Letter to the Ephesians

 

 

 

LET’S KNOW THE BIBLE

After the crisis with the Corinthian congregation, the apostle Paul arrived in the isthmus city and spent the winter in the city of Corinth between ’57 and ’58. During this period, he wrote the Letter to the Romans, but in the spring of ’58, the apostle Paul resumed his long journeys, returned to Macedonia, and then went to Jerusalem. During the feast of Pentecost was in the Holy City, and there he was arrested.

There, a time of difficulty began because the apostle was arrested and held for two years in the Roman fortress of Caesarea and then transferred to Rome. The transfer by sea was unfortunate, even with a shipwreck; the apostle and his fellow sailors took refuge on the island of Malta where they spent the winter; and, finally, in the spring of ’61, they arrived in Rome; but Paul arrived there as a prisoner; he had to rent an apartment, and there he was kept in forced confinement in the regime called by the Roman law ‘custodia militis,’ i.e., Paul was tied with a chain to a soldier who did not leave him day or night; he was always under surveillance.

He remained like this for two years, always waiting for the trial, which did not happen because, in the year 63, the trial was not held as there were no accusers, there was no evidence; the fact was not substantiated; after all, the accusation was of Jewish type and Roman legislation did not contemplate any such crime.

During the period of Roman imprisonment, the first period, because there was another period of imprisonment afterward, Paul wrote some letters called “Captivity Letters.” In the list of Pauline letters, four show this characteristic. These are the letters to the Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon, and Philippians. Let us consider the first of these captivity letters, written to the Christians of Ephesus.

According to tradition, the apostle sent the letter during this period of Roman captivity, that is, between 61 and 63. Many scholars today believe that the letter to the Ephesians, as we have it, is not written by Paul himself, but is a reworking by some disciples who elaborated a Pauline catechesis some years later. We start from the traditional consideration that sees the apostle imprisoned in Rome, writing to a community in which he had been for a long time, almost three years, a record, considering that Paul did not remain a long time in the communities. He started the Christian life, organized the community, and then, driven by his missionary zeal, he would go to another environment to found a new church.

He stayed in Ephesus from 54 to 57, evidently because he had found particularly fertile ground, because in that period, he not only took care of the city of Ephesus but also started several communities in the surrounding area. Ephesus was a capital city, one of the most important cities of the ancient world, capital of the province of Asia. We call a whole continent ‘Asia,’ whereas in the Roman language, it was one of the main provinces of Anatolia, that region we now call Turkey. Ephesus, the capital of Asia, was one of the most important cities of the ancient world, especially for religious and cultural reasons.

Consequently, it had become important politically and economically, but the point of departure of Ephesus’ importance was the temple of Artemis, known precisely as Artemis of Ephesus. Its sanctuary was listed among the wonders of the ancient world; a statue represented the goddess and was considered a prodigious statue, fallen from heaven, a miraculous statue.

The Artemis of Ephesus was the destination of religious pilgrimages from all over the world and many souvenirs were produced; we would say objects of religious tourism, statuettes of this deity of all sizes and in various materials, carried all over the world as souvenirs, as amulets, as a religious object of good luck.

The veneration of Artemis was not simply a pagan cult, it was also an expression of a religious and philosophical mentality because the Artemis of Ephesus was in some way the personification of nature, the φύση = füse. The cult of this goddess corresponded to the cult of nature and of all natural forces, therefore, the sky, the earth, the water, the wind, the force that makes vegetation sprout, the vital principle, all the dynamics that govern the world of nature.

The environment of Ephesus, already since classical antiquity, has been a witness of philosophical thought. Greek philosophy was born in that same area; the first philosophers recognized as such, Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Heraclitus, came from the surroundings of Ephesus; and they were witnesses of a mentality that considered the forces of nature. The way of thinking of the inhabitants of Ephesus was extremely receptive, welcoming, available.

Paul had found a favorable ground for preaching the gospel, but he had not immediately realized that this availability was basically too easy. The Ephesians were willing to accept everything and to insert every new figure, divine form, into their great religious complex, and so they readily accepted Christ, but not as the only one, but as one of many. They inserted Christ with his forces, dynamics, and characteristics into the great complex of their natural reflection. One more does not create problems. From their mentality, which broadened the horizon of the forces, welcoming Christ meant to place him in a big picture of nature and the force of nature.

This created problems and theological decompensation, and Paul was soon made aware of it. Even when he writes to the Colossians, he writes about this same argument around the same date. But the letter to the Ephesians deals with an even more profound treatise that Paul wanted to write systematically. A peculiarity of this letter that astonishes experts is that there are very few references to the people of Ephesus, to Paul’s substantial experience in that city.

I mentioned that the apostle lived there for three years and met many people. In other letters, he mentions names, recalls episodes, sends greetings in a very concrete way. But in the Letter to the Ephesians, there is no particular reference, no mention of memories, no mention to facts, to persons. It looks like a cold and generic text; it’s probably not a letter that the apostle wrote directly to the Ephesians, but we could define it, in our modern language, as an ‘encyclical letter,’ i.e., a systematic theological epistle sent to many churches, a circular letter which was addressed simultaneously to the various communities living around Ephesus. And that’s why there couldn’t be particular references because the same text had to be read in many communities. Perhaps there could have been personalized notes accompanying the letter, but none of this has been preserved.

