¹⁶ For in him all things were created,
in the heavens and here on the earth.
Things we can see and things we cannot,
—thrones and lordships and rulers and powers—
all things were created both through him and for him.
¹⁷ And he is ahead, prior to all else
and in him all things hold together;
¹⁸ and he himself is supreme, the head
over the body, the church.
He is the start of it all,
firstborn from realms of the dead;
so in all things he might be the chief.