# G2937 - ktisis **Strong's:** [G2937](https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g2937/) · BLB lookup **Pronunciation:** ktee'-sis **Part of speech:** feminine noun (from [G2936 - ktizo](/codex/g2936-ktizo/), "to create") **NT occurrences:** ~19 **Hebrew equivalents (LXX):** the LXX uses *ktisis* / *ktisma* sparingly for late OT books; [Genesis 1](/codex/genesis-1/)'s *bara* (H1254) is rendered ἐποίησεν / ἐκτισεν; the OT noun for "creation-as-totality" lacks a single fixed Hebrew lexeme ## Semantic range (Thayer / BDAG) 1. **The act of creating**, the divine action of bringing things into being ([Romans 1:20](/codex/romans-1-20/) *apo ktiseōs kosmou*, "from the creation of the world"). 2. **A created thing, creature**, the result-of-creating ([Romans 8:39](/codex/romans-8-39/); [2 Corinthians 5:17](/codex/2-corinthians-5-17/); [Galatians 6:15](/codex/galatians-6-15/); [Hebrews 4:13](/codex/hebrews-4-13/)). 3. **The created order, the totality of created reality**, collective sense ([Mark 13:19](/codex/mark-13-19/); [Romans 8:19-22](/codex/romans-8-19-22/); [Colossians 1:15](/codex/colossians-1-15/); [Revelation 3:14](/codex/revelation-3-14/)). 4. **Institution, ordinance** (rare, derived from a transferred sense of "establishment"), [1 Peter 2:13](/codex/1-peter-2-13/) *pasēi anthrōpinēi ktisei*, "every human institution." ## Theological force *Ktisis* names the entire field on which God's creative-redemptive work runs. It is the result-noun of the verb [G2936 - ktizo](/codex/g2936-ktizo/): where *ktizo* names the act, *ktisis* names what comes-to-be. Three theological loci weight the term: **1. Christ as agent and goal of *ktisis* (cosmological).** Paul's high christology in [Colossians 1.15](/codex/colossians-1-15/)-17 calls Christ *prōtotokos pasēs ktiseōs* ("firstborn of all creation") and grounds the title by the explanatory *hoti* clause: "*because* in Him *ektisthē ta panta*", He is firstborn-over not as one of the created things but as the one *in whom and through whom and for whom* the *ktisis* came-to-be. This is the apologetic answer to the Arian / Watchtower reading that *prōtotokos* makes Christ a created being. Paul's grammar excludes that reading: the *ktisis* is enumerated in vv. 16-17, and Christ stands outside it as its agent. Cf. [G4416 - prototokos](/codex/g4416-prototokos/). **2. Christ as inaugurator of the *kainē ktisis* (eschatological-soteriological).** Paul redeploys *ktisis* for the new-creation reality inaugurated in Christ: - **[2 Corinthians 5:17](/codex/2-corinthians-5-17/)**, *ei tis en Christō, kainē ktisis*, "if anyone is in Christ, [there is a] new creation; the old things have passed away, behold, new things have come" - **[Galatians 6:15](/codex/galatians-6-15/)**, *kainē ktisis* is what counts; circumcision and uncircumcision are nothing - **[Romans 8:19-22](/codex/romans-8-19-22/)**, *hē ktisis* (the whole created order) groans together with us, awaiting the *apokalypsis tōn huiōn tou theou* and the *apolytrōsis tou sōmatos* The eschatological *ktisis* is both the corporate "new humanity in Christ" (already realized) and the cosmic restoration of the creation itself (still groaning, awaiting). The Pauline frame holds both registers in tension: *kainē ktisis* is anthropological *now* (regeneration), cosmological *not-yet* (the awaited bodily resurrection and renewed cosmos). **3. Christ as *archē tēs ktiseōs* ([Revelation 3:14](/codex/revelation-3-14/)).** Christ's self-identification to Laodicea as *hē archē tēs ktiseōs tou theou*, "the *beginning* of the creation of God", has been a contested text. Two readings: - *archē* = "first one created" (Arian reading), Christ as the first creature - *archē* = "originating principle / source" (orthodox reading), Christ as the *source* of the creation, paralleling [G0746 - arche](/codex/g0746-arche/) elsewhere ([Col 1:18](/codex/colossians-1-18/); [John 1:1](/codex/john-1-1/)) The Colossians and Johannine parallels favor the second reading: in [Col 1:18](/codex/colossians-1-18/) *archē* and *prōtotokos* are paired without subordinationist sense; in [John 1:1](/codex/john-1-1/) *archē* names the timeless origin in which the *Logos* already existed. *Archē tēs ktiseōs* in [Rev 3:14](/codex/revelation-3-14/) should be read in the same key, Christ as the source-principle, not the first item, of the *ktisis*. Cf. [G0746 - arche](/codex/g0746-arche/). ## Notable verses ### Christ and the *ktisis* - **[Colossians 1.15](/codex/colossians-1-15/)**, *prōtotokos pasēs ktiseōs*, firstborn