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2Co_11:14-15. And that is quite natural!
καὶ οὐ θαῦμα ] neque res admiranda est. Comp. Plat. Pol. vi. p. 498 D; Epin. p. 988 D; Pind. Nem. x. 95, Pyth. i. 50; Eur. Hipp. 439; Soph. Oed. R. 1132, Phil. 408; Pflugk, ad Eur. Hec. 976.
What follows is an argumentum a majori ad minus.
αὐτός ] ipse Satanas, their lord and master. Comp. afterwards οἱ διάκονοι αὐτοῦ . See Hermann, ad Viger. p. 733.
εἰς ἄγγελον φωτός ] into an angel of light. As the nature of God (1Jn_1:5; Rev_21:23-24) and His dwelling-place (1Ti_6:16; 1Jn_1:7) is light, a glory of light, a δόξα beaming with light, which corresponds to the most perfect holy purity, so also His servants, the good angels, are natures of light with bodies of light (1Co_15:40); hence, where they appear, light beams forth from them (Mat_28:3, al.; Act_12:7, al.; see Hahn, Theol. d. N. T. I. p. 274 f.; Weiss, bibl. Theol. p. 460). Regarding Satan, on the other hand, comp. Eph_6:12; Act_26:18; Col_1:13. He is ὁ κληρονόμος τοῦ σκότους , Ev. Nic. 20.
There is no trace in the narratives concerned to justify the assumption[331] that 2Co_11:15 points to the fall of man (Bengel, Semler, Hengstenberg, Christol. I. p. 11), or even to the temptation of Christ, Mat_4:8, in which the devil appeared as the angel to whom God had entrusted the rule of Palestine (Michaelis); but, at any rate, it is the apostle’s thought, and is also presupposed as known to the readers, that devilish temptations in angelic form assail man. In the O. T. this idea is not found; it recurs later, however, in the Rabbins, who, with an eccentric application of the thought, maintained that the angel who wrestled with Jacob (Gen_32:24; Hos_12:4-5) was the devil. See Eisenmenger, entdeckt. Judenth. I. p. 845. For conceptions regarding the demons analogous to our passage from Porphyry and Jamblichus, see Grotius and Elsner, Obss. p. 160.
[331] The present would not be against it. See Bengel: “Solet se transformare; fecit jam in paradiso.” According to Ewald, we are to think of a narrative, which was known then but is not preserved in our present O. T., to which Paul alludes, or of a narrative similar to that in Mat_4:1-11.