Ephesians

THE EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE

[1] [2]

[3] [4]

[5] [6]

INTRODUCTION

THE

headings

(Eph 1:1,

and Eph 3:1,

show that this Epistle claims to be that of Paul. This claim is

confirmed by the testimonies of IRENÆUS,

[Against Heresies, 5.2,3; 1.8,5]; CLEMENT

OF ALEXANDRIA, [Miscellanies, 4, P.

65, and The Instructor, 1.8]; ORIGEN,

[Against Celsus, 4,211]. It is quoted by VALENTINUS, A.D. 120, namely,

Eph 3:14-18,

as we know from HIPPOLYTUS [The Refutation of

All Heresies, p. 193]. POLYCARP [Epistle

to the Philippians, 12], testifies to its canonicity. So TERTULLIAN [Against Marcion, 5,17]. IGNATIUS [Epistle to the Ephesians, 12], which

alludes to the frequent and affectionate mention made by Paul of the

Christian state, privileges, and persons of the Ephesians in his

Epistle.

Two theories, besides the ordinary one, have been held on the

question, to whom the Epistle is addressed.

GROTIUS, after the

heretic Marcion, maintains that it was addressed to the Church at

Laodicea, and that it is the Epistle to which Paul refers in

Col 4:16.

But the Epistle to the Colossians was probably written before

that to the Ephesians, as appears from the parallel passages in

Ephesians bearing marks of being expanded from those in Colossians; and

Marcion seems to have drawn his notion, as to our Epistle, from Paul's

allusion

(Col 4:16)

to an Epistle addressed by him to the Laodiceans. ORIGEN and CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA, and even TERTULLIAN, who

refers to Marcion, give no sanction to his notion. No single manuscript

contains the heading, "to the saints that are at Laodicea." The very

resemblance of the Epistle to the Ephesians, to that to the Colossians,

is against the theory; for if the former were really the one addressed

to Laodicea

(Col 4:16),

Paul would not have deemed it necessary that the churches of Colosse

and Laodicea should interchange Epistles. The greetings, moreover

(Col 4:15),

which he sends through the Colossians to the Laodiceans, are

quite incompatible with the idea that Paul wrote an Epistle to the

Laodiceans at the same time, and by the same bearer, Tychicus (the

bearer of our Epistle to the Ephesians, as well as of that to Colosse,

Eph 6:21;

Col 4:7);

for who, under such circumstances, would not send the greetings

directly in the letter to the party saluted? The letter to

Laodicea was evidently written some time before that to Colosse,

Archbishop USHER has advanced the second theory:

That it was an encyclical letter headed, as in Manuscript B.,

"to the saints that are . . . and to the faithful," the name

of each Church being inserted in the copy sent to it; and that its

being sent to Ephesus first, occasioned its being entitled, as

now, the Epistle to the Ephesians. ALFORD makes

the following objections to this theory: (1) It is at variance with the

spirit of the Epistle, which is clearly addressed to one set of persons

throughout, co-existing in one place, and as one body, and under the

same circumstances. (2) The improbability that the apostle, who in two

of his Epistles (Second Corinthians and Galatians) has so plainly

specified their encyclical character, should have here omitted such

specification. (3) The still greater improbability that he should have,

as on this hypothesis must be assumed, written a circular Epistle to a

district, of which Ephesus was the commercial capital, addressed to

various churches within that district, yet from its very contents (as

Church of that metropolis, in which he had spent so long a time, and to

which he was so affectionately bound. (4) The inconsistency of this

hypothesis with the address of the Epistle, and the universal testimony

of the ancient Church. The absence of personal greetings is not an

argument for either of the two theories; for similarly there are none

in Galatians, Philippians, First and Second Thessalonians, First

Timothy. The better he knows the parties addressed, and the more

general and solemn the subject, the less he seems to give of these

individual notices. Writing, as he does in this Epistle, on the

constitution and prospects of Christ's universal Church, he refers the

Ephesians, as to personal matters, to the bearer of the Epistle,

Tychicus

(Eph 6:21, 22).

As to the omission of "which are at Ephesus"

(Eph 1:1),

in Manuscript B., so "in Rome"

(Ro 1:7)

is omitted in some old manuscripts: it was probably done by churches

among whom it was read, in order to generalize the reference of

its contents, and especially where the subject of the Epistle is

catholic. The words are found in the margin of Manuscript B, from a

first hand; and are found in all the oldest manuscripts and

versions.

Paul's first visit to Ephesus (on the seacoast of Lydia, near the

river Cayster) is related in

Ac 18:19-21.

The work, begun by his disputations with the Jews in his short visit,

was carried on by Apollos

(Ac 18:24-26),

and Aquila and Priscilla

(Ac 18:26).

At his second visit, after his journey to Jerusalem, and thence to the

east regions of Asia Minor, he remained at Ephesus "three years"

(Ac 19:10,

the "two years" in which verse are only part of the time, and

Ac 20:31);

so that the founding and rearing of this Church occupied an unusually

large portion of the apostle's time and care; whence his language in

this Epistle shows a warmth of feeling, and a free outpouring of

thought, and a union in spiritual privileges and hope between him and

them

(Eph 1:3,

&c.), such as are natural from one so long and so intimately associated

with those whom he addresses. On his last journey to Jerusalem, he

sailed by Ephesus and summoned the elders of the Ephesian Church to

meet him at Miletus, where he delivered his remarkable farewell charge

(Ac 20:18-35).

