Search Results (15)

This article utilizes canonical interpretation to reassess Paul’s eulogy in Ephesians 1:3–14 by situating it within the Bible’s overarching narrative of placemaking—from Genesis to Revelation. Rejecting purely historical-grammatical approaches, the study treats the Protestant canon as a unified literary and theological whole with both divine and human authorship. Drawing on intertextual methods, especially the work of NT Wright and David Larsen, the author frames Paul’s eulogy as a theological “mini narrative” nested within the grand canonical mission: God’s purpose to create and dwell with His family in a holy place (God’s house as God’s home with His family in God’s homeland). The article argues that this placial mission undergirds themes of election, redemption, sonship, administration, and land inheritance within the eulogy, connecting creation’s foundation with eschatological summation in Christ. The analysis incorporates spatial theory and narratology to illuminate Paul’s understanding of the world as contested territory where the church advances God’s mission. In doing so, it reveals the eulogy as a densely intertextual and theologically coherent passage that situates believers within God’s cosmic, administrative plan for new creation and divine habitation. The implication for resurrection and new creation, based on this grand canonical mission and on God’s all-encompassing master plan, is asserted as part of this unified plan. Full article

This paper offers a new explanation for the quotation of Psalm 68:18 in Ephesians 4:8. There are at least three puzzles in this text: (1) the significance of the quotation within the argument in the Ephesians passage (and why the apparent interruption between 4:7 and 4:11); (2) the divergent form of the quotation from the MT and LXX vis-a-vis the giving of gifts versus receiving; (3) why is only one set of gifts—proclaiming/verbal gifts, not gifts of service or discernment—mentioned in 4:11–12? This paper argues three points. First, diversity of spiritual gifts is not the focus of Eph 4:7–16, but rather, the same gift given to many: the word of truth about Jesus’s identity as Messiah and Son of God and his resurrection. Second, Ephesians 4:8–10 is comprehensible in context if viewed through another lens: Romans 10:6–8, the motif of “Messiah ascending victorious after having previously descended”. Third, the invocation of Psalm 68:18 in Ephesians 4:8–10 matches the Aramaic textual tradition, over-against the MT and the LXX. Paul’s use of the verse mirrors the proto-Targumic understanding of the “gifts given to the sons of mankind” as the Law of Moses. Paul is adopting this motif of “ascending with the Law-truth”, but with his own implied substitution of “the truth about Jesus”. Full article

While most Christians might imagine the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead as a single event, for the author of Ephesians, the resurrection is a continuing event of cosmic proportions. In a very real way, the Epistle to the Ephesians is an extended reflection on the ongoing multidimensional cosmic consequences and transformations that result from the death of Jesus and his resurrection, whose impact not only affects the macrocosm in which Christ sits triumphantly at the right hand of God, “far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion” (Eph 1: 20–22), but also the microcosm of the Church, “his body, the fullness of the one who fills the universe in every way” (1: 23), transforming those who compose the smallest microcosm, the baptized who form a Christian household and who, gathered at table to share Eucharist (5: 17–6: 9), are “seated with Christ in the heavenly places” (2: 6), already participating in the eternal Messianic banquet. This is to say that, for this author, the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is the catalyst for an ongoing and ever more evolving “new creation” of humanity and, indeed, the entire cosmos, with “Christification”—the full maturation into the divine “Christ nature” (Eph 4: 13, 15–16) as the telos or goal for the whole universe (Eph 1: 10). Full article

The epistle to the Ephesians, like other Christian texts, teaches that life in the new creation, although not yet fully manifest, is already powerfully and sufficiently available to the church. However, this epistle uniquely has the predominant description of this new life in terms of entering into the household, or family, of God. Ephesians 1–5 makes this evident in the specific use of family language, the clustering of certain word groups (such as terms associated with wrath and peace), and the connection between promise and inheritance. This paper focuses on the instructions to children and fathers (Eph 6:1–4), showing that the teaching on the church in familial terms as the locus of the new creation is intended to be the basis for the way children and fathers are commanded to live their new life in their families. The description of the church contrasts with that of those outside the church, indicating that Christians are adopted children of God the Father, while those outside are “sons of disobedience” (2:2) and “children of wrath” (2:3). The instructions for children to be obedient and for fathers not to provoke their children to anger are best understood in this context. Full article

Within Ephesians, resurrection is the defining evidence of God’s divine power. A scholarly consensus contends that the letter is characterized by a realized eschatology in which the two references to individuals’ resurrection in Eph 2:5–6 and Eph 5:14 refer to an already accomplished salvation. This article, however, argues that interpreting the reference to believers’ resurrection in overly realized terms breaks the logic by which the letter roots Christian ethical action in future expectation. It reevaluates both references to resurrection within its epistolary context, demonstrating how the already accomplished resurrection of Christ is the surety of believers’ future resurrection and the basis for life in the present. This analysis challenges the overly realized interpretation of Ephesians’ eschatology and suggests that, rather than an already accomplished event or a spiritualized metaphor, Ephesians’ references to resurrection refer to the future hope that Christian believers will be bodily resurrected—a hope that is patterned on Christ’s resurrection in history. It is this vision of future hope, then, that acts as the foundation for ethical action within the letter. Christ’s resurrection light—the light that will fully be realized in the eschatological resurrection—becomes the evaluative measure of ethical action in the present. Full article

This article explores Ephesians, asking how the theme of the new creation is developed in Ephesians. Rather than specifying matters like authorship, date, and recipients, it takes a broad view of the situation of the letter so that the focus can be on exploring the theme. It argues that the new creation idea is developed in three main ways. First, while Ephesians has a decidedly realized eschatology, there are hints throughout the letter of the consummation when the whole Earth is freed from corruption and reconciled under one head, Jesus Christ. Second, particularly in chapters 1–3, the writer of Ephesians focuses on realized aspects of eschatology to strengthen the readers’ understanding of their identity in Christ and their status as people of the new creation. The writer does this to strengthen the readers to assume the posture of the new creation while living in a fallen world beset with sin and under spiritual powers. In Ephesians 4–6, the writer describes this new creation virtues the readers are to embody as they contend for God in the world. Finally, the article explores the missional appeal of the letter. The writer challenges the readers to embody the new creation ethic and join God’s mission that calls all humankind to believe in the gospel and become people of the new creation. Full article

One of the central metaphorical themes of Ephesians is maturity, expressed most memorably in 4:13. In this verse, the goal of the church is portrayed as the attainment of the “mature man” (εἰς ἄνδρα τέλειον), the state of completion to which Christ’s corporate body is growing until it reaches “the measure of the stature of the fullness” of its head. Despite the clear origin of Paul’s metaphor in the realm of human development, minimal discussion has centered on how Paul’s contemporaries employed the phrase “mature man” (τέλειος ἀνήρ) in relation to other developmental milestones along the commonly conceived life course in Greco-Roman antiquity, and what implications this might have for understanding where in the maturation process Paul would have plotted his implied readers. This investigation explores these contextual matters and then uses the results to cast light on related developmental imagery in the surrounding passages of Ephesians, including not only the human growth terminology in 4:12–16 but also the pedagogical rhetoric in 4:20–21, the allusion to the Roman toga virilis ceremony in 4:22–24, and the military analogy in 6:10–18. Collectively, this metaphorical imagery helps to identify the church’s current stature as that befitting of a young man who has recently come of age and located within the liminal phase of early male adulthood. Explicating the fullness of the maturity metaphor in Ephesians helps to illuminate the thematic coherency of the letter as well as how Paul sought to make his realized eschatology intelligible to his ancient readers. Full article

This article examines the eschatology in Eph 4:17–32 and argues that the section represents an understanding of “inaugurated eschatology” that is consistent with the undisputed letters of Paul. In the letter, believers are called to a metaphorical resurrection from the corruption and ignorance of the old self (2:1–3; 4:17–22) to a renewed life in the present modeled after the image of God (4:24) and guided by the truth in Jesus (4:21). With minds renewed as such, readers of Ephesians may “discern what is pleasing to the Lord” (5:10) as they “understand what the will of the Lord is” (5:17) in everyday decisions of character and conduct (e.g., 4:25–6:9). The “already” resurrection and renewed mind yet await the “not yet” resurrection of the final day. Indeed, the renewal of the mind anticipates further and final renewal of the whole person (i.e., mind and body) on the future “day of redemption” (4:30)—the day in which the present rising will be made complete as the physical body rises to die no more (cf. 1 Thess 5:2; 4:2; 2 Thess 1:10; 2:2–3; 2 Tim 1:12, 18; 4:8). Full article

