"... Paul was at pains to emphasize the spiritual and wicked nature of these powers. In Ephesians 1:21, he states that the resurrected and enthroned Christ is seated above all archē kai exousia kai dunamis kai kuriotētos kai pantos onomatos (“rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given”, NIV). And this elevation to the highest place of honour applies “not only in the present age but also in the one to come”. The supreme exaltation of Christ is therefore complete in both time and space, both vertically and horizontally. Archē, which is translated by the NIV as “rule” and by the KJV as “principality”, means the beginner or first person, chief, the original or active cause of something in a place. It occurs only once in the Septuagint, in Jeremiah 13:18 where it is associated with the king, queen mother, greatness and glory. In this sense, archē is related to political rule and authority, which influences human events, actions and belief systems. The term is however used in the pseudepigraphic book of 2 Enoch 20-22 for angelic beings. 2 Enoch 20:1, for example, lists four of the terms used by Paul in Ephesians 1:21 among ten ranks of angels in the seventh heaven. Similarly, 1 Enoch 61:10 describes how “the Lord of Spirits” will “summon all the host of the heavens, and all the holy ones above, and the host of God, the Cherubic, Seraphim and Ophannim, and all the angels of power, and all the angels of principalities” (compare 2 Mac 3:24, Testament of Levi 3). Hendrik Berkhof is therefore also right when he concludes that in the inter-testamental apocalyptic literature, archē is used for the “classes of angels located in the lower and higher heavens” ..."