The Book of Ephesians is an Epistle Written by Paul

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

John as we know today was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. He was also the brother of James, who was also an apostle. John was the son of Zeebee and of Salome. His father was a fisherman while living in Bethsaida in Galilee on the border of the lake Gennesareth. John's mother was one of many women who gave to the maintenance of Jesus Christ. John's parents were very good people, they loved God and his son. It is said that john and his brother James were fishing when Jesus came and chose them. They were soon known as the fishers of men. The John of whom I am talking about is John the Evangelist.

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

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

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.

In Ephesians 3, Paul announces himself as a prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of the people. Paul is almost a messenger, he tells the people to live a worthy life, to love one another, and to form a united front in the name of Christ Jesus who gave his life for them. Paul urges the people to follow in God’s footsteps and to be virtuous people, he wants them to live faithful, loving, pure lives as Jesus did. He tells his followers not to let the immoral things suck you in, to ignore the hate, the greed, the deception, and to live as they are “children of the light” (Ephesians 5:8). Paul wants the people to believe in Christ because he has seen Jesus first hand after his blindness being cured and after the resurrection, Paul wants people to live lives that are worthy enough for God, and if you do decent things and are not selfish, Christ will shine on you, bring you light. The rules in the book of Ephesians are given to the people, which say that your actions should reflect what was given up for you, Jesus’ life for the forgiveness of sin. Ephesians is a book of unity of God’s people and tells us the do’s and don’ts of the gentiles. Paul is the leader and spreads the message of God, he explains what is right and what is wrong, while also aiding the people so that they may be in the good grace of God. Good

Paul wrote the book of Philippians as a letter to the church of Philippi. Paul uses this letter to thank the church for sending him financial aid while also trying to “bolster their enduring faith” (Neal, 88). Throughout this letter, Paul gives guidance to the church, however, in chapter 4 he focuses on encouraging “harmony”, “Christian joy and peace”, and “a sense of satisfaction” (Elwell & Yarbrough, 296-297). Each topic Paul discusses continues to be issues today and Paul’s words of wisdom remain true. In my own life, I have learned from Paul’s teaching to cast all my cares on God and try to lean on His, rather than my own, understanding.

It is for this reason that Timothy was in Ephesus with the purpose of restoring the Ephesian church to a faithful and healthy. It is with this motive that Paul instructs Timothy.

Throughout the history of religion, there have been men who have left a remarkable works to the world. St. Paul who accepted the calling of God to be his disciple is one of these great men. He has written a prestigious letter to the community of Colossians in order to correct their beliefs. In this work I will try to investigate the background of the letter, and discuss the motivation that caused St. Paul to write to this letter to the community of Colossians.

As Paul maintained a Christ-centered faith during at least four years of suffering as a prisoner of the Roman government, first in Caesarea and then in Rome. During his imprisonment, Paul wrote four letters that survive in our New Testament. They are Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon are among some of Pauls the most helpful and encouraging writings.. We, living almost 2,000 years later, are fortunate to have these letters to teach us the inspiring truths of God. We are the beneficiaries of Paul’s spiritual wisdom forged in the crucible of personal suffering.Philippians 4:12).

The City of Ephesus was a city of wealth, and was impacted by Christians greatly for centuries. “Ephesus was founded by Ionian Greeks at a location where

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.

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).

Ephesians 6:10-16: Paul becomes aware of all the evil that stalks the church of Ephesus and he tries to make everybody aware by explaining them their own significance and identity in Christ.

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.