EPHESIANS 6:16 (FIERY DARTS)

In this passage, Paul exhorts his audience to put on the armor of God, which includes for defensive purposes “the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one.”

Many commentators have discussed this piece of armor employed by Roman soldiers at the time of writing which lay behind Paul's powerful metaphoric reference. J.A. Thompson explains that the scutum “was a large quadrangular shield designed to catch and extinguish ignited arrows.”

Simpson adds: “Here the reference is to the single shield, personally wielded as a protection against a rain of arrows or stones. Its fire-proof metal lining sufficed to intercept or extinguish the ignited missiles of ancient belligerents....Persecution flings its fiery bolts in vain against so invulnerable a defense.”

Marcus Barth goes into even more detail when he says, “Originally the small shield consisted of wickerwork covered with hide, and the large shield was made of wood and leather (Thucydides II 72). Therefore fire could burn a shield...Unless special measures were taken, such a shield was useless against burning arrows and javelins...The Roman legionary's scutum, to which Paul alludes, had an iron frame and sometimes a metal boss at the center of the front. This shield served well even against incendiary missiles when its several layers of leather were soaked in water before the battle. See, e.g. Josephus...for a corresponding use of rawhides (from recently flayed oxen) on palisades. The attribution of a fire-extinguishing quality to the shield has puzzled many interpreters of Eph 6:16, among them Calvin, Dibelius, and Oepke. But it is not paradoxical: (wet) leather would serve the purpose...However, if a shield was not properly prepared against fiery missiles it would have to be thrown away.”

And as for the 'fiery missiles' mentioned in this verse, Barth says that those “most frequently used were arrows or spears tipped with tow and dipped in pitch...The fiery attacks endured now are unlike the fire of the last judgment of God to which all men and all the creation will be exposed (II Thess 1:8; II Peter 3:12, etc.). The character and effect of the Devil's missiles are distinctly penultimate. But just as in many apocalyptic and NT texts, the saints are warned: fire can belong to hell and can be a manifestation of the realm of the Devil.”

Hoehner agrees with most of what the above commentators have said. In addition, he adds, “The term belos is a broad term used for any pointed missile-like weapon, especially an arrow or dart, but it can also refer to other weapons, such as a sword, a spear, or anything that is swift-darting. It could refer to spears or javelins...However, more likely this word [in Ephesians] refers to arrows...that could be shot either from a bow or an engine.” As is his habit, Hoehner provides a number of citations from ancient writers to back up these comments. He concludes by stating that “the metaphorical language depicts this shield of resolute faith that protects believers from spiritual harm aimed at them by the evil one. It not only stops the weapons of attack but actually extinguishes them, thus rendering them useless. Believers must be wary of laying aside their shields of faith and attempting to fight the battle in their own strength.”

One thing disappointed me concerning the above scholars' opinions, and that was the total lack of any references to the Old Testament as a possible additional background for Paul what he had to say regarding the “fiery darts of the evil one.” Thus, the passages cited below are my own speculative additions to those allusions to contemporary warfare given above. All of these are included in the following introductory comment by Naude and Harrison regarding the Hebrew word resep, which can be defined as flame, glow, arrow, or plague.

“The nom. has as referents bolts of lightning (Ps 78:48), sparks of fire (Job 5:7), flames or glow of a fire (S of Songs 8:6), or arrows (= flashes of a bow) (Ps 76:3). This name for a Ugaritic deity carried in Israel the meaning of 'flame,.' It was also used metaphorically for a devastating disease, identified with pestilence or plague as a punishment of apostasy (Deut 32:24; Hab 3:5).”

Greenfield cites the same six texts and adds that Rashpu (Reshef in Hebrew) “was one of the minor gods found in the ancient Ugaritic texts...equated with the Akkadian Nergal. In the Hebrew Bible the word reshef is used for a demon.”

Deuteronomy 32:24

Mayes: “burning heat: the Hebrew is resep, which appears in Ugaritic texts as the name of the god of plague or pestilence.” Thompson agrees and says that it does not mean “fire-bolt.” Here, “the poisonous Qeteb is paralleled to Resheph, the well-known Canaanite demon of plague...Resep appears in Deuteronomy 32:23-24, where Yahweh threatens his apostate people...Rasheph is a deity of destruction at Ugarit. He is portrayed as an archer there, and so the phrase 'spending my arrows' is interesting.”

Job 5:7

These are the words of Job's friend Eliphaz, who says, “But human beings are born to trouble just as sparks fly upward.” (NRSV)

Pope: “This Northwest Semitic god has long been known from inscriptions of North Syria and Cyprus. Bilingual texts from Cyprus associate him with Apollo...it is problematic whether 'Resheph''s sons' in the present passage is a poetic image for flames or sparks, or a more direct allusion to the god of pestilence...It is interesting to note that Resheph is a god of fertility and well-being as well as of pestilence...The ambivalent nature of the god is understandable from the principle of polarity which associates opposites. Moreover, it would be expedient to pray to the god of pestilence for protection from the same.”

