EPHESIANS, EPISTLE TO TIIE. One of the New Testament group of Paul's Epistles. It is addressed to the Christians at Ephesus, the prin cipal city of western Asia Minor. The question of its authorship, however, is debated, necessitat ing a careful study of the material which it presents. Assuming, as a working hypothesis for such study, the claim of Paulinity involved in the epistle's address (i. 11, the following fuels would seem to he clear: (11 A generality of tone involving a larger circle of readers than any one halividual church and. from the apparent unac quaintance of the Apostle with the readers, seem ingly excluding the specific locality of Ephesus given in the received text. (2) A striking re semblance in word and phrase to Colossians, leading to the inference of a contemporaneous date with this epistle. (3) An evident imprison ment on the part of the Apostle (iii. 1) , and all imprisonment which, in its freedom to preach and its opportunity for service (vi. 18-20), shows resemblance to the lenient conditions of his Roman imprisonment, narrated in Aets and re ferred to in the Captivity Epistles. (4) A theme (the ideal unity of the Church in Jesus Christ supreme) which appears to be a most natural development of the theme of Colossians (the exaltation of Jesus Christ as supreme), and a not unlikely outcome of the dominant thought of the Epistle to the Romans (the community between the Jewish and Gentile elements in the Church). These facts agree quite significantly with the epistle's claim, and render the assertion of its in consistency with itself difficult of proof. Con firmation of these facts is further rendered by the strong witness borne to the epistle as a prod uct of the Apostle by external evidence from the time of Mareion (A.D. 140) down.
Over against all this there would not seem to be much force in the contention that the large element of catholicity in the epistle would indi cate a post-Apostolie date. since the catholicity which the epistle presents becomes simply a con sistent development of Paul's own ideas, reaching its climax in this encyclical message to the churches of this region so associated with his three years' Ephesian work. It would be, there fore, of still less force to call attention to the peculiarities of word and phrase and general style in the epistle; especially as these peculiarities find to a large extent their counterpart in the companion Epistle to the Colossians, which is admitted to be Paul's.
Accepting then the Pauline origin of the epistle, it becomes a most interesting question how the title 'Ephesians' came to be attached to it, in particular how 'at Ephesus' came to be incor porated in the address (i. I), there being no local Ephesian color in the epistle and no salu tations in it to members of the Ephesian Church. The significance of this question is heightened by the fact that the documentary evidence is scarcely in favor of the phrase being part of the original text. The early and more important manuscripts omit it, while not a few' of the early fathers show they (lid not read it in their copies of the letter.
On the other hand, the assigning of this epistle to Ephesus is continuous and universal in the Church from the time of Irenreus (A.D. 180). How came this tradition if 'at Ephesus' has failed from the text since the beginning? The answer to this question would seem to rest between two theories. The one would assume that Paul wrote the letter to a group of churches with which he was not personally acquainted, situated outside of Ephesus, the association of the epistle with this city eoming from the natural drift of the original manuscript to this metropolitan centre and its preservation there (Zahn), the name of the less known church which it must have contained be ing finally removed for that of the larger one (Jillicher). The other theory would assume that Paul wrote the letter to a group of churches of which Ephesus was the leading one. but all local references to which were laid aside because of the general character of the letter (A. Robert son), phrases being f-Jffistitilted which would agree with the fact that with the larger number of the group he was personally unacquainted. In this ease the original manuscript would have had at Ephesus' in the text, since the letter went in the first instance to the parent church; but from the copy made for the other churches it would be omitted. Tychicus supplying the 'lame of the locality as he brought the letter to it, coming finally to Laodicea, the last city of the circuit where his copy was left. This would explain Marcion's finding of our epistle there without at Ephesus' in the text and also the reference in Colossians (Col. iv. 16, "When this epistle hath been read among you cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans, and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea") to the letter which that church was to receive from Laodieea, which was the natural head of this Lycus valley group.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Commentaries: Beek (GiitersBibliography. Commentaries: Beek (Giiters- loh, 1891) ; Kffipper (Gottingen, 1891) ; Ultra mare, Comine»taire sus les (Titres de Saint Paul a Colossiens, Ephasiens et a Philippiens (Geneva, 1891-92) ; Macpherson (Edinburgh, 1892) : Von Soden. in Hand-Kommentar :um neu en Testament (Freiburg, 1893) ; Wohlenberg, in Straek and ZOckler, Kommcntar (Munich, 1895) ; Haupt, in Meyer, Kommentar (6th ed., Gottingen, 1897) : Abbott, in International Critical Com VI en tary (New York, 1897 ) . Introductions: Boltzmann (3d ed., Freiburg, 1892) ; Godet, English trans. (Edinburgh, 1894) ; Salmon (7th ed., London, I S94) ; Jfilicher (Leipzig. 1901) ; Weiss, English trans. (London, 1888) ; Zahn (7th ed., Leipzig, 1900) ; Bacon (New York, 1900) ; Mof fatt, The Historical New Testament (New York, 1900). Discussions: Baur. Paulus, English trans. (London, 1873-75) ; Boltzmann, Kritik der Ephe ser and Kolosserbriefe (Leipzig, 1872) ; Hort, Prolegomena to Romans and Ephesians (London, 1895) ; Lightfoot, "Destination of Epistle to Ephesians," in Biblical Essays (London, 1893).