FIRSTBORN — and the most fought-over word in the New Testament after logos. ⚠ At Colossians 1:15, 'firstborn of all creation', the question is whether it places Christ INSIDE creation as its first product or OVER it as its heir, and both readings have real support. FOR 'inside': the plain sense is temporal priority, and the genitive most naturally reads 'firstborn of the class named' — the Arian argument, that there was a time when the Son was not. FOR 'over': the Greek Old Testament repeatedly uses prōtotokos for RANK rather than birth-order — God calls Israel 'my firstborn' (Exodus 4:22) though it is not the oldest nation, and Psalm 89:27 says of David, the YOUNGEST of eight, 'I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth'; the next word in Colossians is 'BECAUSE in him all things were created'; and Greek had a clear word for 'first-created' (prōtoktistos) which is not used. Nicaea in 325 went the second way. The library reports the argument and does not adjudicate it. → first discussed at Colossians 1:15