We keep seeing posters bringing Col. 1.16 and John 1.3 up as proof that Christ is excluded from the creative acts. The proof they submit is that the words "all things [Gk., pánta]" appear in these texts. However, they are missing this important element from the discussion: the word "all" is rarely used in Greek, and even in our everyday language to mean literally "everyone" or "everything" under the sky. For instance, let's take this one example from medicalartsradiology.com: "Even out the breast thickness so that all of the tissue can be visualized." Did the technicians mean here "all" the tissue from the buttocks, or calves? "All" here is contextually limited in meaning, is it not? The same principle applies in Scripture. The word "all" as in "all things" can have exceptions, and frequently does.
The Greek word for "all" is "pas." From this word we get these forms: pánta, pántes, pántõn, etc., and then some. The word appears over 1,200 times in the NT, and over 7,000 times in the Septuagint (LXX).
John Parkhurst gives one meaning of pas: “All, in a qualified sense, i.e. All, in general, though not each individual, most, a great many: Matt. 4:24; 10:22; Mark 1:37; Luke 15:1; John 12:32; Phil 2:21. Compare Matt. 3:15; 23:3; Luke 21:35.” (Greek and English Lexicon to the New Testament)
Robert Young explains under “Illustrations of Bible Idioms” -- “Idiomatic Expressions”: “‘All and Some’ – The meanings of these words are frequently reversed in Scripture. The word all can mean some, and vice versa.” (Young's Analytical Concordance to the Bible)
Jason BeDuhn adds: “‘All’ is commonly used in Greek as a hyperbole, that is, an exaggeration. The ‘other’ is assumed. [...] All translations ‘add words’ in an effort to make coherent English sentences out of Greek ones.” (Truth in Translation, pp 84,86)
Matt. 10.22: "All men [Others: everyone] will hate you because of me..." (NIV; Gk., pántōn) The NIV Study Bible acknowledges the meaning here: "All. Hyperbole." Will "all people" hate you if you follow Christ? Many will, but not everyone. In fact, some may love you for it.
Mark 1.37, When Jesus went out very early in the morning while it was still dark to a solitary place, Simon Peter and his companions hunted him down, and when they found him, they exclaimed: "All are looking for you." [Gk., "pántes" (or, "everyone")] Was "everyone" in Galilee looking for him? No, it was the four disciples Jesus had called who searched for him. And perhaps Philip and Nathanael with them. So at most, a half-dozen or so individuals are summed up in this "all."
In the Septuagint we read in Ge. 3.20 that Eve was "the mother of all [pántõn] the living." (NETS) We should not assume that Eve was the mother of Adam, the angels, or even of the animals. What about God and Jesus, where they sons of mother Eve?
Did you know that even some modern Greek versions add the word "other" when the original text did not. One modern Greek version reads: “κι όλοι οι άλλοι μαθητές [Translation: and all the other disciples].” (Acts 5.29, Η ΚΑΙΝΗ ΔΙΑΘΗΚΗ, ΕΓΧΕΙΡΙΔΙΟ ΜΕΛΕΤΗΣ ΚΑΙ ΖΩΗΣ)
Some scholars have pointed out the following: “The omission of the notion ‘other, whatever’...is specifically Greek.” (A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, pp. 160, 254. ©1961, The University of Chicago) Could this apply to Colossians 1.16 and John 1.3? Yes, Scripture is clear that God is an exception to the "all things" said to be created by Christ. Where?
"For the scripture says, ‘God put all things under his feet.’ It is clear, of course, that the words ‘all things [Gk., pánta]’ do not include God himself, who puts all things under Christ." (1 Corinthians 15:27, Good News Testament)
The Greek pánta is thus being defined in Scripture itself. Hence, it is not Scriptural to conclude that the expression "all" or "all other things" is always all-encompassing. Often it has limits or exceptions. It does not always indicate the inclusion or exclusion of everyone or everything else.