Ephesians 1:22–2:3

He says that the Father has subjected all creation to the Son, so that he may be the head and Lord of all on account of being the one through whom he made all things. He "made all things subject to him" when he generated him before all things, that through him all that had not been might come into being.

By his foreknowledge he is celebrating what is to come as though it were done already, as I explained above when he says "he has blessed us." … Either this interpretation, or a better one might be: If we are to take account of what has gone before, we should take this to mean that even those things whose will is not subject to him serve him because of their natural condition. So demons, Gentiles and Jews all serve him. Even if they do not freely serve Christ nor are they put under his feet, yet, because they have been created by him for good, they are unwillingly subject to his power, even if they strive against him with the volition of their free judgment.

Why "all things"? Why is it said that angels, thrones, dominions, powers and the other forces that were never opposed to God should be "put under his feet"? It seems obscure. But it could be said in reply that none is without sin. The "stars themselves are not clean in God's sight," and every creature dreads the advent of the Lord.… But another explanation refers the word all not to everything but only to those things that are in dispute. It is as if one says "all the citizens cried out," not meaning that there was no one in the city who was silent but that what is said of the majority covers the minority also.

In the same way as a hand has many members subject to it, of which some are diseased and weak, so too our Lord Jesus Christ, being the head of the church, has as his members the whole congregation of the church, the saints and also the sinners. But the saints are in voluntary subjection to him, while the sinners are under compulsion.

"And He put all things in subjection under His feet."

Not simply so set Him above them as to be honored above them, nor by way of comparison with them, but so that He should sit over them as His slaves. Amazing! Awful indeed are these things; every created power hath been made the slave of man by reason of God the Word dwelling in Him. For it is possible for a man to be above others, without having others in subjection, but only as preferred before them. But here it is not so. No, "He put all things in subjection under His feet." And not simply put them in subjection, but in the most abject subjection, that below which there can be none. Therefore he adds, "under His feet."

"And gave Him to be Head over all things to the Church."

Amazing again, whither hath He raised the Church? as though he were lifting it up by some engine, he hath raised it up to a vast height, and set it on yonder throne; for where the Head is, there is the body also. There is no interval to separate between the Head and the body; for were there a separation, then were it no longer a body, then were it no longer a head. "Over all things," he says. What is meant by "over all things?" He hath suffered neither Angel nor Archangel nor any other being to be above Him. But not only in this way hath He honored us, in exalting that which is of ourselves, but also in that He hath prepared the whole race in common to follow Him, to cling to Him, to accompany His train.

The church is called the body of Christ. We inquire whether as the body is distinguished from the head so we should think of [the church] here as an organ of its Head. Or should we rather think of the head as an aspect of the body of a person, so the whole church of Christ is Christ's body in that he ensouls it with his Godhead and fills it with his Spirit. Or perhaps it should be interpreted in another way. But even if the second is true, the more human part of it is by itself a subservient aspect of the whole body, while the divinity that gives life to the whole church is, as it were, the divine power that enlivens it.

Lest from the words "having seated above" you conclude that He received only the first honor, he indicates that He also made Him lord over all. And He did not simply subject, but gave in complete subjection: "under His feet." O wonder! He seated the Church on that very same throne as well; because where the head is (i.e. Christ), there is the body also (i.e. the Church itself). The words "above all" indicate that He gave a head that is mighty, which is above all, above angels, above archangels.

The Apostle has previously dealt with the exaltation of Christ both from the viewpoint of his passing over from death to life (1:20a), and from that of his exaltation to the highest glory (1:20b-21). Now he treats of the immense power of his exaltation. Concerning this he does two things: First, he discusses the power of Christ with respect to the whole of creation. Secondly, then his power in relation to the Church (1:22b-23).

He affirms that, with respect to the whole of creation, Christ has universal power since God the Father hath subjected all things under his feet. The phrase under his feet can be taken in two ways. In one it is a figurative and symbolic way of saying that every creature is totally subject to the power of Christ. What we trample under foot is certainly subjected to us. Regarding this power the last chapter of Matthew (28:18) states: "All power is given to me in heaven and in earth." "For in subjecting all things to him, he left nothing not subjected to him" (Heb. 2:8).

In another acceptation it is a metaphorical way of speaking. By the feet the lowest part of the body is understood, and by the head the highest. Although the humanity and divinity should not be thought of as parts of Christ, nonetheless the divinity is preeminent in Christ and may be understood as his head—"The head of Christ is God" (1 Cor. 11:3). The humanity is lower and may be taken as the feet—"Let us worship at his footstool" (Ps. 132:7). The meaning [of this passage] is then that the Father has not only subjected all of creation to Christ as he is God, to whom everything is subject from eternity, but also to his humanity.

Notice how something may be subjected to Christ in two ways, some are so voluntarily and others involuntarily. Origen overlooked this distinction so that this saying of the Apostle occasioned an error on his part. He claimed that everything subjected to Christ, who is true salvation, must share in salvation. He concluded that the demons and damned will be saved at some time since they are subjected under Christ's feet. But this is contrary to the Lord's pronouncement: "Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels"; and he concludes at the end of the chapter, "And these shall go into everlasting punishment" (Mt. 25:41, 46).

It must be held, therefore, that he subjects everything under his feet. Some do so willingly, as to their Saviour. For example, the just who fulfill God's will in the present life, and are subjected to him that they may satisfy their desire and will, awaiting for what Proverbs 10 (24) says of the good: "To the just their desire shall be given." Others, however, are subjected to him unwillingly, as to their judge, that Christ may accomplish his own will in their regard. These are the wicked to whom those words in Luke 19 (27) are applicable: "But as for those my enemies, who would not have me reign over them, bring them here and kill them before me."

