 |
| THE RUINS OF A WRESTLING PALESTRUM STILL STAND AFTER 1000'S OF YEARS! THIS ONE IS IN SARDIS...ALSO IN THE BIBLE! |
Sports references run through many passages in the New Testament and the Apostle Paul was famous for it! I will take a look at those soon, but to complete this brief study of Ephesians 6:12 (KJV) let's take a deeper look at the word 'wrestle'.
Here is our verse again "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world...." (Ephesians 6:12 in part).
Paul knew his audience. The Ephesians loved sports and combat sports - close contact - especially. They were sort of into the World Wrestling Entertainment of the day!
One of the most popular buildings and hangouts in Ephesus was the Palestrum. The Palestrum was a multilevel gym where different sort of one on one 'sports' took place! On one floor, we had maybe Greco- Roman wrestling except the match would not stop unless the other guys yelled "uncle" and on another floor, we had boxing!
The original word in the Bible in Ephesians 6:12 for "wrestle" is "PALE"!!! This is the same root word for Palestrum! Pale actually means wrestling match.
Any good speaker, preacher or teacher knows his audience...and boy, did these guys get the great imagery from Paul. By using the illustration the Ephesians could relate to, he showed them exactly what we are up against in Spiritual Warfare...and it's is not tiddlywinks!
TOMORROW: "HOW TO WIN THE ROYAL RUMBLE"!
(Images by Google Images)
No comments:
Post a Comment