Ephesians

Ephesians , letter of the New Testament, written, according to tradition, by St. Paul to the Christians of Ephesus from his captivity at Rome (c.AD 60). There is ground for believing that the letter was intended as an encyclical. By virtue of the resurrection the writer claims that God has made Jesus supreme over all power and authority; he is made effective through the church, which is his body. The letter states that existing enmity between Jew and Gentile has been broken down in the church, thus creating a new humanity, which is exhorted to live worthily of the calling to manifest the glory of God in the world. The letter concludes with the extended metaphor of the Christian as soldier. Many scholars argue that Ephesians is pseudonymous. It speaks of being raised with Jesus as present experience, in language not found in the undisputed Pauline letters. The conventional morality of the so-called household code in chapters 5 and 6 has no parallel in the undisputed Pauline letters.

Bibliography: See A. T. Lincoln, Ephesians (1990); R. P. Martin, Ephesians, Colossians, & Philemon (1992).

Ephesians, Letter to the. One of the epistles of Paul and a book of the New Testament.

Ephesians, Epistle to the. This NT Epistle was apparently written when its author was in prison, but considerations of style and theological emphasis have led scholars to question whether it is the work of St Paul. Since the words ‘in Ephesus’ in 1: 1 are missing in some MSS, it has been suggested that it was a circular letter in which the appropriate place-name was inserted in the copies sent to different Churches. There are close parallels with Col., and it has sometimes been held that Eph. is a working-up of Col. into a more systematic doctrinal treatise, or even an exposition of Pauline teaching designed as an introduction to the first collection of his letters.