ColossiansOne

Christian · Koine Greek · c. 50–110 CE

New Testament, c. 50–110 CE — title page or representative image
Public domain

New Testament

Various

Supplies the vocabulary Pseudo-Dionysius later systematises — thrones, dominions, principalities, powers — and Revelation's war in heaven.

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What this text attests · 24

Name hereRank given#Powers described
A spirit of infirmity

= The Spirit of Infirmity

AfflictionHolds a woman bent double for eighteen years. Jesus looses her on the sabbath and describes her as one whom Satan had bound.
Angel of the bottomless pitKing over the locusts loosed at the fifth trumpet, who torment for five months.
Goddess of the EphesiansThe riot at Ephesus is raised by silversmiths whose trade in shrines is threatened; the crowd shouts her name for two hours.
Prince of the devilsNamed by the Pharisees as the authority by which exorcisms are performed.
Historical depiction of Belial
Beliar

= Belial

Personified adversaryBy 2 Corinthians the abstraction has become a person: 'what concord hath Christ with Belial?'
Core

= The Korah Spirit

Used as a typeJude speaks of those who perished in the gainsaying of Core, applying the name to a contemporary group.
Created power
Angel who stands in the presence of GodAnnounces the birth of John to Zechariah and of Jesus to Mary.
The fireUsed as the image of final destruction — fire, the undying worm, a body thrown away rather than a soul imprisoned. Always a fate that may be avoided, never a common destination.
A name used as a typeRevelation rebukes the church at Thyatira for tolerating a teacher it calls Jezebel. The queen had been dead some eight centuries; the name is being used as a label for a contemporary, which is the point at which it stops being a person.
Jezebel

= The Jezebel Spirit

A name used as a labelRevelation rebukes the church at Thyatira for tolerating a teacher it calls Jezebel. A living contemporary is given a dead queen's name; the text describes a person, not a spirit.
Unclean spiritPossesses the Gerasene man among the tombs; he cannot be bound, and cuts himself with stones. Asked its name, it answers Legion, because they are many. It begs not to be sent out of the country and enters a herd of swine, which drown.
ArchangelLeads his angels in war against the dragon; disputes with the devil over the body of Moses.
Created powerNamed both as created good and, in Ephesians, as ranks the faithful wrestle against.
Prince of this worldTempts in the wilderness, is cast down as lightning, and is bound in Revelation.
The prince of the power of the air

= The Prince of the Power of the Air

Ruler of the aerial realmNamed as the power according to which the readers formerly walked, working in the children of disobedience.
The seven spirits

= The Seven Who Stand

Before the throneRevelation opens with grace from the seven spirits before God's throne, without naming them.
The spirit of antichrist

= The Spirit of Antichrist

A spirit failing a doctrinal testIdentified by refusal to confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh; described as already in the world at the time of writing.
The spirit of fear

= The Spirits of Affliction

Disposition or entity — the disputed pointGod hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
Created powerListed among the invisible powers created through Christ.
Unclean spiritThe Greek keeps Hesiod's word while reversing its sense; English versions render it 'devils', so the continuity is invisible in translation.
Historical depiction of Mammon
mammon

= Mammon

Not an entity — a word for wealthUsed as the rival master to God in a saying about divided service.
An oracular spiritPossesses a slave girl at Philippi who brings her owners much gain by soothsaying, and follows Paul proclaiming him a servant of the Most High God until he casts it out. The Greek names it a python spirit; every major English version translates rather than transliterates, so the name disappears.
tartaroo

= Tartarus

A verb, used onceIn 2 Peter, what God did to the angels that sinned: consigned them to chains of darkness until judgment. Used of rebel powers, never of human dead.

What does it actually say?

The passages themselves, as this text gives them. Read them against what the other texts here say about the same figures — that comparison is the point.

There was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together.
Historical depiction of AbaddonAbaddon / ApollyonAngel of the bottomless pit
They had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit.
JezebelA name used as a type
Thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess.
JezebelA name used as a label
Thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess.
LegionUnclean spirit
My name is Legion: for we are many.
The prince of the power of the airRuler of the aerial realm
According to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.
The spirit of antichristA spirit failing a doctrinal test
Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God.
The spirit of fearDisposition or entity — the disputed point
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
Historical depiction of MammonmammonNot an entity — a word for wealth
Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
A certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us.
All sources