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21. ὑπεράνω πάσης ἀρχῆς κ.τ.λ. Cf. Eph 3:10; Col 1:16; 1Pe 3:22. St Paul is using names that were current in Rabbinic speculation with regard to different orders of Angels. See esp. Enoch lxi. 10; the Slavonic Enoch 20; Test. XII. Patr., Levi 3, quoted by Thackeray St Paul and Jewish Thought, pp. 147 f. See also Prof. Peake on ‘Angelology,’ Intr. to Epistle to Colossians, Expositor’s Greek Test. p. 478. The worship of Angels advocated by some at Colossae gives a polemic term to the references in Colossians. In this Epistle they appear because they formed an integral part of the universe as St Paul conceived it. Here the thought of their subordination is brought in to enhance the glory and the power of the Ascended Christ (cf. Col 2:10). In Eph 3:10 (cf. 1Pe 1:12; see Hort’s note) they are regarded as interested students of the revelation of the eternal purpose of God given through the Church. From Eph 6:12 (cf. Eph 2:2, Col 2:15) we learn that our hardest spiritual battles have to be fought against antagonists drawn from among them.
ὀνόματος. Cf. Php 2:9 τὸ ὄνομα τὸ ὑπὲρ τᾶν ὅνομα.
οὐ μόνον ἐν τῷ αἰῶνι τούτῳ ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν τῷ μέλλοντι. The forces of ‘this age’ include, according to St Paul’s view, not only human but also angelic forces. See 1Co 2:6; 1Co 2:8 (possibly); 2Co 4:4; cf. Eph 2:2. They are the forces which we have to reckon with so far as we are οἱ υἱοὶ τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου Luk 16:8; Luk 20:34. As ‘children of light’ who have tasted (Heb 6:5) δυνάμεις μέλλοντος αἰῶνος we belong also even now to a new ‘age’ distinct from the visible present, which is to be more fully manifested in the future, but of which we can say already that it contains no power over which the Ascended Christ is not sovereign.