over (not "of") all creation - **[Colossians 1:23](/codex/colossians-1-23/)**, the gospel proclaimed *en pasēi ktisei tēi hypo ton ouranon* (in all the creation under heaven) - **[Mark 16:15](/codex/mark-16-15/)**, *kēryxate to euangelion pasēi tēi ktisei* - **[Revelation 3:14](/codex/revelation-3-14/)**, *hē archē tēs ktiseōs tou theou* - **[Hebrews 4:13](/codex/hebrews-4-13/)**, "no *ktisis* is hidden from His sight", the creature-Creator distinction maintained ### Cosmic / temporal markers - **[Mark 10:6](/codex/mark-10-6/); 13:19**, *ap' archēs ktiseōs* / *hēn ouk egonen toiautē ap' archēs ktiseōs*, "from the beginning of creation" - **[Mark 13:19](/codex/mark-13-19/)**, the eschatological tribulation greater than any "since the beginning of *ktisis*" - **[Romans 1:20](/codex/romans-1-20/)**, *apo ktiseōs kosmou*, God's invisible attributes "have been clearly seen" since the creation; the natural-revelation argument - **[2 Peter 3:4](/codex/2-peter-3-4/)**, the scoffers say "all things continue *ap' archēs ktiseōs*" ### *Kainē ktisis*, new creation - **[2 Corinthians 5.17](/codex/2-corinthians-5-17/)**, *ei tis en Christō kainē ktisis* - **[Galatians 6:15](/codex/galatians-6-15/)**, *kainē ktisis* over against circumcision - **[Romans 8:19-22](/codex/romans-8-19-22/)**, the cosmic *ktisis* groaning; the parallel "creation" / "us" (the firstfruits of the Spirit) construction ### Polemical / restrictive - **[Romans 8:39](/codex/romans-8-39/)**, *oute tis ktisis hetera*, "nor any other *creature*", nothing in the created order can separate us from the love of God in Christ - **[1 Peter 2:13](/codex/1-peter-2-13/)**, *pasē anthrōpinē ktisei*, "every human institution" (the political-ordering sense) - **[Colossians 1:23](/codex/colossians-1-23/)**, Christ's gospel preached *en pasēi ktisei tēi hypo ton ouranon* (a global proclamation note) ## Patristic / scholarly note The Council of Nicaea (AD 325) and Athanasius's anti-Arian works (*Contra Arianos* I-IV, c. AD 360) treat the Creator-creation distinction as the load-bearing axis of christology. If Christ is *Creator* ([Col 1:16](/codex/colossians-1-16/), [John 1:3](/codex/john-1-3/), [Heb 1:2](/codex/hebrews-1-2/)), He cannot be *ktisis*; if He were *ktisis*, He could not be the agent of *ta panta*. Athanasius's whole argument leverages the absolute incommensurability of *ktistos* (created) and *aktistos* (uncreated), a binary into which the Son must fall on one side or the other. The Arian "first-created creature" position attempts a third middle ground that the lexicographer's data does not allow. The *kainē ktisis* trope is the theological hinge of Paul's eschatology. N. T. Wright (*The Resurrection of the Son of God*, 2003; *Surprised by Hope*, 2008) treats [Romans 8:19-22](/codex/romans-8-19-22/) as the crucial corrective to the otherworldly-escapist eschatology of much popular Christianity: the *ktisis* groans because it is *to be redeemed*, not abandoned. The Christian hope is the renewal of the whole cosmos, not the soul's flight from a doomed creation. [Romans 8](/codex/romans-8/) thus undergirds a robust theology of bodily resurrection, ecological responsibility, and continuity between this world and the new heavens-and-earth ([Isaiah 65:17](/codex/isaiah-65-17/) / [Revelation 21:1](/codex/revelation-21-1/)). In contemporary scholarship, Bauckham (*Bible and Ecology*, 2010) and Moltmann (*God in Creation*, 1985) develop the *ktisis*-groans theme into a creation-care ethic that traces directly back to the Pauline lexeme. ## Verses in this codex _See Obsidian's backlinks pane for every verse page linking here._ Top-cited references using *ktisis*: [Colossians 1.15](/codex/colossians-1-15/), [Colossians 1.16](/codex/colossians-1-16/), [Romans 8.19-22](/codex/romans-8-19-22/), [2 Corinthians 5.17](/codex/2-corinthians-5-17/). ## See also - [G2936 - ktizo](/codex/g2936-ktizo/), *ktizō* (verb, "to create"), the cognate verb - [H1254 - bara](/codex/h1254-bara/), Hebrew "to create", what *ktizō* / *ktisis* renders in LXX - [G4416 - prototokos](/codex/g4416-prototokos/), *prōtotokos*, paired with *ktisis* in [Col 1:15](/codex/colossians-1-15/) - [G0746 - arche](/codex/g0746-arche/), *archē*, paired with *ktisis* in [Rev 3:14](/codex/revelation-3-14/) - [G3956 - pas](/codex/g3956-pas/), *ta panta*, what the *ktisis* enumerates - New Creation, the doctrinal locus - [Colossians 1.15-17](/codex/colossians-1-15-17/), [Romans 8.19-22](/codex/romans-8-19-22/), [2 Corinthians 5.17](/codex/2-corinthians-5-17/), locus classicus