Page 179 - Ephesians

Verse 16, “Take the shield of faith.” There were two kinds of
shields that the Romans used. The one called “Scutum”, was a
semi-cylindrical long shield. It was used when they spied. It was
in the shape of your body. The bottom was flat, and they would
stand it on the ground and hide behind it. They also used a small
one strapped over their arm. This allowed them to swing it back
and forth with dexterity. Both of these shields could be made of
wood or brass, but they were always covered with animal skin.
Before a battle they would soak them with water so they could
literally, quench the “Fiery darts and arrows”.

The Scythians had a different kind of arrow. They didn’t dip it in
pitch so they could light it with fire. They preferred to dip them in
the venom of asps and snakes. They actually had, poison-
dipped darts. Maybe Paul’s reference to fire, was speaking of the
inflammation from those poison darts. Anyway, they had a shield
to counteract fiery attacks of all kinds. The small shield around
their arm was called a “buckler”. You see that a lot in the Old
Testament, “Thou art my shield, and my buckler.”

In verse 17 we see “The helmet of salvation”. The Roman
helmet was the one with the high crest. Before the helmet was
passed on to a soldier it would undergo something called, “The
test of the battle axe”. It was placed on the ground, and a big
tough Roman soldier would swing down on that helmet with his
axe. If he dented it, it was rejected. This was high quality
protection, for the soldier’s cherished head.

Verse 17, “The sword of the Spirit”. I thought, the sword was
one of those real long swords the Spaniards used. But that’s not
the word used here. This is a small dagger, attached to the
military belt. It was extremely sharp so he could cut and thrust
with it. They would test the swords sharpness by throwing a piece
of silk in the air. If the silk was not sliced in half as it gently fell on
the sword, it wasn’t sharp enough. The sword is a picture of the
“Word of God”. Some people tend to emphasize the defensive
qualities of the armor. They say that the only offensive weapons,
are found in verses 17 & 18, “The sword of the Spirit” and
“Praying in the Spirit”. Well, that’s not 100% true, because the