# G2936 - ktizo **Strong's:** [G2936](https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g2936/) · BLB lookup **Pronunciation:** ktee'-zo **Part of speech:** verb (active / passive) **NT occurrences:** ~15 **Hebrew equivalents (LXX):** [H1254 - bara](/codex/h1254-bara/) (בָּרָא, "to create"); [H6213 - asah](/codex/h6213-asah/) (עָשָׂה, "to make"); *H7069 - qanah* (קָנָה, "to acquire / produce", [Genesis 14:19](/codex/genesis-14-19/), [22](/codex/genesis-14-22/)) ## Semantic range (Thayer / BDAG) 1. **To create, bring into being, found**, divine action of producing what did not previously exist ([Romans 1:25](/codex/romans-1-25/); [1 Corinthians 11:9](/codex/1-corinthians-11-9/); [Ephesians 3:9](/codex/ephesians-3-9/); [Colossians 1:16](/codex/colossians-1-16/); [1 Timothy 4:3](/codex/1-timothy-4-3/); [Revelation 4:11](/codex/revelation-4-11/); 10:6). 2. **To form, fashion, shape**, sub-sense focusing on the structuring rather than the bringing-into-being ([Ephesians 2:10](/codex/ephesians-2-10/), *ktisthentes en Christō Iēsou*; [Ephesians 4:24](/codex/ephesians-4-24/), the new self *ton kata Theon ktisthenta*). 3. **To found, establish (a city)**, the classical Greek sense, used for the founding of Athens, Rome, etc. (background sense; the NT does not use this register for cities). ## Theological force In the LXX *ktizō* becomes the predominant rendering of the Hebrew creation verbs (especially [H1254 - bara](/codex/h1254-bara/)). This LXX-equivalence carries into the NT, where *ktizō* names the divine creative act with the same theological weight that *bara* carries in Genesis: the subject is *always* God or Christ; the verb is reserved for divine creative action; humans never *ktizō* in the NT. **1. Christ as agent of creation.** [Colossians 1.16](/codex/colossians-1-16/) uses *ktizō* twice with Christ as agent: *en autōi ektisthē ta panta* ("in Him *ta panta* were created", aorist passive) … *ta panta di' autou kai eis auton ektistai* ("*ta panta* have been created through Him and for Him", perfect passive). The double aorist-perfect construction is theologically loaded: the *aorist* names the punctiliar creative act in the past; the *perfect* names the standing state of the created order as Christ-mediated. Things *were* created by Him (event); things *stand-created* through Him (ongoing relation). **2. New creation in Christ.** Paul redeploys *ktizō* for the soteriological-eschatological register: - [Ephesians 2:10](/codex/ephesians-2-10/), "we are His workmanship, *ktisthentes en Christō Iēsou* for good works", believers are "created in Christ Jesus" - [Ephesians 2:15](/codex/ephesians-2-15/), Christ creates (*ktisē*) "in Himself one new man from the two" (Jew + Gentile) - [Ephesians 4:24](/codex/ephesians-4-24/), the new self "*ton kata Theon ktisthenta* in righteousness and holiness of the truth" - [Colossians 3:10](/codex/colossians-3-10/), "the new self renewed to a true knowledge according to the *eikōn* of the One who *ktisantos* him" The *kainē ktisis* of [2 Corinthians 5.17](/codex/2-corinthians-5-17/) uses the noun [G2937 - ktisis](/codex/g2937-ktisis/); the verb *ktizō* names the corresponding *act*. New creation is not a metaphor stretched from biology but a direct re-deployment of the Genesis-1 verb: God who said "let there be" at creation now "creates anew" in Christ. **3. Anti-ascetic / anti-dualist polemic.** [1 Timothy 4:3-4](/codex/1-timothy-4-3-4/) weaponizes *ktizō* against early proto-gnostic asceticism: the false teachers forbid marriage and certain foods, "which God created (*ektisen*) to be received with thanksgiving." The Pauline argument: what God *ktizō*-ed He pronounced good; the gnostic devaluation of created reality is anti-creational at root. Compare [Romans 1:25](/codex/romans-1-25/), the idolaters "exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature (*tēi ktisei*) rather than the Creator (*ton ktisanta*)", the substantival participle of *ktizō* names God as *the One who creates*. ## Notable verses ### Cosmic creative act - **[Colossians 1.16](/codex/colossians-1-16/)**, *en autōi ektisthē ta panta* … *ta panta di' autou