Verse 12 — The "We Wrestle Not" Construction¶

← Back to Armor of God · See also: Verse 12 — The Opposition Named

ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν ἡμῖν ἡ πάλη πρὸς αἷμα καὶ σάρκα ἀλλὰ πρὸς τὰς ἀρχάς, πρὸς τὰς ἐξουσίας, πρὸς τοὺς κοσμοκράτορας τοῦ σκότους τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου, πρὸς τὰ πνευματικὰ τῆς πονηρίας ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (KJV)

The KJV's "we wrestle" translates a construction that is not, in fact, a finite verb of wrestling. Paul does not write a form of παλαίω ("I wrestle"). He writes the noun ἡ πάλη ("the wrestling/struggle") as the grammatical subject of ἔστιν ("is"), together with the dative pronoun ἡμῖν ("to/for us"). Literally: "For the wrestling is not to us against blood and flesh, but..." This section examines that construction — what it is, a well-known textual variant that turns on it, its other appearances in the NT, and where the standard grammars discuss it.

The Construction: Dative of Possession¶

The pattern [subject noun] + εἰμί + [dative pronoun] is the dative of possession (Latin dativus possessivus), a construction inherited from Classical Greek — it appears already in Homer (e.g., Ἕκτορι δ' ἦν ἄλοχος, "Hector had a wife," lit. "to Hector was a wife") — and remains fully productive in Koine Greek. It functions as a grammatical alternative to ἔχω ("I have"): rather than saying "we have a struggle," Paul says, in effect, "a struggle is ours."

The semantic difference from a plain verb (παλαίομεν, "we wrestle") or from ἔχομεν πάλην ("we have a struggle") is one of emphasis. Casting the struggle as a noun that belongs to the readers, rather than as an action they perform, presents it as a standing condition — an ongoing state of affairs believers find themselves in — rather than a single, momentary act. This fits the flow of the passage: verses 10–11 have already commanded the readers to put on the armor (imperatives), and v. 12 now supplies the reason — a struggle that is simply theirs, independent of whether they choose to engage it — before the imperatives resume in v. 13 (ἀναλάβετε, "take unto you").

A Textual Variant: ἡμῖν or ὑμῖν?¶

Because the construction's only variable element is which dative personal pronoun fills the slot, the manuscript tradition divides on exactly that point. Some witnesses (𝔓⁴⁶, B, D, G, Ψ, 81, and others) read ὑμῖν ("to/for you"), which would align v. 12 with the second-person address that dominates the rest of the paragraph (ἐνδύσασθε, στῆτε, ὑμᾶς in v. 11). Other witnesses read ἡμῖν ("to/for us*"), shifting unexpectedly into the first person.

Metzger's Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament notes on this variant:

"Whereas the preponderance of external evidence (𝔓46 B D* G Ψ 81 al) appears to support ὑμῖν, the natural tendency of copyists would have been to alter ἡμῖν to ὑμῖν, since the rest of the paragraph involves the second person. A majority of the Committee preferred ἡμῖν as being perhaps the more difficult reading."

"The more difficult reading" invokes the principle lectio difficilior potior — the harder reading is usually the stronger candidate for originality — because scribes are far more likely to smooth an awkward text into conformity with its surroundings than to introduce a jarring inconsistency on their own initiative. Here, ἡμῖν breaks the second-person flow of the paragraph; ὑμῖν fits it seamlessly. A scribe copying along in second person had every reason to "correct" an unexpected ἡμῖν to ὑμῖν, and little reason to do the reverse. That asymmetry of motive is why the committee favored the grammatically rougher ἡμῖν despite its weaker external attestation — it is harder to explain as a change, and so more likely to be what Paul actually dictated.

Other NT Examples of the Construction¶

The dative of possession with εἰμί (or its related forms γίνομαι/ἔσομαι) appears throughout the NT. A closely related sub-pattern — a proper name in apposition governed by the same dative — supplies the common "his name was ___" idiom.

