Commentary on the Epistle of the Holy Apostle Paul to the Ephesians

Ephesus and the founding of the church in Ephesus Place and time of writing the message The purpose of the message and the reason for writing it Ephesus, lying on the Kaistro River, at its confluence with the Icarian Sea (part of the Aegean Sea), was the main city of the Asiatic province (sometimes called simply Asia). The city fortress rose on a cliff. The harbor was located at the mouth of the Caistro. Due to its fortunate position, Ephesus became the most important trading city in the province of Asia, but morally its population stood at a very low level. Among the magnificent buildings of the city, the most famous was the Church of Diana or Artemis. There were also many Jews living in Ephesus. After the founding of the church in Ephesus, this city for a long time served as the focal point of Christianity in Asia Minor. After Ap. Paul lived here. John the Theologian, and then councils met here several times. Ephesus was probably destroyed by Tamerlane in 1402. Currently, on the site of this glorious city there are only ruins and nomad shepherds only stop here occasionally. The first seeds of Christianity were planted in Ephesus by the disciples of John the Baptist, who, although they had far insufficient knowledge of the Christian faith, still believed in Jesus as the Messiah. Then for a short time, during his second apostolic journey, he visited Ephesus. Paul talked here with the Jews about faith, leaving behind the further spread of the Gospel in Ephesus to the responsibilities of his friends Aquila and Priscilla, to whom the Alexandrian Jew Apollos later came to their aid, who himself was fully instructed in the truths of the faith only here by Aquila and Priscilla. A lasting structure for the Ephesian Church was given only during the third journey of St. Pavel. On this journey Ap. stayed in Ephesus for about three years and gathered many Jews and pagans into one church community, performed many miracles over the mentally and physically sick, put an end to the magic that had crept into the midst of the Jews, and happily escaped the danger that threatened him during the popular uprising that the goldsmith Demetrius raised against him. Hence Ap. extended his beneficial influence throughout Asia Minor. Upon his departure from Ephesus, Ap. appointed his disciple Timothy bishop of the Church of Ephesus. The Epistle to the Ephesians was written by the Apostle in chains (Eph.3:1, 4:1). It is clear from everything that these were the first Roman bonds of the Apostle, and not the Caesarean ones. Thus, various ancient manuscripts and translations of the message have a signature indicating that this message was written from Rome. Then, the Apostle, as can be seen from the message (Eph. 1:15, 6:19, 20), is preparing to make a final answer before the pagan authorities, which he could not expect back in Caesarea, since in Caesarea he had only yet stated a demand that he be sent to Rome for trial. Bonds in which Ap. wrote a letter to the Ephesians, undoubtedly his first bonds were in Rome, because Ap. does not yet feel such constraint as he felt during his second bond. Since the first ties lasted from the spring of 62 to the spring of 64, the origin of the message should be attributed to this time. The Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Ephesians was recognized by the entire ancient Church as written specifically to the Ephesian Church. But the newest criticism denies this, first of all, on the grounds that the words of the first verse: “in Ephesus” are supposedly inauthentic and inserted by one of the copyists of the epistle. Then they point out that the message as a whole is of a general nature, that there is nothing special in it relating to the Ephesian church, there are no greetings to individuals. But these considerations cannot be considered sufficient. The words “in Ephesus” are not found in only three codices, while all other lists and translations of the epistle have them. Then, the word “located” or “existent” with the disappearance of the words “in Ephesus” remains, one might say, hanging in the air. Finally, it is incredible that the Apostle, who everywhere in other epistles precisely designates the addressees of the message in greetings, would here deviate from this custom 1 . As for the general nature of the message, despite it, it still cannot be denied that our message gives the impression of a message that was directed to a specific church. The Apostle gave his letter to the Ephesians a general character in the expectation that this letter would spread to other churches in Asia Minor. And we also do not find greetings to individuals in the letter to the Galatians. This lack of greetings can be explained by the fact that Paul would have had to fill entire pages with greetings alone, since he had many, many acquaintances in Ephesus. The external reason for writing the letter to the Ephesians was the departure of Tychicus to Asia Minor. Ap is with him. and found it necessary to send a message. As for internal motives, for what Ap. decided to address the Ephesians with a letter, then any polemical purpose must be excluded: nowhere is it visible that the Apostle wanted to refute any heretics in the letter. The easiest way is to assume that the Apostle, feeling that his activity was coming to an end, wanted to reveal to his beloved church the greatness of Christianity, which apparently was not quite clearly recognized by the Ephesian Christians, and then establish the idea of ​​the need for unity, which was also not enough among the Ephesians. Contrary to the general voice of antiquity, which recognizes the Epistle to the Ephesians as the authentic work of the Apostle Paul, modern criticism denies this authenticity. Firstly, critics point out that the theology in this letter differs from the theology of other, undoubtedly authentic works of the Apostle Paul, and secondly, that this letter is very similar to the letter to the Colossians, so that it is simply an expansion of the latter. As for the first consideration, it does not have any solid basis, because critics actually could not find anything contradictory in the theology of this epistle with the theology of other Pauline epistles. There is no doubt that the teaching about the person of the Lord Jesus Christ is presented here more fully and accurately, but this was required by the circumstances of the time. If the letter to the Ephesians in some places is similar to the letter to the Colossians, this does not speak against its authenticity (see this in the introduction to the book of Colossians). Finally, they also point to a special style of the message, but this indication also does not have much significance, because “this message from beginning to end has the character of a positive disclosure of Christian religious and moral teachings and polemics do not appear directly anywhere; there are no constant opponents of St. The Apostles are Judaizers, and therefore there are no “questions” and no “answers” ​​to the enemies who pervert the Gospel” (Prof. Bogdashevsky, p. 199). This is what distinguishes the epistle to the Ephesians from the last. to the Romans, Corinth. and Galatians. Thus, the objections to the authenticity of the message do not have any solid foundation. The Epistle to the Ephesians can conveniently be divided into two parts: dogmatic (Eph. 1–3) and moral (Eph. 4–6). In the first part of Ap. reveals the greatness of Christianity in general (precisely in the first chapter), and then he reveals the same idea in the application to the readers of the message (Eph. 2) and, finally, speaks about this greatness from the point of view of his personal experience (Eph. 3). The moralizing part of the epistle also first sets out instructions of a general nature that apply to each member of the Church without distinction (Eph. 4:1–5:21), and then there are instructions for members of the Christian family (Eph. 5:22–6:9). The letter ends with some exhortations, messages and an apostolic benediction (Eph. 6:10–24). In patristic literature there are known interpretations of the Epistle to the Ephesians, belonging to St. John Chrysostom, bl. Theodorit, bl. Jerome, St. John of Damascus, Theophylact and others. Of the Russian works, the most outstanding are: Smirnov S. E. Prot. Philological remarks about the New Testament language in comparison with the classical one when reading the epistle of Ap. Paul to the Ephesians (doctoral dissertation). M. 1873 – Bishop Theophan. Interpretation of the message of St. Ap. Paul to the Ephesians M. 1882 – Bogdashevsky D. prof. Message of St. Ap. Paul to the Ephesians. Isagogical-exegetical research. Kyiv. 1904 – Among the newest foreign ones we can name: Meyer. Messages from captivity. 1897 (arranged by Haupt). – Paul Ewald, Paul's Epistles to the Ephesians, Colossians and Philemon (ed. Zahn) 1910 and Dibelius. Epistles of the Ap. Paul to the Colossians, Ephesians and Philemon. 1912. All three of these interpretations are in German. You might be interested in: