1 ¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God;
his is the primacy over Or: image of the invisible God, born before ... all created things.
1 ¹⁶ In him everything in heaven and on earth was created,
not only things visible but also the invisible orders of thrones, sovereignties, authorities, and powers:
the whole universe has been created through him and for him.
1 ¹⁷ And he exists before everything,
and all things are held together in him.
1 ¹⁸ He is, moreover, the head of the body, the church.
He is its origin, the first to return from the dead, to be in all things alone supreme.
1 ¹⁹ For in him the complete being of God, by God's own choice, came to dwell.
1 ²⁰ Through him God chose to reconcile the whole universe to himself,
making peace through the shedding of his blood upon the cross—
to reconcile all things, whether on earth or in heaven, through him alone.