The last paragraph of the letter's argument. Ephesians has moved from what was decided before the world, through a wall coming down, a body growing, and a household — and it ends by telling people to get dressed.
What happens
"Draw your strength from the master and from his mighty power. Put on the armor of Theos so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the Devil. For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens… So stand fast with your loins girded in truth, clothed with righteousness as a breastplate, and your feet shod in readiness for the Gospel of peace. In all circumstances, hold faith as a shield… And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of Theos… and also for me, that speech may be given me to open my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the Gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains."
What to notice
Panoplian tou theou — the full armour, the complete kit of a heavy infantryman — and it is the same word Luke used on October 9 for the panoplia the strong man trusted in, which the stronger one took off him. What was stripped from the strong man is issued to the reader. The enemy list is four ranks, and the third is the striking one: tous kosmokratoras tou skotous toutou, "the world-rulers of this darkness."Kosmokratōr was a live title in the first century: it appears in the magical papyri for planetary and astral powers, and in inscriptions for emperors.It is not a vague word for evil; it is the word for whoever is actually running things.Ouk estin hēmin hē palē pros haima kai sarka, "our wrestling is not against blood and flesh" — palēbeingwrestling, a close-quarters word oddly paired with infantry armour, and the sentence is a disclaimer worth taking literally: whatever is being fought, it is not other people.Now count the verbs, because they are the whole argument. To be able to stand; to withstand; having done everything, to stand; stand, therefore.Four times, and there is no verb of advance anywhere in the passage.The armour is not for taking ground. It is for not losing any.And almost every piece is borrowed from Isaiah, where it belongs to Yahweh.Isaiah 59:17:he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation.Isaiah 11:5:righteousness shall be the belt of his loins.Isaiah 52:7:how beautiful the feet of the one bringing good news of peace.Isaiah 49:2:he made my mouth like a sharp sword.The kit being handed out is Theos's own — and one piece of it is a pair of shoes made of good news.Only one item is offensive, and it is defined immediately: tēn machairan tou pneumatos, ho estin rhēma theou — not graphē, scripture, but rhēma, the spoken utterance.The only weapon in the inventory is something said out loud. And the last request is the most human thing in the letter: Paul does not ask to be released.He asks for words. And he names his position with an oxymoron he clearly enjoyed: presbeuō en halysei, "an ambassador in a chain" — an ambassador was inviolable under the law of nations; chaining one was an act of war.
Ha-melammed yadai la-qrav, etzbe'otai la-milchamah — "who teaches my hands for the fight, my fingers for war."This is the fifth time this month a finger has done decisive work — the finger of Theos casting out demons (October 9), the lawyers who would not lift one (October 14), the fingers that made the moon (October 17), Isaac Jogues's mutilated hand (October 19), and now fingers trained for war.The Hebrew Bible thinks at the scale of digits. And Psalm 144:2 opens with a title nobody else gives Theos: chasdi u-m'tzudati, "my hesed and my fortress."Not my merciful one but the abstract noun itself, used as a name.The psalmist calls Theos my covenant-love, in a list of fortifications. The rest is the same pile-up as Psalm 18 on Sunday — and Psalm 144 is widely thought to be a later composition assembled out of Psalm 18 and others.Somebody rebuilt an old song for a new fight. And then, in the middle of the weaponry: shir chadash ashirah lakh, "a new song I will sing to you."The ten-stringed lyre appears in a psalm about trained fingers. The same fingers.
Still on the road to Jerusalem. A warning arrives from an unexpected quarter, and the answer contains the most tender image in the gospels and one of the coldest insults.
What happens
"Some Pharisees came to Jesus and said, 'Go away, leave this area because Herod wants to kill you.' He replied, 'Go and tell that fox, "Behold, I cast out demons and I perform healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day I accomplish my purpose. Yet I must continue on my way today, tomorrow, and the following day, for it is impossible that a prophet should die outside of Jerusalem." Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how many times I yearned to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were unwilling! Behold, your house will be abandoned. But I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the master."'"
