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Essay about Letter to the Ephesians

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Introduction                                              As one begins to read the letter to the Ephesians, he is intrigued not only by the many topics that the letter mentions, but also the fact that there are some major differences between this book and Paul’s other writings. The purpose of this essay is to explore the book of Ephesians by commenting on critical issues, such as date, authorship, and setting, major theological themes, the purpose of the letter, and to offer an outline of the book itself. Critical …show more content…

The problem of setting is not the only problem that arises in the letter to the Ephesians. Another problem is the question of authorship. Was Ephesians really written by Paul? In my opinion, this is the hardest question to answer because there are very strong arguments that come from both sides of thinking. Some say that Timothy, or some other disciple of Paul for that matter, wrote the letter and support this claim with the fact that there are some eighty-two words in the letter to the Ephesians that are found nowhere else in any of Paul’s writings. Furthermore, of those eighty-two words, thirty-eight of those are found nowhere else in the entire New Testament (Ramsay 454). There is also the fact that the sentences are longer and more complex than those of Paul’s other letters. These facts are what lead some to believe that Ephesians must have been written by someone else and simply signed by Paul. On the other hand, Paul was in jail at the time he wrote this letter. He calls himself “the prisoner of Christ” (Ephesians 3:1), “the prisoner of God” (Ephesians 4:1), and “an ambassador in bonds” (Ephesians 6:20). Being in jail would have given him ample time to read the letter and revise it; he had plenty of time to write a well-constructed letter with words that he would not normally use and longer, more complex sentences than if he was writing a letter in a hurry. Another

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