120 Cf. E. Percy, Die Probleme, p. 72.
117In Col. 2:10, 15 (as in Eph. 3:10; 6:12), they are summed up more concisely as “principalities and powers ἀϱϰαὶ ϰαὶ ἐξουοίαɩ).
118The tense of “were created” (ἐϰτίοθη) at the beginning of v. 16 is aorist, referring to the act of creation as such; the tense of “have been created” (ἔϰτισται) at the end of the verse is perfect, referring to the enduring result of the creative act.
119For the bringing together of various prepositional phrases to express the relationship of God or Christ to the universe cf. Rom. 11:36; 1 Cor. 8:6; Eph. 4:6. To relate such constructions to Stoic formulations—comparing them, for example, with Marcus Aurelius’s apostrophe to nature: ἐϰ σοῦ πάντα, ἐν σοὶ πάντα, εἰς σὲ πάντα (Meditations 4.23)—is to pay more attention to the form of words than to their substance. Paul’s intention is as different from that of the Stoic philosophers as the God of whom Paul speaks is different from the pantheistically conceived world-soul of Stoicism.
120Cf. E. Percy, Die Probleme, p. 72.
121For example, TB Sanhedrin 98b records the opinion of R. Yohanan (d. A.D. 279) that the world was created with a view to Messiah.