Hartley: “The meaning of bene resep (lit. 'sons of “Resheph') is notoriously difficult to determine. It has been taken to mean 'members of a flame'. But LXX, Syr., and Vulg. [early translations] take it as the name of a bird (cf. Sir. 43:17), which makes sense with the compound verb...'fly high'...Since resep is identified with lightning in a few passages and the eagle was associated with thunder and lightning, Dhorme identifies bene resep as the eagle...Another possibility is to identify the term with the god Resheph, a god of health and well-being as attested in the Karatepe inscription. But an Ugaritic text equates him with the Assyrian Nerpel, a god of pestilences and the underworld. If this view is accepted, the 'sons of Resheph' would be 'the plagues' that ascend from the lower world to curse human beings (cf. Deut. 32:24; Hab. 3:5).”

Psalm 76:3

Tanner translates this verse as, “There he [I.e. God] brake the flaming arrows of the bow, shield and sword of war.” He comments, “Many translations change this to 'flashing arrows' (NIV, NRSV). The meaning of the first word is uncertain, but probably means a flaming arrow...Verse 3 seems out of place to a modern reader, but in its ancient context it declares that God's home is now a place of peace where the instruments of war have been destroyed.”

“The flashing arrows are literally 'thunderbolts (cf. 78:48) of the bow'. The great deliverance will be enlarged upon in the next section.” (Thompson) However, Anderson feels the literal meaning is 'the flames of the bow.' He says, “The origin of the metaphor may be found in mythology, where the lightnings of the storm-god were regarded as his arrows. In the present context the reference may be either to the swiftness of the arrows' flight, or to the incendiary arrows [used by those besieging a city to set it on fire].”

Psalm 78:48

This verse is part of the Psalmist's recapitulation of the ten plagues of Egypt.

Tanner states, “Because this list of plagues does not match the ones in the Exodus account, there has been a great deal of scholarly attention given to it...What mattered most was the impact of the account. The impact here is to stress again what God had done to save the Israelites from their captors and to demonstrate that God's weapon is the creation. This tells all listening that God is in truth the Creator, for creation obeys God's command.”

Actually, the two lists are quite similar in their items included. Thus, Thompson can say with some certainty: “In the Ugaritic texts Reseph is the god of pestilence. Thus in our verse the allusion may be to the fifth plague (Exod. 9:1-7).”

Song of Songs 8:6

Gledhill: “For many, this unit represents a high point in the Song. If 5:1 represents a climax in the lovers' physical relationship, then these verses [i.e. 8:6-7] represent a climax in praise of the unconquerability of love in the face of all its foes. The Hebrew literally reads 'Her darts are darts of fire, a flame of Yah.'...A lightning bolt (reshep) is the same word as the prior noun Reshep, the Canaanite god of war and pestilence.”

Longman: “Literally, the first colon of this concluding parallel line is 'Its flame is flames of fire'; the term flame translates the word resep [which Longman says should not be translated as 'arrow', as Keel does], which is related to the Ugaritic god of plague, Resep, thus rendering even more likely that the earlier references to Death and Sheol are personifications.”

Snaith: “resep, here translated 'flashes (of fire)', is related to the Canaanite god Resheph, who was depicted in iconography as holding weapons...The phrase 'a most vehement flame,' represents an unusual form of the word salhebet, 'flame': it is intensified with the ending -yah, seemingly an abbreviated form of 'Yahweh,' the divine name...So the literal meaning here is something like 'a God-almighty flame'.”

Habakkuk 3:5

“God's coming is compared to a thunderstorm...God is pictured as a king with 'pestilence' going before him and 'plagues' behind him...He is coming to defeat his enemy...and the enemy of his people. Yahweh the warrior bares his bow (v. 9).” (R.L. Smith)

Heiser says that “Habakkuk 3:5 contains two terms that may well be Canaanite deities (deber, resep). Nevertheless, other scholars are skeptical.”

Baker: “Yahweh has his two personified attendants who are subject to his control (cf. Ps. 91:6), exemplifying his power. Both are also Canaanite deities, leading here to a hidden polemic against pagan worship.”

Robertson states, “References to plague in the OT cluster especially around the events of the Exodus and the prophecy of Jeremiah. In the latter case, the prophet announces the destruction of Judah because of their persistence in sin...So in Habakkuk, in choosing to express himself in terms of the ancient curses of the covenant, gives evidence that he has reconciled himself to the rightness of God's devastating his people...The advancing theophany leaves a trail of destruction behind it. If the plague precedes him, the burning pestilence marks the path he has followed. The term for burning pestilence (resep) has the basic meaning of 'burning' and may suggest the imagery of sparks springing up as the Lord's feet strike the earth.”

Conclusion

The above presents a lot to digest, but the overall gist of these OT passages is to associate the concepts of demonic forces, flashing missiles, and fire in the context of God's ultimate control over all these opposing forces used to preserve His people. This is the same basic theme we see in Ephesus 6:16.