12 The struggle with the powers of darkness
is described as our contest (palê) or wrestling match, presumably
implying close, hand-to-hand combat (Gudorf 1998: 334). Carr (1981: 104–10) is
forced to excise this verse as a later interpolation, because it conflicts with
his theory that the principalities and powers are neutral or benign (see on
1:20f. above); this theory has been refuted by Arnold (1987: 71–87).
The contest is not with human
opponents, literally ‘blood and flesh’—the reverse order (cf. also Heb.
2:14) of the normal stock phrase (cf. Matt. 16:17; Gal. 1:16; 1 Cor. 15:50).
The reversal may be in response to a context that implies bloodshed in battle.
Four terms for the superhuman opponents
of Christians are mentioned, amplifying the reference to the devil in the
previous verse: literally translated, they are ‘principalities’, ‘authorities’,
‘world rulers of this darkness’ and ‘spiritual beings of wickedness in the
heavenlies’. The first two terms, principalities
and authorities, have been discussed at 3:10 and 1:21, where they were
joined by ‘powers’, ‘dominions’ and ‘every name that is named’. Two more of the
names for the fallen angels who form the army of Satan are added. Powers of this dark world (lit. ‘world
rulers (kosmokratores) of this
darkness’) occurs only here in the New Testament but compare Testament of Solomon 18.2 (see
Charlesworth 1983: 1.960–87). In magical papyri, the sun and the gods of the
mystery cults are occasionally addressed as ‘world ruler’ (understood
positively as a devotional title): Arnold (DPL
581) quotes the Hymn to Serapis (PGM
13.61.8–40): ‘I call on you Lord, world ruler … protect me from my own
astrological destiny, destroy my foul fate, apportion good things for me in my
horoscope.’ The addition, ‘of this darkness’, is therefore crucial; it gives
the term the necessary negative connotation—pagan deities are rejected as
demonic (cf. also Paul at 1 Cor. 10:20).
The remaining title, the
spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly realm, may be a summarizing
description of all the preceding powers rather than a further category (so
Lincoln 444). But it is equally possible that the text is working upwards from
the evil geniuses that inspire oppressive political regimes (‘principalities’)
or cause disruptions in the natural order (‘authorities’), to the demonic
deities worshipped in pagan cults and astrology (‘world rulers’), and finally,
with this phrase, to those who are the closest adjutants to the Prince of the
Power of the Air (2:2). They are located ‘in the heavenlies’ (cf. 3:10; for
this idiom, which is distinctive of Ephesians, see on 1:3) but, as the term
suggests, there are many levels in the spirit-world, where evil angels have
their own spheres of autonomous malevolent activity. If it is the case that the
higher up in the hierarchy of evil (and the closer therefore to the throne of
God) they are, the more arrogant these fallen angels become (see T. Sol. chs. 6, 8 and 18), then ‘the
spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly realm’ of Eph. 6:12 could be
identified with what the author of Col. 1:16 called ‘thrones’, the term which
is missing from Eph. 1:21 (see above). The throne of God can be shared by
Christ and the victorious Christian (see Rev. 3:21) and by the loyal council of
God’s prophets and apostles (see Rev. 4:4, cf. 4:11), but when the Prince of
demons claims a throne of his own (cf. 2 Thess. 2:4) his treason becomes fully
apparent as open rebellion. (John Muddiman, The Epistle to the Ephesians [Black’s
New Testament Commentary; London: Continuum, 2001], 288-89)