Therefore, the letter to the Ephesians is a theological epistle sent as a circular letter to the Christian community who lived in the area of Ephesus; and it deals with the centrality of Jesus Christ, his unique role as savior and the consequent birth of the Church as the body of Christ, as a historical reality that continues the work of Christ.

The letter is divided into two parts: the first three chapters and the other three. The first part is dogmatic, theological, in which the apostle deepens the doctrinal message. The second part, beginning in chapter 4, is moral, exhortative. Paul draws the consequences of the doctrine and applies them to the concrete life of the community.

The first part, chapters 1 to 3, includes a first solemn introduction, in lyrical form, a theological poem, a kind of hymn in which the apostle celebrates the work of God in the form of a blessing and then takes up again this same lyrical treatment in a more discursive form, stressing the work of Christ again and completing the discourse with a prayer of exhortation to God to grant full knowledge.

Here again, the problem is of a gnostic type, gnosis is knowledge, and in the Greek world, this is a fundamental problem because it was precisely a gnostic environment that surrounded the cult of the Artemis of Ephesus. Let’s see then the beginning with the great blessing, a liturgical form of Semitic type that is typical of the Jewish tradition which immediately begins the prayer with the form ‘blessed be the Lord, our God, king of the universe.’

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens.” Note the insistence on the reference to Christ. Everything takes place in dependence upon him, that is, in Christ, God the Father, “he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him.” In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ,” before the creation of the world. In the beginning, he chose us in Christ and appointed us to be his children through Jesus Christ. “In accord with the favor of his will, for the praise of the glory of his grace that he granted us in the beloved. In him we have redemption by his blood, the forgiveness of transgressions.” That is, generously, freely.

“In accord with the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us.” That is, he lavished on us generously, freely, in all wisdom and insight, he has made known to us the mystery of his will.” Here we have another vital word in this letter to the Ephesians: ‘mystery.’ It does not mean something that cannot be understood; it means a plan that is superior to man’s intelligence, in the sense that we would never have come to know it.

God’s plan that has remained hidden for centuries has finally been revealed in Jesus Christ. God has made known the ‘mystery,’ which we can translate as ‘plan,’ the secret plan of his will “in accord with the favor of his will, for the praise of the glory of his grace that he granted us in the beloved.” This design implies recapitulating or summing up all things in Christ.

‘Recapitulate’ is an interesting technical verb. You know that in ancient times books were not bound as our books are bound but were written on strips of parchment of papyrus that was then rolled up, and in the center, there was a stick, a pin that held the whole roll together. This stick came out, it was more extended than the papyrus, and at its end, there was usually a little decorated head. For this reason, in Latin it was called ‘capitulum,’ with a corresponding name also in Greek, i.e., small ‘caput’- ‘testolina’ (small head), therefore, re-capitulate in Latin and Greek meant to wrap the whole book around the central pin.

To recapitulate all in Christ means to recognize that Christ is the bolt around which the whole book of the universe is wrapped. He is the center; he is the beginning, the fundamental nucleus, therefore, the secret plan of God, which has been realized in the fullness of time, is to recapitulate in Christ all things, both in heaven and on earth.

Do you recognize a reference to the Ephesian cosmic mentality? “Through him—that is, in Christ—we were also chosen, destined in accord with the purpose of the One who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will.” Not only centered in him, but we have received an inheritance from the time it was allotted from the beginning, according to the plan of the one who effectively works according to his will.

There is a plan, and he carries it out; it takes centuries and millennia to carry out a plan, but in the end, it is carried out. And the plan does indeed find its conclusion, “so that we, who already hoped in Christ, to the praise of his glory.” We are the proof, the evident demonstration, that He has succeeded in carrying out the plan, we who have hoped in Christ. “In him—Christ— In you also, who have heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and have believed in him, were sealed with the promised holy Spirit.”

The seal is the sign of belonging; they have been marked with the Holy Spirit. They now belong to Christ and the holy Spirit, which is the very life of God, has been given to you, “which is the first installment of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s possession, to the praise of his glory.” The deposit has been paid; the balance will come in due time.

Thus, we have seen this great introductory poem which offers the central theme of the Letter to the Ephesians. This same text takes up the theme in chapter 2: “You were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you once lived following the age of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the disobedient.”

Here is an interesting operation. Paul demonizes the forces that govern the cosmos and, in fact, in this letter he will also speak of the principalities, of the powers, of the lordships, of all the various cosmic elements that dominate the world. Paul speaks of the prince of these powers, describing him as the devil. “All of us once lived among them in the desires of our flesh, following the wishes of the flesh and the impulses and we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest.” We were destined for punishment like the others.

Take note that Paul says, ‘we were by nature children of wrath.’ If you remember this language from the Letter to the Romans, it is easy to understand the value of the expression: “We were by nature children of wrath,” that is, in a bad relationship with God. “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ (by grace you have been saved), raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”

From the little that we have read, we have noticed a firm insistence on the person of Jesus Christ. In an environment of dispersion where so many forces are being followed, the Letter to the Ephesians emphasizes Jesus Christ alone, saying that he is the chapter one, he is the center; he is the axis, everything derives from him, everything tends to him; he is the way of salvation; he is the concrete way the community is to be fully saved.