Satan is described as the ruler of the air in Ephesians 2:2. This raises so many questions. What does Satan rule? Why the air? What is going on in this passage? Now, I’m going to get your interpretation of this because I want people to know that you’re arguably one of the leading foremost scholars on the book of Ephesians and Colossians and have written extensively on it. But maybe tell us what are a couple different ways people will make sense of this passage. >> You know, over the years, especially here in the West, the the impact of naturalism has found its way into biblical studies. And I’ve seen a number of interpreters and commentators, Bible scholars that come from things come from a little different perspective and they say, “Well, air this is a reference to culture. This is a reference to social society uh ideologies and this sort of thing. Uh so nothing spiritual in the sense that we might think of it. >> Uh there’s another interpretation however that takes this a bit more seriously in in its first century context that we’re talking about an actual uh ontologically existing spiritual being. >> Wow. >> That we call Satan. And he is described here as the ruler of the air. And of course the question then becomes what is that air? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Super interesting. So some of the really the dividing line is over kind of a naturalistic interpretation. Do we explain away air as just being physical, Satan being symbolic or is this some spiritual realm? Satan is a real being. That seems to be the primary divide. Saul tell us where you land on this one and why. Well, if we take this back into the first century, uh they had to have some kind of way to describe the place where Satan and his demonic realm existed. It’s invisible. They’re spirits. And so, we can’t see it. >> Well, we can’t see air. And so, they use air as a way of describing the supernatural realm. And so in some ways I think we could insert here he’s the ruler of the invisible realm, the ruler of the supernatural realm. >> Okay. So before you go further, you and I could press and say, well air has molecules and it’s physical in its space. We’re thinking physically where they thought metaphysically about air is invisible but real. The spiritual realm is invisible but real and that’s what air represents. Okay, keep going. >> Exactly. So we can go back into Jewish texts, we can go back into ancient Greek texts, we can look at magical texts and air is a common metaphor for the supernatural realm. That’s where the demonic is and so on. >> Here the passage says that Satan is the ruler of the air. Uh he he rules it in some way. And this uh is not a at all a surprising statement. not unusual in terms of the biblical context. Uh Satan uh is described u as a spirit and numa the Greek word that stands behind uh spirit uh can also be translated wind and so there’s an association with air in that way. >> That’s interesting. >> Whether it’s the Holy Spirit or an evil spirit, it’s invisible and it is like air. So John 3:8 can say the wind blows where it wills and you hear it sound but don’t know where it goes. So it is with anyone who’s born of the spirit. Uh so we have this same kind of thing that’s taking place uh here. But Satan is called the ruler of this world, the ruler of the air. And what that means I think is just quite simply he is the authority. He is the superpower of this invisible domain. >> And so that invisible domain, you’re not just going to include demonic realm. You’re saying larger realm than like. What exactly do you mean by that realm? >> Oh, good. >> And obviously God is authoritative above him. So is God allowing him to have this reign for just a season of time? >> Right. Certainly, Satan doesn’t have authority over what we would call the good angels. And Hebrews tells us that angels are ministering spirits sent out to render service for the sake of those who are elect. >> Uh Satan, we know based on other biblical testimony, doesn’t have power and authority over God’s realm in that sense. Uh but he does have at his command an army, a host of other spirits that seem to be at his command, there seems to be rank structure and hierarchical structure in his domain and he’s kind of the coordinator of it all. >> So when Jesus is being tempted by Satan and he takes him up to a high place, shows him the realms and says, “I will give this to you.” Is he either a just completely lying and had no authority or do you think that overlaps with this idea of him being the ruler of the air? >> I think it overlaps with him being the ruler of the air. Uh Satan in John’s gospel Jesus refers to him three times as the ruler of this world. So there is some delegated authority, some authority that uh has been granted to Satan uh at some time in the past and he is the ruler of this world. So that was not an empty uh offer that Satan that Satan gives. >> Okay. So what does this mean for us? If he is the ruler of the air, has these dominion of demonic beings under his authority, has some access to us presumably in the world we live in. What does that mean? How should we respond today in light of that? >> It’s interesting. This passage falls right in the middle of Ephesians 2 1:3. And it’s always a good thing to read any Bible verse in context. >> Amen. Thank you. Keep going. And as we read Ephesians 2:1-3, it says, “You were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you used to walk when you walked according to,” and then it mentions three things basically, the world, the flesh, and the devil. >> Okay? >> Uh the devil being the ruler, the spirit, the ruler of the air. And so I think that passage is excellent in that it provides this fullorbed balanced understanding of the nature of evil influence as we experience it. So uh we have an evil thought that comes to us. We don’t have to blame Satan on an evil, angry, lustful, whatever the thought might be. It may come from within the flesh. It could come from the world in the sense of the pressures and the culture, societal trends of the world. But Satan is that wild card in the middle that exploits the flesh. He exploits the world. He inspires things in the world to lead people astray from a knowledge of God through his word and through the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, it’s a three-fold uh battle that we face. And we’ve got to be careful of stressing one or the other. So some people totally >> overstressing one >> overstressing one over the other. >> So some people totally get into the demonic and see it behind everything. >> Uh some people disdain the demonic and don’t think of it that much. It’s just all the flesh, me, it’s the world around me. Somehow Paul puts it all together and thinks of it in a three-fold way where all of these are interacting. It’s hard to separate them from each other and this is what we struggle with. It kept us in bondage before we became Christians and now it’s what we struggle with as Christians and we stand up against it. >> Dr. Clint Arnold so helpful. I want people to pick up your books on Ephesians, on Colossians, and think about studying with you and going in depth on this stuff here at Talbat. Thanks for your insights. Thanks,