E. J. Banks
II. EVIDENCE FAVORING EPISTLE TO EPHESIANS
But is there any warrant for concluding that it is lost at all? A statement of the facts of the case seems to show that the epistle which Paul wrote to the Laodiceans is extant, but only under another title. The lines of evidence which seem to show that the so-called Epistle to the Ephesians is in reality the epistle written by Paul to the Laodiceans are these:
It is well known that the words “at Ephesus” (Ephesians 1:1) in the inscription of the epistle are very doubtful. The Revised Version (British and American) reads in the margin, “Some very ancient authorites omit `at Ephesus.’” Among the authorities which omit “at Ephesus” are the Vatican and Sinaitic manuscripts, the best and most ancient authorities existing.
1. Marcion’s Opinion:
Tertullian asserts that the heretics, i.e. Marcion, had altered the title, “the Epistle to the Ephesians,” to “the Epistle to the Laodiceans.” But this accusation does not carry with it any doctrinal or heretical charge against Marcion in this respect. “It is not likely,” says Moule (Eph, 25), “that Marcion was guilty here, where the change would have served no dogmatic purpose.” And the fact that at that very early period, the first half of the 2nd century, it was openly suggested that the destination of the epistle was Laodicea, is certainly entitled to weight, especially in view of the other fact already mentioned, which is of no less importance, that “at Ephesus” is omitted in the two great manuscripts, the Vatican and the Sinaitic.
2. References in Ephesians and Other Epistles:
The “Epistle to the Ephesians” could not be, primarily at least, addressed to Ephesus, because Paul speaks of his readers as persons in regard to whose conversion from heathenism to the faith of Christ he had just recently heard: “For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you, and the love which ye show toward all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers” (Ephesians 1:15 f). These words could not well be used in regard
to the church at Ephesus, which Paul himself had founded, and in reference to persons among whom he had lived for three years, and where he even knew personally “every one” of the Christians (Acts 20:31).
And in Ephesians 3:1 f the King James Version, he writes: “For this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward.” But how could he ever doubt that the elders of the church in Ephesus (Acts 20:17), as well as the members of that important church, were ignorant of the fact that a dispensation of the grace of God had been given to him? The inquiry, whether his readers had heard of the one great fact on which his ministry was based, could not apply in any degree to the Christians in Ephesus. The apostle and the Ephesians had a clear and intimate mutual knowledge.
They knew him and valued him and loved him well. When he bade the elders of the church farewell, they all fell on his neck and kissed him (Acts 20:37).
Clearly therefore the statement that he had just recently heard of their conversion, and his inquiry whether they had heard that a dispensation of the grace of God had been entrusted to him, do not and cannot describe the members of the church in Ephesus. “It is plain,” writes Moule (Eph, 26),
“that the epistle does not bear an Ephesian destination on the face of it.”
In the Epistle to the Corinthians there are many local references, as well as allusions to the apostle’s work in Corinth. In the Epistle to the Galatians there are also many references to his work among the people of the churches in Galatia. The same is the case in the Epistle to the Philippians, several names being mentioned of persons known to the apostle. In the two Epistles to the Thessalonians, references also occur to his work among them.
Turning to the Epistle to the Colossians, and to that to the Romans — Colossae and Rome being cities which he had not visited previous to his writing to the churches there — he knows several persons in Colosse; and in the case of the Epistle to the Romans, he mentions by name no fewer than twenty-six persons in that city.
How is it then that in “the Epistle to the Ephesians” there are no references at all to the three years which he spent in Ephesus? And how also is there no mention of any one of the members of the church or of the elders whom he knew so intimately and so affectionately? “Ephesians” is inexplicable on
the ordinary assumption that Ephesus was the city to which the epistle was addressed.
The other theory, that the epistle was a circular one, sent in the first instance to Laodicea, involves no such difficulty.
3. Ephesian Church Jewish in Origin:
Another indication in regard to the primary destination of the epistle is in the words, “ye, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called Circumcision, in the flesh, made by hands; that ye were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:11,12). Do these words describe the church in Ephesus? Was the church there Gentilein its origin?
Very far from this, for as a matter of fact it began by Paul preaching the gospel to the Jews, as is narrated at length by Luke in Acts 18. Then in Acts 19, Paul comes again to Ephesus, where he went into the synagogue and spake boldly for the space of three months, but when divers were hardened and believed not, but spake evil of the Way before the multitude, he separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus.
Here, therefore, is definite proof that the church in Ephesus was not Gentilein its origin. It was distinctly Jewish, but a Gentileelement had also been received into it. Now the church to which Paul writes “the Epistle to the Ephesians” was not Jewish at all. He does not speak to his readers in any other way than “you Gentiles.”
4. Ephesians and Colossians Sister Epistles:
But an important consideration is that the “Epistle to the Ephesians” was written by Paul at the same sitting almost as that to the Colossians. These two are sister epistles, and these along with the Epistle to Philemon were written and sent off at the same time, Onesimus and Tychicus carrying the Epistle to the Colossians (Colossians 4:7,8,9), Onesimus being the bearer of that to Philem, while Tychicus in addition to carrying the Colossian epistle was also the messenger who carried “the Epistle to the Ephesians”
(Ephesians 6:21).
A close scrutiny of Colossians and “Ephesians” shows, to an extent without a parallel elsewhere in the epistles of the New Testament, a remarkable similarity of phraseology. There are only two verses in the
whole of Colossians to which there is no parallel in “Ephesians.” The same words are used, while the thought is so varied and so rich, that the one epistle is in no sense a copy or repetition of the other (see list of parallelisms, etc., in Paul’s Epistles to Colosse and Laodicea, T. and T.
Clark, Edinburgh). Both epistles come warm and instinct with life from the full heart of the great apostle who had not, up to that time, visited either city, but on whom, none the less, there came daily the care of all the churches.
5. Recapitulation:
To recapitulate:
(1) The words “at Ephesus” in the inscription of the epistle are wanting in the two oldest and best manuscripts.
(2) Paul speaks of his readers as persons of whose conversion to Christ he knew only by report. Similarly he speaks of them as knowing only by hearsay of his commission as an apostle of Christ. Also, though he had lived in Ephesus for three years, this epistle does not contain a single salutation.
(3) He speaks of his readers as forming a church exclusively of the Gentiles. But the church in Ephesus, so far from being exclusively gentile, was actually Jewish in origin.
(4) “Ephesians” was written at the same sitting as Colossians, and the same messenger, Tychicus, carried them both. Therefore as the epistle was not, and could not be, addressed to Ephesus, the conclusion is that it was addressed to some church, and that it was not a treatise sent to the Christian church generally. The words of the first verse of the ep.,
“to the saints that are,” proves that the name of the place to which it was addressed is all that is lost from the manuscripts, but that the name of the city was there originally, as the epistle came from Paul’s hand.
Now Paul wrote an epistle to Laodicea at the same time as he wrote to Colosse. He dispatched both epistles by Tychicus. The thought and feeling and even the diction of the two epistles are such that no other explanation is possible but that they came warm from the heart of the same writer at the same time. On all these grounds the conclusion seems inevitable that the Epistle to Laodicea is not lost at all, but that it is identical with the so-called “Epistle to the Ephesians.”