Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Ephesians 6:12 - 6:12
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Our wrestling is not (ouk estin hēmin hē palē). “To us the wrestling is not.” Palē is an old word from pallō, to throw, to swing (from Homer to the papyri, though here only in N.T.), a contest between two till one hurls the other down and holds him down (katechō). Note pros again (five times) in sense of “against,” face to face conflict to the finish.
The world-rulers of this darkness (tous kosmokratoras tou skotous toutou). This phrase occurs here alone. In Joh 14:30 Satan is called “the ruler of this world” (ho archōn tou kosmou toutou). In 2Co 4:4 he is termed “the god of this age” (ho theos tou aiōnos toutou). The word kosmokratōr is found in the Orphic Hymns of Satan, in Gnostic writings of the devil, in rabbinical writings (transliterated) of the angel of death, in inscriptions of the Emperor Caracalla. These “world-rulers” are limited to “this darkness” here on earth.
The spiritual hosts of wickedness (ta pneumatika tēs ponērias). No word for “hosts” in the Greek. Probably simply, “the spiritual things (or elements) of wickedness.” Ponēria (from ponēros) is depravity (Mat 22:18; 1Co 5:8).
In the heavenly places (en tois epouraniois). Clearly so here. Our “wrestling” is with foes of evil natural and supernatural. We sorely need “the panoply of God” (furnished by God).