On the whole I should judge that πρὸ πάντων is not merely before all things in point of time, nor the head of them when taken up in power. Christ is πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως, He has this headship in place, because He had created them all. He must therefore have existed before them; and to say merely that He was before creatures as they are does not say a great deal. I apprehend that it is His natural superiority, not taken place, to all things, as having a being independent of, superior, and prior to, them all; more than πρωτότοκος, which is a consequence of His being their Creator, more than priority in time; but distinctness of being superior to all in nature, independent of any place He took, and existing without them, hence in a nature which was superior to them all, referred to them all, but naturally as wholly above them; a divine place, because it was of nature in Himself, not given, ἐστιν, what He is, not ἐγἐνετο. Αὐιός ἐστιν πρὸ π. And what follows confirms this; for all things subsist and consist as a whole, and each of the parts have their sustaining and ordering energy in Him. He was first alone, independent of them, and then, when they existed, the constant sustainer of them in the co-ordination in which they subsist, as of their subsistence itself. Still He is viewed as the Christ, but it is what the Christ is. We have no ἐν in Heb. 1, but ἐλάλησεν ἐν. All the rest is mediatorial in character, though the Mediator is fully recognized as being God—indeed it is the object of the chapter, but it is the Christ who is recognized as being so.
So in Col. 1 you have His place, only founded on what He is, and His creative and sustaining power, the creation having been ἐν αὐτῶ, the πρὸ πάντων as said not being the place He takes in virtue of creation in the resulting order of God, but what He is in His personal place and glory, always in respect of the πάντων naturally, in divine place, power, and priority.
As to the church, ἐστιν ἀρχὴ, πρωτότοκος ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν ἴνα γένηται ἐν π. αὐτὸς πρ. It is only by resurrection; and here we have result, what He becomes, γένηται. And then we get the resulting effect, and how far it is fulfilled.
Thus we have of the Christ what He did, verse 16; what He is, verse 17 and half 18; then what He becomes, or will be. Verse 15 is His general place and title as manifested, but fully accomplished at the end, His relationship in His place toward God and toward the creature, His mediatorial glory according to counsels. Verse 19 is part of the ἐγένετο, though here only the εὐδοκία as to it. The fact is in chapter ii. 9, only it is not here His personality as one. Then in verse 20 et seqq. comes the effect.
John is simpler, speaking but of His Person. He was God, and all was created by Him. The rest is ἐγένετο, as particularly verse 14. Colossians is more complicated, because, while saying what involves it, it does not state His divinity, but gives the place rather than the nature, though that place be naturally, or rather supernaturally, above or before all and the Creator's, while John and Hebrews state that He is God.
ἐν has the force of what characterizes by the power which operates in that governed by it, διἀ used in similar connection is, of course, instrumental. Thus ἐν αὐτῶ ἐκτίσθη τὰ πάντα. This past act of creation was wrought in the power which was personally in Him. For this reason He is πρωτότοκος when He personally takes His place in creation. So continuously all things consist, ἐν αύτῶ. It is the same power which continuously holds all together in the unity of the κόσμος. When he speaks of the instrumental action by which all have been and are created, it is διά and εἰς αὐτό. In verse 19 ἐν has the ordinary sense of “in,” or place, πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα being the nominative (compare chap. 2:9), and this will reconcile δἰ αὐτοῦ: so verse 22, ἐν τῶ σώματι, and διὰ τοῦ θανάτου. So ἐν in a lesser case, verse 29, ἐν δυνάμει, and chapter 2:2, ἐν ἀγάπη: cf. 23; as often ἐν σαρκί, ἐν πνεύματι, ye are ἐν πν. (Rom. 8) Thus the creation of all things was characterized and wrought by the inherent power which was in the Lord Jesus Christ, and all things subsist together as are ordered and law, governed whole by the same constant and inherent power. When the πλήρωμα is spoken of, then His person is distinguished as the One by whom and for whom, He being to take it personally as the πρωτότοκος. All the fullness was pleased to dwell in Him, and by Him to reconcile; πρωτότοκος in what He is in creation, the reason ὄτι ἐν αὐτῶ ἐκτίσθη. It is what He is, not His divine nor His human nature. Cf. ii. 9, 10, where we have the πλήρωμα τῆς θεότητος in Him on one side, and we are πεπληρωμένοι in Him on the other. This is consequently the place He has taken before God, head of all principality and power. The πλήρωμα of Godhead dwells in Him, but then He takes a place as man before God, a man, but personally, and above all principalities as man. The way in which the Godhead and person of Christ are connected, or both, before the mind of the Spirit is striking in what follows. Verse 13 is clearly God; verse 14 passes on to Christ. He has taken it out of the way, beginning a new sentence grammatically distinct really.
The πρωτότοκος clearly holds a special place in the revelation of God's counsels. He takes it as man; He takes it as Son; but He takes it as having created all, all things having been created ἐν αὐτῶ. As a fact it is His creation, but also διά, looked at as the actual instrument of God's counsels; the object also, all is εἰς αὐτόν. But then in sovereign grace He is also πρωτότοκος amongst many brethren. So the πρωτότοκος is introduced into the world, and the angels worship Him. But then all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him, and we are complete, πεπληρωμένοι, in Him. And now continually all things subsist in Him. Heb. 1, though the same general truth, presents more a personal Messiah, and so manifestation. God has spoken ἐν υίῶ He is the express image of His substance. Indeed in Colossians we have the εἰκών of the invisible God in the πρωτότοκος, and all this is in a man! It is a wonderful thing, and the place among men holds the first place, as in Prov. 8. The church, as His body, is another line of thought, though closely connected. In John it is more the Son in and with the Father, and we in Him, more personal and relationship though it is in. With the Father it is ἐξ, 1 Cor. 8:6, so Rom. 11:36, ἐξ, διά, εἰς. In Heb. 1, δἰ ὄν and δἰ οῦ. But this is another thought.