Air
AIR
1. The air or atmosphere surrounding the earth is often denoted by the word heaven; so “the fowls of heaven” means the birds of the air.2. To “beat the air,” and to “speak in the air,” 1Co 9:26 14:9, are modes of expression used in most languages, signifying to speak or act without judgment or understanding, or to no purpose. “The powers of the air,” Zep 2:2, probably means devils.
Fuente: American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
Air
The apostles, like other Jews of their time, regarded the air as a region between earth and the higher heavens, inhabited by spirits, especially evil spirits. In Eph 2:2 the air is the abode or Satan (see below); in Eph 6:12 the heavenlies ( )-a vague phrase used also in Eph 1:3; Eph 1:20; Eph 2:6; Eph 3:10 to denote the heavenly or spiritual sphere, the unseen universe* [Note: The Peshita renders it in heaven, except in Eph 6:12 when it significantly has under heaven.] -is where the wrestling of the Christian against the spiritual hosts of wickedness takes place, and is apparently in this ease equivalent to this darkness (cf. Luk 22:53, Col 1:13 power of darkness, i.e. tyranny of evil). In Rev 12:7 the war between Michael and the dragon is in heaven. This can hardly refer to the first rebellion of Satan, nor yet can we with Bede interpret heaven as the Church; but rather the righting is in the heavens, a struggle of Satan to regain his lost place, ended by his final expulsion. As the Incarnation called forth a counter-manifestation of diabolic power on earth, so after the Ascension the attack is supposed to be carried into heaven (Swete, Com. in loc.). But the conception is not unlike that of St. Paul as noted above.
There are several parallels to these passages in that class of literature which is thought to be a Christian rehandling of Jewish apocalyptic writings. In the Testaments of the XII. Patriarchs (q.v. [Note: quod vide, which see.] ) we read of the aerial spirit Beliar (Benj. 3). In the Ascension of Isaiah (q.v. [Note: quod vide, which see.] ) there is described an ascent into the firmament, where were Sammael and his powers, and there was a great fight (vii. 9); Christ descends from the lowest heaven to the firmament where was continual warfare, and takes the form of the angels of the air (x. 29). In the Slavonic Secrets of Enoch the apostate angels are suspended in the second heaven awaiting the Last Judgment ( 7; see Thackeray, Relation of St. Paul to Contemp. Jewish Thought, London, 1900, p. 176f.). These works in their present form probably date from the latter part of the 1st or the beginning of the 2nd cent. a.d. The ideas seem to have had much currency among Christians, for we find Athanasius (de Incarn. 25) speaking of the devil having fallen from heaven and wandering about our lower atmosphere, there bearing rule over his fellow-spirits , while the Lord came to cast down the devil, and clear the air and prepare the way for us up into heaven.
The prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:2) is Satan. That he had authority over the evil spirits whose abode is in the air was the general Jewish belief, except among the Sadducees. St. Paul does not, however, here say powers of the air, i.e. evil spirits, but the air-power or air-tyranny (for this meaning of see Lightfoots note on Col 1:13). Satan is the arch-tyrant whose abode is in the air.
Literature.-See article Demon.
