Exousia

In the fifth century B.C. writings of Thucydides Exousia is used by Antiphon Orator meaning “an ability to do something” if there were no hindrances (Kittel, 2:562). The word generally denotes the right to act according to moral standards. It can be used in an official sense to describe the authority of a king but before king it was the natural choice to do or not do something by right.

The word appear 4 times in reference to an adversarial jurisdiction, 12 times in reference to a right, 11 times concerning conflicts of justice and 51 times in reference to Jesus.

In Romans 13 we see the phrase "ἐξουσίαις ὑπερεχούσαις" and later the word "ἐξουσία".

ἐξουσίαις - noun: dative, plural, feminine

1. power of choice, liberty of doing as one pleases

a. leave or permission

We also see ἐξουσίαις in reference to heavens rights not the government of men:

Ephesians 3:10 noun: dative, plural, feminine

GRK: καὶ ταῖς ἐξουσίαις ἐν τοῖς

NAS: to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly

KJV: and powers in

INT: and the authorities in the

And gain ἐξουσίαις appears in Titus 3:1 speaking to early Christians not engaged in covetous practices but living by fervent charity in the practice of pure Religion warning them to be cooperative and not a brawler but certainly not excusing praying or applying to the Fathers upon the earth or those who claim to be benefactors but exercise authority one over the other.

noun: dative, plural, feminine

GRK: αὐτοὺς ἀρχαῖς ἐξουσίαις ὑποτάσσεσθαι πειθαρχεῖν

NAS: to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient,

KJV: and powers, to obey magistrates, [This is not the word normally translated magistrate]

INT: them to rulers to authorities to be subject to be obedient

So who is the king and who should a real Christian be obeying?

ὑπερεχούσαις - verb: present, active, participle, dative, plural, feminine

1. to have or hold over one

The words "governing authorities" is really a paraphrase and novel interpretation of "ἐξουσίαις ὑπερεχούσαις" which may match many modern eschatological but not necessarily what Christians were doing in the early Church.

In Romans 13:1 ὑπερεχούσαις is translated "higher".

In Philippians 2:3 ὑπερεχούσαις is translated "better than" .

In Philippians 3:8 ὑπερεχούσαις is translated "the excellency" of the knowledge of Christ Jesus.

In Philippians 4:7 ὑπερεχούσαις is translated "passeth" in refference to "... the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."

In 1 Peter 2:13 ὑπερεχούσαις is translated "supreme" in reference to the king by the same man who said there is another king one Jesus and did contrary to the decrees of Caesar.

Terms of the Times

To claim that Paul is actually saying that we should be at liberty to obey God rather than be subject to the will of other men is a bold accusation against the doctrines of modern Christendom. Has the Church been steadily deceived, by either negligence or design, arrogance or ignorance?

A theme throughout the Bible has been to set men free so we should be willing to examine how the word exousia was used by the Greeks and the authors of those sacred texts in the days of Christ. Although the use of words changes over time the Greek Glossary of Aristotelian Terms states that exousia means “right”.

Aristotle actually exemplifies exousia’s use in the statement, “The right (exousia) to do anything one wishes...”

The rights or privileges of governments are ordained of men. That ordination of power into the hands of governments almost always occurs when the people reject God and choose to go away from His ways and out of His presence.

Since we are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights it makes sense to say our original right to choose is ordained of God. Since man is a creation of God and governments are a creation of men the power maintained by those governments is based on the consent or actions of men, not upon any appointment by God.

In Plato’s notes the “Greek words for freedom (are) eleutheros (liberal/Free), exousia (Freedom/Power to do something), ...”

While Plato and Aristotle’s definition of the word exousia was from a classical Greek period, their opinion was still in conformity with the second century A.D. Cynic philosopher, Enomaos.

Aldo Brancacci examines the definition of ‘freedom’ in his Liberta e fato in Enamao di Gadara. In Bryn Mawr’s Classical Review we see, “Brancacci notices that the term used by Enomaos to refer to human freedom is not the typical Cynic one (eleutheria), but exousia, which expresses ‘the new concept of freedom in opposition to the already defunct and unhelpful eleutheria’.”

Enomaos’, sometimes written Oenomaos’, writings were preserved by Eusubius. For at least five centuries the word exousia consistently referenced human liberty and freedom. Are we supposed to believe that Paul is telling us to give up our freedom and liberty and become subject once again? Or have we already?

God sent Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Samson, Gideon and a host of others to set us free in truth. We were to be free souls under God, created by God and have no other gods before Him.

Are we supposed to believe that Jesus was only going to set us free spiritually and leave us in physical bondage? It seems a slave mentality to believe that we can only be “free at last, free at last” when we are dead.

• “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” John 8:36

It is our prayer that the truth of this will become self evident.

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declension	of	εξουσία
	singular	plural
nominative	εξουσία •	εξουσίες •
genitive	εξουσίας •	εξουσιών •
accusative	εξουσία •	εξουσίες •
vocative	εξουσία •	εξουσίες •

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