Introduction
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers (kosmokra,twr) of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Eph 6:12
Ephesians 6 presents many challenges to exegetes. The foremost problem is how to understand kosmokrator (kosmokra,twr). The mention of kosmokrator in combination with the phrase “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood” indicates that these powers are not limited to mere human rulers or institutions; this is supported by the mention of “spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (NIB) and the “wiles of the devil.”(v. 11). Are the church and the individual believer, who are encouraged to don the amour of a Roman legionnaire (sic), under attack by supernatural powers?
This article will endeavour to demonstrate that Ephesians 6 employs a Passover metaphor that is crucial to unlocking the narrative. There is an underlying typology in the narrative that is not based on a Roman legionnaire, but on the Jewish Passover. The narrative is constructed to appeal to a mixed audience of Gentile and Jewish believers, with the readily identifiable picture of a Roman legionnaire operating on the surface of the text and more subtle Passover allusions operating at a secondary level.
Ephesians and Hebrews
The phrase “flesh and blood” in Eph 6:12 is literally “blood and flesh” (ai-ma kai. sa,rka) and is found in the same reverse order in Heb 2:14-15,
Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood [blood and flesh] (ai[matoj kai. sarko,j), He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Heb 2:14-15 (NKJV)
The phrase “flesh and blood” or more accurately “blood and flesh” signifies by synecdoche, man or human beings. By why is the order reversed only here and in Ephesians? The correspondence between Hebrews and Ephesians is more than casual as both epistles are intertextually linked with Psalm 8 and both epistles are directed to the same church (but not the same audience).[1]
| Psalm 8 | Ephesians 1 | Hebrews 2 |
|---|---|---|
| v. 1 O Lord, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth, Who have set Your glory above the heavens! | v. 17 Father of Glory | |
| v. 2b …You have ordained strength | v. 19 …and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power |
| Psalm 8 | Ephesians 1 | Hebrews 2 |
|---|---|---|
| v. 4 What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him? | v. 6 But one testified in a certain place, saying: “What is man that You are mindful of him, Or the son of man that You take care of him?” | |
| v. 5 For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honour. | v. 7 You have made him a little lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honour, And set him over the works of Your hands. | |
| v. 6b You have put all things under his feet | v. 22 And He put all things under His feet | v. 8 You have put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him. |
|
v. 1b Your glory above the heavens! v. 6a You have made him to have dominion |
vv. 20b-21 …in the heavenly places far above all principality and power and might and dominion, | |
| v. 9 How excellent is Your name in all the earth | v. 23 …the fullness of Him who fills all in all. |
The author of Hebrews (ca. 67) was aware of the Pauline epistle to the Ephesians (ca. 58) and therefore employed similar phraseology and allusions. It is suggested that the reference to blood and flesh in Hebrews and Ephesians serves a dual function in denoting humanity, but that humanity is symbolised in the Passover blood (splashed on the lintel) and the flesh (that was eaten by the “children”). The Lord and his “children” partake of the same “blood and flesh” at the Passover meal, this signifies that the Lord is fully human, and like them shares in the same sacrifice. However, like Adam (before his apostasy), Jesus’ humanity was only marginally lower than the angels, but now, after his suffering, Christ sits in “heavenly places” with a more excellent name than the angels thus fulfilling the destiny originally intended for Adam. Jesus achieved this by destroying “him who had the power of death, that is, the devil”. Interestingly, Heb 2:14-15 ends with an allusion to Isa 14:3 “and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage”,
It shall come to pass in the day the Lord gives you rest from your sorrow, and from your fear and the hard bondage in which you were made to serve. Isa 14:3 (NKJV)
Hard bondage is a reference to slavery in Egypt (Exod 20:2),[2] but in Isaiah it is employed as a metaphor for the Assyrian yoke. The nation was delivered from the Assyrian yoke by the angel of death on the Passover night[3] (Isa 37:36), the same angel that had delivered Israel some centuries before from Egyptian bondage.
For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you. Exod 12:23 (NKJV)
Just as the Egyptians had become dead men, so now also the Assyrians—messengers arrived post-haste to inform Hezekiah of the “good news”—the crisis was over—the enemy was dead.
How beautiful upon the mountains Are the feet of him who brings good news, Who proclaims peace, Who brings glad tidings of good things, Who proclaims salvation, Who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!” Isa 52:7 (NKJV)
The feet that bear the “good news” of the Passover triumph over the Assyrian enemy form part of the armoury of the Pauline soldier of Christ,
…and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Eph 6:15 (NKJV)
Angels of Evil
Describing the plagues of Egypt the Psalmist says;
He cast on them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, by sending angels of destruction among them. Ps 78:49 (NKJV)
This band of “evil angels” is not of itself evil but they dispense evil (messengers of evil (YLT), evil angels (LXE), destroying angels (RSV, NRS, NLT, NIV, NIB), and are the equivalent to the “spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph 6:12)[4] with the destroyer (angel of death) kosmokrator as their leader.
The word kosmokrator hardly occurs in early Judaism and is not found in the LXX, nor in Philo, Josephus, or in early pseudepigrapha. R. Feldmeier notes that, “In Rabbinic literature…the Greek term occurs as a foreign word for the angel of death, who is identical to the Devil”.[5]
The angel of death holds universal sway in a world given over to sin and is literally “the ruler (kosmokrator) of the darkness of this age”; however, Jesus could say “the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in me” (John 14:30). Jesus Christ was the only man over whom the angel of death had no hold because he was sinless.