Next (v. 22b), he deals with Christ's power with respect to the Church. In reference to this he makes three points: First, he sets down the relation of Christ to the Church. Secondly, the relation of the Church to Christ (1:23a). Thirdly, he explains this relationship (1:23b).

Concerning the first, he says God the Father made him head over all the church, both of the Church militant, composed of men living in the present, and of the Church triumphant, made up of the men and angels in the fatherland. On account of certain general reasons, Christ is even the head of the angels—"who is the head of all principality and power" (Col. 2:10)—whereas Christ is spiritually the head of mankind for special reasons. For the head has a threefold relationship with the other members. First, it has a preeminent position; secondly, its powers are diffused [throughout the body] since all the senses in the members are derived from it; thirdly, it is of the same nature [as the other members].

Thus, Christ is head of the Angels in regard to preeminence and the diffusion [of his power]. Even in his humanity Christ surpasses the angels: "Being made so much better than the angels as he hath inherited a more excellent name than they" (Heb. 1:4). Moreover, even as man, Christ enlightens and influences them; Dionysius proves this from the words of Isaiah 63 (1): "Who is this that comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bosra?," claiming that these words are those of the highest angels. The response which follows: "It is I, announcing justice mighty to save," he says are the words of Christ who immediately answers them. From this it should be understood that Christ not only illumines the lower but also the higher angels.

With respect to a conformity of nature, Christ is not the head of the angels, "for surely he did not take angels to himself, but he took the line of Abraham" (Heb. 2:16). [By this relationship] he is head of men only. "You have wounded my heart, my sister," through nature, "and my spouse," through grace (Cant. 4:9).

Christ is the fullness of the church. This entire fullness is in process of being filled up. At one stage everything which is being filled is made empty. So Christ was emptied or emptied himself. Having recovered all things again through the mystery of salvation and saved the full number of souls, Christ is filling all in all.

All these statements about the magnificence and power of Christ have this purpose: To prove that nothing further is to be received, no other thought required to complete the revelation. The Ephesians are therefore in error if they add anything further and introduce anything from the teaching of the Jews or of the world.

"Which is His body."

In order then that when you hear of the Head you may not conceive the notion of supremacy only, but also of consolidation, and that you may behold Him not as supreme Ruler only, but as Head of a body.

"The fulness of Him that filleth all in all" he says.

As though this were not sufficient to show the close connection and relationship, what does he add? "The fullness of Christ is the Church." And rightly, for the complement of the head is the body, and the complement of the body is the head. Mark what great arrangement Paul observes, how he spares not a single word, that he may represent the glory of God. "The, complement," he says, i.e., the head is, as it were, filled up by the body, because the body is composed and made up of all its several parts, and he introduces Him as having need of each single one and not only of all in common and together; for unless we be many, and one be the hand, and another the foot, and another some other member, the whole body is not filled up. It is by all then that His body is filled up. Then is the head filled up, then is the body rendered perfect, when we are all knit together and united. Perceivest thou then the "riches of the glory of His inheritance? the exceeding greatness of His power towards them that believe? he hope of your calling?"

Moral. Let us reverence our Head, let us reflect of what a Head we are the body,-a Head, to whom all things are put in subjection. According to this representation we ought to be better, yea, than the very angels, and greater than the Archangels, in that we have been honored above them all. God "took not hold of Angels," as he says in writing to the Hebrews, "but He took hold of the seed of Abraham." He took hold of neither principality nor power, nor dominion, nor any other authority, but He took up our nature, and made it to sit on His right hand. And why do I say, hath made it sit? He hath made it His garment, and not only so, but hath put all things in subjection under His feet. How many sorts of death supposest thou? How many souls? ten thousand? yea, and ten thousand times told, but nothing equal to it wilt thou mention. Two things He hath done, the greatest things. He hath both Himself descended to the lowest depth of humiliation, and hath raised up man to the height of exaltation. He saved him by His blood. He spoke of the former first, how that He so greatly humbled Himself. He speaks now of what is stronger than that-a great thing, the crown of all. Surely, even had we been counted worthy of nothing, it were enough. Or, had we been counted worthy even of this honor, it were enough, without the slaying of the Son. But where there are the two, what power of language must it not transcend and surpass? The very resurrection is not great, when I reflect on these things. It is of Him that he says, "The God of our Lord Jesus Christ," not of God the Word.

Let us feel awed at the closeness of our relation, let us dread lest any one should be cut off from this body, lest any one should fall from it, lest any one should appear unworthy of it. If any one were to place a diadem about our head, a crown of gold, should we not do every thing that we might seem worthy of the lifeless jewels? But now it is not a diadem that is about our head, but, what is far greater, Christ is made our very Head, and yet we pay no regard to it. Yet Angels reverence that Head, and Archangels, and all those powers above. And shall we, which are His body, be awed neither on the one account nor the other? And what then shall be our hope of salvation? Conceive to yourself the royal throne, conceive the excess of the honor. This, at least if we chose, might more avail to startle us, yea, even than hell itself. For, even though hell were not, that we having been honored with such an honor, should be found base and unworthy of it, what punishment, what vengeance must not this carry with it? Think near whom thy Head is seated, (this single consideration is amply sufficient for any purpose whatever,) on whose right hand He is placed, far above all principality, and power, and might. Yet is the body of this Head trampled on by the very devils. Nay, God forbid it should be thus; for were it thus, such a body could be His body no longer. Thy own head the more respectable of thy servants reverence, and dost thou subject thy body to be the sport of them that insult it? How sore punishment then shall thou not deserve? If a man should bind the feet of the emperor with bonds and fetters, will he not be liable to the extremity of punishment? Dost thou expose the whole body to fierce monsters, and not shudder?

