We’ve been hard on W-K in their commentary on Colossians called Colossians Remixed and I’m being hard on them because I want to see evidence and not just explanation.
Here’s another example from W-K: “So it isn’t a stretch to say that in the Roman empire, ‘thrones, dominions, rulers and powers’ referred to Rome — to its ruler, Caesar, on the throne established by the gods, to his dominion over all the known world, established and maintained by the power and might of the empire” (91-92).
Once again, let’s look at Dunn: Colossians and Philemon. Does he see Rome and the empire in these terms? We ought to observe that Dunn’s first degree was in economics. “The fact that all four terms [here he has trotted through evidence in the Jewish traditions] thus refer only to the invisible, heavenly realm” (92).
Oddly enough, he says Wink — whose view is not that far from W-K — “offers quite an effective demythologization of the four powers” (93). There’s hope. It might not be a stretch but it might just be.