Paper Topic:

Ephesian

Running Head : EPHESIANS

Introduction to Bible Literature

Name : Georgina Whiters

Shorter College

RELN 2110

Date : [ ?]

Epistle to the Ephesians

Introduction

This closely examines the Ephesians . It seeks to unravel the following historical information : Authorship , date , occasion and purpose , origin and destination . It also seeks to answer literary questions regarding to the genre , outline of the book , the major and minor themes as well as the critical issues

Author

The book begins by identifying its author as Paul the apostle (Ephesians 1 :1 . There

are other early sources such s Irenaeus (200 AD ) that attribute this epistle to the apostle Paul

Date

The epistle is one of the four letters believed to have been written while Paul was in prison (Ephesians 3 :1 4 :1 and 6 :20 . Paul was imprisoned in Rome around 61-63 AD and it is around this time that these letters are believed to have been written

Occasion and Purpose

This epistle was not written to address a specific problem in the church . It was more to encourage as well as to call the Christians to continue living in hope of a better life to come . Paul sought to explain a few truths so that the Christians could know how and why they were to imitate Christ . Paul touched on themes that regard to the Christian 's position in Christ . As heirs to the promise that is through Jesus Paul wanted the Christians to be fully aware of their high position

Origin and Destination

The epistle is based on the relationship that Paul had with the church in Ephesus . Paul had an encounter with the people of Ephesus when he was coming back from his second missionary journey . The people he talked to asked him to come back which he did . He established the church in Ephesus and stayed there for 3 years preaching . This letter was written with a caring spiritual leader 's intent to strengthen the Christians

The epistle is believed to have been written to the saints at Ephesus However certain consideration cast doubt on the correctness of this assertion

The impersonal tone in the book does not reflect on the three years that Paul spent with the community . He does not seem to address any particular challenge

Paul is writing to a gentile audience while Acts 18 , 19 : 19 , 8 suggests a strong presence of Jesus interested in the Christian faith

In contrast to many other letters by Paul there are no greetings in the Ephesians from Paul 's companions even though both Timothy and Aristarchus were personally known to the Ephesians

These considerations have led to the belief that the destination of the epistle was to a group of communities which were close to each other as well as near Ephesus (Wikenhauser , A (1958

Genre

The literary form of Ephesians is an epistle

Outline . The outline of Ephesians contains

1 :1 , 2 Greetings and authors introduction

1 :3-2 :10 of the blessings that are at the disposal of...

4 pages

43.0 KB

Free sing-up