Carr claims there is no reason to regard the powers as evil at all. He
argues partly on the grounds that the influence of astrology and the fear and
despair it engendered, can be dated only after
the writing of the Pauline epistles; and also that the Bible and the literature
of post-biblical Judaism suggest there was little notion of evil spiritual
powers in Jewish religion. Consequently the idea of mighty forces hostile to
man is not found in the first century, and the relevant Pauline passages should
be exegeted accordingly. Since Ephesians 6:12 presents an apparently
insuperable difficulty for his theory, he claims that it is a later
interpolation and should be excised from the text. However, evidence for fear
of demons and astral powers in both first century Judaism and paganism is
considerable. ‘The concept of a world populated with evil spirits and
oppressive demons which lead people astray from God is undeniably attested in
the Synoptics.’ Moreover, Carr’s exegesis, particularly of Colossians 2:14f.,
is often forced, and there is no textual basis for the claim that Ephesians
6:12 is an interpolation.
That at least some references to the powers have evil supernatural
beings in mind is undeniable, Ephesians 6:12 being the most obvious example.
The powers mentioned in Ephesians 1:21 were also probably so understood. The
passage describes Christ’s exaltation through an allusion to Psalm 110:1,
embedded in which are ideas of warfare and the subjection of the enemies of the
one enthroned. When the same psalm is cited in 1 Corinthians 15:24f. the
‘principalities and powers’ are explicitly identified as the enemies to be
subdued. Consequently, when in Ephesians 1:20f. the reference to Psalm 110 is
followed by a list of powers which are subject to Christ’s authority, the clear
implication is that they are similarly understood as enemies now defeated.
Colossians 1:15–20 implies that the powers are, or at least have been, hostile
to God, since they are among the ‘all things’, τὰ πάντα … εἴτε τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς εἴτε τὰ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς, which are reconciled. Furthermore
Colossians 2:15, on most interpretations, portrays the cross as a triumph over
formerly hostile powers.
Other references are more ambiguous. The ἀρχαὶ of Romans 8:38 are probably hostile in
that they might in principle separate from Christ’s love, although the context
does not demand such an interpretation. If the disputed expression, οἱ ἀρχόντες τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου (1 Cor. 2:6–8), refers to supernatural
powers, they are clearly evil in that it is they who crucified Christ.
Ephesians 3:10 may, like 1 Peter 1:12, allude simply to angels contemplating
Christ’s redemptive work. However, the letter’s recipients would almost
certainly have understood αἱ ἀρχαὶ καὶ αἱ ἐχουσίαι ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις as hostile beings, and that the more so
in the light of Ephesians 1:21 and 6:12. Moreover an exegesis which sees them
here as diabolical angels makes good sense: ‘By her very existence as a new
humanity … the Church reveals God’s secret in action and heralds to the hostile
powers the overcoming of cosmic divisions and their defeat.’ Such an
interpretation fits well into the aims of the letter, one of which is to
reassure readers who were feeling threatened by these powers.
The phrase ἐπουράνια καὶ ἐπιγεῖα καὶ καταχθόνια (Phil. 2:10) may simply refer to the
totality of the cosmos, including, but not emphasizing, the powers. Otherwise
it might be an allusion to a threefold division of the universe into angels,
demons and men, or to the ‘mighty angelic powers which were thought to rule
over the realms of the cosmos—astral, terrestrial, chthonic’. In favour of this
last view is the reference to the superiority of Jesus’ name, τὸ ὄνομα τὸ ὑπὲρ πᾶν ὄνομα, which recalls Ephesians 1:21 where the
powers are plainly in view and also evokes contemporary magic with its
invocation of supposedly mighty ‘names’ as power sources. Paul would thus be
affirming the subjection of all such ‘names’ to Christ. Moreover, most
frequently when Christ’s exaltation is affirmed elsewhere in the New Testament,
it is associated with the subjection of the powers: ‘It is just the oldest
formulas of faith as we find them already in the New Testament and in the
Apostolic Fathers which regularly repeat the statement that Christ sits at the
right hand of God, with all powers subjected to him.’ Hence Martin argues that
the verb ἐξομολογεῖσθαι, when used
in 2:11 in the context of an enthronement drama, implies not so much ‘that
creation confesses with personal response the lordship of Christ as that the
angelic powers own His right because it is their duty to do so’. Thus if ἐπουράνια καὶ ἐπιγεῖα καὶ καταχθόνια are spiritual beings, they have been
subjected to Christ by conquest and are forced at his enthronement to
acknowledge that. They must accordingly be hostile powers, the passage
therefore coinciding with Ephesians 1:21 and 1 Corinthians 15:24.
Thus, while some exegetes argue that the powers in the New Testament
may be good or bad angels, in Paul they are invariably evil. While some Pauline
references to them do not define their moral orientation with precision, the
unambiguous ones always identify them as hostile beings. This necessarily
creates a certain presumption in favour of understanding the powers as evil
beings whenever they are mentioned, and that the more so since such an approach
invariably produces good sense.
Some attention must be given to the relationship, if any, between the
Pauline terminology of ‘principalities and powers’, and vocabulary used
elsewhere in the New Testament to refer to evil supernatural beings. Ephesians
6:12 indicates the relationship of the powers to Satan. That they are mentioned
in the same context, are engaged in similar activity, and are resisted by the
same means implies an identity of nature and purpose, and there is also the
suggestion of Satan’s primacy. Moreover, Colossians 2:14–15 and perhaps Romans
8:38–9 suggest that the powers are to be understood as accusers of human
beings, again like Satan.
It is generally assumed that the powers cannot be simply identified
with the synoptic demons. ‘Paul has in view demonic intelligences of a much
higher order than the “devils” who possessed the poor disordered souls that
meet us in the Gospel pages. These are cosmic spirit forces which possess and
control not only individual human lives but the very course of the universe.’
The vocabulary employed may suggest that they are to be differentiated from the
synoptic demons, not only because of its connotations of cosmic power, but also
because of the derivation of some of the terminology from Jewish speculation
about angels. Thus it seems likely that Pauline ‘principalities and powers’
language refers to beings identified elsewhere as Satan’s, or ‘fallen’, angels
(Matt. 25:41; 2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 6; Rev., 12:7–9). Such a view is supported by
the juxtaposition of ἄγγελοι
and ἀρχαὶ in Romans 8:38, and
also by the association of ἄγγελοι with ἐχουσίαι
and δυνάμεις in 1 Peter 3:22
as a category of powers subjected to Christ.
Nevertheless the distinction between the synoptic demons and Pauline
powers should not be overdrawn. Both synoptic gospels on the one hand, and
Pauline epistles on the other, suggest the essential unity within a single
‘kingdom’ of the various evil supernatural beings of whose existence they speak
(Mk. 3:23ff.; Eph. 2:2; 6:11). The synoptic demons and Pauline powers have an
analogous relationship of subservience to Satan, and are put under attack by
Christ’s coming. Moreover the powers were feared in Ephesus, not only because
they controlled world forces as astral deities, but also because they were
believed to afflict people much like the synoptic demons, and the famed
Ephesian magic was intended to manipulate them for the good or ill of
particular persons. However, the exact relationship between demons and powers
remains unresolved in the Pauline epistles, as indeed is the case elsewhere in
the New Testament. (Keith Ferdinando, The Triumph of Christ in
African Perspective: A Study of Demonology and Redemption in the African Context
[Waynesboro, Ga.: Paternoster Press, 1999], 261-66)
