Behind the powers of the world, the religio-political institutions that dominated life in the ancient world, some of the Hebrew prophets (the apocalyptics) discerned the influence of invisible, heavenly powers. For example, Isaiah (24.21) prophecies that in the “day of the Lord” YHWY will punish
the powers in the heavens above
and the kings on the earth below.
The author of Daniel can speak of “the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth” (4.35) as well as the invisible, spiritual “prince of persia” (10.13) and “prince of greece” (10.20) whom he must fight against. He also speaks of Michael as the “great prince” of Israel (10.21), who protects God’s people (12.1).
Walter Wink argues that “the notion of angels appointed over each nation, devoted to that nation’s well-being and responsible for its fate, represents a kind of systems-view of international politics” and he decodes Daniel’s apocalyptic language so that it reads this way:
The power of the prince of Persia here reflects the actual power of the Persian Empire and Israel’s experience of the difficulty of praying in the face of such monolithic power (Naming the Powers, 28).
Wink believes this apocalyptic worldview – which, by the way, profoundly shaped Jesus’ imagination, and thereby the primitive church’s – discovered a basic truth about the human situation in the world: there are forces and powers inherent in the very structures of empire, of religion and economics, and by these structures, God’s enemies oppress God’s people and, to some degree, frustrate God’s purposes.
Wink does not believe these “angels” of the nations are evil in-and-of-themselves: ”they merely represent the interests of their own people” (ibid). Still, because they are for themselves and against Israel, they are often arrayed against God, and God against them.
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St Paul (as well as others of the apostles) takes up this apocalyptic language. For him, as for the apocalyptic prophets, invisible, spiritual forces are at work in the socio-economic, religio-political structures of empire. To cite but a few examples,
- It was the “rulers of this age” who crucified Jesus (1 Cor 2.8)
- All of those outside of Christ are subjected to “the elemental powers” (Gal 4.3)
- The Christians’ battle is not against “flesh and blood” but against “principalities and powers” (Eph 6.12)
When we read about the powers – whether they are named “principalities,” “elemental powers,” “rulers,” or whatever – we should hold together three discrete realities in mind.
First, we have to think about the leading religious and political figures and institutions of the state (in Paul’s case, this is either Israel or the Roman empire). When, for example, Paul writes of the “powers that be” (Rom 13.1-2) we have to think of these this-worldly realities.
Second, we have to think of other-worldly realities, that is, demonic forces, especially the Satan. St Paul names him “the prince of the power of the air (Eph 2.2) and the “god of this world” (2 Cor 4.4). Jesus, too, speaks of him as “the ruler of this world (Jn 12.31). St John confesses that “the whole world is under the control of the evil one” (1 Jn 5.19).
Third, we have to think of abstract, impersonal realities that are inherent in the structure of the world. This is the most difficult for us, so let me try to explain it further.
God, in creating the world, ordained for it structures to sustain it. By these structures the world is worlded, so to speak. These “orders” or “powers” arise as humans interact with one another in corporate or “official” ways; in other words, politically, economically, culturally, or religiously.
The Powers include states, classes, nationalisms, tribes, democratic systems and bureaucracies, religious institutions and symbol systems, ideologies, and moral codes and customs, and… economic organizations and markets as well. The Powers are part of God’s creative ordering of the cosmos in that they stand above and beyond individual humans as those ordering institutions and ideologies that are an inescapable part of human existence (Public Theology for the 21st Century, 221).
The powers are of God. God intends for humans to have institutions to structure and order their lives together. These orders are not evil in themselves, but because of the Fall, they are especially vulnerable to evil. They are bent away from their original purpose, and so tend to be used for unholy ends. That is what brings us to the story of Jesus’ encounter with the powers.
To be continued…
