “orders and maintains all things,” and so on.

Shockingly, Paul’s confession in Colossians says much of the same: “in Him all things were created,” “all things have been created through Him,” “in Him all things hold together,” and that He reconciles “all things.”

These Jewish writers even referred to Wisdom as God’s “image,” as the “beginning,” and as God’s “firstborn.” We see that Christ is called each of these things in our Colossians passage: “He is the image of the invisible God” (verse 15), “the firstborn” (twice, in verses 15 and 18), and “He is the beginning” (verse 18).

So when a Jewish rabbi like Paul writes to believers in Colossae, you had better believe that he is familiar with all this stuff. And whether he himself wrote this creed-like statement or he is using a piece that was already known, by including this passage he pretty much says: “You know all those things that are written about Wisdom? Christ actually is all that she symbolizes.”

If all these connections seem far-fetched, look no further than what Paul says clear as day to the Corinthians: Christ is “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24).

And by using the Wisdom tradition and applying it to Christ, this early Christian confession is a brilliant teaching: since the Jews already held the tradition of personified Wisdom in such high regard, it was only a small step for Christians to expand it to include the divinity of Christ, using language that Jews already accepted. Put more simply, the Wisdom tradition gave early Christians helpful language so that, when taken just a small step further, they could use it to preach Christ’s divinity without their fellow Jews thinking that their worship of only one God was under attack.

To know that Christ was not only an agent of God but God Himself was exactly what the Colossians needed to hear. You see, the church of Colossae lived in fear of other spiritual powers. So much so, in fact, that when false teachers began to say that Christ could be worshipped alongside other powers, practices, and beliefs, it was a real temptation: we’ve all heard the expression “can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”

To these believers, we see the heart of Paul the pastor, offering them a powerful early Christian tradition: you don’t need to fear any power of darkness. All the power you need to overcome the dark is yours in Christ.

Paul promises them that all the Wisdom you need to live well and be secure in your relationship with God can be found in Christ. Don’t look any further than Him, for He will certainly make your paths straight.

And in fact, Paul uses this confessional material to say even more.

...

"Wisdom...All this would fuse together in a new pattern when a real person eventually did emerge whose status and origin could only be described in terms like these..." — John F. Balchin (in Scot McKnight, cited below).

Have any questions? Shoot me an email!

Prev: Are Creeds Biblical? | Next: Look No Further Than Jesus—Colossians 1:15–20 (Part Two)
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If you're like me, the idea of creed-like traditions in the New Testament might be unfamiliar. There's a ton that has been written on this, and sometimes it's nice to know where an author is getting their information:

Books:
Christopher A. Beetham, Echoes of Scripture in the Letter of Paul to the Colossians (2008).
Donald Fairbairn and Ryan M. Reeves, The Story of Creeds and Confessions: Tracing the Development of the Christian Faith (2019).
Eckhard J. Schnabel, Law and Wisdom from Ben Sira to Paul (1985).
Erwin R. Goodenough, An Introduction to Philo Judaeus (1962).
Jared Ortiz and Daniel A. Keating, The Nicene Creed: A Scriptural, Historical, and Theological Commentary (2024).
Matthew E. Gordley, New Testament Christological Hymns: Exploring Texts, Contexts, and Significance (2018).
Thomas J. Sappington, Revelation and Redemption at Colossae (1991).

Commentaries:
Bernd U. Schipper, Proverbs 1–15, Hermeneia (2019)
Clinton E. Arnold, Colossians (second edition), Word Biblical Commentary (2025).
G. K. Beale, Colossians and Philemon, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (2019).
James D. G. Dunn, The Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon, New International Greek Text Commentary (1996).

And by far the best and most convenient place to find all the connections between Colossians 1:15–20 and the Wisdom tradition that I have seen is:
Scot McKnight, The Letter to the Colossians, New International Commentary on the New Testament (2018), pages 138–143.
McKnight is no stranger to the blog—he's given us some helpful insight back in our series on Revelation.