Ephesians 1:21

ὑπεράνω πάσης ἀρχῆς καὶ ἐξουσίας καὶ δυνάμεως καὶ κυριότητος : over above all rule, and authority, and power, and lordship. The intensive force “ far above” is given to the ὑπεράνω by Chrys., Theoph., Stier, the AV, the RV, etc. But it can scarcely be sustained in face of the actual use of the word in Hebrews 9:5 (cf. Ezekiel 43:15); the tendency of late Greek to substitute compound for simple forms without substantial change of sense; the non-intensive use of the cognate form ὑποκάτω (Mark 6:11; Luke 8:16; John 1:51); and the testimony of the Syriac and other ancient Versions, which render it simply “above” (e.g., Vulg., supra). “Over above,” therefore, is to be preferred to “far above”. The πάσης is “all” in the sense of “every,” every particular kind of ἀρχή that can be named. The terms are given in the abstract form, not as if only principles and forces were in view, and not personal powers, but because “ classes or categories of personal beings are expressed, just as, e.g., ἐξουσία is said of human authorities, which consist of persons ” (Mey.). The use of the abstract ἀρχαί, etc., instead of the concrete ἄγγελοι, etc., enhances the conception of the absolute, all-embracing dominion of Christ. But what manner of powers or authorities do these terms designate? The fact that the immediate subject here is the heavenlies and Christ's position in them at once excludes such interpretations as identify these ἀρχαί, etc. with earthly powers (Morus); with every kind of dignity wheresoever found (Erasm., Olsh., etc.); with the Jewish hierarchy (Schoett.); or with the various orders of Gentile powers (van Til). The leading idea of the section and the apparent purport of similar statements (Ephesians 3:10; Colossians 1:16; Romans 8:38; 1 Peter 3:22) point to the angelic world as meant. The fact that nothing is said here of Christ's triumph over Satanic powers suggests further that only angels of good, heavenly intelligences, are in view. Can any definite distinction then be made out between the terms? And can it be said that the enumeration means that the world of good angels has its distinct orders and grades of angelic dignity and power? The passage must be read in connection with the analogous enumerations in Ephesians 3:10; Romans 8:38; 1 Peter 3:22, and especially Colossians 1:16. Differences in the enumerations then at once appear. In Ephesians 3:10 we have only the ἀρχαί and ἐξουσίαι; in Romans 8:38, ἄγγελοι, ἀρχαί, δυνάμεις; in 1 Peter 3:22, ἄγγελοι, ἐξουσίαι, δυνάμεις. And in the most direct parallel (Colossians 1:16) we find θρόνοι, κυριότητες, ἀρχαί, ἐξουσίαι. The Pauline passages themselves, therefore, show no such identity either in the number or in the succession of authorities as would be consistent with a determinate doctrine of graduated orders. Nor can it be inferred from the words in Matthew 18:10 (as Meyer thinks) that such gradations are recognised by our Lord Himself. It is true that in the non-canonical writings of the Jews (e.g., Test. XII. Patr., etc.) the idea of variety of ranks among the angels appears, and that in the later Rabbinical literature it took strange and elaborate forms. But between these and the simple statements of the NT there is no real likeness, and there is nothing here to point certainly either to an ascending scale or to a descending. It is held by some indeed (e.g., Meyer) that the angelic authorities are named here according to the latter scale, beginning with the highest and proceeding to the lower and the lowest. For this two reasons are offered, viz., first that it would be natural for the writer, who has led the reader up to the right hand of God as the position possessed by Christ, to give his enumeration of the powers subject to Christ in the succession of first, second and third in rank; and second, that in the various references made to them, the ἀρχαί, ἐξουσίαι, δυνάμεις are given in the same order. But the former is a very precarious reason; and the latter is not valid, inasmuch as in none of the passages appealed to do we get all these three terms together (Ephesians 3:10; Colossians 1:16; Colossians 2:10; 1 Peter 3:22). Nor is it possible to establish any clear distinction of sense and application between the four terms introduced here, such as that attempted, e.g., by Alford who, including in the list earthly as well as heavenly powers and evil as well as good spirits, regards ἀρχή as the supreme expression of dignity, ἐξπισία as official power in all its forms, primary or delegated, δύναμις as might or the “raw material” of power, and κυριότης, as the pre-eminence of lordship. We must take