a ruler: someone who holds authority over others, whether a human official or a spiritual power.
This is simply the everyday Greek word for someone in charge. It does not name a particular office the way the words for king or governor do; its exact sense depends entirely on who is being described. The same word can point to a Roman magistrate, a member of the Jewish council in Jerusalem, the head of a local synagogue, Moses, Christ, or Satan. Its literal force is just "the one ruling."
Most often in the New Testament it means a human authority. Sometimes that is ordinary civil government or a court official. More often, especially in Luke, John, and Acts, it is the ruling class of Jerusalem: the council members and leaders who opposed Jesus and later the apostles. Because it is a general word, writers reach for more precise titles (governor, magistrate, chief priest) when they want to name a specific post, and fall back on this one when they want to sweep the whole ruling class into a single frame.
The word also reaches into the unseen. The Gospels call Satan the ruler of the demons and the ruler of this world, and one letter calls him the ruler of the power of the air. The New Testament pictures a spiritual authority standing behind visible events, and it uses the same plain ruler word for him. Once, strikingly, the word is turned upward: the risen Christ is called the ruler of the kings of the earth.
Nuances
Whether "the rulers of this age" who crucified the Lord of glory are human authorities, spiritual powers, or both.
- majorityHuman political and religious rulers: the Roman and Jewish authorities (Pilate, Herod, the high priests, the council) who condemned Jesus. The surrounding argument is full of human wise men and officials, and other passages say these leaders acted in ignorance, which fits Paul's point.; Gene Miller, "Ἀρχόντων τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου: A New Look at 1 Corinthians 2:6-8," JBL 91 (1972); Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, NICNT (1987); Anthony C. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, NIGTC (2000); David E. Garland, 1 Corinthians, BECNT (2003)
- minoritySpiritual or demonic powers who unknowingly sealed their own defeat by crucifying Christ. The wording "being brought to nothing" fits powers that Christ is presently disarming, and the same "of this age" phrasing elsewhere names Satan.; Hans Conzelmann, 1 Corinthians, Hermeneia (1975); Judith L. Kovacs, "The Archons, the Spirit and the Death of Christ," in Apocalyptic and the New Testament (JSNTSup 24, 1989)
- minorityBoth at once: spiritual powers acting through the human authorities, so that the earthly and cosmic dimensions of the crucifixion are not sharply separated.; Oscar Cullmann, The State in the New Testament (1956); G. B. Caird, Principalities and Powers (1956); C. K. Barrett, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, BNTC (1968)