over,” the genitival phrase “firstborn of all creation” is best taken as a genitive of subordination (“firstborn over all creation”) instead of more generally as a genitive of reference (“firstborn with reference to all creation”; so Wallace 1996: 238). Besides the sovereign sense that we have seen “firstborn” to have, this genitival option is further confirmed from the following phrase in Col. 1:16a (“by Him all things were created”), which would make little sense in supporting Christ as the first