the terms, therefore, not as dogmatic terms either teaching or implying any doctrine of graduated ranks, differentiated functions, or organised order in the world of angels, but as rhetorical terms brought together in order to express the unique supremacy and absolute sovereignty proper to Christ, and meaning simply that whatever powers or dignities existed and by whatever names they might be designated, Christ's dominion was above them all. This is suggested also by the further generalisation that follows. καὶ παντὸς ὀνόματος ὀνομαζομένου : and every name that is named. The ὄνομα here is not to be taken as a title of dignity, but (as the ὀνομαζομένου shows) has the simple sense of name. There is an advance in the statement of Christ's supreme rank, but it is simply from the idea of a supremacy over all heavenly intelligences to that of a supremacy over all created objects by whatsoever name called. οὐμόνον ἐν τῷ αἰῶνι τούτῳ, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν τῷ μέλλοντι : not only in this world (or age), but also in that which is to come. The statement of Christ's absolute and unmatched supremacy is brought to its height by this last generalisation, which embraces within its sweep the totality of created objects not only as they now are, but as they may hereafter be in any possible future. The word αἰών here as elsewhere, has the idea of duration at its foundation. It means “age,” “ aeon,” and as used of the world presents it, in distinction from κόσμος, in its temporal aspect, “this present state of things”. The Jews spoke of the period before Messiah's Advent as הָצוֹלָם הַוֶּה, “this age,” and of the period introduced by that event as הָצוֹלָם הַבָּא, “the coming age”. So the NT writers designate the period preceding the final Return or Parousia of Christ ὁ αἰὼν οὗτος (also ὁ νῦν αἰών, 1 Timothy 6:17; ὁ ἐνεστὼς αἰών, Galatians 1:4; or simply ὁ αἰών, Matthew 14:22), and the period beginning with the Parousia ὁ αἰὼν ὁ μέλλων (also ὁ αἰὼν ἐκεῖνος, Luke 20:35; ὁ αἰὼν ὁ ἐρχόμενος, Mark 10:30; Luke 18:30; cf. οἱ αἰῶνες οἱ ἐπερχόμενοι, Ephesians 2:7).

This paragraph gives simply a positive statement of the exaltation of Christ, His sovereign and unshared supremacy over all. It makes no reference to Jewish or Gnostic speculations inconsistent with this. It is different with the great section in the sister Epistle to the Colossians. There we see that such speculations were rife in at least one of the Churches of the Lycus valley. The statements in that Epistle have an unmistakable reference to theosophic notions akin to the Gnostic ideas of emanations notions of angelic intermediaries between God and the world; against which the Apostle has to assert the exclusive relation of Christ to the whole system of things, seen and unseen, earthly and celestial, as the Creator of all, the Upholder of all, the One Being in whom resided all the forces pertaining to the maintenance and administration of things. The literature of Judaism makes it also clear that by Paul's time the Jews had constructed a somewhat elaborate system of Angelology, with theories of graduated positions and distinctive functions. The Book of Enoch (lxi. 10) speaks of “angels of power and angels of principality”. The Book of the Secrets of Enoch (xx. 1, 3) describes the heavenly host as consisting of ten troops lordships, principalities, powers, cherubim, seraphim, thrones, etc. In the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (Leviticus 3) six orders are named, of which the highest are the θρόνοι, ἐξουσίαι, occupying the seventh heaven, while the δυνάμεις are the fifth in order and are assigned to the third heaven. The same general doctrine appears also in Ephraem Syrus (i., p. 270), who gives three great divisions of the celestial world, viz. (1) θεοί, θρόνοι, κυριότητες; (2) ἀρχάλλελοι, ἀρχαί, ἐξουσίαι; (3) ἄγγελοι, δυνάμεις, χερουβίμ, σεραφίμ. In the De Princip. of Origen (i., 5, 3, etc.) five orders are named, rising from the τάξις ἀγγελική, to ἀρχαί, ἐξουσίαι, θρόνοι, and finally κυριότητες. But the conception of a great, graduated angelic hierarchy was elaborated most fully by the author of the remarkable book, De Coelesti Hierarchia, the so-called Dionysius the Areopagite. There we find a scheme of orders in three sets of three, descending from the highest to the lowest: Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones; Dominations, Virtues, Powers (or Authorities); Principalities, Archangels, Angels. Hence the sublime description in Dante (Paradiso, canto xxxviii.) and Milton's “Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers” (Paradise Lost, v., 601).