A
Asyncritus
Guest
The Prince of the Power of the Air (Eph 2.2)
… wherein aforetime ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience;
However we understand those words, they MUST have made sense to the church at Ephesus, and is it not unreasonable to look at the account of the formation of the church there to see if there is any help available.
Revelation 2 doesn’t help, since it mentions none of these things in the passage above.
‘Air’ in scripture invariably refers to the atmosphere: as
Ac 11:6 Upon the which when I had fastened mine eyes, I considered, and saw fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.
Ac 22:23 And as they cried out, and cast off their clothes, and threw dust into the air
1Co 9:26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:
1Co 14:9 So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air.
So it seems as if it means ‘prince’ of nothing real or substantial.
Incidentally, idols are described as NO- things, not 'nothings' in Ps 96:5 For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.
Idols = no-things. The margin says 'things of nought'.
Paul reiterates the same in 1 Cor 8:4 ¶ Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.”
The Greatness of Diana
Ac 19.26 And ye see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they be no gods, which are made with hands:
27 … and that she should even be deposed from her magnificence, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth.
28, 34 Great is Diana of the Ephesians.
35 And when the townclerk had appeased the people, he said, Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter? (ie out of the air!)
That’s obviously the legend, and the reality may have been that some kind of meteorite fell to earth, and that event was converted into this story.
‘Air’ in the OT
In the OT, the word translated ‘air’ is also frequently translated ‘heaven’ as these 2 passages show:
Ge 1:14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven <08064> to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
Ge 2:20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air <08064>, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.
So if this image fell out of heaven, it really fell out of the air, and given that, it’s now easy to understand what Paul’s talking about.
He’s talking about the ruler of Ephesus, the one in charge of the statue and the temple of Artemis/Diana, the very ones who had him dragged to the courts; the very ones who governed the behaviour of the populace, of whom you, the Ephesian brethren were once a part.
1 ¶ And you did he quicken, when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins, [Clear enough, but see comment on v3 below].
2 wherein aforetime ye walked according to the course [age, aiwn] of this world,
according to the prince [behaving as the ruler, probably the high priest/ess of the Diana temple, decreed]
of the power of the air [see above],
of the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience; [those who are even now, disobeying the word of God, specifically in Ephesus: ‘Demetrius, and the craftsmen that are with him’ Acts 19.38]
The Message Bible, wild paraphrase that it often is, and translated by an orthodox Christian, seems to have got the idea best:
2 You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience.
AV again:
3 among whom we also all once lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest...
Perfectly illustrated by:
“Nothing, however, sets the true character of Artemis [Diana] as a goddess of fecundity, though not of wedlock, in a clearer light than her constant identification with the unmarried, but not chaste, Asiatic goddesses of love and fertility, who were worshipped with rites of notorious profligacy at their popular sanctuaries.”' http://www.the-goldenrule.name/Virgin_Artemis-Diana-Selge.htm
Summary
So Paul is saying that the Ephesian brethren once worshipped Diana, and had to obey whatever he/ she decreed through the high priest of the temple, who is 'the prince of the power [that came through/ from] of the air.
Those decrees were taht their 'services' were to be conducted with lasciviousness and other evils (such as those listed in that horrific chapter, Leviticus 18, as the works of the idolatrous Canaanites).
You were such once - but you have been changed. You are now worshippers of the true God, and the High Priest He has appointed.
… wherein aforetime ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience;
However we understand those words, they MUST have made sense to the church at Ephesus, and is it not unreasonable to look at the account of the formation of the church there to see if there is any help available.
Revelation 2 doesn’t help, since it mentions none of these things in the passage above.
‘Air’ in scripture invariably refers to the atmosphere: as
Ac 11:6 Upon the which when I had fastened mine eyes, I considered, and saw fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.
Ac 22:23 And as they cried out, and cast off their clothes, and threw dust into the air
1Co 9:26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:
1Co 14:9 So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air.
So it seems as if it means ‘prince’ of nothing real or substantial.
Incidentally, idols are described as NO- things, not 'nothings' in Ps 96:5 For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.
Idols = no-things. The margin says 'things of nought'.
Paul reiterates the same in 1 Cor 8:4 ¶ Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.”
The Greatness of Diana
Ac 19.26 And ye see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they be no gods, which are made with hands:
27 … and that she should even be deposed from her magnificence, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth.
28, 34 Great is Diana of the Ephesians.
35 And when the townclerk had appeased the people, he said, Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter? (ie out of the air!)
That’s obviously the legend, and the reality may have been that some kind of meteorite fell to earth, and that event was converted into this story.
‘Air’ in the OT
In the OT, the word translated ‘air’ is also frequently translated ‘heaven’ as these 2 passages show:
Ge 1:14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven <08064> to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
Ge 2:20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air <08064>, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.
So if this image fell out of heaven, it really fell out of the air, and given that, it’s now easy to understand what Paul’s talking about.
He’s talking about the ruler of Ephesus, the one in charge of the statue and the temple of Artemis/Diana, the very ones who had him dragged to the courts; the very ones who governed the behaviour of the populace, of whom you, the Ephesian brethren were once a part.
1 ¶ And you did he quicken, when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins, [Clear enough, but see comment on v3 below].
2 wherein aforetime ye walked according to the course [age, aiwn] of this world,
according to the prince [behaving as the ruler, probably the high priest/ess of the Diana temple, decreed]
of the power of the air [see above],
of the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience; [those who are even now, disobeying the word of God, specifically in Ephesus: ‘Demetrius, and the craftsmen that are with him’ Acts 19.38]
The Message Bible, wild paraphrase that it often is, and translated by an orthodox Christian, seems to have got the idea best:
2 You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience.
AV again:
3 among whom we also all once lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest...
Perfectly illustrated by:
“Nothing, however, sets the true character of Artemis [Diana] as a goddess of fecundity, though not of wedlock, in a clearer light than her constant identification with the unmarried, but not chaste, Asiatic goddesses of love and fertility, who were worshipped with rites of notorious profligacy at their popular sanctuaries.”' http://www.the-goldenrule.name/Virgin_Artemis-Diana-Selge.htm
Summary
So Paul is saying that the Ephesian brethren once worshipped Diana, and had to obey whatever he/ she decreed through the high priest of the temple, who is 'the prince of the power [that came through/ from] of the air.
Those decrees were taht their 'services' were to be conducted with lasciviousness and other evils (such as those listed in that horrific chapter, Leviticus 18, as the works of the idolatrous Canaanites).
You were such once - but you have been changed. You are now worshippers of the true God, and the High Priest He has appointed.
Last edited by a moderator:
