Who Is The Author Of Ephesians?

The book of Ephesians is one of Paul’s many New Testament letters, or epistles, to the Christian church still in its infancy. At the time of its writing, Paul is in Rome, imprisoned for championing the purposes of Christ and growing the church. We see numerous occurrences where Paul, being a man of little concern for the status quo, is either imprisoned or fleeing capture by Jewish or Roman officials for usurping the latter (Acts 19: 23-41). The date of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is dated 60-61A.D., depending on differing research. While this is certainly one of his epistles known as the “prison letters”, Ephesians was penned prior to Paul’s first roman

Historical and Literary Context When looking at the historical context of Ephesians the first questions that are raised is if Paul is the author of this

Ephesians is a letter written by the Apostle Paul during his imprisonment in Rome. This is the same Paul who had previously persecuted the church. He is not writing to a particular church body, rather his intended audience was various churches in the surrounding vicinity of Ephesus. To encourage

Paul visited Ephesus on his first missionary journey, on the way from Greece to Syria. After his third missionary journey, he stayed there and pastored the Ephesian church for 3 years (Easton, np). “Though Paul was not the first to bring Christianity to Ephesus, for Jews had long lived there, he was the first to make progress against the worship of Diana” (Orr, np). Because of his strong ties to the church, Paul cared deeply about the faith of the believers there (Macarthur, np).

The letters Paul of Tarsus wrote helped contribute to 25% of Christian scriptures and 14 epistles were written by Paul . In Paul’s letters he

The Apostle John settled the first Christian community in Ephesus. Paul pastored everywhere including synagogues. It was ranking number three city of Christians after Jerusalem and Antioch. One of the possible reasons for Paul writing the letter is to let the Ephesians know how he was doing in jail. Large crowds were probably in over 20,000, the Temple of Artemis was home to many occult, magic, politics and pagan events. It has also been said about the book of Ephesians, the letter may have been circular and had a wider area than one audience. Paul moved around and had a following when he was not

Authorship – The epistle of Romans is universally regarded as an authentic letter written by the Apostle Paul (Powell, 222). The book of Romans belongs to a group of letters referred to as the undisputed letters of Paul (Powell, 223). In fact, Paul’s name appears as the very first word in the epistle (NRSV, 2007).

Paul wrote the book of Ephesians, while he was imprisoned. The date that Ephesians was written is best dated between 60-90 AD, but closer to 90 since Ignatius is the earliest known person to quote it. Traditionally it is understood that this letter was written to believers in Ephesus of Asia Minor. Through this book Paul reveals who we are with and without Christ. Ephesians discusses the topic of blending the Jewish and non-Jewish Christians into one community. The reoccurring theme in Ephesians is God’s purpose and plan in offering redemption to His people and the manifestation of that purpose in the life of the believer. Ephesians seeks to shape believers by reminding them how wonderful God’s work in Christ is, how significant their unity with Christ is, and what living for Christ looks like.

First there is the argument of Pauline authorship that defends itself with internal evidence such as Paul speaking in first Person, External evidence such as being supported by the early church fathers, the inerrancy of the Bible, if we as Christians truly believe that the Bible is free of error than the contradictions would in fact truncate the inerrancy of the Bible, historical circumstances that support the Pauline authorship such as Paul being in jail mentioned in the book of Acts and similar theology in the uncontested epistles of Paul. Alternatively, critics claim to have determined a set of themes core to Paul’s theology. Deviation and/or development from such themes indicate the author of the letter as an imitator, forger, or student of Paul (depending on the type of deviation and one’s ideological disposition toward pseudonymity). In contrast the case against Pauline authorship is grouped into four objections. The first would be the literary style of the Epistle this is argued that there are a number if words that do not occur in other Pauline accepted epistles, the style also differs from the accepted epistles it is said that Paul takes a unusual method to approach the theme of the epistle, next

The author makes mention of the Johnnies writing and the fathers as strong evidence of John the apostle writing the epistle (Jensen. 466). The epistle was written around A.D. 90 from the city of Ephesus.

The New Testament was a huge part of my life as a young man as I grew up in the church and my father was a deacon. I have always been drawn to helping others and protecting those who cannot protect themselves, which is why at a young age I joined the United States Marine Corps and served four years before joining the Memphis Police Department for the last twenty years. One passage that has always been a part of my life is from Ephesians 4: 22-28. Furthermore, the literary form used in the Book of Ephesians is the letters although, not directly from Paul they are from under his influence by the school of Pauline, which created the book and disseminated the structure of the church (Harris, 1995). I digress, the passage of Ephesians stated that

In the ESV study bible, the authors wrote an excerpt on Ephesians prefacing the author, title, date, background information, and a description of the ancient city of Ephesus. Relating to the author of Ephesians all scholars believed that Paul wrote the letter, until recent times where many scholars propose that an imitator or a follower of Paul wrote the letter. The scholars give two reasons for this theory, the first is the letter’s style does not represent Pauline thought, and the second being the authors unfamiliarity with the recipients. In contrast, some scholars say there is ample proof of Pauline authorship; the first reason is the letter explicitly claims to be Paul’s in Ephesians 1:1 and 3:1, and the second reason subsists in more analysis of the text and that it is similar to other Pauline texts. The final argument for Pauline authorship is the forcefulness of the author’s speech mentioned in Ephesians 4:15, and verse 25. In these two verses, the argument that the author is unfamiliar with the audience stands debunked because the author commands of them and the author addresses the unity they all possess.

The epistle of Paul to the Galatians has been view as one of the most critical t historical record of the early church history written during Christianity’s foundational period and initial expansion. Known as one of the most important religious documents ever written, this book was written by Paul who wrote this epistle to a number of congregations that existed in a Roman province of Galatia. As Dunn states, this epistle has help to establish Paul’s authority as well as to shape the character and self-perception of early Christianity.

In the beginning of the book of Ephesians, Paul specifically states that he is the author of the letter to Ephesians, though the authenticity of Paul’s authorship has been questioned. Signing the name of an influential person of the period was common practice from “the third century BC to the first century AD.” Though it would not be the first time that Paul’s name was forged, Ephesians is not a controversial letter, so if the author did not want to include his own name, he could have written the letter anonymously; also, given moral influence of the text, the author would not have lied for no cause. Ephesians is a bit different from the other letters of Paul in that it does not follow the normal structure he has previously used: “salutation, thanksgiving, prayer, body, ethical exhortations, greetings.” Paul also makes many personal references throughout the book of Ephesians including sharing that he is in prison.

The book of Philippians is a Prison Epistle . Paul wrote it about 62 A.D. as he anticipated his release from prison. They