the Arian controversy of the fourth century).20 Does firstborn imply that Jesus is merely the most supreme created being? Hardly! The main point is surely Jesus’s function in bringing creation into being and his sovereignty over the entire created order. That authority encompasses the material and immaterial realms, the earthly and heavenly spheres, human and angelic creatures.21 Moreover, if Paul had wanted to suggest that Jesus was the first of God’s creatures to be formed he would have used the