What to notice
The Pharisees are helping him."Get out and go from here, because Herod wants to kill you."Whatever their motive, the information is accurate and the warning is timely — worth registering against the caricature: Luke's Pharisees invite him to dinner three times and warn him of a plot once.Eipate tē alōpeki tautē, "tell that fox."In Greek and rabbinic usage the fox is not primarily sly; it is small.The standard contrast is fox against lion, and there is a well-known rabbinic saying: be a tail to lions rather than a head to foxes.To call Herod Antipas a fox is not to call him dangerous but to call him a minor animal with a reputation for cunning — a nuisance, not a threat.Sēmeron kai aurion… kai tē tritē teleioumai, "today and tomorrow, and on the third day I amfinished" — teleioōbeingto bring to completion, and the three-day shape unmistakable. He answers a death threat with a timetable.Ouk endechetai prophētēn apolesthai exō Ierousalēm, "it is not admissible for a prophet to perish outside Jerusalem" — bitter, and not a rule; plenty of prophets died elsewhere. It is said the way one states a professional custom. Then the doubled vocative — the formula from Martha, Martha on October 6 and Simon, Simon at the last supper. And then the image, the softest in the New Testament, out of the hardest sentence in the paragraph: hon tropon ornis tēn heautēs nossian hypo tas pterygas, "as a bird gathers her own brood under her wings."The wing-shelter image is common in the Hebrew Bible — Psalm 17:8, Psalm 91:4, Ruth 2:12, and Deuteronomy 32:11, where Yahweh is an eagle.Luke's bird is not an eagle.Ornis is a domestic fowl, a hen — the least impressive bird available, and the only one whose method of protection is to stand still and spread out and let the chicks come. And the verbs are matched and devastating: posakis ēthelēsa, "how often I wanted" — and kai ouk ēthelēsate, "and you did not want."Aphietai hymin ho oikos hymōn — aphiēmi, the verb the gardener used of the fig tree five days ago.Here it is a desertion.
How They Fit Together
Two ways to face something that intends to kill you
I must go on my way — and a hen with her wings out
Two pictures of how to face something that intends to kill you, and neither is what a war manual would recommend.
Ephesians ends by issuing armour, and the astonishing thing about the inventory is what is missing from it.There is no verb of attack anywhere in the passage.Stand… withstand… having done everything, stand… stand therefore.Four times.The entire military metaphor is built to produce a soldier who does not move.
And the kit is borrowed.Nearly every piece is lifted from Isaiah, where it is what Yahweh wears — the breastplate and helmet from Isaiah 59:17, the belt from Isaiah 11:5, the sword-mouth from Isaiah 49:2. The armour is handed down rather than issued from a store, which is why the passage opens with be strong in the master and in the might of his strength rather than with an instruction to train.
And one item is not military at all.Hypodēsamenoi tous podas en hetoimasia tou euangeliou tēs eirēnēs — shoes made out of readiness for the good news of peace, from Isaiah 52:7, where the feet on the mountain belong to a messenger. A soldier standing in a line, wearing the boots of a man who runs to deliver good news.
And the one weapon is a spoken word — rhēma, not graphē — and the closing request is for more of them.Paul, in a chain, asks his readers to pray not that the chain come off but that he be given something to say.
Then the psalm, which trains hands and fingers for war and then puts a ten-stringed lyre in the same fingers. And it calls Theoschasdi, "my hesed" — the abstract noun as a personal name, sitting in a list of fortresses and shields. The hardest vocabulary and the softest, in one breath.
Which is the Gospel exactly.
Herod is dismissed in a word.That fox — and the insult is not that he is cunning but that he is small.A fox is what you call something that is not a lion.A tetrarch who has already beheaded one prophet is told, in effect, that he is a minor predator with an inflated sense of his own importance, and the reply to his death threat is a schedule: today, tomorrow, and on the third day I am finished.Not defiance. An itinerary.
And then the register changes completely, and Luke lets the two sit next to each other without a transition. Jerusalem, Jerusalem — the doubled name — you who kill the prophets and stone the ones sent to you.And then the hen.
Every wing-image in the Hebrew Bible is an eagle or an unspecified bird of shelter.Deuteronomy 32:11 has Yahweh as an eagle stirring the nest and bearing the young on its pinions.Luke's word is ornis, a barnyard fowl — and what a hen does when danger comes is not fly, not fight, not carry anyone off.She stands still, spreads her wings, and makes herself the roof.It is the most defenceless posture an animal has, and it is the only one that shelters anything.
Which is the same posture Ephesians spends ten verses describing.Stand.Having done everything, stand.The armour and the wings are doing the same job.
And the closing exchange of verbs is where the whole thing lands. How often I wanted… and you did not want.Same verb, opposite subjects, and only one of them decides the outcome.The hen cannot make the chicks come.That is the limit built into the image, and Luke chose an image with that limit in it.
A Question to Sit With
The armour has no verb of advance in it — stand, withstand, having done everything, stand — and the tenderest image in the gospels is a farmyard bird making her own body the roof, who cannot make anything run to her. Both are pictures of doing everything you can and still not controlling the outcome. I would rather be told to charge. If what is actually being asked of me is to hold a position and stay spread out over people who may not come, what would I have to stop calling failure?