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Irenaeus, adv. Haer. 1.8, 5. Tou'to de; kai; oJ Pau'lo" levgei: pa'n ga;r to; fanerouvmenon fw'" ejstivn .

id. ib. 5:2, 3. Kaqw;" oJ makavrio" Pau'lov" fhsin ejn th'/ pro;" jEfesivou" ejpistolh'/: o{ti mevlh ejsme;n tou' swvmato" .

Clemens Alexandrinus, Paedag. 1.18.

safevstata de; jEfesivoi" gravfwn ( oJ ajpovstolo" ) ajpekavluye to; zhtouvmenon levgwn: mevcri katanthvswmen aJpavnte" eij" th;n eJnovthta th'" pivstew" .

id. Strom. 4.65. dio; kai; ejn th'/ pro;" jEfesivou" gravfei: uJpotassovmenoi ajllhvloi" ejn fovbw/ qeou' .

Tertullian, adv. Marc. 5.11 ( v. supra , p. xxiii): Praetereo hic et de alia epistola, quam nos ad Ephesios praescriptam habemus.

V. INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF AUTHORSHIP.

Theories, which find in the Epistle indications of ( a ) Montanist or ( b ) pseudo- Gnostic influence, being discarded, ‘a view’ of the Epistle ‘which has...to be considered’ is that maintained by Holtzmann, Pfleiderer, and Von Soden, who ‘ascribe it to an advanced disciple of St Paul.’ Also ‘it is...alleged that there are marks of simply different authorship, differences of language, style, and the like.’ (Hort, Prolegomena , pp. 120 f.)

A. Doctrine. ‘Is the Paulinism later than St Paul?’ ‘No one who carefully reads the Epistle to the Ephesians can doubt that its doctrinal contents do differ considerably from those of any one of St Paul's earlier Epistles or of all of them taken together....What
we have to ask is whether the differences are incompatible with identity of authorship.’ (
Prolegomena , p. 123.)

‘Some of the chief combinations of identity and difference between St Paul's earlier recorded theology and that of the Epistle to the Ephesians.’ ( ib. p. 125.)

(i) Relation of Jews to Gentiles as Christians. ( a ) In Ephesians ‘the duty of Jewish and Gentile fellowship is deduced from the eternal purpose of God and the very idea of the Christian faith, not, as in earlier Epistles, from arguments about the Law and the Promise. Yet this is only the teaching of the Epistle to the Romans a little more unfolded.’ ( ib. p. 126.)

( b ) ‘In both Epistles alike’ ( Romans and Ephesians ) ‘the need for the universal salvation is made to rest on the universality of the previous corruption.’ Eph. 2:1-3 answers to Rom. 1:18-32, 2:17-29, 3:9.

( c ) As to ‘Circumcision,’ with Eph. 2:11 compare Rom. 2:28 f.
(ii) The Church. In
Ephesians ‘we for the first time hear Christians throughout the world described as together making up a single Ecclesia, i.e. assembly of God, or Church; and here for the first time we find the relation of Christ to the or a Church conceived as that of a Head to a Body.’ ( Prolegomena , p. 128.)


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