He existed before all things: although the preposition pro could indicate position, “superior to,” it seems more likely that it is here used temporally “before.” It may be impossible to translate literally Christ existed before all things, since it may be necessary to stipulate Christ’s having existed before other things came into existence, for example, “Christ existed before anything else existed” or “… before anything was created.”

And in union with him all things have their proper place is an attempt to translate the verb sunistēmi, the only place in the NT where it is used in this sense (except, perhaps, in 2 Peter 3.5). It carries the idea of consistence, harmony, congruence; it represents the unifying power, the integrating principle. New English Bible “all things are held together in him”; Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “through him everything has stability.” There is order and harmony in all creation; it is a universe, not a chaos, and Christ is the unifying force. Compare Wisdom 1.7: the Spirit of God is to sunechon ta panta “what holds everything together/in harmony.” Barclay Translator’s New Testament New International Version use “hold together”; Jerusalem Bible “he holds all things in unity.” In order to identify Christ as the unifying force of all creation, one may say “everything fits together because of Christ” or “Christ is the one who causes everything to fit together.” In some languages, the concept of “fitting together” is related to the construction of furniture, so that a phrase such as “everything remains in its place” may be appropriate or “everything is dovetailed together,” in which the strongest and most effective joint in carpentry is identified by “dovetailing.”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Colossians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1977. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .