Section 65
113I. Henderson, Myth in the New Testament (London, 1952), pp. 31-32, points out that the doctrine of creation cannot be “demythologized” into existential terms; any attempt to do so simply removes it altogether. The consequence would be that Christianity would have nothing to say about God’s relation to the material world, “which includes, it must be remembered, God’s relation to man in so far as the latter, having a body, is himself in some sense part of the material world.”
114W. Michaelis takes the ὁϱατά to comprise the whole of the earthly sphere, with the stars and other heavenly phenomena, while the ἀόϱατα are exclusively the “powers” (TDNT 5, p. 369, s.v. ὁϱάω, etc.).
115A further argument, presented in Col. 2:15, is that these powers were vanquished by that same Savior. “Paul emphasizes again and again that Christ has brought the All, i.e. these very cosmic powers, under his power and has rendered them harmless” (M. Dibelius, “The Isis Initiation in Apuleius and Related Initiatory Rites” (1917), E.T. in Conflict at Colossae, ed. F. O. Francis and W. A. Meeks [Missoula, MT, 1975], p. 82).
116Gk. θϱóνoɩ, ἀϱϰαί, ἐξονοίαɩ, δυνάμεɩς, ϰυϱɩóτητες . Cf. Milton, Paradise Lost 5.601: “Thrones, dominations, princedoms, virtues, powers.” The four orders listed here are θϱóνοɩ, ϰνϱɩóτητες, ἀϱϰαί and ἐξουοίαɩ. The “thrones” may bear some relation to the twenty-four enthroned elders of Rev. 4:4. See further G. B. Caird, Principalities and Powers (London, 1956); H. Schlier, Principalities and Powers in the New Testament, E.T. (Freiburg/London, 1961); W. Carr, Angels and Principalities (Cambridge, 1981), especially pp. 47-85.