For by him all things were created in the heavens and on the earth, visible things and invisible things, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things have been created through him and for him.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 16. Thrones, and so forth are commonly understood to refer to the celestial hierarchy of Angels, though as to their particular rank, and so forth nothing certain is known. We may here observe, that the Holy Spirit proportions itself and speaks according to our ideas of a temporal kingdom, in which one authority is subject to another. In the same manner the Angels seem subordinate to one another. S. Dionysius in Calmet.—All things were created by him, and in him, and [3]consist in him. If all things that are were made by him, he himself was not made. And his divine power is also signified, when it is said all things consist or are preserved by him. Witham.