Epistle to the Ephesians
The Epistle to the Ephesians[a] is the tenth book of the New Testament. According to its text, the letter was written by Paul the Apostle, an attribution that Christians traditionally accepted. However, starting in 1792, some scholars have claimed the letter is actually Deutero-Pauline, meaning that it is pseudepigrapha written in Paul's name by a later author strongly influenced by Paul's thought. According to one scholarly source, the letter was probably written "by a loyal disciple to sum up Paul's teaching and to apply it to a new situation fifteen to twenty-five years after the Apostle's death".[3][4][5][6][7][8][9]
"Ephesians" redirects here. For people who actually lived in Ephesus, see Ephesus § Notable people.Ephesians contains:
Interpretations[edit]
Ephesians is notable for its domestic code treatment in Ephesians 5:22–6:9,[40] covering husband-wife, parent-child, and master-slave relationships. In Ephesians 5:22, wives are urged to submit to their husbands, and husbands to love their wives "as Christ loved the Church." Christian Egalitarian theologians, such as Katharine Bushnell and Jessie Penn-Lewis, interpret these commands in the context of the preceding verse,[41] for all Christians to "submit to one another."[42][43] Thus, it is two-way, mutual submission of both husbands to wives and wives to husbands. But according to Peter O'Brien, Professor Emeritus at Moore Theological College, this would be the only instance of this meaning of submission in the whole New Testament, indeed in any extant comparable Greek texts; by O'Brien's account, the word simply does not connote mutuality.[44] Dallas Theological Seminary professor Daniel Wallace understands it to be an extension of Ephesians 5:15-21[45] on being filled by the Holy Spirit.[10]
In the period leading up to the American Civil War (1861–65), Ephesians 6:5[46] on master-slave relationships was one of the Bible verses used by Confederate slaveholders in support of a slaveholding position.[47]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the : Easton, Matthew George (1897). "Ephesians, Epistle to the". Easton's Bible Dictionary (New and revised ed.). T. Nelson and Sons.
