Ephesians 6:14

στῆτε οὑν περιζωσάμενοι τὴν ὀσφὺν ὑμῶν ἐν ἀληθείᾳ : stand, therefore, having girded your loins with truth. In some few authorities στῆτε οὐν is omitted (Victor., Ambrstr.); in others the οὖν is omitted and στῆτε is retained ([824] * [825] [826], Cyp., etc.). ὀσφυς is accentuated ὀσφῦς by TR and Treg.; but ὀσφύς by LTWH. The aor. στῆτε may perhaps be best rendered, “take your stand,” the definite act being in view. The spiritual warrior who has kept his position victorious and stood above his conquered foe in one “evil day,” is to take his stand again ready to face another such critical day, should it come. The following sentences explain what has to be done if he is thus to stand. The aorists can scarcely be the contemporary aorists or definitions of the way in which they were to stand; for it would not be the mark of the good soldier that he left his equipment to be attended to till the very time when he had to take up his position. They are proper pasts, stating what has to be done before one takes up his stand. First in the list of these articles of equipment is mentioned the girdle. Appropriately so; for the soldier might be furnished with every other part of his equipment, and yet, wanting the girdle, would be neither fully accoutred nor securely armed. His belt or baldric (ζωστήρ or (later) ζωνή) was no mere adornment of the soldier, but an essential part of his equipment. Passing round the loins and by the end of the breastplate (in later times supporting the sword), it was of especial use in keeping other parts in place, and in securing the proper soldierly attitude and freedom of movement. The περιζωσάμενοι is better rendered (with RV) “having girded your loins,” than “having your loins girt” (with AV); for the girding is the soldier's own act by help of God's grace (cf. Luke 12:35 and the ἀναζωσάμενοὶ τὰς ὀσφύας of 1 Peter 1:13). The sing. ὀσφύς is used now and again in the LXX as the rendering of הֲלָצַיִם = the two loins, and so it is used here and in Acts 2:30; Hebrews 7:5; Hebrews 7:10. The ἐν in ἐν ἀληθείᾳ is the instrum. ἐν, perhaps with some reference to the other parts being within the girdle (Ell.; cf. περιεζωσμένος ἐν δυναστείᾳ, Psalms 64:7). But what is this ἀληθεία which is to make our spiritual cincture? It has been taken in the objective sense, the truth of the Gospel (Oec.). But that is afterwards identified with the sword (Ephesians 6:17). It is subjective truth (cf. Ephesians 6:9 above). But in what sense again? In that, says Meyer, of “harmony of knowledge with the objective truth given in the Gospel”; in that, as Ell. puts it, “of the inward practical acknowledgment of the truth as it is in Him” (Christ). But in its subjective applications ἀληθεία means most obviously the personal grace of candour, sincerity, truthfulness (John 8:44; 1Co 5:8; 1 Corinthians 13:6; 2 John 1:1; 3 John 1:1), as it is used also of the veracity of God (Romans 15:8). It seems simplest, therefore, and most accordant with usage to take it so here (with Calv., etc.). And this plain grace of openness, truthfulness, reality, the mind that will practise no deceits and attempt no disguises in our intercourse with God, is indeed vital to Christian safety and essential to the due operation of all the other qualities of character. In Isaiah 11:5 righteousness is combined with truth in this matter of girding ἔσται δικαιοσύνῃ ἐζωσμένος τὴν ὀσφὺν αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἀληθείᾳ εἱλημένος τὰς πλευράς in the case of the Messianic Branch out of the roots of Jesse. καὶ ἐνδυσάμενοι τὸν θώρακα τῆς δικαιοσύνης : and having put on the breastplate of righteousness. As the soldier covers his breast with the θώραξ to make it secure against the disabling wound, so the Christian is to endue himself with righteousness so as to make his heart and will proof against the fatal thrust of his spiritual assailants. This δικαιοσύνη is taken by some (Harl., etc.) as the righteousness of justification, the righteousness of faith. But faith is mentioned by itself, and as the ἀληθεία was the quality of truthfulness, so the δικαιοσύνη is the quality of moral rectitude (cf. Romans 6:13), as seen in the regenerate. The gen. is to be understood as that of apposition or identity, = “the breastplate which is righteousness”. In the analogous passage in 1 Thessalonians 5:8 the breastplate is faith and love, and with it is named the helmet, which is introduced later in this paragraph. In the fundamental passage in Isaiah 59:17 we have the breastplate and the helmet again mentioned together, and the former identified as here with righteousness ἐνεδύσατο δικαιοσύνην ὡς θώρακα.

[824] Codex Claromontanus (sæc. vi.), a Græco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.

[825] Codex Augiensis (sæc. ix.), a Græco-Latin MS., at Trinity College, Cambridge, edited by Scrivener in 1859. Its Greek text is almost identical with that of G, and it is therefore not cited save where it differs from that MS. Its Latin version, f, presents the Vulgate text with some modifications.

[826] Codex Boernerianus (sæc. ix.), a Græco-Latin MS., at Dresden, edited by Matthæi in 1791. Written by an Irish scribe, it once formed part of the same volume as Codex Sangallensis (δ) of the Gospels. The Latin text, g, is based on the O.L. translation.