In high places (év rois éwoupavious). Rev., more literally, in the heavenly places. Used in the general sense of the sky or aur. See on ch. ii. 2.
13. Wherefore. Because the fight is with such powers.
Take unto you (dvaddBere). Lit., take wp, ag one takes up armor to put it on. So Rey.
The whole armor. An interesting parallel passage, evi- dently founded upon this, occurs in Ignatius’ Epistle to Poly- carp, vi. “ Please the captain under whom ye serve, from whom also ye shall receive your wages. Let no one of you be found a deserter. Let your baptism abide as your shield; your faith as your helmets; your love as your spear; your patience as your whole armor. Let your good works be your savings (ra derrdovta deposita),* that you may receive what is justly to your credit.” Gibbon relates how the relaxation of discipline and the disuse of exercise rendered the soldiers less willing and less able to support the fatigues of the service. They complained of the weight of their armor, and successively obtained permis sion to lay aside their cuirasses and helmets (ch. xxvii.).
Withstand. With has the sense of against, as appears in the older English withsay, to contradict ; Anglo-Saxon, widstandan, to resist. Compare German, wider and Widerstand, resistance.
Having done all. Everything which the crisis demands.
14. Having your loins girt about (aepifwoduevor rip oaguv). The verb is middle, not passive. Rev., correctly, hawing girded. Compare Isa. xi. 5. The principal terms in this description of the christian armor are taken from the Septuagint of Isaiah.
* When a bounty was given to soldiers, only one-half was paid at a time, the rest being placed in a savings-bank and managed by a special officer. This, with prize-money, etc., voluntarily deposited, was paid over to the soldier at his discharge. Deserters or discharged soldiers forfeited their ao- cumulations.
408 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Cu. VL
Truth (adr7n9eta). The state of the heart answering to God’s truth ; inward, practical acknowledgment of the truth as it is in Him: the agreement of our convictions with God’s revelation.
The loins encircled by the girdle form the central point of the physical system. Hence, in Scripture, the loins are de- scribed as the seat of power. ‘“'To smite through the loins” is to strike a fatal blow. ‘“‘'To lay affliction upon the loins” is to afflict heavily. Here was the point of junction for the main pieces of the body-armor, so that the girdle formed the common bond of the whole. Truth gives unity to the different virtues, and determinateness and consistency to character. All the vir- tues are exercised within the sphere of truth.
Breastplate of righteousness (Jépaxa tis Sixavocvvys). Compare Isa. lix. 17. J?¢ghteousness is used here in the sense of moral rectitude. In 1 Thess. v. 8, the breastplate is described as of faeth and love. Homer speaks of light-armed warriors armed with linen corselets; and these were worn to much later times by Asiatic soldiers, and were occasionally adopted by the Romans. Thus Suetonius says of Galba, that on the day on which he was slain by Otho’s soldiers, he put on a linen corselet, though aware that it would avail little against the enemy’s daggers (“ Galba,” xix.). Horn was used for this purpose by some of the barbarous nations. It was cut into small pieces, which were fastened like scales upon linen shirts. Later, the corselet of metal scales fastened upon leather or linen, or of flexible bands of steel folding over each other, was introduced. They appear on Koman monuments of the times of the emperors. The Jtoman spearmen wore cuirasses of chain-mail. Virgil mentions those in which the linked rings were of gold (“Aeneid,” i. 467). The stiff cuirass called ordduos standing upright, be- cause, when placed upon its lower edge it stood erect, consisted of two parts: the breastplate, made of hard leather, bronze, or iron, and a corresponding plate covering the back. They were connected by leathern straps or metal bands passing over the shoulders and fastened in front, and by hinges on the right side.