However, since our discourse is concerning the Lord's body, come, and let us turn our thoughts to it, even that which was crucified, which was nailed, which is sacrificed. If thou art the body of Christ, bear the Cross, for He bore it: bear spitting, bear buffetings, bear nails. Such was that Body; that Body "did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth." His hands did every thing for the benefit of them that needed, His mouth uttered not a word of those things which are not convenient. He heard them say, "Thou hast a devil," and He answered nothing.

So, then, brethren, if we do the will of our Father God, we shall be members of the first church, the spiritual, — that which was created before sun and moon; but if we shall not do the will of the Lord, we shall come under the Scripture which says, "My house became a den of robbers." [Jeremiah 7:11] So, then, let us elect to belong to the church of life, that we may be saved. I think not that you are ignorant that the living church is the body of Christ (for the Scripture, says, "God created man male and female;" [Genesis 1:27; cf. Ephesians 5:22-23] the male is Christ, the female the church,) and that the Books and the Apostles teach that the church is not of the present, but from the beginning. For it was spiritual, as was also our Jesus, and was made manifest at the end of the days in order to save you. [1 Peter 1:20]

Accordingly, ourselves "who were sometime alienated and enemies in our mind by wicked works" does He reconcile to the Creator, against whom we had committed offence-worshipping the creature to the prejudice of the Creator. As, however, he says elsewhere, that the Church is the body of Christ, so here also (the apostle) declares that he "fills up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in his flesh for His body's sake, which is the Church.

Therefore, if he bids us "be made dead to the law through the body of Christ," (which is the Church, which consists in the spirit of newness,) not "through the letter of oldness," (that is, of the law,)-taking you away from the law, which does not keep a wife, when her husband is dead, from becoming (wife) to another husband-he reduces you to (subjection to) the contrary condition, that you are not to marry when you have lost your husband; and in as far as you would not be accounted an adulteress if you became (wife) to a second husband after the death of your (first) husband, if you were still bound to act in (subjection to) the law, in so far as a result of the diversity of (your) condition, he does prejudge you (guilty) of adultery if, after the death of your husband, you do marry another: inasmuch as you have now been made dead to the law, it cannot be lawful for you, now that you have withdrawn from that (law) in the eye of which it was lawful for you.

By the church he means the whole community of the faithful. This he calls the body of Christ and the fullness of the Father. This body he has filled with all gifts. He "lives in it and goes about in it," as the voice of prophecy says. But this will be more strictly so in the future life.… In the present life God is in all, since his nature is uncircumscribed; but he is not "all in all," since some are impious and some lawless. Yet he lives in those who fear him and who put hope in his mercy. In the next life at any rate, when mortality has ceased and immortality is conferred and sin has no place any longer, he will be all in all.

Lest you, having heard this, should think that by the name "head" some rule and authority is meant (for the word "head" has this meaning as well), he says that Christ is the head of the Church as a body, and is likewise akin to it and closely united with it. And the Church is His fullness. For just as the body is the fullness of the head, completing it with its members, so also the Church is the fullness of Christ, "who fills all in all." For Christ is completed and, as it were, perfected by all the members in the person of all believers: He is completed, as it were, by a hand in the person of a merciful man who helps the weak in various ways; He is completed, as it were, by a foot in the person of a man who undertakes a journey for the sake of preaching and who cares for his brethren, and He is completed by another member in another believer. And thus He is completed by all the members in the person of all believers, that is, through the agency of all believers, when one renders one service and another renders another. For then our head, Christ, becomes perfect, that is, receives a perfect body, when we are all together united and closely bound.

He speaks of the relation of the Church to Christ at which is his body, inasmuch as she is subject to him, receives his influence, and shares the same nature with Christ. "Just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body" (1 Cor. 12:12-13).

He explains which is his body by adding the fulness of him. To one asking why there are so many members in a natural body—hands, feet, mouth, and the like—it could be replied that they are to serve the soul's variety of activities. [The soul] itself is the cause and principle of these [members], and what they are, the soul is virtually. For the body is made for the soul, and not the other way around. From this perspective, the natural body is a certain fullness of the soul; unless the members exist with an integral body, the soul cannot exercise fully its activities.

This is similar in the relation of Christ and the Church. Since the Church was instituted on account of Christ, the Church is called the fullness of Christ. Everything which is virtually in Christ is, as it were, filled out in some way in the members of the Church. For all spiritual understanding, gifts, and whatever can be present in the Church—all of which Christ possesses superabundantly—flow from him into the members of the Church, and they are perfected in them. So he adds who is filled all in all since Christ makes this member of the Church wise with the perfect wisdom present in himself, and he makes another just with his perfect justice, and so on with the others.

Death is understood in two ways. The first is the familiar definition—when the soul is separated from the body at the end of life. The second is that, while abiding in that same body, the soul pursues the desires of the flesh and lives in sin.

[The Greeks] speak of trespass as the first step toward sin. It is when a secret thought steals in, and, though we offer a measure of collusion, it does not yet drive us on to ruin.… But sin is something else. It is when the collusion is actually completed and reaches its goal.

There is, we know, a corporal, and there is also a spiritual, dying. Of the first it is no crime to partake, nor is there any peril in it, inasmuch as there is no blame attached to it, for it is a matter of nature, not of deliberate choice. It had its origin in the transgression of the first-created man, and thenceforward in its issue it passed into a nature, and, at all events, will quickly be brought to a termination; whereas this spiritual dying, being a matter of deliberate choice, has criminality, and has no termination.

You observe the gentleness of Paul, and how on all occasions he encourages the hearer, not bearing too hard upon him. For whereas he had said, Ye have arrived at the very last degree of wickedness, (for such is the meaning of becoming dead,) that he may not excessively distress them, (because men are put to shame when their former misdeeds are brought forward, cancelled though they be, and no longer attended with danger,) he gives them, as it were, an accomplice, that it may not be supposed that the work is all their own, and that accomplice a powerful one. And who then is this? The Devil.

