planation is the common meaning of the word, and the undoubted fact that both among the Greeks and Jews it was the current opinion of that age that our atmosphere was the special abode of spirits. In favour of the lat- ter, it may be urged that the Scriptures nowhere else recognize or sanction the doctrine that the air is the dwelling place of spirits. That opinion, therefore, in the negative sense at least, is unscriptural, i. e. has no scriptural basis, unless in this place. And secondly, the word σκότος, darkness, is so often used just as ἀήρ is here employed, as to create a strong presumption that the latter was meant to convey the same meaning as the former. Thus, “the power of darkness,’ Luke 22, 53; “the rulers of darkness,” Eph. 6, 12; “the kingdom of darkness,” Col. 1, 13, are all scriptural ex- pressions, and are all used to designate the kingdom of Satan. Thirdly, this signification of the word is not without the authority of usage. The word properly, especially in the earlier writers, means the lower, ob- scure, misty atmosphere, as opposed to αἰθήρ, the pure air. Hence it means obscurity, darkness, whatever hides from sight.
There is a third interpretation of this phrase, which retains the common meaning of the word, but makes it express the nature and ποῦ the abode of the powers spoken of. ‘Of the earth’ may mean earthy; so ‘of the air’ may mean aerial. These demons do not belong to our earth, they have not a corporeal nature; they belong to a different and higher order of beings. They are aerial or spiritual. This passage is thus brought
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into accordance with what is said in Eph. 6,12. Evil spirits are there said to be ‘in heavenly places,’ i. e. in heaven. That is, they do not belong to this earth; they are heavenly in their nature, as spirits without the trammels of flesh and blood. Such at least is one inter- pretation of Eph. 6,12. By powers of the air, accord- ing to this view, we are to understand, unearthly, superhuman, incorporeal, spiritual beings over whom Satan reigns. This interpretation seems to have been the one generally adopted in the early church.
The spirit that now worketh in the children of dis- obedience, Tod πνεύματος τοῦ viv ἐνεργοῦντος, κτλ. This again is a difficult clause. Our version assumes that the word πνεύματος, spirit, is in apposition with the word ἄρχοντα, prince. ‘The prince of the power of the air, i. 6. the spirit, who now works in the children of disobedience.’ The objection to this is that πνεύ- ματος is in the genitive and ἄρχοντα in the accusative. This interpretation therefore cannot be adopted without assuming an unusual grammatical irregularity. Others prefer taking πνεύματος as in apposition to ἐξουσίας. The sense is then either: ‘Prince of the power of the air, i. e. prince of the spirit, i. e. spirits, who now work ;’ or, ‘Prince of the spirit, which controls the children of disobedience.’ The former of these exposi- tions gives a good sense. Satan is the prince of those spirits who are represented in Scripture as constantly engaged in leading men into sin. But it does violence to the text, as there is no other case where the singular πνεῦμα is thus used collectively for the plural. To the