rightful authority: the freedom or power to act that has been granted, so the action is legitimate and cannot rightly be challenged
This word is not raw strength. It is the standing to do something and have it count, because the right to do it has been given or recognized. The word grows out of a common phrase that meant simply "it is permitted," so at its core it names a permitted, warranted possibility of action. The same word can name:
- the freedom a person has to make a choice
- the delegated power to carry out an act
- the territory or sphere over which someone rules
- the official who holds that rule
- the unseen powers thought to exercise it.
What holds these together is the question of warrant. To have this is to be entitled, so that no one can rightly say you may not. That is why the crowds were amazed that Jesus taught as one who held it, and why the religious leaders kept demanding to know by whose grant he was acting. It is also why Pilate's claim to hold it over Jesus is answered with the reminder that he would have none at all unless it had been given to him from above. Almost everywhere in the New Testament the authority in view is delegated: it traces back to a grant, and ultimately to God.
The high point of this is the risen Jesus declaring that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him. That language reaches back to the vision in Daniel of a figure like a son of man who receives an everlasting dominion from God, and it lifts the word to its fullest weight: the supreme, God-given rule of the Messiah.
The range runs from the small and personal, a believer's freedom to eat or marry or set aside a right, up to the cosmic, the ranks of spiritual powers and the supreme rule that belongs to God alone. The senses below sort the occurrences by what the warrant is for: a freedom, an action, a domain, a ruler, or a spiritual power.
Nuances
Whether the authority a woman is to have on her head is her own right to participate in worship, or a covering that signifies her being under male authority.
- majorityIt is the woman's own authority: the covering visibly displays her right to pray and prophesy in the assembly. The supporting argument is that everywhere else this phrase, to have authority over something, names the subject's own active authority, never a passive subjection.; Morna D. Hooker, "Authority on Her Head: An Examination of I Cor. xi. 10," NTS 10 (1963-64): 410-16; Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, NICNT; Anthony C. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, NIGTC
- minorityThe covering is a sign of the woman's subjection to male authority, the word standing for the veil that marks her as under authority.; A. Oepke, "κατακαλύπτω," TDNT 3:561-63; Thomas R. Schreiner, "Head Coverings, Prophecies and the Trinity," in Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
Whether the governing authorities in Romans 13 are only human magistrates, or also (or instead) the invisible spiritual powers standing behind the state.
- majorityHuman civil rulers, instituted by God for the present age. The supporting arguments are that the paying of taxes in the same passage fits only human officials, and that the technical pairing this writer uses elsewhere for spiritual powers is absent here.; C. E. B. Cranfield, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, ICC; James D. G. Dunn, Romans 9-16, WBC 38B; Douglas J. Moo, The Letter to the Romans, NICNT
- minorityA double reference: the civil rulers together with the angelic powers thought to stand behind them.; Oscar Cullmann, The State in the New Testament; Clinton D. Morrison, The Powers That Be: Earthly Rulers and Demonic Powers in Romans 13.1-7
Disputed
What the unseen powers and authorities are: personal spiritual beings, the structures of human society and government, or both at once.
- contestedReal, personal spiritual beings, organized in ranks, defeated by Christ at the cross and finally subdued at his return.; Heinrich Schlier, Principalities and Powers in the New Testament; Clinton E. Arnold, Powers of Darkness: Principalities and Powers in Paul's Letters
- contestedStructures of created life, such as nation, law, and tradition, made good but now fallen and enslaving, and broken in their grip by the cross.; Hendrikus Berkhof, Christ and the Powers; James D. G. Dunn, The Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon, NIGTC
- contestedBoth at once: every earthly power has an inner spiritual side and an outer institutional side, and the language refers to both together.; Walter Wink, Naming the Powers: The Language of Power in the New Testament; N. T. Wright, Paul and the Faithfulness of God