Epistle to the Ephesians

The Ephesians were listeners of the Evangelist John. When he saw that his three comrades began their Gospels with the body (the birth of the Lord according to the flesh), so that people would not think that He who appeared to him was only a man, and not the Son of God, he deviated from his comrades and gave his Gospel a new beginning, which his comrades did not do. Therefore, he began his Gospel by revealing the mystery, and not that He was born of Mary, or of David and Abraham and Adam, but this way: “In the beginning was the Word, and that Word was to God, and God was that Word” (John 1:1). Since the Apostle (Paul) knew that the Ephesians, according to the Gospel of John, their mentor, were well taught regarding the Divinity of our Lord 1, he left that in which they were perfect, and decided to write about His incarnation and life in the body. Therefore, he spoke to them about the humiliation of His flesh, - so he descended to the depths of the earth, and wrote about His greatness, - so that he ascended above all the heavens. And although at the beginning of the epistle he connects the world of the Son with the world of the Father, what is then said in different places primarily interprets to the Ephesians about His humanity than about His Divinity. Obviously, it is assumed that the Gospel of John was written earlier than the Epistle to the Ephesians, and that John the Theologian moved to Ephesus during the life of the Apostle Paul. You might be interested in: