DeConick A.D

127
PAUL AND GNOSTIC DOGMA
Most modern commentators have identified this figure with Satan. But
this identification is debatable, especially when we take into consideration
the passage in Ephesians in which Paul refers to the “archon of the power
of the air.” In this passage, Paul identifies the power of the air with the
spirit of wickedness that works in the hearts of disobedient people (Ephesians
2:1–2). If this figure is traditionally Satan, then who is Satan’s liege,
the archon who rules over him? Paul never tells us who or what he has in
mind. His remarks in his letters do not help us fill in all the details, but
it is clear that the demonic world Paul envisioned included many more
figures than Satan, and perhaps a separate world ruler who reigned over
Satan and the other fallen angels.
This worldview becomes even more interesting when we factor in Paul’s
position on the Jewish law. In Galatians, Paul is very clear that the law was
handed over to the Jews by angels through an intermediary who did not
represent the One God. This is very obvious in the Greek of Galatians 3:19
but is obscured in English translations because the literal meaning of the
Greek is not orthodox Paul by any stretch of the imagination. The Greek
simply reads, “Then why the law? Because of sins it was added.” Paul goes
on, “It was authorized by angels through an intermediary. The intermediary
is not from the One. God is One” (Galatians 3:19–20; my translation).
Paul never identifies the intermediary. Did he have in mind Moses, who
mediated the covenant according to Jewish scripture? Or one of the commissioning
angels he mentions? Whatever the case, Paul does not view
the law as something good that is ordained directly by YHWH (Romans
7:7–13). Instead, the law imprisoned sinners in a jail until Christ could
come to free them (Galatians 2:23; Romans 3:19).
The law identifies sinful behaviors so that the transgressors, like the
ancestors who worshipped the golden calf, can be identified and jailed
(Romans 1:22–25, 10:5–8). Because the law is made up of codes of righteousness
that are humanly impossible to keep, the law ends up binding
the Jews under the jurisdiction of the wicked elemental forces that rule
the universe (Galatians 4:3, 8–11; cf. Romans 8:2–3). Anyone bound to the
law is bound to break the law and, as a sinner, is bound to the power of
darkness and his demonic horde (Romans 3:9–18, 20, 8:2). So Paul writes
that the law does not make the Jews righteous. Rather, the law condemns
them and enslaves them to the forces of wickedness and death (Galatians
3:22; Romans 5:20–21; cf. Romans 4:15).