Colossians 1:17

And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

-Colossians 1:17

What does it mean that Jesus is before all things?  Once again, we see the words "all things" being used, so maybe the word "before" should deserve our focus.  I'm not exactly sure what "before" means in this verse, but I found some of the other translations to help see what their point of view was.

He existed before anything else,

-Colossians 1:17a (NLT)

And He Himself existed and is before all things

-Colossians 1:17a (AMP)

According to those translations, they tend to lean towards having the word "before" be used in reference to Jesus' existence.  To say that Jesus is "before all things" is to say that he existed before all things.  I guess that makes sense if he created everything.  However, my question is: why did Paul say that Jesus existed before everything if he has just finished saying that Jesus created everything?  Perhaps to me, Paul didn't need to add that Jesus existed before everything since he just said that Jesus created everything.  However, the inspired word of God was not written by me, but each and every word has been placed there by God.  Even if I think it's redundant and not necessary, God obviously thought it important to be included.  Though, it's possible that it means something more than just that Jesus existed before all things.

I'm not an expert in Greek, but the word "before" is used also in 1 Peter 4:8

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

-1 Peter 4:8

The word "Above" in 1 Peter 4:8 is the same word as "before" in Colossians 1:17.  Perhaps, could this be more in reference to the fact that Jesus is above all things?

I'm not quite sure, though I'd probably lean towards Jesus existing before all things.  Regardless, I will still stand in awe and amazement of Jesus, our Lord.