Epiphan. ( Haeres. xlix.): ouj ga;r e[doxe tw'/ ejleeinotavtw/ Markivwni ajpo; th'" pro;" jEfesivou" tauvthn th;n marturivan levgein, ajlla; th'" pro;" Laodikeva", th'" mh; ou[sh" ejn tw'/ ajpostovlw/ .
Of all St Paul's letters it is the most general, the least personal. In this respect it more nearly resembles the Epistle to the Romans than any other. (Lightf.
B. E.
p.
388.)
Scribit Ephesiis hanc epistulam beatus Paulus eo modo quo et Romanis dudum scripserat quos necdum ante viderat. (Theod. Mops.,
Argum. ad Eph.
i. p. 112, ed. Swete.)
Yet though this Epistle so little fulfils our expectation of what St Paul would have written to his converts, it is beyond a question that the early Church universally regarded it as an Epistle to the Ephesians. It is distinctly referred to as such by the writer of the Muratorian Canon, by Irenaeus, by Tertullian, by Clement of Alexandria, even by Origen himself, in whose text, as we have seen, there was no direct mention of Ephesus.
Murat. Canon, p. 148 (ed. Credner); Iren.
Haeres.
1.3, 1:4, pp. 14, 16, 1:8. 4,
p. 40, 5:2. 36, p. 294 (ed. Stieren); Tert.
adv. Marc.
5:17,
de Praescr.
36,
de monogam.
5; Clem. Alex.
Strom.
4.65, p. 592,
Paedag.
1.18, p. 108 (ed. Potter); Orig.
c. Cels.
3.28 (xviii, p. 273, ed. Lomm.). (Id.
ib.
)
III. DATE AND PLACE OF WRITING.
[For discussion see Lightfoot, Philippians , Introd. pp. 29-45. Order of the Epistles of the Captivity; Hort, Prolegomena , pp. 99-110; T. K. Abbott, Introduction to the Epistle to the Ephesians (International Critical Commentary), § 6, pp. xxixxxxi.]
THE HISTORICAL SITUATION IMPLIED BY THE LANGUAGE OF THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS.
There is in the Epistle no charge to spread, no sign of anxiety for spreading the message of the Gospel.
That message, it is felt here as in the First Epistle of St John, will vindicate Again there is no sign of persecution of Christians by the Roman power. St Paul's bonds were due to Jewish hostility evoked by his activity on behalf of Gentiles ( ejgw; Pau'lo" oJ devsmio" tou' cristou' jIhsou' uJpe;r uJmw'n tw'n ejqnw'n , Eph. 3:1). His afflictions (3:13) were all connected with his preaching to the Gentiles.
In this respect the Epistle presents a contrast to the situation implied in the First Epistle of St Peter.
IV. CANONICITY AND EXTERNAL EVIDENCE OF AUTHORSHIP.
(Westcott, Canon of the New Testament , 4th edn., pp. 48, 91, 199, 225, 280, 292, 296, 305 f., 308, 335, 585.)
itself.