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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Ephesians 6:16 - 6:16
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Above all (ἐπὶ πᾶσιν)
Ambiguous. It may mean over all, or in addition to all. The latter is correct. Rev., withal.
The shield of faith (τὸν θυρεὸν τῆς πίστεως)
Θυρεόν shield, is from θύρα door, because shaped like a door. Homer uses the word for that which is placed in front of the doorway. Thus of the stone placed by Polyphemus in front of his cave (“Odyssey,” ix., 240). The shield here described is that of the heavy infantry; a large, oblong shield, four by two and a half feet, and sometimes curved on the inner side. Sculptured representations may be seen on Trajan's column. Compare “Compass him as with a shield,” Psa 5:12. It was made of wood or of wicker-work, and held on the left arm by means of a handle. Xenophon describes troops, supposed to be Egyptians, with wooden shields reaching to their feet (“Anabasis,” i., 8, 9). Saving faith is meant.
Fiery darts (τὰ βέλη τὰ πεπυρωμένα)
Lit., the darts, those which have been set on fire. Herodotas says that the Persians attacked the citadel of Athens “with arrows whereto pieces of lighted tow were attached, which they shot at the barricade” (viii., 52). Thucydides: “the Plataeans constructed a wooden frame, which they set up on the top of their own wall opposite the mound.... They also hung curtains of skills and hides in front: these were designed to protect the woodwork and the workers, and shield them against blazing arrows” (ii. 75). Livy tells of a huge dart used at the siege of Saguntum, which was impelled by twisted ropes. “There was used by the Saguntines a missile weapon called falarica, with the shaft of fir, and round in other parts, except toward the point, whence the iron projected. This part, which was square, they bound around with tow and besmeared with pitch. It had an iron head three feet in length, so that it could pierce through the body with the armor. But what caused the greatest fear was that this weapon, even though it stuck in the shield and did not penetrate into the body, when it was discharged with the middle part on fire, and bore along a much greater flame produced by the mere motion, obliged the armor to be thrown down, and exposed the soldier to succeeding blows” (xxi. 8). Again, of the siege of Ambracia by the Romans: “Some advanced with burning torches, others carrying tow and pitch and fire-darts, their entire line being illuminated by the blaze” (xxxviii. 6). Compare Psa 7:13, where the correct rendering is, “His arrows He maketh fiery arrows.” Temptation is thus represented as impelled from a distance. Satan attacks by indirection - through good things from which no evil is suspected. There is a hint of its propagating power: one sin draws another in its track: the flame of the fire-tipped dart spreads. Temptation acts on susceptible material. Self-confidence is combustible. Faith, in doing away with dependence on self, takes away fuel for the dart. It creates sensitiveness to holy influences by which the power of temptation is neutralized. It enlists the direct aid of God. See 1Co 10:13; Luk 22:32; Jam 1:2; 1Pe 4:12; 2Pe 2:9.