# Colossians 1 — Inserted 'Other' *The NWT adds a word that changes everything* **Strength:** Strong | **Tone:** Good | **Topic:** NWT Translation ## Doorstep Question > "The word 'other' appears four times in the NWT's Colossians 1:16–17 but is completely absent from the Greek. What would the passage mean without it?" ## JW Claim Jesus created 'all other things' — he is one of the created things. ## Strategy The Watchtower's own Kingdom Interlinear Translation shows the Greek text without the word 'other'. The word was inserted by the translators. Without 'other,' the passage says Jesus created ALL things — he is uncreated. If they push back on 'firstborn' meaning 'first to be created,' walk them through how the Bible uses 'firstborn' as a title of rank, not chronology. Genesis 25:29-34 — Esau was born first, but Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for stew, and Genesis 27:36 records Esau lamenting that Jacob 'took my birthright.' Jacob became the firstborn-rank-holder despite being born second. Psalm 89:27 — God says of David 'I will appoint him as my firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth' — yet David was Jesse's youngest son. 'Firstborn' there means appointed preeminence, not order of birth. That's the lens Paul is using in Colossians 1:15. The very next verse defines it for us — 'FOR by him all things were created.' Christ is firstborn OVER creation because he created it, not because he is part of it. ## Key Insight Without 'other,' Jesus created ALL things — meaning he is uncreated, which means he is God. The word was inserted to protect the theology. ## JW Responses & Counters ### Response 1 **JW says:** "We've studied the original manuscripts — the NWT goes back to the oldest sources." **Counter:** Direct them to the Kingdom Interlinear Translation — their own publication. The word 'other' appears in no Greek manuscript of any age. ### Response 2 **JW says:** "Every time someone is called 'firstborn of' a group in the Bible, they belong to that group. Firstborn of creation means Jesus is part of creation." **Counter:** Psalm 89:27 says God will make David 'firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.' But David was not the first king — Saul was. 'Firstborn' here means supreme, preeminent. The context of Colossians 1:16–17 (creator of all things, before all things) shows the same figurative sense — Jesus holds the supreme position over creation because he made it all. ### Response 3 **JW says:** "'All things' in Scripture can have natural exceptions. Psalm 8:6 says God put all things under mankind, but that didn't include angels or God. So 'all things created through him' in Colossians 1:16 can exclude Jesus." **Counter:** True, some 'all things' passages have contextual limits. But Paul goes further here — he exhausts every Greek category: heaven, earth, visible, invisible, thrones, dominions, rulers, authorities. He leaves nothing unmentioned. And the Watchtower itself admits the problem: their own publication states that 'a literal rendering of the Greek would be all things, however such a rendering could give the impression that Jesus was not created but was the creator himself.' That's why they inserted 'other' — the Greek as written identifies Jesus as the creator. ### Response 4 **JW says:** "'Before all things' in verse 17 is a temporal statement — Jesus existed before creation in time, as the first created being." **Counter:** If 'before all things' means Jesus is temporal, then Psalm 90:2 would make Yahweh temporal too — 'Before the mountains were brought forth, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.' The word 'before' is temporal for the creation that follows, not for the one who precedes it. Jesus being 'before all things' places him outside of creation, just as Yahweh is outside of creation. It's a statement of eternality, not of first-in-line. ### Response 5 **JW says:** "Earlier NWT editions placed 'other' in brackets to show it was added — the translators were always transparent about the insertion." **Counter:** That used to be true, and the bracket history is itself revealing. The 1950 New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures printed Colossians 1:16-17 with "[other]" in square brackets, the standard scholarly convention for a word supplied by the translator and absent from the source text. The 1961 and 1984 reference editions kept the brackets in those verses. But the 2013 silver-edition revision quietly removed the brackets — so a Witness reading the current text has no visual cue that "other" was inserted. The translators clearly knew the word was not in the Greek (the brackets prove it), and they also knew the doctrinal weight the word carried (the inserted word is what makes Jesus a created being rather than the Creator). The decision to drop the brackets means today's reader cannot tell where the Greek ends and the translator's theology begins. That is the opposite direction from transparency. ### Response 6 **JW says:** "Even if 'other' is added, the verse just shows Jesus was God's first creation through whom God made everything else." **Counter:** Read past v.16 into v.17: "And he is before all things, and by means of him all things were made to exist." The verb is present-continuous — Jesus continually holds creation in being. Hebrews 1:3 makes the same claim: "He sustains all things by his powerful word." In the Hebrew Bible, sustaining providence belongs to God alone — Psalm 36:6 "you preserve man and beast," Nehemiah 9:6 "you preserve all of them," Job 12:10 "in his hand is the life of every living thing." If Jesus is doing what only God does — moment-by-moment sustaining of every atom in existence — the question is no longer "did Jehovah create through him?" It is "is Jesus exercising a divine prerogative no creature can exercise?" Created beings don't sustain the universe; they are part of what is sustained. ## What to Avoid Do not accuse them of dishonesty. Present the interlinear as a genuine question. ## Homework Read Colossians 1:16 in its setting, from verse 13 to verse 20, in the NWT, and find the four places 'other' appears in verses 16 and 17. Then read those verses again without it until you can explain the difference from memory. If you can, look up the Kingdom Interlinear Translation and confirm for yourself that 'other' has no Greek word behind it. Learn the two firstborn examples, Esau and Jacob (Genesis 25:29–34; 27:36) and David (Psalm 89:27), well enough to tell them as stories. Practise the doorstep question aloud as a genuine question, never an accusation of dishonesty. Expect 'firstborn of creation means part of creation', and rehearse answering from verse 16's 'for by him all things were created'. ## Next Moves - [A First-Century Parallel to JW Christology](/arguments/colossian-heresy-jw-parallel.md) - [Jesus' Eternality](/arguments/psalm102-hebrews1.md) - [The NWT's One-Way Mirror](/arguments/nwt-unidirectional-bias.md) --- *Source: Mike Winger / Jeff Durbin*