kai eis auton ektistai*, Christ as agent - **[Ephesians 3:9](/codex/ephesians-3-9/)**, *en tōi Theōi tōi ta panta ktisanti*, God's eternal purpose hidden in the One who *ktizō*-ed all - **[Romans 1:25](/codex/romans-1-25/)**, *ton ktisanta* (the One who creates) over against *tēi ktisei* (the creature), the worship-disorder of idolatry - **[Revelation 4:11](/codex/revelation-4-11/)**, *sy ektisas ta panta, kai dia to thelēma sou ēsan kai ektisthēsan*, "You created all things, and because of Your will they existed and were created" - **[Revelation 10:6](/codex/revelation-10-6/)**, God who lives forever and ever *hos ektisen ton ouranon* and the things in it - **[1 Timothy 4:3](/codex/1-timothy-4-3/)**, "foods which God *ektisen* to be received with thanksgiving" - **[Mark 13:19](/codex/mark-13-19/)** (using cognate noun), *ap' archēs ktiseōs hēn ektisen ho Theos* ### New creation in Christ - **[Ephesians 2:10](/codex/ephesians-2-10/)**, *ktisthentes en Christō Iēsou* - **[Ephesians 2:15](/codex/ephesians-2-15/)**, Christ *ktisē* one new man from the two - **[Ephesians 4:24](/codex/ephesians-4-24/)**, the new self *ton kata Theon ktisthenta* - **[Colossians 3:10](/codex/colossians-3-10/)**, the new self renewed *kat' eikona tou ktisantos auton* ### Wisdom-tradition Christology - **[Colossians 1:15](/codex/colossians-1-15/)** (using cognate noun *ktisis*), *prōtotokos pasēs ktiseōs*, Christ as the firstborn *over* (not "of") the creation; the *ektisthē ta panta* of v. 16 is Paul's own gloss precluding the Arian reading ## Patristic / scholarly note The patristic Creator-creature distinction (Athanasius, *Contra Arianos*; the Cappadocians; Augustine) takes *ktizō* and its cognates as the load-bearing lexeme. The Arian formula *ēn pote hote ouk ēn* ("there was [a time] when He was not") implicitly conceded that the Son was *ktistos*, a created thing; orthodox christology denied this on the basis of [Colossians 1:16](/codex/colossians-1-16/) (the Son is the *agent* of *ektisthē*, not its product) and [John 1:3](/codex/john-1-3/) (*panta di' autou egeneto, kai chōris autou egeneto oude hen ho gegonen*, "all things came-to-be through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came-to-be that has come-to-be", note the verb is [G1096 - ginomai](/codex/g1096-ginomai/), not *ktizō*, but the logic is identical: the agent of *all* coming-to-be cannot Himself be a coming-to-be). The Septuagint's choice of *ktizō* for *bara* (rather than *poieō* or *plassō*) was significant: *ktizō* in classical Greek had the connotation of *founding* or *establishing* (a city, a colony, a polity), and the LXX translators leveraged this to render the Hebrew creation-verb with a sense of authoritative-establishing rather than mere fabrication. The verb thus carries a covenantal-political coloring that pure-fabrication verbs lack, God *ktizō* the heavens and the earth as a sovereign establishing His domain. In contemporary scholarship, Sailhamer, Wenham, and N. T. Wright have all noted the doctrinal weight of the *ktizō / ktisis* word-group in establishing Paul's high christology, the use of these terms with Christ as agent is a category-marker that places Him on the Creator side of the Creator-creature line. ## Verses in this codex _See Obsidian's backlinks pane for every verse page linking here._ Top-cited references using *ktizō*: [Colossians 1.16](/codex/colossians-1-16/), [Ephesians 2.10](/codex/ephesians-2-10/) (when present), [Revelation 4.11](/codex/revelation-4-11/) (when present). ## See also - [G2937 - ktisis](/codex/g2937-ktisis/), *ktisis* (creation, noun), the cognate result-noun - [H1254 - bara](/codex/h1254-bara/), Hebrew "to create", what *ktizō* renders in LXX - *G4160 - poieo*, Greek "to make / do", overlapping verb - [G3956 - pas](/codex/g3956-pas/), *ta panta*, the object of *ktizō* in [Col 1:16](/codex/colossians-1-16/) - [G1096 - ginomai](/codex/g1096-ginomai/), Greek "to come into being", [John 1:3](/codex/john-1-3/) alternative - [Colossians 1.16](/codex/colossians-1-16/), [Ephesians 2.10](/codex/ephesians-2-10/), [Revelation 4.11](/codex/revelation-4-11/), locus classicus