Introduction
Ephesus and the founding of the church in Ephesus
Place and time of writing the epistle
Purpose of the epistle and occasion for its writing
On the authenticity of the epistle
Contents of the epistle
Literature
Ephesus and the founding of the church in Ephesus
Ephesus, lying on the river Cayster at its mouth into the Aegean Sea, was the chief city of the province of Asia (sometimes called simply Asia). The city fortress rose on a rock. The harbor lay at the mouth of the Cayster. By virtue of its favorable location, Ephesus became the most important commercial city of the province of Asia, but in moral respects its population stood at a very low level. Among the magnificent buildings of the city, the most famous was the temple of Diana or Artemis. Many Jews lived in Ephesus. After the church was founded in Ephesus, this city for a long time served as the central point of Christianity in Asia Minor. After the Apostle Paul, the Apostle John the Divine lived here, and later councils were assembled here several times. Ephesus was probably destroyed by Tamerlane in 1402. At the present time in place of this glorious city lie only ruins and rarely only nomadic shepherds stop here.
The first seeds of Christianity were sown in Ephesus by the disciples of John the Baptist, who although had far insufficient knowledge in the Christian faith, nevertheless did believe in Jesus as the Messiah. Later, for a short time, during his second apostolic journey, the Apostle Paul came to Ephesus and spoke here with the Jews about the faith, leaving the further spread of the Gospel in Ephesus to the responsibility of his friends Aquila and Priscilla, to whom the Alexandrian Jew Apollos came to help, who himself was fully instructed in the truths of faith only here by Aquila and Priscilla. The firm establishment of the Ephesian church was given only on the Apostle Paul’s third journey. On this journey the Apostle stayed in Ephesus for about three years and gathered into one church community many Jews and gentiles, worked many miracles on those suffering in soul and body, put an end to the sorcery that had crept in even among the Jews, and fortunately avoided the danger threatening him during a popular uprising which was raised against him by Demetrius, a master craftsman of golden vessels. From here the Apostle extended his beneficent influence over all Asia Minor. Upon his departure from Ephesus the Apostle appointed his disciple Timothy as bishop of the Ephesian church.
Place and time of writing the epistle
The epistle to the Ephesians was written by the Apostle in bonds (Eph 3:1). By every indication, these were the first Roman bonds of the Apostle, not Caesarean ones. Thus, various ancient manuscripts and translations of the epistle have a superscription attesting that this epistle was written from Rome. Then, the Apostle, as is evident from the epistle (Eph 1:15), prepares to give his final answer before the pagan authority, which he could not have expected while still in Caesarea, since in Caesarea it was only demanded that he be sent for trial to Rome. The bonds in which the Apostle wrote the epistle to the Ephesians were undoubtedly his first bonds in Rome, because the Apostle does not yet feel the constraint that he felt during his second bonds. Since the first bonds lasted from spring of 62 to spring of 64, the origin of the epistle should be dated to this time.
Purpose of the epistle and occasion for its writing
The epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Ephesians was recognized by the entire ancient Church as written precisely to the Ephesian church. But modern criticism denies this first of all on the ground that the words of the first verse: “in Ephesus” allegedly are not genuine and were inserted by one of the copyists of the epistle. Then they point out that the epistle as a whole has a general character, that in it there is nothing special pertaining to the Ephesian church, no greetings to individual persons. But these considerations cannot be recognized as sufficient. The words “in Ephesus” are found only in three codices, whereas all the remaining copies and translations of the epistle contain them. Moreover, the word “dwelling” or “being” with the omission of the words “in Ephesus” remains, one might say, hanging in the air. It is improbable, finally, that the Apostle, everywhere in his other epistles precisely designating in the greeting the addressees of the epistle, would here depart from this custom 1. As for the general character of the epistle, despite it one still cannot deny that our epistle makes the impression of a letter which was directed to a definite church. The general character was given to his epistle to the Ephesians by the Apostle in the calculation that this epistle would go to the other churches of Asia Minor. And greetings to individual persons we do not encounter also in the epistle to the Galatians. This absence of greetings can be explained by the fact that Paul would have had to fill whole pages with nothing but greetings, since in Ephesus he had a great multitude of acquaintances.
