Ephesians 1:21

New Testament

19 and what is the incomparable greatness of his power toward us who believe, as displayed in the exercise of his immense strength. 20 This power he exercised in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms 21 far above every rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And God put all things under Christ’s feet, and gave him to the church as head over all things.

2 Enoch 20:1

Secrets of Enoch
Pseudepigrapha

1 And those two men lifted me up from there on to the seventh heaven, and I saw there a very great light, and fiery troops of great archangels, incorporeal forces, and dominions, orders and governments, Cherubim and seraphim, thrones and many-eyed ones, nine regiments, the Ioanit stations of light, and I became afraid, and began to tremble with great terror, and those men took me, and led me after them, and said to me: 2 Have courage, Enoch, do not fear, and showed me the Lord from afar, sitting on His very high throne. For what is there on the tenth heaven, since the Lord dwells there? 3 On the tenth heaven is God, in the Hebrew tongue he is called Aravat.

 Notes and References

"... 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 Maccabees 3:24, Testament of Levi 3). Hendrik Berkhof is therefore also right when he concludes that in the intertestamental apocalyptic literature, archē is used for the “classes of angels located in the lower and higher heavens” ..."

Asumang, Annang Powers of Darkness: An Evaluation of Three Hermeneutical Approaches to the Evil Powers in Ephesians (pp. 1-19) Conspectus: The Journal of the South African Theological Seminary, Vol. 5, 2008

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