We begin our travel through the book of Ephesians and we take this session to learn about the setting and background and the special characteristics of the book of Ephesians.
What are some of the basics that you know about the book of Ephesians?
The origin
The book written by the Apostle Paul around 61-62AD, while a prisoner in Rome. Paul was in prison and had a couple of key situations to take care of. One of them was to return a converted slave, Onesimus, to his Christian master Philemon, living around the city of Colosse. To take care of the matter, Paul wrote to Philemon. He sent both this letter and the returning slave in the care of one of his co-workers, Tychicus, and he sued the occasion to write to the whole church at Colosse, warning of false teaching on the horizon. The most common travel route for Tychicus and Onesimus would have been to sail from Rome to the port city of Ephesus, then take the Roman road to Euphrates.
The audience
As we look at the opening of the letter of Ephesians, who is actually written to?
The letter indicates that it is to “God’s holy people in Ephesus”, or “to the saints who are in Ephesus”. The early manuscripts do not include the references to Ephesus, but was a generic reference to “God’s holy people” and to Christian saints.
This unique address goes along with he concept that the letter was included along with the letters of Philemon and Colossians. The city of Ephesus was very significant and important to Paul, he actually spent more time in Ephesus than he did anywhere else in his ministry. He could not send messengers through Ephesus unnoted.
It needs to also be noted that the city Ephesus has been noted as the most influential city and region for Christianity that has ever known to this day. This is the city where Paul spent most of his ministry, it is the town where he encouraged Timothy to rise up and be a leader of the church. It is the area that the Apostle John lived. It is not surprising that the most influential area for Christ was the stomping ground for Paul and John. One bold and outgoing missionary and one loving, kind elder of the Church; the two authors of the majority of the new Testament.
John has been noted to actually writing the Gospel of John, his 3 Epistles and was arrested and sent to the island of Patmos, just 60 miles away. It is believed that John had spent his last years in the region around Ephesus and buried in the southern slope of Ayosolug Hill. Three hundred years after the death of John, a small chapel was constructed over the grave in the 4th century. The church of St John was changed into a marvelous basilica during the region of Emperor Justinian (527 -565 AD). The chapel withstood years until with the invasion of Turks, the chapel was used as a mosque in the 14th century; unfortunately Basilica of Saint John became unusable due to the serious earthquake in the same century, and is not just ruins
Historical Impact of Ephesus
The region and city of Ephesus is astoundingly important. It was a region that was mainly occupied by thousands of house churches. People gathered together in homes and lived out the disciple relationships that Jesus taught. There is one of the largest theaters in the ancient world in Ephesus, holding up to 50,000 people. It was not an arena of a super-church, but was used from time to time for gatherings, but was not a Sunday morning church building.
The impact of Christianity in Ephesus is also well known for the conclusion of the Bible. It is one of the seven churches noted in the book of Revelation, and is referenced as a church that had it’s “first love” clearly defined.
The region was so populated with Christians and passionate followers that in Acts 20, later in Paul’s life, he actually just schedules a meeting with the leaders of the churches in Ephesus, because he knew if he went back to the region, the focus would shift from the purpose of Christ to the love that the people had for Paul.
Purpose and Intention
Paul’s writings are characteristic of introducing himself and providing a purpose for the letter. What do we know are read about is the reason for writing this letter to the people in the region?
We will learn how common the letter of Ephesians resembles the book of Colossians, which is not a surprise since they were paired together in their delivery. What is even more unusual is that the whole letter is so heavily dependent on Colossians: passage after passage can be explained as a rewriting of the key themes of Colossians, and about a third of its actual wording is taken over.
Old Testament Comparison
It is not commonly known, but if you do a basic search you can find quite a bit of references to how well the book of Ephesians relates to the book of Joshua.
Joshua and Ephesians open with gratitude with who God is and how great his works are. The key concept of the book of Joshua is possession through conflict by the power of Yahweh, the Captain of the Lord’s host. In this regard, it is also like Ephesians, for though we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ, we must realistically face the fact of our enemies and strengthen ourselves by putting on the full armor of God (Ephesians 6).
Literally the first 3 chapters are “what God has done” and the last 3 chapters is about our response to what we should do.
Moving forward
As we journey into the book of Ephesians together, let us understand how unique the book of Ephesians is but also the significance of the region it was delivered to and how the city actually stood up and above the whole Christian world at that time.
If you’re thinking there is nothing good about you, there’s no way you can ever be what you ought to be, there’s no one that really can help you, you have believed a lie. And this series that we’re about to study, the book of Ephesians is going to be truth that is going to liberate you and set you free from lies.
Turner, M. (1994). Ephesians. In D. A. Carson, R. T. France, J. A. Motyer, & G. J. Wenham (Eds.), New Bible commentary: 21st century edition (4th ed., p. 1222). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press.