For ἐγκεχειρῆσθαι,
the reading of all the printed Editions, which hardly yields a suitable
sense, we should probably substitute ἐγκεχειρίσθαι. A similar confusion of the two verbs occurs in Polybius
(Hist. VIII. xviii. 6); the proper use of the latter is seen in
Joh. Damasc. (De Fide Orthod. II. 4, quoted by Cleopas),
who speaks of Satan as being “of these Angelic powers the chief
of the earthly order, and entrusted by God with the guardianship of the
earth” (τῆς
γῆς τὴν
φυλακὴν
ἐγχειρισθεὶς
παρὰ Θεοῦ).