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12. ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν ἡμῖν ἡ πάλη. The figure is changed to a wrestling match, which does justice to the ‘tricks,’ but does not fit with the armour. St Paul however would not be conscious of the incongruity because he would never visualize his symbols pictorially.
πρὸς αἷμα καὶ σάρκα. In this order Heb 2:14. Our real foes are not our human and visible antagonists.
πρὸς τὰς ἀρχάς, πρὸς τὰς ἐξουσίας. Cf. Eph 1:21, Eph 3:10; Col 2:10; Col 2:15. In the sense of antagonistic spiritual forces in Col 2:15 only, but cf. 1Co 2:8 where οἱ ἄρχοντες τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου are probably to be distinguished from the human instruments through which they worked their will on the Lord of Glory. The climax of the conflict for our Lord, in both these cases, was on the Cross.
πρὸς τοὺς κοσμοκράτορας. ‘The potentates.’ κοσμοκράτωρ was used of Kings of Egypt as well as of Roman Emperors. So we are not bound to infer that the power of these spiritual forces is literally world-wide. At the same time the whole of the present order is regarded as being in its alienation from God under the domination of the Evil One, 1Jn 5:19; Joh 12:31; Joh 14:30; Joh 16:11. Nor is this conception confined to St John, see Luk 4:6; 1Co 2:8.
τοῦ σκότους τούτου. This darkness has already been defined in Eph 5:8.
τὰ πνευματικὰ. The spiritual powers in antithesis to the material resources and human instruments through which they work, ὅπλα σαρκικὰ 2Co 10:4.
τῆς πονηρίας taking the place of ἡ ἀπάτη, ἡ πλάνη, τὸ ψεῦδος, ἡ ἀπειθία, in view of ὁ πονηρός to come in Eph 6:16, probably under the influence of the Pater Noster.
ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις. See Intr. pp. xlviii ff. Here it is the scene of ἡ πάλη qualifying the whole sentence and not merely the last phrase in it.