In contrast with the “angels of light” (2 Cor. xi. 14) and “ministering spirits” of the kingdom of God (Heb. i. 14), the angels of Satan have constituted themselves _the world-rulers of this darkness_. We find the compound expression _cosmo-krator_ (world-ruler) in later rabbinical usage, borrowed from the Greek and applied to “the angel of death,” before whom all mortal things must bow. Possibly, St Paul brought the term with him from the school of Gamaliel. Satan being the god of this world and swaying “the dominion of darkness,”[161] according to the same vocabulary his angels are “the rulers of the world’s darkness”; and the provinces of the empire of evil fall under their direction. The darkness surrounding the apostle in Rome and the Churches in Asia--“this darkness,” he says--was dense and foul. With Nero and his satellites the masters of empire, the world seemed to be ruled by demons rather than by men. The frightful wish of one of the Psalmists was fulfilled for the heathen world: “Set a wicked man over him, and let Satan stand at his right hand.” The last of St Paul’s synonyms for the satanic forces, “the spiritual [powers] of wickedness,” may have served to warn the Church against reading a political sense into the passage and regarding the civil constitution of society and the visible world-rulers as objects for their hatred. Pilate was a specimen, by no means amongst the worst, of the men in power. Jesus regarded him with pity. His real antagonist lurked behind these human instruments. The above phrase, “spirituals of wickedness,” is Hebraistic, like “judge” and “steward of unrighteousness,”[162] and is equivalent to “wicked spirits.” The adjective “spiritual,” which does duty for a substantive--“the spiritual [forces, or elements] of wickedness”[163]--brings out the collective character of these hostile powers.