Ephesians 1:1

PAUL'S LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

EPH. 1

Paul began here in the manner of all writers of his time with a salutation (Ephesians 1:1-2); and pausing a moment to consider the sublime and heavenly theme upon which he was about to write, penned the noble words of a grand doxology (Ephesians 1:3-14), and then a fervent and beautiful prayer for those who would receive his letter (Ephesians 1:15-23).

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, to the saints that are in Ephesus, and the faithful in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 1:1)

Paul, an apostle ... Although the word "apostle" was sometimes used in a secondary sense to include such faithful missionaries as Timothy, Silvanus, (1 Thessalonians 2:6) and Barnabas (Acts 14:14), Paul's use of the title for himself was always in the highest sense of a plenary representative of Christ who in harmony with the will of God had personally commissioned him; and as in the instance of the Twelve (Luke 6:13) the "Lord named him" an apostle. The title was not one which "developed" in the early church but goes back to Christ himself.

To the saints ... This frequent designation of all Christians in apostolic times regarded what they were called to become more that it did any perfection of their achievement. As Foulkes put it, "The word expresses at once the privilege and the responsibility of the calling of every Christian, not the attainment of a select few."[1]

That are at Ephesus ... Some very ancient authorities omit this phrase (English Revised Version (1885) margin), including the Chester Beatty Papyrus 46, dated about 200 A.D. Also the phrase as it stands in the Vatican and Sinaitic codices was apparently added by a later copyist.[2] The most widely accepted explanation of this is that some early copies left the words "at Ephesus" out on purpose so that other churches might insert their own names, since the purpose of the writer to include all Christians everywhere is clear enough in the very next clause. "Certainly nothing has been advanced to show that the claim of Ephesus as recipient ought to be surrendered in favor of any other."[3] If, as has been widely supposed, Paul had a number of copies of the letter made, dispatching them by hand of Tychicus to a number of churches, the preservation of one of the "blank" copies which has come clown to us would be explained, and also the reason why Paul did not send personal greetings to individual Christians in the text of the letter. The early centuries of Christianity found no difficulty in receiving this as Paul's letter to the Ephesians; and certainly there is no logical reason for refusing to do so now.

And the faithful in Christ Jesus ... This clause makes it mandatory to supply the name of a specific group to stand as the coordinate in this sentence; and the very fact of its being addressed, not only to the specific group, but to the "faithful in Christ," shows Paul's purpose of addressing the entire Christian world in this epistle.

In Christ Jesus ... This phrase, or its equivalent, "occurs one hundred seventy-six times in the Pauline writings, thirty-six times in Ephesians alone."[4] Although scholars count these occurrences somewhat differently, depending on the version or translation used, it must be agreed by all that "in Christ" is the cornerstone and foundation of Paul's theology. The New English Bible (1961) approached the meaning of this incredibly important phrase with the rendition "believers incorporate," missing it only in the identity of the corporation. It is not believers incorporate, but Christ incorporate. For additional comment on Jesus Christ, Inc., see my Commentary on Romans 3. Also, there is a summary of the salient features of this incorporation at the end of this chapter.