I suppose, forsooth, we find Him, when he speaks of such as "were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein they had walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, who worketh in the children of disobedience." But Marcion must not here interpret the world as meaning the God of the world.

Above he said that God manifested in us the same power and working as in Christ. Of Him it is said that He raised Him from the dead and seated Him above all. And then now he speaks also of us: "and you," he says, "who were dead" (not by bodily death, which began with Adam, but by the death of the soul, which comes from ourselves, the death of sin) He raised and lifted up. So then, by the same power He both raised the Lord from bodily death and us from the spiritual death of sin, and the transformation of the soul's disposition is far more important than the raising of the dead, as was said above. The thought of this passage is indeed such, but it is stretched out too much until the words "made alive together with Christ," since much has been inserted and there is repetition in the words "God, who is rich in mercy." So then, having said that they were dead and having shown in what way they were dead, namely through transgressions and sins, he comforts them in a twofold manner: by the words "in which you once walked," and not now; and by the addition that you sinned because of enslavement to the devil, and not everything depended on you, but also on your helper, who so powerfully ruled over you.

Above, the Apostle enumerated the blessings bestowed on the human race in general through Christ (1:3). Here the Apostle sets them in relief by comparing them to mankind's own former condition. Their past state can be considered in two ways: first as a state of sin, and secondly as a state of paganism. Therefore, the Apostle does two things: First, he recounts the blessings shown them in regard to their first state. Secondly, he recalls those related to their second state (2:11). The first part has two sections: First, the Apostle describes their state of sin. Secondly, the blessing of the grace of justification (2:4). Again, the first part has two divisions: First, he calls to mind the state of sin with reference to the pagans. Secondly, then with reference to the Jews (2:3). Once more the first has two parts: First, he sets down the generality of the blessing. Secondly, he adds its necessity (2:1).

God, he says, is wondrously active in the faithful, "in accord with the exercise of his mighty power, which he worked in Christ" (Eph 1:19), in raising him from the dead. Hence, according to this activity, and after the example of this operation, he has restored us to the life of grace from the death of sin. "He will revive us after two days: on the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight" (Hos 6:3). "If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God" (Col 3:1).

He demonstrates the need for such a blessing when he states "when you were dead in your offenses and sins" where he describes so well their sin. First of all, he depicts the multitude of their sins at "And you, when you were dead" with the worst type of death, spiritual death. "Evil will slay the wicked" (Ps 34:22). Sin is termed a death because by it man is separated from God who is life: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life" (Jn 14:6). Dead I say, in your offenses and sins—behold the great number! For offenses are the omissions of what they should have done—"Who can discover errors?" (Ps 19:13)—while sins are the evil they committed. "Wherein in time past you walked" is added to exaggerate the great number of sins. For if some are dead in offenses and sins at one time, they nonetheless cease at another time and leave off sinning; but these keep up their pace in going from bad to worse. Philippians 3:18 contains a similar idea: "For many, as I have often told you and now tell you with tears, conduct themselves as enemies of the cross of Christ." They "have gone after worthlessness and become worthless" (Jer 2:5).

He indicates that the prince of power, that is, the devil, has corrupted the understanding of the world to make it depart from the one God and conceive a belief in many gods. In this way the devil made them associates in his own conspiracy, seeing that they were found to exhibit the same impiety in their denial of the one God.

From this I see only two exits: either that there is a Great God, and also a 'God of this world', a prince of the powers of the air, whom the Great God does curse, and sometimes curses through us; or else that the operations of the Great God are not what they seem to me to be.

Enemy-occupied territory—that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage.

the divine Apostle, speaking of the Adversary, teaches what was his work from the beginning in these words: According to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience —words which clearly show him to have been formerly a prince endowed with the power of moving the air and changing its place, but one now cast out for ever from this dignity; yea, rather, one who from sheer depravity works upon sinners, as is evident from the fact that he stood not alone in having the power to do this, but shared it in common with many others. For some of the angels were commissioned to move the air, some the sun, some the moon, some the stars, while others prepared the clouds and the rains, and rendered many other services— for this is the work, the appointed duty, of the angelic orders and powers—to minister to the well-being and honour of the image of God, that is, of man, and to move all things like soldiers obeying the commands of the king. This work they were commanded to do on the fourth day, when God adorned the heaven with its stars. The work of the adverse demons, as rebels against God, is to do what will mar his image, for on the fourth day they transgressed the command and were cast out of heaven

While all this was happening feelings quite indescribable crowded about my own darkening brain, as the clouds crowded above the darkening church. They were so entirely of the elements and the passions that I cannot utter them in an idea, but only in an image. It seemed to me that we were barricaded in this church, but we could not tell what was happening outside the church. The monstrous and terrible jewels of the windows darkened or glistened under moving shadow or light, but the nature of that light and the shapes of those shadows we did not know and hardly dared to guess. The dream began, I think, with a dim fancy that enemies were already in the town, and that the enormous oaken doors were groaning under their hammers. Then I seemed to suppose that the town itself had been destroyed by fire, and effaced, as it may be thousands of years hence, and that if I opened the door I should come out on a wilderness as flat and sterile as the sea. Then the vision behind the veil of stone and slate grew wilder with earthquakes. I seemed to see chasms cloven to the foundations of all things, and letting up an infernal dawn. Huge things happily hidden from us had climbed out of the abyss, and were striding about taller than the clouds. And when the darkness crept from the sapphires of Mary to the sanguine garments of St. John I fancied that some hideous giant was walking round the church and looking in at each window in turn.

Sometimes, again, I thought of that church with coloured windows as a ship carrying many lanterns struggling in a high sea at night. Sometimes I thought of it as a great coloured lantern itself, hung on an iron chain out of heaven and tossed and swung to and fro by strong wings, the wings of the princes of the air. But I never thought of it or the young men inside it save as something precious and in peril, or of the things outside but as something barbaric and enormous.

Light and dark are two things, as are truth and falsehood, goodness and wickedness. But they are not to be imagined as equal, for it is not pious to compare anything to God, even by contraries. So we are to understand that there are two spirits, one of faith and one of disobedience. Satan and his devils have their substance from air, that is, from material reality. They derive their power in that same way, over those who think materially. The prince of that power which is in the air works through matter. He is therefore that spirit now at work through material means among the children of disobedience. He possesses their minds and has dominion over them. Therefore the one who lives "according to the course of this world lives according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit who is now at work in the children of disobedience."

If any one confesses the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and praises the creation, but calls the incarnation merely an appearance, and is ashamed of the passion, such an one has denied the faith, not less than the Jews who killed Christ. If any one confesses these things, and that God the Word did dwell in a human body, being within it as the Word, even as the soul also is in the body, because it was God that inhabited it, and not a human soul, but affirms that unlawful unions are a good thing, and places the highest happiness in pleasure, as does the man who is falsely called a Nicolaitan, this person can neither be a lover of God, nor a lover of Christ, but is a corrupter of his own flesh, and therefore void of the Holy Spirit, and a stranger to Christ. All such persons are but monuments and sepulchres of the dead, upon which are written only the names of dead men. Flee, therefore, the wicked devices and snares of the spirit which now worketh in the children of this world, lest at any time being overcome, ye grow weak in your love.

They are ashamed of the cross; they mock at the passion; they make a jest of the resurrection. They are the offspring of that spirit who is the author of all evil, who led Adam, by means of his wife, to transgress the commandment, who slew Abel by the hands of Cain, who fought against Job, who was the accuser of Joshua the son of Josedech, who sought to "sift the faith" of the apostles, who stirred up the multitude of the Jews against the Lord, who also now "worketh in the children of disobedience; from whom the Lord Jesus Christ will deliver us, who prayed that the faith of the apostles might not fail, not because He was not able of Himself to preserve it, but because He rejoiced in the pre-eminence of the Father. It is fitting, therefore, that ye should keep aloof from such persons, and neither in private nor in public to talk with them; but to give heed to the law, and the prophets, and to those who have preached to you the word of salvation. But flee from all abominable heresies, and those that cause schisms, as the beginning of evils.

And indeed, before the cross was erected, he (Satan) was eager that it should be so; and he "wrought" [for this end] "in the children of disobedience." He wrought in Judas, in the Pharisees, in the Sadducees, in the old, in the young, and in the priests. But when it was just about to be erected, he was troubled, and infused repentance into the traitor, and pointed him to a rope to hang himself with, and taught him [to die by] strangulation. He terrified also the silly woman, disturbing her by dreams; and he, who had tried every means to have the cross prepared, now endeavoured to put a stop to its erection; not that he was influenced by repentance on account of the greatness of his crime (for in that case he would not be utterly depraved), but because he perceived his own destruction [to be at hand]. For the cross of Christ was the beginning of his condemnation the beginning of his death, the beginning of his destruction. Wherefore, also, he works in some that they should deny the cross, be ashamed of the passion, call the death an appearance, mutilate and explain away the birth of the Virgin, and calumniate the [human] nature itself as being abominable. He fights along with the Jews to a denial of the cross, and with the Gentiles to the calumniating of Mary, who are heretical in holding that Christ possessed a mere phantasmal body. For the leader of all wickedness assumes manifold forms, beguiler of men as he is, inconsistent, and even contradicting himself, projecting one course and then following another. For he is wise to do evil, but as to what good may be he is totally ignorant. And indeed he is full of ignorance, on account of his voluntary want of reason: for how can he be deemed anything else who does not perceive reason when it lies at his very feet?

Just as if any one, being an apostate, and seizing in a hostile manner another man's territory, should harass the inhabitants of it, in order that he might claim for himself the glory of a king among those ignorant of his apostasy and robbery; so likewise also the devil, being one among those angels who are placed over the spirit of the air, as the Apostle Paul has declared in his Epistle to the Ephesians, becoming envious of man, was rendered an apostate from the divine law: for envy is a thing foreign to God. And as his apostasy was exposed by man, and man became the [means of] searching out his thoughts (et examinatio sententiae ejus, homo factus est), he has set himself to this with greater and greater determination, in opposition to man, envying his life, and wishing to involve him in his own apostate power. The Word of God, however, the Maker of all things, conquering him by means of human nature, and showing him to be an apostate, has, on the contrary, put him under the power of man. For He says, "Behold, I confer upon you the power of treading upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy," in order that, as he obtained dominion over man by apostasy, so again his apostasy might be deprived of power by means of man turning back again to God.

Why does he call the Devil "the prince" of the world? Because nearly the whole human race has surrendered itself to him and all are willingly and of deliberate choice his slaves. And to Christ, though He promises unnumbered blessings, not any one so much as gives any heed; whilst to the Devil, though promising nothing of the sort, but sending them on to hell, all yield themselves. His kingdom then is in this world, and he has, with few exceptions, more subjects and more obedient subjects than God, in consequence of our indolence.

"According to the power," saith he, "of the air, of the spirit." Here again he means, that Satan occupies the space under Heaven, and that the incorporeal powers are spirits of the air, under his operation. For that his kingdom is of this age, i. e., will cease with the present age, hear what he says at the end of the Epistle; "Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against powers, against the world rulers of this darkness;" where, lest when you hear of world-rulers you should therefore say that the Devil is uncreated, he elsewhere calls a perverse time, "an evil world," not of the creatures. For he seems to me, having had dominion beneath the sky, not to have fallen from his dominion, even after his transgression.

"That now worketh," he says, "in the sons of disobedience." You observe that it is not by force, nor by compulsion, but by persuasion, he wins us over; "disobedience" or "untractableness" is his word, as though one were to say, by guile and persuasion he draws all his votaries to himself.

Let us, therefore, fear the judgment which awaits teachers. For a severe judgment will those teachers receive "who teach, but do not," and those who take upon them the name of Christ falsely, and say: We teach the truth, and yet go wandering about idly, and exalt themselves, and make their boast "in the mind of the flesh." These, moreover, are like "the blind man who leads the blind man, and they both fall into the ditch." [Matthew 15:14] And they will receive judgment, because in their talkativeness and their frivolous teaching they teach natural wisdom and the "frivolous error of the plausible words of the wisdom of men," "according to the will of the prince of the dominion of the air, and of the spirit which works in those men who will not obey, according to the training of this world, and not according to the doctrine of Christ." But if thou hast received "the word of knowledge, or the word of instruction, or of prophecy," [1 Corinthians 12:8-10] blessed be God, "who helps every man without grudging — that God who gives to every man and does not upbraid him." [James 1:5]

"Once you followed the course of this world." World here is completely distinguishable from God. For the creature is unlike the Creator, the artifact unlike its Maker, the world unlike God. Similarly when Paul speaks of those who "follow the prince of the power of the air" he is referring not to the one God who holds sway over all the ages. For the one who presides over higher authorities is never classified by reference to one lower.

Long ago, before the Fall, a certain authority was primordially entrusted to the devil. But falling from this through wickedness he became a teacher of impiety and wickedness. Yet he does not have power over all but only over those who do not receive divine revelation. These Paul calls "sons of disobedience."

You sinned, thus, "according to the course of this world," that is, thinking about worldly and temporal things and making bad use of this age. For this age is not evil, but the misuse of it is. It was given as a guide, since, being corruptible and quickly passing, it can arouse us toward the incorruptible and unchanging; but we, having given ourselves over to its corruption and flux, made it not a guide but an opponent. By "prince" who "has dominion in the air," he means the devil, and not the Demiurge, as the impious Manichaeans think. He calls him "prince" because people have subjected themselves to him and serve him more than God. However, such power of his exists only in this age and does not extend beyond the air, because it has place not in heaven but under heaven. Therefore Paul also calls him the prince "who has dominion in the air," not in the sense that he rules over the air and controls it, but because he loves to dwell in it. For the devil, being a spirit, lives in the air as if in a spirit (πνεύματι), and to this day has authority and power in it, ruling over those who have subjected themselves to him. And some understand by "the prince who has dominion in the air" the prince of the aerial powers. Therefore, they say, he added "of the spirit," that is, the prince and ruler of every aerial spirit. For after he once became a prince, he apparently did not lose his authority even after his fall.

He did not say "compelling," but "working." From this it is clear that he rules over those who have voluntarily submitted to him. For if he ruled against our will, he would compel. And from what follows it is also evident: he "works," it says, "in the sons of disobedience," that is, in those who do not obey God, but obey him voluntarily.

Secondly, he describes the twofold cause of their sin. One arises from this world insofar as they are attracted by the things of the world. Concerning this he states "according to the course of this world"; you were allured by mundane matters into a worldly life. "If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him." Hence the command: "Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world" (1 Jn 2:15).

The other cause was the devils whom they served, of which Wisdom 14:27 warns: "The worship of infamous idols is the beginning and cause and end of all evil." In reference to this he says "according to the prince of the power of this air," and he portrays three aspects of this cause.

First, as regards their strength he says "the prince of the power." He exerts a power, not by the fact that he has it naturally, since he is neither the Lord nor creator by nature, but to the degree that he dominates over men who subject themselves to him by sinning. "Now shall the prince of this world be cast out" (Jn 12:31); "for the prince of this world is coming; he has no power over me" (Jn 14:30).

Secondly, concerning their dwelling place he says "of this air," that is, he has power in this darksome atmosphere. Here it should be noted that two opinions exist among the doctors. For some held that the demons who had fallen from grace were not from the higher ranks, but from the lower ones in charge of the lower bodies. It is evident that the whole of material creation is governed by God through the ministry of angels. Thus John Damascene was of the opinion that the first of those who had fallen had been in charge of the terrestrial order. He may have derived this from Plato's talk about certain celestial or world substances. In this perspective "of this air" is interpreted that they were created to preside over this atmosphere.

Others preferred, and with better reason, that those angels who sinned were from the highest ranks. "Of this air" then designates that this atmosphere is the place of their punishment. Jude refers to this in his canonical letter: "And the angels who did not keep their own position but left their proper dwelling he has kept in everlasting chains under darkness until the judgment of the great day" (Jude 6). The reason why they were not immediately thrust into hell after their fall, but released in the atmosphere, was because God did not want the creation of those who had sinned to be totally frustrated. Hence, he sent them to try men, by which the good would be prepared for glory and the wicked for eternal death. The time of our warfare and of merit will last until the day of judgment, till then they will remain in the atmosphere; after the day of judgment, however, they will be thrust back into hell.

Observe also how one reading has "of the spirit" which, as a genitive singular, stands for the plural "of the spirits." Another reading gives "spirit" in the accusative case; as if to say: "according to the prince spirit," that is, the prince who is a spirit.

