Introduction to the Letter to the Ephesians

1. Introduction to the Letter to the Ephesians

2. The City of Ephesus • The god’s of the city. The city was principally celebrated for its temple of Artimus. • The Magic of the City-With the worship of Artimus the practice of sorcery was from the earliest times connected.

3. Authorship • Arguments in favor of Pauline Authorship • The epistle announces itself as written by Paul the Apostle. • There is nothing in its contents inconsistent with the assumption of his being its author. • All the incidental references agree with what is known to be true concerning Paul. • The style, the doctrines, the sentiments, the spirit, the character revealed, are those of Paul. • The whole ancient church received it as genuine.

4. Objections to Pauline Authorship • That Paul was familiarly acquainted with the Ephesians, whereas the writer of this epistle had only heard of their conversion and of their faith and love. • That this epistle is merely a verbose imitation of the Epistle to the Colossians. • The epistle contains no reference to the peculiar circumstances of the Ephesians.

5. It is objected that the style is not that of Paul. • The principal objection urged by Baur of Tubingen, is that the Epistle to the Ephesians contains allusions to Gnostic opinions, which did not prevail until after the apostolic age.

6. To whom was the letter written? • This has to do with the textual problem in Eph. 1:1 • As to this point there are three opinions. • That it was addressed to the Ephesians. • That it was addressed to the Laodiceans. • That it was a circular letter designed for all the churches in that part of Asia Minor

7. In favor of the letter being addressed to the Ephesians: • That the epistle is directed| to those who are in Ephesus. • That this epistle was addressed to the Ephesians is proved by the testimony of the ancient church.

8. Arguments in favor of a circular letter: • The Lack of the words in Ephesis in the older manuscripts. • The problem with this view is that it is only in Ephesis that has survived. If the above were the case, one would expect other churches names to crop up, which they do not.

9. The Epistle’s relation to the book of Colossians • Points of similarity • In the occurrence in both epistles of the same words and forms of expressions. • In passages which are identical in thought and language. • In passages in which the thought is the same and the expression is varied. • In others where the same topic is more fully handled in the one epistle than in the other.

10. Points of difference- • While the Epistle to the Colossians has every indication of having been written to a particular congregation and in reference to their peculiar circumstances, the absence of these features is the most marked characteristic of the Epistle to the Ephesians. • In the Epistle to the Ephesians the doctrinal element prevails over the practical; in the Epistle to the Colossians it is just the reverse.

11. The main object of the Epistle to the Colossians is to warn the church against philosophy falsely so called. Of this there is no indication in the Epistle to the Ephesians. • There are, therefore, topics discussed in the one epistle, to which there is nothing to correspond in the other. • The order of sequence, except in the case of some particular exhortations, is entirely different in the two epistles.

12. Key Themes in the book of Ephesians. • The Greatness of God -1:3 • The Exalted Christ -1:21-22 • The Status of Believers- “in Christ” occurs 34 times in the book. • The Unity of Jew and Gentile-2:14-16 • The struggle with the powers of evil. 6:12 • The ethical obligation of believers- there are many imperatives starting with chapter 4. • The church- this is the main theme.