A. J. Maclean.
Fuente: Dictionary of the Apostolic Church
Air
(), the atmosphere, as opposed to the ether (), or higher and purer region of the sky (Act 22:24; 1Th 4:17; Rev 2:2; Rev 16:17). The Hebrew term ,, ruach, occurs in this sense but once (Job 41:16); “air” is elsewhere the rendering of , shamayim, in speaking of birds of the heavens. The later Jews (see Eisenmenger, Entd. Jud. 2, 437 sq.), in common with the Gentiles (see Elsner, Obs. 2, 205; Dougtaei Annal. p. 127), especially the Pythagoreans, believed the air to be peopled with spirits, under the government of a chief, who there held his seat of empire (Philo, 31, 28; Diog. Laert. 8:32; Plutarch, Quaest. Romans p. 274). These spirits were supposed to be powerful, but malignant, and to incite men to evil. That the Jews held this opinion is plain from the rabbinical citations of Lightfoot, Wetstein, etc. Thus in Pirke Aboth, 83, 2, they are described as filling the whole air, arranged in troops, in regular subordination (see Rosenroth, Cabbala denud. 1, 417). The early Christian fathers entertained the same belief (Ignat. ad Ephes. 13), which has indeed come down to our own times. It is to this notion that Paul is supposed to allude in Eph 2:2, where Satan is called prince of the power (i.e. of those who exercise the power) of the air” (see Stuart, in the Biblioth. Sacra, 1843, p. 139). Some, however, explain air” here by darkness, a sense which it bears also in profane writers. But the apostle no doubt speaks according to the notions entertained by most of those to whom he wrote, without expressing the extent of his own belief (see Bloomfield, Rec. Syn., and Meyer, Comment. in loc.). SEE POWER; SEE PRINCIPALITY. The sky as the midst of heaven, or the middle station between heaven and earth, may symbolically represent the place where the Divine judgments are denounced, as in 1Ch 21:16. SEE ANGEL.
The phrase , to speak into the aim (1Co 14:9), is a proverbial expression to denote speaking in vain, like ventis verba profundere in Latin (Lucret. 4:929), and a similar one in our own language; and , to beat the air (1Co 9:26), denotes acting in vain, and is a proverbial allusion to an abortive stroke into the air in pugilistic contests (comp. Virgil, AEn. 5, 377). SEE GAMES.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Air
the atmosphere, as opposed to the higher regions of the sky (1 Thess. 4:17; Rev. 9:2; 16:17). This word occurs once as the rendering of the Hebrew _ruah_ (Job 41:16); elsewhere it is the rendering of _shamaiyim_, usually translated “heavens.”
The expression “to speak into the air” (1 Cor. 14:9) is a proverb denoting to speak in vain, as to “beat the air” (1 Cor. 9:26) denotes to labour in vain.
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Air
ar (, aer): In the Old Testament air is used (with one exception) in the phrase fowl or fowls (birds) of the air. The Hebrew word is usually rendered heaven or heavens. According to ancient Hebrew cosmogony the sky was a solid dome (firmament) stretching over the earth as a covering. In the above phrase the air means the space between the earth and the firmament. In Job (Job 41:16) air renders , ruah, breath, wind, spirit. The scales of the leviathan are so closely joined together that no air can penetrate. In the New Testament the phrase birds (or fowls) of the air, occurs ten times. This simply reproduces the Hebraism noticed above. Apart from this expression air in the King James Version represents aer, which denotes the atmosphere which surrounds us. The expression beating the air (1Co 9:26) means to deal blows that do not get home – that miss the mark. In his conflict with the lower life represented by the body, Paul compares himself to a boxer who aims with unerring accuracy at his opponent. No stroke is lost. Paul also uses the phrase speaking into the air (1Co 14:9) in reference to the unintelligible utterances of those who spake with tongues. In the expression, prince of the powers of the air (Eph 2:2 the King James Version) we find an echo of the current belief that the air was the dwelling place of spirits, especially of evil spirits.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Air
Air, the atmosphere, as opposed to the ether, or higher and purer region (Act 22:23; 1Th 4:17; Rev 2:2; Rev 16:17). The phrase to speak into the air (1Co 14:9) is a proverbial expression to denote speaking in vain, and to beat the air (1Co 9:26), denotes acting in vain, and is a proverbial allusion to an abortive stroke into the air in pugilistic contests. The later Jews, in common with the Gentiles, especially the Pythagoreans, believed the air to be peopled with spirits, under the government of a chief, who there held his seat of empire. These spirits were supposed to be powerful, but malignant, and to incite men to evil. The early Christian fathers entertained the same belief, which has indeed come down to our own times.