Thirdly, he describes their activity when he states "that now works on the children of despair." They are the children of despair who reject the fruit of Christ's passion. Or, those who have no faith in eternal realities nor hope in salvation through Christ. In these the prince of the power of this air freely works, leading them wherever he wishes. Later it is said of them: "They have become callous and have given themselves up to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of uncleanness" (Eph 4:19). Perhaps, "of despair" means those of whom we should despair because they sin out of malice; the prince of this world doing whatever he pleases in them. For no one should despair of those who sin from ignorance or weakness, nor does that prince do whatever he wants with them.

On the contrary, however, one should never despair of anyone else as long as he lives. I reply. Our hope in someone can be twofold. On the one hand, it can be in the man, and on the other, in divine grace. Thus someone may be despaired of as far as he himself is concerned, but never must confidence in God be lost. For instance, people rightly despaired of Lazarus' power to bring himself back to life once he had been placed in the tomb, but no trust should have been lost in the God who raised him up. Therefore, those who out of malice are sunk in their many sins can be despaired of from the point of view of their own strength: "I have sunk into the abysmal mire, where there is no footing" (Ps 69:3). But no one should despair if it is a question of the divine power. Concerning these children of despair it mentions further on: "Let no man deceive you with empty words. For because of these things the anger of God comes upon the children of disobedience" (Eph 5:6).

He is speaking of a great deception when he brings to mind the "passions of the flesh." For the pleasure of the flesh means being delighted by the visible, so that it gives the name of gods to the elements that God appointed as his means of ordering the world. But this name [God] belongs rightly to the one and only God, from whom everything derives.… If anyone imagines that the "passions of the flesh" mean anything else, let him reflect on how the apostle led a pure life. He lived without blemish according to the righteousness of the law. But because he had persecuted the church he includes himself in the "we"—"we lived in the passions of our flesh." For every sin, according to Paul, has something to do with the deception associated with living according to the flesh, which is the mother of all corruption.

We speak of "nature" in two ways. When we are speaking strictly of nature itself, we mean the nature in which humanity was originally created—after God's own image and without fault. The other way we speak of nature refers to that fallen sin nature, in which we are self-deceived and subject to the flesh as the penalty for our condemnation. The apostle adopts this way of speaking when he says "for we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest."

What then is meant by this wickedness of the natural man and of those who … "by nature" are children of wrath? Could this possibly be the nature created in Adam? That created nature was debased in him. It has run and is running its course now through everyone by nature, so that nothing frees us from condemnation except the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

But both heights were cast down, yet in man more gently, since he who does all things in weight and measure so judged it. For with the angel punished—nay, damned—in fury, man felt only wrath and not fury. For when he was wrathful, he remembered mercy. On this account his seed are children of wrath, and not of fury, to this present day. If I were not born a child of wrath, there would be no need to be born again; if I were born a child of fury, it would either not have happened or not have profited to be born again.

Everyone begotten through intercourse is born by nature a child of wrath, because deprived of the rectitude of original justice; on account of whose absence we incur with respect to the soul a fourfold penalty, namely weakness, ignorance, malice, and concupiscence; which four are inflicted on account of original sin: which spiritual penalties are indeed accompanied in the body by manifold suffering, manifold deficiency, manifold toil, manifold disease, and manifold pain. To these penalties follows the penalty of death and reduction to ashes, the penalty of the lack of the vision of God and the loss of heavenly glory.

If God had from the beginning created man in such great miseries, there would be neither mercy nor justice, namely that he would oppress his own work with such great misery, with no preceding fault. Similarly, if he were to fill us with such great miseries, or permit us to be filled, without fault, divine providence would govern us neither mercifully nor justly. If therefore it is most certain that the first principle is most upright and most clement both in producing and in providing: it is necessary that he so made the human race that from the beginning there was in it neither fault nor misery; it is also necessary that he so governs that he does not permit misery to be in us except on account of some preceding fault. Since therefore it is most certain that from our origin we contract manifold misery of punishment, it is certain that we are all born by nature children of wrath, and thereby deprived of the rectitude of original justice, which privation we call original fault.

And because every fault denotes a withdrawal from the unchangeable good and an approach toward the changeable good: and to withdraw from the unchangeable good is to withdraw from the highest power, truth, and goodness: but to approach the changeable good is to tend toward it through love more than is due: hence it is that one who loses original justice incurs weakness, ignorance, malice, and concupiscence.

Again, because one who abandons the unchangeable good for the sake of a changeable good becomes unworthy of both: hence it is that by reason of the lack of original justice, the soul loses temporal rest in the body through manifold corruption and death, and at last is separated from the vision of eternal light, losing the felicity of glory both in soul and in body.

Finally, because the lack of this justice in those being born is not through a movement of their own will nor through actual delight: hence it is that to original sin there is not owed after this life a punishment of sense in hell, for the reason that divine justice, which is always accompanied by superabundant mercy, does not punish above what is deserved, but below it.

When [Scripture] speaks of "sons of men" or "sons of rams," it indicates an essential relation between the one begotten and the source of his begetting. But when it speaks of "sons of power" [as at 1 Sam 14:52] or "children of wrath," it asserts a connection made by choice.

So that he would not appear to have exempted himself through pride when he said "your sins in which you walked," he now adds "in which we also lived." However, the one who says he has lived confesses past, not present, transgressions.

There is a difference between sin of the flesh and sin of the mind. The sin of the flesh is indecency and profligacy and whatever might act as instrument to its lusts. The transgression of the mind pertains to doctrine contrary to truth and to the baseness of heretics.

"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." That is, having no spiritual affections. Yet, lest he should slander the flesh, or lest it should be supposed that the transgression was not great, observe how he guards the matter, "Doing," he says, "the desires of the flesh and of the mind." That is, the pleasurable passions. We provoked God to anger, he saith, we provoked Him to wrath, we were wrath, and nothing else. For as he who is a child of man is by nature man, so also were we children of wrath even as others; i. e., no one was free, but we all did things worthy of wrath.

