hoplon

LSJ (s.v. ὅπλον) documents a wide classical range: a tool or implement in the singular, ship's tackle in the plural, and above all the arms of a fighting man, with Homeric and hoplite usage at times narrowing to the great shield (whence ὁπλίτης). BDAG carries the same two poles into the New Testament, a general instrument and a weapon. Louw-Nida place the term in Domain 6 among the words for weapons and armor, as the generic item over against named pieces such as μάχαιρα or θώραξ. Oepke's TDNT treatment of the ὅπλον word group (V:292-315) remains the fullest study and stresses that outside John 18:3 the New Testament usage is wholly figurative, belonging to an apocalyptic conception of the believer's life as participation in God's own warfare. In Romans 6:13 the older English tradition renders τὰ ὅπλα "instruments," but Cranfield, Dunn, Moo, and Jewett argue for "weapons," on the grounds that the paragraph presents ἁμαρτία and θεός as rival powers to whom the μέλη are presented, and that Paul resumes the same imagery in Romans 13:12 with τὰ ὅπλα τοῦ φωτός. In 2 Corinthians 6:7 the phrase τῶν δεξιῶν καὶ ἀριστερῶν is generally taken of offensive arms in the right hand and defensive gear in the left, a commonplace of Hellenistic military description. 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 extends the metaphor into siege warfare, with ὀχύρωμα and καθαίρεσις supplying the vocabulary of demolished fortifications. The lexical sense itself is not in dispute; the exegetical question in each verse is which pole of the established range is active.