The external occasion for writing the epistle to the Ephesians was the sending of Tychicus to Asia Minor. The Apostle found it necessary to send the epistle with him. As for the internal reasons why the Apostle decided to address the Ephesians with an epistle, here one must exclude any polemical purpose: nowhere is it evident that the Apostle wished to refute some heretics in the epistle. Most simply one may suppose that the Apostle, feeling that his activity was drawing to a close, wished to reveal before the church he loved the greatness of Christianity, which apparently was not sufficiently clearly understood by the Ephesian Christians, and then to establish the thought about the necessity of unity, which was also insufficient among the Ephesians.
On the authenticity of the epistle
Contrary to the universal voice of antiquity, which recognizes the epistle to the Ephesians as a genuine work of the Apostle Paul, modern criticism denies this authenticity. First, critics point out that the theology in this epistle differs from the theology of other, undoubtedly genuine works of the Apostle Paul, and second, that this epistle is very similar to the epistle to the Colossians, so that it seems to be simply an expansion of the latter. As for the first consideration, it has no solid foundation, because critics could not in fact find anything contradictory in the theology of this epistle with the theology of other Pauline epistles. It is only certain that here the doctrine concerning the person of the Lord Jesus Christ is set forth more fully and precisely, but this was required by the circumstances of the time. If the epistle to the Ephesians in some places is similar to the epistle to the Colossians, this does not speak against its authenticity (see on this in the introduction to the epistle to the Colossians). Finally, they point also to the special style of the epistle, but this indication also has no particular significance, because “this epistle from beginning to end bears the character of a positive exposition of Christian faith and moral teaching and polemic nowhere comes forward directly; the usual opponents of the holy Apostle are absent - the Judaizers, and therefore there are no ‘questions,’ no ‘answers’ to enemies perverting the Gospel” (Prof. Bogdashevsky p. 199). By this the epistle to the Ephesians differs from the epistles to the Romans, Corinthians, and Galatians. Thus, the objections against the authenticity of the epistle all have no solid foundation.
Contents of the epistle
The epistle to the Ephesians can conveniently be divided into two parts: dogmatic (Eph 1-3) and moral-instructive (Eph 4-6). In the first part the Apostle unfolds the greatness of Christianity in general (namely in the first chapter), and then the same idea he develops in application to the readers of the epistle (Eph 2) and, finally, speaks of this greatness from the point of view of his own personal experience (Eph 3). In the moral-instructive part of the epistle also at first instructions of a general character are set forth, pertaining to every member of the Church without distinction (Eph 4:1-5:21), and then follow instructions to members of the Christian family (Eph 5:22-6:9). The epistle ends with certain exhortations, announcements, and the apostolic blessing (Eph 6:10-24).
Literature
In patristic literature, commentaries on the epistle to the Ephesians are known, belonging to St. John Chrysostom, Blessed Theodoret, Blessed Jerome, St. John of Damascus, Theophylact and others. From Russian works the most outstanding are: Smirnov S. E. archpriest. Philological remarks on the language of the New Testament in comparison with the classical in reading the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Ephesians (doctoral dissertation). M. 1873. - Theophan bishop. Commentary on the epistle of the holy Apostle Paul to the Ephesians. M. 1882. - Bogdashevsky D. professor. The epistle of the holy Apostle Paul to the Ephesians. Isagogical-exegetical investigation. Kiev. 1904. - From more recent foreign works one can name: Meyer’s. Epistles from captivity. 1897 (in the revision of Haupt). - Paul Ewald’s, Epistles of Paul to the Ephesians, Colossians and Philemon (ed. Zahn) 1910 and Dibelius. Epistles of the Apostle Paul to the Colossians, Ephesians and Philemon. 1912. All three of these commentaries are in German.
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To what was said one can add that in other epistles of the Apostle Paul to the expression “those dwelling” or “being,” there is always added a designation of the place where the readers of the epistle “dwelt,” “existed.” Cf. Rom 1:7; 2 Cor 1:1; Phil 1:1. If St. Basil the Great reports the existence of copies of the epistle without the addition “in Ephesus,” then from his words one can see that these were copies which did not have wide distribution. The saint himself recognized this expression as genuine. Finally, it should not trouble us that the expression “in Ephesus” is applied in the text only to the word “holy” and as if separates two notions closely bound together - “holy” and “faithful”: the first predicate, as designating Christians in general, needs in precise definition of the place of residence of these Christians to whom the Apostle addresses himself. The second predicate - “faithful in Christ Jesus,” as designating not their external position as members (“holy”) of a known church, but their inner Christian state, does not need designation of the place of residence of these “faithful”