Whereas the ancients always understood power as the confluence of both spiritual and material factors, we tend to see it as primarily material.

Modern bias.Our contemporary materialistic worldview limits our understanding of power, causing us to dismiss ancient concepts like "principalities and powers" as mere superstition or personification of material forces. This prevents us from grasping the biblical authors'' perspective.

Ancient worldview.For the ancients, heaven and earth were a single, interacting continuum where spiritual beings were as real as humans. Power was inherently understood as having both visible (material, institutional) and invisible (spiritual, immaterial) dimensions.

Bridging the gulf.To understand the New Testament, we must enter its linguistic and mythic world, recognizing that its terms for power encompass a reality that includes both the physical and the spiritual, often simultaneously, without clear separation.