Ephesians Literary Analysis

This quotes indicates that he enjoys his work of protecting others, that makes his life meaningful. This moment would cause a realization to Paul that the happiness of doing the things he loves the most is one of the most valuable thing in

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

The earth has the power to protect and shelter soldiers when they hide in trenches or in holes made by shells. Earth proves to be a match for the man-made weapons that seek to kill men; for, even though Earth cannot fight back, it can protect Paul and his friends. Notice how Paul uses words like "thy" and "grantest" – it 's as though he 's reciting an old prayer. You could argue that he 's praying to the only power that can help him.

This passage stood out for me because Paul is using a metaphor to indicates that he is proud to be apart of God’s large building plan, and he could not speak to them in deep spiritual truths because they were carnal. Paul recognized their carnal mindset due to their division in the church. (Bailey, 2011, p. 130) Paul was addressing ‘anyone who builds” on that foundation, and focuses on two lists of building materials. Gold, silver and precious stones will withstand fire while wood, hay and straw will not. Paul insists that all things will be tested. He knew he had laid the foundation by spreading the gospel in the world.

As I elaborate on the theme, “Equipping Saints for Ministry in the New Millennium”, I will discuss Paul’s words in Ephesians 4 to illustrate

A literary analysis is the practice of looking closely at small parts to see how they affect the whole. Literary analysis focuses on how word techniques are used by the author to create meaning. One of the reasons that Paul penned his letters in Ephesians was to bolster areas that were weak in the church. In addition to that, Paul wanted to clarify central beliefs that may not have been well-defined. Probing Paul’s letter with such a supposition, reveals several frailties among the Ephesian that Paul needed to encourage and reinforce. One of these weaknesses are amalgamated with the word riches, which is present throughout the letter in Ephesians. In this portion of the essay I will break a portion of the text down into parts, in order to examine the different elements of this piece of literature, by analyzing a portion of the text.

Hi everybody. As Profs Bingham and Souza pointed out in Chapter 13: Elite body armor: Hierarchical coercive power and the archaic state "some cultures ... are based on elite access to coercive threat through armored warriors"(1). In this manner, as the Greek city-states and people expanded amid the seventh century B.C., multitudes of infantrymen were shaped inside the wealthier city-states. Known as hoplites, these warriors were distinctively furnished with around seventy pounds of armor, a large portion of which was made of bronze. The ordinary panoply incorporated an eight-to ten-foot thrusting spear with an iron tip and butt, and bronze armor comprising of a helmet, cuirass (chest armor), greaves (shin guards), and a large shield about thirty

The Apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:10-20 takes the opportunity to convey to the Church at Ephesus, the growing threat of the spiritual issues confronting the body of Christ. The central beliefs implant and reside in the texts, seem to be a battle cry that resounds from the heart of the Apostle Paul. Paul's aim in the texts is to shade light on the spiritual warfare that's outside of the eyesight of the believer. Furthermore, the battle that is in question is a spiritual battle that seizes eternal ramification involving every believer. As noted by author Warren Wiersbe, when he stated that "sooner or later every believer discovers that the Christian life is a battleground, not a playground and that he faces an enemy who is much stronger than he

Have you ever been in a fight with your younger siblings and your mother asks for both sides of the story? Your sibling tells the story as accurate as it can be and then it is your turn so you add in a few extra details just to soften up your part of the story. Well in Virgil’s epic, The Aeneid, Aeneus does just that. Aeneus is at sea and wrecks due to a storm caused by Juno. The city that he flees to is Carthage, a city being built by Queen Dido.

Paul is saying that these are filling up the whole world. This is the world that doesn’t believe in God. You do not want to retain God in your heart. Not only that, but you are changing the image of God to look like these things.

The genre of Ephesians 2:1-10 is an Epistle. The Epistles were letters teaching specific churches or groups of people; often inspired by God. They are split into two categories: Pauline Epistles, written by Paul and traditionally Paul was the first word of the book in Greek, and General Epistles, often referred to as the Catholic epistles and were written to the universal Church. The Pauline Epistles consist of: Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. The General Epistles consist of: Hebrews, James, 1 and 2 Peter, 1, 2 and 3 John, and Jude. The interpretive principles of this genre are that it is meant to be read as a whole and in one sitting in order to get the main idea of the passage, one must view the paragraphs as the main unit of thought in the passage, one must know the structure to understand the letter, and one must do background reading to fully comprehend the main concept and the history and culture of the setting.

2. Paul explains how God 's armor is useful and why we need to use it. (6:12-13)

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.

In verse the last verse, we find the last piece of the armor, the shield of faith. We can see that for Paul, this is an important part of the armor by how he introduces this piece of armor and the words that follow it. As with all the previous pieces of the armor, the word following shield is specially important to know of what this shield consists of and what it does. It is pretty clear in this one, that faith is what protects us from the devil. However, here it is important to specify what faith is protecting us. “To speak of faith is not to focus on human belief, but on the faithfulness of God. What protects us from the arrows of the evil one.”(Snodgrass, 343). Snodgrass says this shield protects us from the arrows of the evil ones recalling that in the time when the text was written, shields were used to protect soldiers from the burning arrows of the enemy. But Paul is actually talking about the attacks of the spiritual forces of the evil. So what Paul is saying in this verse, is that the faithfulness of God will protect the believers from any attack from the evil.

First of all, Auden uses the ekphrasis in “The Shield of Achilles” as a means to denounce the mores and practices of his society. Auden’s “Shield of Achilles” is derived from Homer’s “Shield of Achilles. Both authors make a description of the Achilles’ shield. One (Homer’s) is ameliorative and the