Book Of Ephesians Research Paper
The authenticity of the Book of Ephesians has been challenged over the course of history in terms of both authorship, and destination. For this writing, we will assume that Paul, while imprisoned in Rome around A.D. 61, wrote the letter. The issue regarding Paul’s intended recipient exist because the words, ‘to the Ephesians’ are not contained in the earliest manuscripts such as the Chester Beatty papyrus from A.D. 200. Additionally, notable fourth century scholars including Origen, Basil, and Jerome indicated that ‘to the Ephesians’ was absent on those manuscripts they had seen. The question that must be addressed then is who was the letter written to? There are two theories which seem plausible. The first is that the letter was not sent to any specific church, but to the region of Asia Minor for anyone to read. This suggestion is challenged grammatically. Writing 1:1 with a blank space and with ‘in Ephesus’ missing, “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are ___________, and are faithful in Christ Jesus:”, produces an overemphasis for the word ‘faithful’ and an unexplained gap on the line which is not easily ignored. A second theory is that a single letter was written for the consumption of multiple churches throughout Asia Minor. This single copy, intentionally left blank in the section assigned for
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At the core of this letter is profound theological truths concerning Christianity. The letter written to the Ephesians forces a believer to look up, to refocus and shift our earthly perspective to the eternally divine and spiritual reality that we exist in. In chapters 1-3 Paul gloriously explains how the providence of the trinity for believers produces inherent unity. In 4:1-16, believers are called to participate with the Trinity by preserving this unity, “…to build up the body of Christ…”, and bring glory to God through His
At the core of this letter is profound theological truths concerning Christianity. The letter written to the Ephesians forces a believer to look up, to refocus and shift our earthly perspective to the eternally divine and spiritual reality that we exist in. In chapters 1-3 Paul gloriously explains how the providence of the trinity for believers produces inherent unity. In 4:1-16, believers are called to participate with the Trinity by preserving this unity, “…to build up the body of Christ…”, and bring glory to God through His