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Eph_6:13. Διὰ τοῦτο ] because we have to fight against these powers.
ἀναλάβετε ] the usual word for the taking up of armour. See Kypke and Wetstein. The opposite: κατατίθημι .
ἀντιστῆναι ] namely, the assaults of the demons.
ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ πονηρᾷ ] The evil day means here, according to the context, neither the present life (Chrysostom, Oecumenius, who at the same time believed βραχὺν τὸν τοῦ πολεμοῦ καιρόν to be hinted at), nor the day of death (Erasmus Schmid), nor the day of judgment (Jerome); nor yet, as most expositors suppose, in general the day of conflict and of peril, which the devil prepares for us (so also Rückert, Harless, Matthies, Meier, Winzer, Baumgarten-Crusius, de Wette, Bleek), for every day was such, whereas the evil day here manifestly appears as a peculiar and still future day, for the conflict of which the readers were to arm themselves. Hence also not: every day, on which the devil has special power (Bengel, Zachariae, Olshausen); but the emphatic designation ἡ ἡμέρα ἡ πονηρά could suggest to the reader only a single, κατʼ ἐξοχήν morally evil, day well known to him, and that is the day in which the Satanic power ( ὁ Πονηρός ) puts forth its last and greatest outbreak, which last outbreak of the anti-Christian kingdom Paul expected shortly before the Parousia (see Usteri, Lehrbegriff, p. 348 ff.). Comp. also the ἐνεστὼς αἰὼν πονηρός , Gal_1:4, and the remark thereon.
καὶ ἅπαντα κατεργασάμενοι στῆναι ] This στῆναι corresponds to the preceding ἀντιστῆναι , of which it is the result; and in the midst, between ἀντιστῆναι and στῆναι , lies ἅπαντα κατεργασ .: “to withstand in the evil day, and, after you shall have accomplished all things, to stand.” The latter expression is the designation of the victor, who, after the fight is finished, is not laid prostrate, or put to flight, but stands. Comp. Xen. Anab. i. 10. 1. What is meant by ἅπαντα , is necessarily yielded by the connection, namely, everything which belongs to the conflict in question, the whole work of the combat in all its parts and actions. The κατεργάζεσθαι retains its ordinary signification peragere, conficere, consummare (comp. van Hengel, ad Rom. I. p. 205), and is not, with Oecumenius, Theophylact, Camerarius, Beza, Grotius, Calovius, Kypke, Koppe, Flatt, Holzhausen, Harless, Olshausen, de Wette, Bleek, and others, to be taken in the sense of debellare, overpower, in which sense it is, like the German abthun and niedermachen and the Latin conficere, usual enough (see Kypke, II. p. 301), but is never so employed by Paul—frequently as the word occurs with him—or elsewhere in the N.T., and here would only be required by the text, if ἅπαντας were the reading.[307] De Wette objects to our interpretation as being tame. This, however, it is not, and the less so, because κατεργάζεσθαι is the characteristic word for a great and difficult work (Herod. v. 24; Plato, Legg. iii. p. 686 E, al.; and see Fritzsche, ad Rom. I. p. 107), and ἅπαντα also is purposely chosen (all without exception; see Valckenaer, Schol. I. p. 339). To be rejected also is the construction of Erasmus, Beza (who proposes this explanation alongside of the rendering prostratis, and is inclined to regard it as the better one), Calixtus, Morus, Rosenmüller, and others: “omnibus rebus probe comparatis ad pugnam” (Bengel). This would be παρασκευασάμενοι (1Co_14:8), and what a redundant thought would thus result, especially since ΣΤῆΝΑΙ would then be not at all different from ἈΝΤΙΣΤῆΝΑΙ ! Lastly, the translation of the Vulgate, which is best attested critically: in omnibus perfecti (comp. Lucifer, Ambrosiaster, Pelagius), is not to be regarded, with Estius, as the sense of our reading, but expresses the reading κατειργασμένοι , which is, moreover, to be found in a vitiated form ( ΚΑΤΕΡΓΑΣΜΈΝΟΙ ) in codex A. Erasmus conjectured a corruption of the Latin codices.
[307] Koppe felt this, hence he viewed ἅπαντα as masculine, in accordance with Kypke’s proposal! Even in those passages which Kypke adduces for κατεργάζεσθαι πάντα , instead of κατεργ . πάντας , πάντα is to be left in the neuter sense, and κατεργ . is to complete, to execute. Freely, but correctly in accordance with the sense, Luther renders: “that ye may perform all well, and keep the field.”