The Epistle to the Ephesians poses many problems to Christadelphian Satanology and Demonology. Thomas Farrar, a very knowledgeable former Christadelphian who converted to Roman Catholicism in 2017, has a very useful article on Eph 6:10-17:
"Not against flesh and blood": the superhuman opponent of Ephesians 6 (cf. Satan in early Gentile Christian communities: an exegetical study in Mark and 2 Corinthians)
In this post, I will focus upon the Satanology of Eph 4:26-27 which reads:
Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Neither give place to the devil.
This is paralleled in a pseudepigraphical text, Testament of Dan (part of the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs)
Therefore, guard yourselves, my children, the commandments of the Lord and keep His law; depart from anger, and hate lying, that the Lord may dwell with you, and Beliar may flee from you. Each one speak truth to his neighbor, so will you not fall into pleasure and trouble, but you will be in peace, having that God of peace, and no war will over come you. (5:1-2)
The name Beliar (Βελιαρ) is a name for Satan in contemporary literature, including Paul's epistles. In 2 Cor 6:15 we read:
And what concord hath Christ with Beliar? O what does a believer share with an unbeliever?
The Old Testament text that informs the theology of Testament of Dan 5:1-2 is that of Zech 8:16:
These are the things that ye shall do; Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates
Commenting on the phrase ὀργίζεσθε καὶ μὴ ἁμαρτάνετε ("If you are angry, do not sin"), Andrew Lincoln commented thusly:
This exhortation is in the words of LXX Ps 4:5 (ET Ps 4:4). The original Hebrew text, with its injunction about an attitude toward God, may well speak of trembling rather than anger, but this is irrelevant to the use of the Greek version by the writer to the Ephesians. It is in any case difficult to tell whether his use of the LXX is a direct or an indirect one. Since the juxtaposition of injunctions about lying and anger formed part of paraenetic tradition (cf. T. Dan 5.2), it would be well that, like Zech 8:16 in 4:25, this scriptural wording was also current in Christian paraenesis which drew on both Jewish and Hellenistic sources. (Andrew T. Lincoln, Ephesians [Word Biblical Commentary 42; Dallas: Word Books, Publishers, 1990], 301)
With respect to v. 27 μηδὲ δίδοτε τόπον τῷ διαβόλῳ ("do not give an opportunity to the devil"), Lincoln wrote the following about how ο διαβλος (the devil) in this verse is an external supernatural being, not a mere human adversary or an external personification of one's internal evil desires, per Christadelphian theology:
This third prohibition provides a motivation for the preceding two (pace Ernst, 368, and Mussner, 139, who wish to treat it independently of the topic of anger). Before the quotation of Zech 8:16 in T. Dan 5.2, which we have already noted, anger is associated not only with lying but also with the devil. “Avoid wrath, and hate lying, in order that the Lord may dwell among you, and Beliar may flee from you . . . Anger and falsehood together are a double-edged evil, and work together to perturb the reason. And when the soul is continually perturbed, the Lord withdraws from it and Beliar rules it” (T. Dan 4.7-5.1, cf. also 1.7, 8; 3.6). A similar association can be found later in Herm Man. 5.1.3, “For the Lord dwells in long-suffering and the devil dwells in ill temper.” Here in Ephesians also, indulgence in anger is seen as giving free scope to the devil. The writer thinks in terms of a personal power of evil, which is pictured as lurking around angry people ready to exploit the situation (cf. 1 Tim 3:7; 2 Tim 2:26; 1 Pet 5:8). Despite what he has said about believers having been seated with Christ in the heavenly realm, he deems it necessary for them to be on their guard against the devil (cf. also 6:11). In particular, anger in the community is “a kind of fifth-column” available for cooperation with the enemy” (Mitton 169). In 2 Cor 2:11 Paul in a similar vein had claimed that forgiveness prevents a designing Satan from gaining the advantage over believers. It is noticeable that the undisputed Paulines speak only of Satan (cf. also Rom 16:20; 1 Cor 5:5; 7:5; 2 Cor 11:14; 12:7; 1 Thess 2:18), while the term “the devil” occurs in Ephesians (cf. also 6:11), as well as in the LXX and later NT and early Christian writings (cf. 1 Tim 3:7; 2 Tim 2:26; Jas 4:7; 1 Pet 5:8; mart. Pol. 3.1; 2 Clem. 18.2; Ign. Eph. 10.3; Smryn. 9.1). (Ibid., 302-3, emphasis added)
Clearly, Paul in Eph 4:26-27 and other passages accepts the ontological existence of an external, supernatural being called Satan/the Devil. This flies in the face of Christadelphian theology and the apologetic efforts of the likes of Duncan Heaster in The Real Devil (perhaps the most thorough attempt to defend Christadelphian theology on Satan and Demons).
For more articles addressing the Christadelphian view of supernatural evil, as well as issues such as the personal pre-existence of Jesus, see:
