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Jubilees says God created ranks and classes of angels and spirits on the first day of creation. Colossians echoes this Second Temple Jewish tradition, describing thrones and dominions and rulers, under Jesus as things created through him and for him.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Jubilees 2:2
Pseudepigrapha
1 On the Lord's orders the angel of the presence said to Moses: “Write all the words about the creation — how in six days the Lord God completed all his works, everything that he had created, and kept sabbath on the seventh day. He sanctified it for all ages and set it as a sign for all his works. 2 For on the first day he created the heavens that are above, the earth, the waters, and all the spirits who serve before him, namely: the angels of the presence; the angels of holiness; the angels of the spirits of fire; the angels of the spirits of the winds; the angels of the spirits of the clouds, of darkness, snow, hail, and frost; the angels of the sounds, the thunders, and the lightnings; and the angels of the spirits of cold and heat, of winter, spring, autumn, and summer, and of all the spirits of his creatures which are in the heavens, on earth, and in every place. There were also the depths, darkness and light, dawn and evening which he prepared through the knowledge of his mind.
Colossians 1:16
New Testament
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation, 16 for all things in heaven and on earth were created in him—all things, whether visible or invisible, whether thrones or dominions, whether principalities or powers—all things were created through him and for him. 17 He himself is before all things, and all things are held together in him. 18 He is the head of the body, the church, as well as the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he himself may become first in all things.
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Notes and References
... Jewish texts use the same terms for angelic powers. See the references in Arnold, The Colossian Syncretism, 253. We find in Jubilees 2:2 the belief that on the first day God not only created the heavens and the earth and the waters but also “all of the spirits who minister before him”: the angels of the presence, the angels of sanctification, and the angels of the spirit of fire, and the angels of the spirit of the clouds and darkness and snow and hail and frost, and the angels of resounding and thunder and lightning, and the angels of the spirits of cold and heat and winter and springtime and harvest and summer, and all the spirits of his creatures which are in heaven and on earth. The “thrones” refer to the angelic potentates sitting on heavenly thrones. The “powers . . . rulers . . . authorities” are those supernatural viceroys who exercise lordship, rule, and control in heavenly realms. The same roster of powers appears in 2 Enoch 20:1 (plus “cherubim” and “seraphim”), and the differing order suggests that Paul does not list them in any hierarchical order. ...
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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