Ephesians 6:11

ἐνδύσασθε τὴν πανοπλίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ : put on the whole armour of God. Further explanation of what has to be done in order to become strong enough to meet all enemies, even the devil. τοῦ Θεοῦ is the gen. of origin or source, = the panoply which comes from God or is provided by Him. To put the emphasis on the Θεοῦ (Harl.) is to miss the point and to suppose a contrast which there is nothing here to suggest, viz., with some other kind of panoply. The emphatic thing, as most exegetes notice, is the πανοπλίαν, the idea being that we need not only a Divine equipment, but that equipment in its completeness, without the lack of any single part. The fact that, in order to meet our spiritual foe, we need to take to ourselves all that God provides for living and for overcoming, is expressed in a telling figure drawn from the world of soldiery. The figure of the Christian as a warrior with his arms, wages, etc. (ὅπλα, ὄψωνια, etc.), occurs repeatedly in the Pauline writings (Romans 6:13; Romans 6:23; Romans 13:12; 2 Corinthians 10:4; 1 Thessalonians 5:8; 1 Timothy 1:18; 1 Timothy 6:12; 2 Timothy 4:7). In briefer form the figure of the armour appears in 1 Thessalonians 5:8, and in its rudiments also in Isaiah 59:17; cf. also Wis 5:17, etc. πανοπλία is not armour simply (Vulg. armatura, Harl., etc.), but whole armour, the complete equipment of the Roman ὁπλίτης or “man of arms,” consisting of shield, helmet, breastplate, greaves, sword and lance; cf. Thuc., iii., 14; Isocr., 352 D; Herod., i., 60; Plato, Laws, vii., p. 796 B; and especially Polybius, vi., 23, 2, etc. The word occurs only once again in the NT (Luke 11:22). No doubt the Roman soldier is particularly in view. Paul, the Roman citizen, would think of him, and it was the Roman military power that filled the eye where Paul laboured and wrote. πρὸς τὸ δύνασθαι ὑμᾶς στῆναι πρὸς τὰς μεθοδείας τοῦ διαβόλου : that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Statement of the object of the putting on of this panoply. The general sense of direction conveyed by the flexible prep. πρός when followed by the acc. takes a wide variety of applications. In this short sentence it expresses mental direction, aim or object, and local direction, against. The phrase στῆναι πρός belongs to the soldier's language, being used for standing one's ground, in opposition to taking to flight (Thuc., v., 104, and cf. Raphel., Annot., ii., p. 493). In James 4:7 we have ἀντιστῆναι with the dat. For μεθοδείας TWH prefer μεθοδίας. On this rare term, found neither in profane Greek nor in the OT, and in the NT only in the two occurrences in this Epistle, see on chap. Ephesians 4:14 above. The plural denotes the various forms which the μεθοδεία, the craftiness, takes, and is fitly rendered either stratagems (which brings out the fundamental idea of method or plan in the deceit) or wiles. The Rhem. gives deceits; Tynd., Cov., Cran., Gen., Bish., assaults or crafty assaults. The Devil, διάβολος, is mentioned here as the author and practiser of all subtle, malicious scheming. The malign powers of which he is the prince are noticed next.