κεφαλή (kephalē). n. fem. head. Denotes the top part of the body.

Most often kephalē refers to the human head (Matt 6:17). The word can also refer to the entire person (1 Cor 11:4). By extension, the word can refer metaphorically to those who are of high status (Eph 1:22).

ἐκκλησία (ekklēsia). n. fem. church, assembly, congregation. A group that meets together for various political, religious, and civic purposes.

Head-ship also refers to their total dependence on him for life and power. Church is not some universal congregation, scattered throughout the world, to which all believers belong, but a heavenly assembly, gathered around Christ. Even as they go about their ordinary daily tasks, all Christians are members of this gathering in heaven, because of their fellowship with him. Christ is the beginning in the sense that he is the firstborn from among the dead, i.e. the founder of a new humanity.

πρωτότοκος (prōtotokos). n. masc. firstborn. The first child born to a set of parents.

This term refers to the firstborn son in a family (Luke 2:7). Paul figuratively refers to Christ as the firstborn (prōtotokos) of all creation (Col 1:15), meaning that he existed before creation. New Testament authors also refer to Christ as the firstborn (prōtotokos) of God (Heb 1:6) and the firstborn from the dead (Col 1:18; Rev 1:15).

the firstborn from the dead Refers to Jesus’ resurrection, which Paul regards as a template for the resurrection of all believers (e.g., 1 Cor 15:20–23; 1 Thess 4:14). Compare Col 1:15 and note.

ἀρχή (archē). n. fem. beginning, ruler. That which is first, either in time or in rank and authority.

Occurring 130 times in the NT, the word archē always carries a sense of primacy; it can denote primacy of time (e.g., “beginning”) or primacy in authority (e.g., “ruler”).

Christ is the beginning in the sense that he is the firstborn from among the dead, i.e. the founder of a new humanity.

The sense of primacy communicated by prōtotokos is further highlighted by the phrase, “that in everything he might be preeminent.” There is a measure of similarity of sound between the two terms (prōtotokos, firstborn; and prōteuōn, preeminent) to further link them together. So the meaning of the participle prōteuōn (from the verb prōteuō, “to hold the highest rank in a group, be first, have first place”) should govern our understanding of the meaning of prōtotokos, ruling out any suggestion that Christ is a created being.

All this is so that in everything He might have the supremacy. Christ is given first place over all Creation. He is preeminent. The same eternal Logos (John 1:1) who “became flesh” (John 1:14) and “humbled Himself” (Phil. 2:8) is now “exalted” by God the Father “to the highest place” and has been given “the name that is above every name” (Phil. 2:9).

This verse has been called the Shema, from the Hebrew word translated Hear. The statement in this verse is the basic confession of faith in Judaism. The verse means that the LORD (Yahweh) is totally unique. He alone is God. The Israelites could therefore have a sense of security that was totally impossible for their polytheistic neighbors. The “gods” of the ancient Near East rarely were thought of as acting in harmony. Each god was unpredictable and morally capricious. So a pagan worshiper could never be sure that his loyalty to one god would serve to protect him from the capricious wrath of another. The monotheistic doctrine of the Israelites lifted them out of this insecurity since they had to deal with only one God, who dealt with them by a revealed consistent righteous standard. This confession of monotheism does not preclude the biblical doctrine of the Trinity. “God” is plural (’ělōhîm), possibly implying the Trinity, and one (’eḥāḏ) may suggest a unity of the Persons in the Godhead (cf. Gen. 2:24, where the same word for “one” is used of Adam and Eve).

It was a fog-shrouded morning, July 4, 1952, when a young woman named Florence Chadwick waded into the water off Catalina Island. She intended to swim the channel from the island to the California coast. Long-distance swimming was not new to her; she had been the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions.

The water was numbing cold that day. The fog was so thick she could hardly see the boats in her party. Several times sharks had to be driven away with rifle fire. She swam more than fifteen hours before she asked to be taken out of the water. Her trainer tried to encourage her to swim on since they were so close to land, but when Florence looked, all she saw was fog. So she quit … only one-half mile from her goal.

Later she said, “I’m not excusing myself, but if I could have seen the land, I might have made it.” It wasn’t the cold or fear or exhaustion that caused Florence Chadwick to fail. It was the fog.