Reference	Greek	KJV	Note
Luke 1:7	καὶ οὐκ ἦν αὐτοῖς τέκνον	"they had no child"	subject τέκνον, dative αὐτοῖς
Acts 4:32	ἀλλ᾽ ἦν αὐτοῖς ἅπαντα κοινά	"they had all things common"	subject ἅπαντα (+ predicate κοινά), dative αὐτοῖς
Luke 7:41	δύο χρεοφειλέται ἦσαν δανιστῇ τινι	"a certain creditor had two debtors"	subject χρεοφειλέται, dative δανιστῇ τινι
1 Corinthians 8:6	ἀλλ᾽ ἡμῖν εἷς θεὸς ὁ πατήρ ... καὶ εἷς κύριος Ἰησοῦς Χριστός	"to us there is but one God ... and one Lord"	subject εἷς θεός / εἷς κύριος, dative ἡμῖν — same pronoun and word order pattern as Eph 6:12
John 18:10	ἦν δὲ ὄνομα τῷ δούλῳ Μάλχος	"the servant's name was Malchus"	naming idiom: ὄνομα (subject) + dative τῷ δούλῳ

Luke 1:7¶

καὶ οὐκ ἦν αὐτοῖς τέκνον, καθότι ἦν ἡ Ἐλισάβετ στεῖρα καὶ ἀμφότεροι προβεβηκότες ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις αὐτῶν ἦσαν.

And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years.

Acts 4:32¶

Τοῦ δὲ πλήθους τῶν πιστευσάντων ἦν ἡ καρδία καὶ ἡ ψυχὴ μία· καὶ οὐδὲ εἷς τι τῶν ὑπαρχόντων αὐτῷ ἔλεγεν ἴδιον εἶναι, ἀλλ᾽ ἦν αὐτοῖς ἅπαντα κοινά.

And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.

Luke 7:41¶

δύο χρεοφειλέται ἦσαν δανιστῇ τινι. ὁ εἷς ὤφειλεν δηνάρια πεντακόσια, ὁ δὲ ἕτερος πεντήκοντα.

There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty.

1 Corinthians 8:6¶

ἀλλ᾽ ἡμῖν εἷς θεὸς ὁ πατὴρ ἐξ οὗ τὰ πάντα καὶ ἡμεῖς εἰς αὐτόν, καὶ εἷς κύριος Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς δι᾽ οὗ τὰ πάντα καὶ ἡμεῖς δι᾽ αὐτοῦ.

But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

This is the closest parallel to Eph 6:12 in the whole NT: the same pronoun (ἡμῖν), the same word order (dative pronoun immediately after ἀλλά, before the subject), and the same rhetorical effect — casting a reality as something that simply belongs to "us," in contrast to an alternative.

John 18:10¶

Σίμων οὖν Πέτρος ἔχων μάχαιραν εἵλκυσεν αὐτὴν καὶ ἔπαισεν τὸν τοῦ ἀρχιερέως δοῦλον καὶ ἀπέκοψεν αὐτοῦ τὸ ὠτάριον τὸ δεξιόν· ἦν δὲ ὄνομα τῷ δούλῳ Μάλχος.

Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and smote the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus.

This is the "naming" sub-type of the same idiom (also at John 1:6, John 3:1, Revelation 6:8, Revelation 9:11): a noun in the nominative stands in apposition to the subject, governed by the same dative-of-possession logic — "a name was to the servant" rather than "the servant had a name."

Grammars That Treat This Construction¶

The dative of possession is a standard topic in the major reference grammars, generally under the case-usage discussion of the dative:

BDF (Blass–Debrunner–Funk), A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature — §189, "the dative of possession," treated as equivalent to ἔχειν.
A. T. Robertson, A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research — discusses the possessive dative as an alternative to ἔχω, with a range of NT examples.
Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics — "Dative of Possession," under the Dative Case chapter, using Luke 1:7 as the headline example and noting the nuance of "belonging to" versus simple possession.
Smyth, Greek Grammar — §1476–1480, the classical-Greek background for the possessive dative, useful since the NT usage directly continues this earlier idiom.
Moulton / Turner, A Grammar of New Testament Greek, Vol. III (Syntax) — additional discussion of dative-of-possession usage across Hellenistic Greek.

Eph 6:12 turns a piece of Greek syntax into an exegetical point: Paul does not merely announce that believers wrestle — he casts the wrestling as a condition already theirs, a struggle that belongs to "us" (or, per the majority-preferred and harder reading, still "us" rather than "you") before a single piece of armor is named. Grammar and rhetoric work together here — the case of one pronoun carries the weight of who, exactly, Paul says is in the fight.