Hello, Readers!  Welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman and another installment in my study on Ephesians 6:10-18a where the Apostle Paul describes the Whole Armor of God.  My focus is still on verse 16: “above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.”

The mental picture painted here is a curious one.  It’s not all that difficult to picture a Roman Legion facing foes who have either tied something flammable to the end of their arrows or soaked the arrows in something flammable like pitch, set these arrows alight, and launched them toward the Romans who would then seek to deflect them with their shields.  As I was researching both the Roman shield and flaming arrows, I found a post on the Rick Renner Ministry site that suggested the Roman Legionaries would soak their shields in water before going into battle so that they would be able to extinguish any flaming arrows that would be shot their way.

An article on ancientfinances.com which quotes the book Suit Up!: Putting on the Full Armor of God by Michael Lantz (which I do not have a copy of and have not read) also describes flaming arrows used in battle and suggests shields would have so many smoking arrows sticking out of them that the shields looked somewhat like a roasting porcupine.  This article also mentions reading comments stating the shields would be soaked in water before commencing battle.  I would like to get and read this book to see what sources Mr. Lantz and Pastor Renner are using because all of the other sources on Ancient Warfare I have studied tell me the use of flaming arrows and soaked shields are not at all likely within the context of open battle.

The first argument against this is the fact that the Roman shield (or scutum) was fashioned of strips of wood glued together with animal based glue which is soluable in water.  During marches, the Romans carried their shields in leather cases to protect them from rain but whether this was to protect them from disintegrating or to protect the design painted on them, I can’t say definitively one way or the other.  My research has given both as reasons for the leather carrying case.  Even assuming the shield wouldn’t disintegrate after being soaked in water, a waterlogged wood shield would be extremely heavy and thus cumbersome in battle. Not to mention how few battles would be fought close by a handy water source…

Second, flaming arrows weren’t used all that often in infantry battles.  Setting an arrow alight wasn’t impossible but firing it long range was which is usually the point of having archers comprise one’s battle formation.  A flaming arrow couldn’t be drawn to the fullest or the archer risked burning his own hand and/or setting his bow alight.  Assuming some sort of guard could be used thus allowing a flaming arrow to be fired long range, there was the chance that an arrow fired at velocity would be extinguished before it ever reached its target. 

Third, there’s the fact that a flaming arrow wouldn’t have much purpose in an open battlefield unless the opposing army was standing in the middle of flammable materials.  Such a thing is not outside the realm of possibility but all of my studies on Ancient Warfare tell me that flaming arrows would not have been practical in a battle where two armies marched out to face one another.

So, if a Roman Legionary would not have faced flaming arrows in the battlefield, where did the Apostle Paul come up with the idea?

The use of flaming arrows was not unheard of.  They were immensely practical in both siege and naval warfare.  In both instances there was no need to fire the arrows over a long range and neither was it necessary that every arrow succeeded in setting its target alight: which is good because my research has told me that approximately 2% of fire arrows ever actually caused a fire.  They were fabulous weapons for causing chaos and for keeping a besieged city or ship occupied in stamping them out before they could start a fire.  There are documented historical instances of flaming arrows being used in siege warfare.  In Weapons Through the Ages, William Reid describes a battle from 429 BC where the Plateans used fire arrows against the siege engines threatening their city.  William Reid also describes Caesar’s battle against Marseilles where his miners used a 20 yard long portable covered passage with a thick, sloping, fireproof roof to safely approach the wall.  Fire was used both to attack and defend during a siege.  

The Romans did use firedarts.  Quoting Adrienne Mayor’s book Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs, J.W. Elliot says, “Firedarts were used by the Romans in the fourth century BCE by filling the hollow space in cane shafts with petroleum material such as tar, napthta, and asphalt.  These darts were lit and shot from low-weight bows at the target so that the velocity of the arrow wouldn’t put out the flames” (see jwelliot.com link below).  I happen to have Ms. Mayor’s book so I looked up this quote.  The description of these firedarts were described by Ammianus Marcellinus: the cane shafts of these darts were reinforced with iron and punctured with many small holes on the underside to provide oxygen for combustion.  These were extremely effective and, according to Ammianus, the fire flared up on contact with water and could only be put out by smothering them with sand.

Ms. Mayor does describe something called a falarica which were reported by Roman Historians Silius Italicus and Tacitus but this was a machine fired spear with a long iron tip that had been dipped in burning pitch and sulphur.  Ms. Mayor quotes Silius Italicus who wrote the burning spears were “like thunderbolts cleaving the air like meteors”.  Silius Italicus also describes the resulting carnage and the blazing ruins of the siege towers.

All of these quotes are found within the Chapter entitled “Infernal Fire” and, in this chapter, Ms. Mayor describes Assyrian reliefs from the 9^th century BC showing attackers and defenders exchanging volleys of flaming arrows and firepots over fortified walls.  Flaming arrows then were used by many cultures of whom the Apostle Paul would have been aware.  The Roman soldiers guarding him as he wrote his letters would have been able to describe the use of flaming arrows but my research has led me to believe that description would have been within the context of siege warfare.

I find this significant.  The Apostle Paul writes this in his Second Letter to the Corinthians: “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God…” (II Cor. 10:4-5).  As I have studied the definition of “faith” I have discovered that the original word is a covenant word and J. Preston Eby gives the closest definition: “Faith is the mental attitude of confident response which is evoked in you by what another person reveals himself to be.”

I have already looked at what the word “stand” means in the Ephesians passage describing the Whole Armor of God and have shared how I am not seeing the picture of warfare described by the Apostle Paul as one of attack and conquest.  Rather, it is a posture of defense.  Psalm 61:3 says this about God: “For You have been a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy”.  Psalm 3 also says “But You, O Lord, are a shield for me.” 

Again, whenever I have read this passage in Ephesians, I have pictured a Christian warrior clad in armor and going forth into battle confident the Armor of God could not ultimately be defeated.  I am beginning to picture that Christian warrior defending against attackers armed with and fighting from the unassailable ground of God Himself.  Our faith is a response to who God reveals Himself to be and that revelation is Christ Jesus.  The fiery darts are just one weapon the enemy utilizes to undermine that faith.  The enemy has erected towers, great high things exalted against the truth of the knowledge of God which is eternal life (See John 17:3, 1 John 5:18-20) and these fiery darts are lobbed at us to cause chaos and distract us from his attempts to destroy our foundation.

I am getting a bit wordy and so want to close this week but plan to continue with this next week.  As we go out into the world let us remember that we are the Children of the Most High and no weapon formed against us can prosper (Isaiah 54:17).  Our Lord Jesus Christ is our Shield of Faith and, in Him, we need not fear any fiery dart!

Hallelujah!  Amen.

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

THE LAW OF FAITH Part 1 by J. Preston Eby (godfire.net)

Scutum – Roman Shield | Roman Military (unrv.com)

Here’s How To Extinguish The Fiery Darts of the Wicked! | Renner Ministries

Fire Arrows – J.W. Elliot Books (jwelliot.com)

satan – What did Paul mean by “the flaming darts of the evil one” in Ephesians 6:16? – Biblical Hermeneutics Stack Exchange

Description of Scutum, a Roman Legionnaire’s shield. – Ancient Finances

Kiley, Kevin F., All Illustrated Encyclopedia of The Uniforms of the Roman World, Lorenz Books, Aness Publishing, London UK, 2014

Mayor, Adrienne, Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs: Biological & Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World, Overlook Duckworth, London • New York, 2019, Pages 207-213

Reid, William, Weapons Through the Ages, Peerage Books, London, UK, 1984, Page 20