Undoubtedly the will passes for nature—for it is from their will, not their nature, that people are judged. Similarly all the martyrs and the justified are upright not because they were born faithful but because they were reborn so.

As a Jew Paul had been one of the "children of unbelief" in whom "the devil was at work," especially when he persecuted the church and the Christ of the Creator. On this account he says, "We were by nature children of wrath." But he says "by nature" so that a heretic could not argue that it was the Lord who created evil. We create the grounds for the Creator's wrath ourselves.

" In perfect agreement with reason was that indignation which resulted from his desire to maintain discipline and order. When, however, he says, "We were formerly the children of wrath," he censures an irrational irascibility, such as proceeds not from that nature which is the production of God, but from that which the devil brought in, who is himself styled the lord or "master" of his own class, "Ye cannot serve two masters," and has the actual designation of "father: ""Ye are of your father the devil.

" And if so, the apostle too was in error when he said in his epistle, "Ye were at one time darkness, (but now are ye light in the Lord: )" and, "We also were by nature children of wrath; " and, "Such were some of you, but ye are washed.

But the apostle, too, had lived in Judaism; and when he parenthetically observed of the sins (of that period of his life), "in which also we all had our conversation in times past," he must not be understood to indicate that the Creator was the lord of sinful men, and the prince of this air; but as meaning that in his Judaism he had been one of the children of disobedience, having the devil as his instigator-when he persecuted the church and the Christ of the Creator.

But the apostle, too, had lived in Judaism; and when he parenthetically observed of the sins (of that period of his life), "in which also we all had our conversation in times past," he must not be understood to indicate that the Creator was the lord of sinful men, and the prince of this air; but as meaning that in his Judaism he had been one of the children of disobedience, having the devil as his instigator-when he persecuted the church and the Christ of the Creator. Therefore he says: "We also were the children of wrath," but "by nature." Let the heretic, however, not contend that, because the Creator called the Jews children, therefore the Creator is the lord of wrath.

For when (the apostle) says," We were by nature the children of wrath," inasmuch as the Jews were not the Creator's children by nature, but by the election of their fathers, he (must have) referred their being children of wrath to nature, and not to the Creator, adding this at lasts" even as others," who, of course, were not children of God.

Similarly, too, (when writing) to the Ephesians, while recalling past (deeds), he warns (them) concerning the future: "In which we too had our conversation, doing the concupiscences and pleasures of the flesh." Branding, in fine, such as had denied themselves-Christians, to wit-on the score of having "delivered themselves up to the working of every impunity," "But ye," he says, "not so have learnt Christ.

Not only does he reassure them by this, saying that our sinfulness came from the devil, but also by placing both himself and all others in the same position as them, since no one was without sin. By the lusts of the flesh he means those that arise from carnal-mindedness. That he is not reproaching the flesh here is clear. For having said "fulfilling the desires of the flesh," he adds "and of the mind," that is, thinking of nothing spiritual. Therefore it is not the flesh that is worthy of condemnation, but the mindset that draws one toward passionate pleasures. Or else in this way: we defile the mind by thinking evil, and the flesh by carrying it out. And you may consider the works of the flesh to be adultery and the like, and the work of the mind to be envy, holding grudges, and the like.

This is said instead of: we offend and anger God, and were nothing other in reality than wrath; just as a child of a human being is by nature a human, so also were we. And as sons of Gehenna and sons of perdition are called those who are worthy of such, so also "children of wrath" are called those who do things worthy of wrath. The word "by nature" is used instead of: truly and genuinely, "even as the rest," for no one was free from wrath.

Next, the Apostle recalls the sinful state of the Jews, thereby demonstrating how everyone had sinned, according to that saying of Romans 3:9: "For we have charged both Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin." Nevertheless, a difference should be noted. The Apostle had designated two causes when dealing with the sin of the Gentiles, one on the side of the world and the other on that of the demons whom they worshiped. The Jews were like the Gentiles in their sinful condition in regard to the first cause, but not the second; hence, the Apostle only mentions their sin as arising from worldly causes. In reference to this he makes three points: First, he recounts their guilt regarding sins of the heart. Secondly, the sins of action. Thirdly, original sin.

A sin of the heart is implied in carnal desires. About this he asserts: "in which" sins and offenses "also we all" who are Jews "conversed in time past," leading our life "in the" carnal "desires of our flesh." "For we ourselves also were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another" (Tit 3:3). "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ; and make no provision for the desires of the flesh" (Rom 13:14).

Sin in action is nothing else than a manifestation of inner concupiscence. A certain concupiscence of the flesh exists, it consists of the natural concupiscences; for example, for food through which the individual maintains his own life, and for sexual relations by which the species is preserved. Regarding these he says "fulfilling the will of the flesh," doing what the flesh delights in. "And they who are in the flesh cannot please God" (Rom 8:8). Another concupiscence exists, that of thought. These desires do not spring from the flesh but from the appetitive faculty of the soul, such as the ambition for honors, for one's own excellence and the like. Of these he states "and of our thoughts," that is, inordinate desires are followed once they are caused by the prompting of our reflections.

Original sin is hinted at in "and we were by nature children of wrath." This sin of the first parent was not only passed on to the Gentiles but to the Jews also: "Wherefore as by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned" (Rom 5:12). Baptism cleanses only the individual person who receives it from original sin; his children must also be baptized. Likewise, circumcision cleansed only the individual from original sin; the children they begot still had to be circumcised. Thus he says "we were by nature," that is, from the earliest beginning of nature—not of nature as nature since this is good and from God, but of nature as vitiated—"children of" an avenging "wrath," aimed at punishment and hell, "even as the rest," that is, the Gentiles.