But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour, that he, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. Heb 2:9 (NKJV)
Since, the kosmokrator holds sway over the dispensation of “sin and death”, he is the “prince of the power of the air” (Eph 2:2); not the “prince of the power of heaven”, because heavenly beings are sinless and immortal—the destroyer’s jurisdiction is limited to God’s earthly children of disobedience (Eph 2:2), who are in possession of the spirit of “sin and death” and therefore the destroyer has them in his power. God can and does use human agents as instruments of punishment as described in the apocryphal Judith (2:2), where Nebuchadnezzar “said that his thoughts were to bring all the earth under his empire” “and it was decided that every one who had not obeyed his command should be destroyed” (2:3).[6] Here, then, Nebuchadnezzar typifies the universal sway of the divine agent kosmokrator, subjecting the whole earth and destroying the disobedient.
We do not wrestle against flesh and blood
Struggling or wrestling brings to mind Jacob wrestling with the angel (not flesh and blood) when he was on his way to meet his brother Esau:
| Ephesians | Jacob |
|---|---|
| Wrestle not against flesh and blood (6:12) | And in his strength he [Jacob] struggled with God. (Hos 12:3) |
| Ephesians | Jacob |
| Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.(6:10) | And he prevailed with the angel and was strong (LXE Hos 12:3) |
| Supplication in the Spirit (6:18) | Yes, he struggled with the Angel and prevailed; He wept, and sought favor from Him. (Hos 12:3) |
|
…the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting (4:14) …wiles of the devil (6:11) |
Your father (Laban) has deceived me and changed my wages ten times, but God did not allow him to hurt me. (Gen 31:7) |
Jacob did not subdue the angel of death…he overcame[7] his old nature in the same way that Jesus did;
Who, in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of his godly fear. Heb 5:7 (NKJV)
Finally, Jacob (the deceiver), who had himself been tricked and deceived, understood that he was not merely struggling with man but had been wrestling God all his life. There is then a human and a supernatural element to Jacob’s struggles which erupt in a confrontation—a moment of truth—when he is about to meet his nemesis, Esau. Instead, he wrestles with the angel of death; it is suggested that this death-struggle occurred on the Passover night.
Passover
| Ephesians 6 | Passover Allusions |
|---|---|
| …the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual hosts of evil in the heavenlies. (v. 12) |
Passover: the only feast celebrated at night A sending of Angels of evil amongst them (Ps 78:49) …will not suffer the destroyer to come into your houses (Exod 12:23) |
| …praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto… (v. 18) | Passover: a night of watching unto the Lord (Exod 12:42 RV mg) |
| …stand therefore (v. 14) | …ye shall eat it in haste (Exod 12:11) |
| …your loins girt about with truth (v. 14) | …with your loins girded (Exod 12:11) |
| …and your feet shod with the gospel of the preparation of the gospel of peace (v. 15) | …your shoes on your feet (Exod 12:11) |
| …and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God (v. 17) | …your staff in your hand (Exod 12:11) |
| …above all, taking the shield of faith…and the helmet of salvation (vv. 16, 17) | …protection by faith in the blood of the lamb (Exod 12:23) |
Moses exhorted the Israelites not to flee in the face of the enemy; “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever” (Exod 14:13). The Israelites who left Egypt only held a staff in their hand, but Paul exhorts readers to yield the “sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph 6:17; cf. Heb 4:12). The shield of faith is divine protection (Gen 15:1) afforded to those who have faith in the blood of the Passover Lamb (and who stay in the house). The “whole armour” of God is described in Isa 59:17 and is based on the equipment of the high priest – breastplate, crown, ephod, girdle etc., and not the instruments of a Roman legionnaire.
Conclusion
As usual Paul employs a complex intertextual weave of OT passages to convey his message. Indeed, Paul writes many things that are hard to understand and they are often “wrested” to the detriment of those who are perishing. Using a polyvalent approach, Paul connects the Egyptian Passover deliverance, the Assyrian (Passover?) deliverance and Jacob’s (Passover?) deliverance. His message is that our struggles against human adversaries, human circumstances or human institutions are sometimes a struggle against God himself. However, the power of the destroyer has been destroyed; his sway is no longer universal provided we put on Christ the Passover Lamb…who is the whole armour of God.
[1] Ephesians is directed to Gentile and Jewish readers, but Hebrews specifically targets Jewish believers at Ephesus. The Fourth Gospel, Hebrews and Ephesians were all written to the church at Ephesus See, P. Wyns, “The Fourth Gospel and Hebrews” in Christadelphian EJournal of Biblical Interpretation: 2009 Annual (eds. A. Perry, P. Wyns, T. Gaston; Sunderland: Willow Publications, 2009), 154-163.
[2] Egypt is called the “house of bondage” thirteen times in Exodus.
[3] See the chapters, “Israel’s Ancient Passover Experience” and “Jerusalem Delivered at Passover” in H. A. Whittaker, Isaiah (Cannock: Biblia, reprint 2000), 50-53. See also the defence and then criticism of this proposal in P. Wyns, “Passover Deliverance in 701” CeJBI (Jan 2011): 50-61; A. Perry, “Dating the Deliverance of Jerusalem” CeJBI (Jan 2011): 62-71.
[4] These messengers have charge over the dispensation of death and evil. They are not evil for they are God’s messengers.
[5] R. Feldmeier, “Kosmokrator”, Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (eds. K. van der Toorn, Bob Becking, Pieter Willem van der Horst; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 908-9.
[6] This is no doubt a midrash on Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 4: “The tree grew and became strong; its height reached to the heavens, and it could be seen to the ends of all the earth”. God gave Nebuchadnezzar power over “all the earth”.
[7] See P. Wyns, “Jacobs New Name” in the Christadelphian EJournal of Biblical Interpretation: 2008 Annual (eds. A. Perry, P. Wyns; Sunderland: Willow Publications, 2008), 95-100.
Is Pentecost Happening Today? (Part 7) – Tongues Shall Cease