This Epistle was addressed to the Ephesians during the early part of

his imprisonment at Rome, immediately after that to the Colossians, to

which it bears a close resemblance in many passages, the apostle having

in his mind generally the same great truths in writing both. It is an

undesigned proof of genuineness that the two Epistles, written about

the same date, and under the same circumstances, bear a closer mutual

resemblance than those written at distant dates and on different

occasions. Compare

Eph 1:7

with Col 1:14;

Eph 1:10

with Col 1:20;

Eph 3:2

with Col 1:25;

Eph 5:19

with Col 3:16;

Eph 6:22

with Col 4:8;

Eph 1:19; 2:5

with Col 2:12, 13;

Eph 4:2-4

with Col 3:12-15;

Eph 4:16

with Col 2:19;

Eph 4:32

with Col 3:13;

Eph 4:22-24

with Col 3:9, 10;

Eph 5:6-8

with Col 3:6-8;

Eph 5:15, 16

with Col 4:5;

Eph 6:19, 20

with Col 4:3, 4;

Eph 5:22-33; 6:1-9

with Col 3:18;

Eph 4:24, 25

with Col 3:9;

Eph 5:20-22

with Col 3:17, 18.

Tychicus and Onesimus were being sent to Colosse, the former bearing

the two Epistles to the two churches respectively, the latter furnished

with a letter of recommendation to Philemon, his former master,

residing at Colosse. The date was probably about four years after his

parting with the Ephesian elders at Miletus

(Ac 20:6-38),

about A.D. 62, before his imprisonment had become

of the more severe kind, which appears in his Epistle to the

Philippians. From

Eph 6:19, 20

it is plain he had at the time, though a prisoner, some degree of

freedom in preaching, which accords with

Ac 28:23, 30, 31,

where he is represented as receiving at his lodgings all inquirers. His

imprisonment began in February A.D. 61 and lasted

"two whole years"

(Ac 28:30)

at least, and perhaps longer.

The Church of Ephesus was made up of converts partly from the Jews

and partly from the Gentiles

(Ac 19:8-10).

Accordingly, the Epistle so addresses a Church constituted

(Eph 2:14-22).

Ephesus was famed for its idol temple of Artemis or Diana, which, after

its having been burnt down by Herostratus on the night that Alexander

the Great was born (355 B.C.), was rebuilt at

enormous cost and was one of the wonders of the world. Hence, perhaps,

have arisen his images in this Epistle drawn from a beautiful temple:

the Church being in true inner beauty that which the temple of the idol

tried to realize in outward show

(Eph 2:19-22).

The Epistle

(Eph 4:17; 5:1-13)

implies the profligacy for which the Ephesian heathen were notorious.

Many of the same expressions occur in the Epistle as in Paul's address

to the Ephesian elders. Compare

Eph 1:6, 7; 2:7,

as to "grace," with

Ac 20:24, 32:

this may well be called "the Epistle of the grace of God"

[ALFORD]. Also, as to his "bonds,"

Eph 3:1, and 4:1

with Ac 20:22, 23.

Also

Eph 1:11,

as to "the counsel of God," with

Ac 20:27.

Also

Eph 1:14,

as to "the redemption of the purchased possession," with

Ac 20:28.

Also

Eph 1:14, 18; 2:20; 5:5,

as to "building up" the "inheritance," with

Ac 20:32.

The object of the Epistle is "to set forth the ground, the course,

and the aim and end of THE

CHURCH OF THE

FAITHFUL IN

CHRIST.

He speaks to the Ephesians as a type or sample of the Church universal"

[ALFORD].

Hence, "the Church" throughout the Epistle is spoken of in the

singular, not in the plural, "churches." The Church's foundation, its

course, and its end, are his theme alike in the larger and smaller

divisions of the whole Epistle. "Everywhere the foundation of the

Church is in the will of the Father; the course of the Church is by

the satisfaction of the Son; the end of the Church is the

life in the Holy Spirit"

[ALFORD]. Compare respectively

Eph 1:11; 2:5; 3:16.

This having been laid down as a matter of doctrine (this part closing

with a sublime doxology,

Eph 3:14-21),

is then made the ground of practical exhortations. In these latter also

(from

Eph 4:1,

onward), the same threefold division prevails, for the Church is

represented as founded on the counsel of "God the Father, who is above

all, through all, and in all," reared by the "one Lord," Jesus Christ,

through the "one Spirit"

(Eph 4:4-6,

&c.), who give their respective graces to the several members. These

last are therefore to exercise all these graces in the several

relations of life, as husbands, wives, servants, children, &c. The

conclusion is that we must put on "the whole armor of God"

(Eph 6:13).

The sublimity of the STYLE and

LANGUAGE corresponds to the sublimity

of the subjects and exceeds almost that of any part of his Epistles. It

is appropriate that those to whom he so wrote were Christians long

grounded in the faith. The very sublimity is the cause of the

difficulty of the style, and of the presence of peculiar expressions

occurring, not found elsewhere.