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Eph_6:14. In what manner they accordingly, clad conformably to the preceding requirement in the πανοπλία τοῦ Θεοῦ , are to stand forth.
στῆτε ] is not again, like the preceding στῆναι , the standing of the victor, but the standing forth of the man ready for the combat. Besides Isa_59:17, Wis_5:17 ff., see also Rabbinical passages for the figurative reference of particular weapons to the means of spiritual conflict, in Schoettgen, Horae, p. 791 f.
περιζωσάμενοι τὴν ὀσφύν ] having your loins girt about. Comp. Isa_11:5. For the singular τ . ὀσφ ., comp. Eur. Electr. 454: ταχυπόρος πόδα , and see Elmsley, ad Eur. Med. 1077. The girdle or belt ( ζωστήρ , covering the loins and the part of the body below the breastplate, also called ζώνη , Jacobs, ad Anthol. VIII. p. 177, not to be confounded with ζῶμα , the lower part of the coat of mail) is first mentioned by the apostle, because to have put on this was the first and most essential requirement of the warrior standing armed ready for the fight; to speak of a well-equipped warrior without a girdle is a contradictio in adjecto, for it was just the girdle which produced the free bearing and movement and the necessary attitude of the warrior. Hence it is not to be assumed, with Harless, that Paul thought of the girdle as an ornament. Comp. 1Pe_1:13.
ἐν ἀληθείᾳ ] instrumental. With truth they are to be girt about, i.e. truth is to be their girdle. Comp. Isa_11:5. As for the actual warrior the whole aptus habitus for the combat (this is the tertium comparationis) would be wanting in the absence of the girdle; so also for the spiritual warrior, if he is not furnished with truth. From this it is at once clear that ἀλήθεια is not to be taken objectively, of the gospel, which, on the contrary, is only designated later, Eph_6:17, by ῥῆμα Θεοῦ ; but subjectively, of truth as inward property, i.e. harmony of knowledge with the objective truth given in the gospel. The explanation sincerity (Calvin, Boyd, Estius, Olshausen, Bisping, and others) is, as expressive only of a single virtue, according to the context too narrow (compare the following δικαιοσύνη , πίστις κ . τ . λ .), and the notion, moreover, would merge into that of the following δικαιοσύνη , an objection which applies likewise to the explanation Christian integrity (Morus, Winzer).
τὴν θώρακα τῆς δικαιοσ .] Genitivus appositionis; comp. 1Th_5:8; Wis_5:19; Soph. O. R. 170: φροντίδος ἔγχος . As the actual warrior has protected the breast, when he “ θώρηκα περὶ στήθεσσιν ἔδυνεν ” (Hom. Il. iii. 332), so with you δικαιοσύνη is to be that, which renders your breast (heart and will) inaccessible to the hostile influences of the demons. δικαιοσύνη is here Christian moral rectitude (Rom_6:13), inasmuch as, justified through faith, we are dead to sin and live ἐν καινότητι ζωῆς (Rom_6:4). Harless and Winzer understand the righteousness by faith, by which, however, inasmuch as this righteousness is given with faith, the θυρεὸς τῆς πίστεως , subsequently singled out quite specially, is anticipated. As previously the intellectual rectitude of the Christian was denoted by ἀλήθεια , so here his moral rectitude by δικαιοσύνη .