Fuente: Popular Cyclopedia Biblical Literature
Air
1. , the fluid that we breathe, and which surrounds the earth. There are two remarkable references to the air: one, that at the Rapture of the saints the raised dead and the living will be caught up into the clouds, and will meet the Lord in the air, 1Th 4:17, in the same sphere in which the Lord disappeared at His ascension. The other is that Satan is called the prince of the power of the air, Eph 2:2, doubtless referring to the permeating character of the air, which we not only breathe, but it fills our houses and enters everywhere. When the air is tainted with malaria it permeates everywhere and poisons everything; so Satan has such power that his poisonous spirit morally contaminates everything in the world, of which he is the god.
2. , literally ‘heaven’ translated ‘air’ only in reference to the birds and fowls. Mat 8:20, etc.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
AIR
Air may be considered as the mansion of the devils-the powers, enemies to God and his Church;-Satan in Eph 2:2, being by St. Paul called the prince of the power of the air. In this view, the air denotes the jurisdiction of those invisible powers: and they symbolically signify, and imply, their visible agents and instruments on earth.
According to Vitringa, the air denotes the political and ecclesiastical constitutions of the states or kingdoms of the world. As it is through the medium of the natural air or atmosphere that the natural sun, moon, and stars, communicate to us their light, their heat, and influences; so also, through the symbolical air or atmosphere, (i. e. through the political and ecclesiastical constitutions of states or kingdoms) do the symbolical sun, moon, and stars communicate to men their light and heat. The princes and governors of the nations, inasmuch as they cherish their subjects, and abound towards them in care and good management, are, as it were, the breath of the people, like the air which they imbibe and inhale, as they are called in Jeremiah, Lament 4:20. Moreover, as the air is the principle of vitality to man, so these institutions are also the principle of vitality to the body politic. Hence it is, perhaps, that Satan, in Eph 2:2, is called, the Prince of the power of the air; because he ruled, and was seated, and enthroned in the political constitutions of the world, which were all framed on principles friendly to the interests of his kingdom.
Other significations of Air will be given under HEAVEN.
Fuente: A Symbolical Dictionary
AIR
general references to
Act 22:23; 1Co 9:26; 1Co 14:9; Eph 2:2; 1Th 4:17
Fuente: Thompson Chain-Reference Bible
Air
Eng., “air,” signifies “the atmosphere,” certainly in five of the seven occurrences, Act 22:23; 1Co 9:26; 1Co 14:9; Rev 9:2; Rev 16:17, and almost certainly in the other two, Eph 2:2; 1Th 4:17.
denotes “the heaven.” The RV always renders it “heaven.” The AV translates it “air” in Mat 8:20. In the phrase “the fowls (or birds) of the heaven” the AV always has “air;” “sky” in Mat 16:2-3; Luk 12:56; in all other instances “heaven.” The word is probably derived from a root meaning to cover or encompass. See HEAVEN, SKY.
Fuente: Vine’s Dictionary of New Testament Words
Air
that thin, fluid, elastic, transparent, ponderous, compressible body which surrounds the terraqueous globe to a considerable height. In Scripture it is sometimes used for heaven; as, the birds of the air; the birds of heaven. To beat the air, and to speak to the air, 1Co 9:26, signify to fatigue ourselves in vain, and to speak to no purpose. The prince of the power of the air is the head and chief of the evil spirits, with which both Jews and Heathens thought the air was filled.
Fuente: Biblical and Theological Dictionary
Air
1Co 9:26 (a) This refers to the actions of one who wastes his life in busy idleness or in useless, fruitless endeavor.
Eph 2:2 (a) Here is meant the space between Heaven and earth through which the prayers of GOD’s people must pass, and through which the saints must go on their way home to GOD. The Spirit of GOD must take our prayers through the opposition of evil spirits up to the Throne of GOD and the Lord JESUS. Eventually the mighty power of GOD must take the spirits of His people through all Satanic opposition and bring them safe home to GOD.