Ephesians 6:13

διὰ τοῦτο ἀναλάβετε τὴν πανοπλίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ : wherefore take up the whole armour of God. διὰ τοῦτο, i.e., because your enemies are such as these. ἀναλαβεῖν is the accepted term for taking up arms, as κατατίθεσθαι is for laying them down (Deuteronomy 1:41; Jeremiah 26:3). ἵνα δυνηθῆτε ἀντιστῆναι ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ πονηρᾷ : that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day. The object of the ἀντιστῆναι, viz., the powers of evil, is left to be understood. The ἡμέρα πονηρά is inadequately interpreted as the day of death (E. Schmid); the day of judgment (Jer.); the present life (Chrys., Oec., etc.) which would rather have been αἰὼν πονηρός; or the whole period of conflict prepared for us by Satan (Rück., Harl., De Wette, Bleek, etc.). Regard must be had to the definiteness given to the ἡμέρα by the article, which marks it out as in some sense or other a single day, a critical day, a time of peculiar peril and trial. Hence the choice must be between the time immediately preceding the Parousia, the searching day of the future in which the powers of evil will make their last and greatest effort (Meyer, etc.), and the day of violent temptation and assault, whenever that may come to us during the present time (Ell., etc.), “any day of which it may be said, ‘this is your hour, and the power of darkness' ” (Barry; so also Abb.). The latter view is on the whole to be preferred. καὶ ἅπαντα κατεργασάμενοι στῆναι : and having done all, to stand. In A we have the variant κατεργασμένοι, a misspelling for κατεργασάμενοι or for κατειργασμένοι. The Vulg. renders in omnibus perfecti (following perhaps the reading κατειργασμένοι). Some make it = “having prepared all things for the conflict” (Erasm., Beza, etc.); but that would be expressed by some such form as παρασκευασάμενοι (1 Corinthians 14:8). Others give it the sense of overpowering (Oec., Chrys., Harl., etc.; cf. “overcome” in AV margin) a sense which it has, but not in the NT, as far as appears, and which will not suit the neut. (ἅπαντα) here. There is no reason to depart from the ordinary sense of the verb, viz., that of perficere (cf. Plato, Laws, iii., p. 686 E; Herod., v., 24, etc.), doing thoroughly, working out, especially (the κατά being intensive) accomplishing a difficult task. Applied to things evil or dishonourable this becomes perpetrare. These are the senses which it has in the NT generally and in the Pauline writings in particular (Romans 7:15; Romans 7:17; 2 Corinthians 12:12; Philippians 2:12, etc.; and in the sense of perpetrating, Romans 1:27; Romans 2:9; 1 Corinthians 5:3; 1 Peter 4:3). The ἅπαντα refers obviously to the conflict in view, and means “all things pertaining to your struggle”. The στῆναι, in contrast with the ἀντιστῆναι or withstanding, denotes the final result; the ability to withstand when the fight is on is to be sought with a view to holding one's position when the conflict is at an end, neither dislodged nor felled, but standing victorious at one's post.