Social representations theory (SRT) refers to an approach within social psychology focusing on systems of beliefs, concepts, and values that establish social order and allow for individuals and groups to identify and understand themselves vis-à-vis others. It involves the ascription of meaning to phenomena so that the unfamiliar is made familiar, and new concepts are integrated into existing worldviews in an ongoing process of constructing and interpreting social realities. This approach has not yet been applied to any biblical texts, and this article will explore how such an application would prove fruitful for understanding the processes of identification and community formation in early Christian groups, with a specific focus on Ephesians. This study will focus on how the concepts of reconciled differences (Eph 2.11–22) and of the “new self” (Eph 4.17–32) are communicated to the readers. Analyzing these concepts through SRT will elucidate how the author advocates for certain beliefs, concepts, and values as part of the community members’ process of aligning themselves with their newly created self. Reading Ephesians through SRT can better elucidate how the text reflects its enigmatic community, which was being formed and reformed through identification, division, and re-identification in the tumultuous second half of the first century. Full article

Ethnic disharmony exists among the people of Ghana. What are the reasons for this? Ghana is an amalgamation of different ethnic groups, cultures, peoples and states to form one entity. The partition of Africa is mainly responsible for this, though there are other contributing factors. The project to partition Africa led, in large measure, to the erosion of the African identity. The 19th- and 20th-century European Christian mission to southern West Africa exploited this reality to their mission advantage. Unfortunately, the result seems to be counterproductive because the mission project, for the most part, produced a version of Christianity that failed to affirm the African identity. Concerned Africans, now on a mission to deconstruct the imperialist, European mission-constructed West African Christian identity, realise that biblical interpretation is one major source of this decolonial agenda. How does a mother-tongue reading of Ephesians 2 help decolonise Eυe Christianity and promote ethnic harmony in Ghana? Using mother-tongue biblical hermeneutics, this paper argues that the pursuit of ethnic harmony in Ghana is a decolonial hermeneutic with potential for fostering ethnic harmony in Ghana. Full article

In this contribution, the identity theory is reconsidered in respect to its epistemology. The social identity theory (SIT) and social identity complexity theory (SICT) are both instruments of social sciences based on naturalistic assumptions. The question is asked if social identity theories can fully account for the Christian identity, especially in respect to being confined to the natural, social domain. In light of the way that identity is presented in the New Testament, and especially the way in which the Christian identity is presented as a socially foreign identity in texts such as 1 Peter 1:1; 2:11; Philippians 3:20 and Ephesians 2:19, a more holistic approach to identity that includes aspects of a supernaturalistic epistemology is considered. In other words, a holistic theory of identity is considered, in which the Christian identity is described in terms of one’s relationship to other people (sociological), as well as one’s relationship to God (theological). Full article

Paul’s expression “in the heavenlies” provides an intriguing showcase of the power dynamics of the divine–human relationship (e.g., 1:3, 20; 2:6; 3:10; 6:12). While scholars have identified the theme of union with Christ as an interpretive key for understanding believers’ position in the heavenlies, few have provided adequate attention to “in the heavenlies” according to the significance of theosis. I argue that a patristic idea of theosis offers an interpretive lens in understanding believers’ lives in the heavenlies. Thus, this study aims to situate the discussion on the heavenlies vis-à-vis the conversation around theosis in the New Testament. Full article

This essay proposes a new interpretation of the Pauline expression to “clothe” (ἐνδύω) oneself in Christ (Rom 13:14; Gal 3:27; Eph 4:24; Col 3:10). The phrase has been understood in terms of putting on virtues and godly characteristics. Other understandings of this phrase appear in terms of a new identity (Gal 3:27). There has been relatively limited study, however, on the significance of clothing and how different racial groups were known and characterized by their dress. Clothing was not just something that one “puts on” to protect the body from the elements or analogously understood in terms of adopting virtues. Clothing was a racial signifier, and the putting on or taking off of clothing signaled a racial transformation. The ability to “put on clothes” would have been understood in terms of the malleable nature of racial identity. By drawing on the insights of Herodotus, Aeschylus, Plutarch, and other Greek and Roman writers, this reading proposes a racial interpretation of Paul’s “clothing” phrases in Romans 13:14, Galatians 3:27, Ephesians 4:24, and Colossians 3:10. This essay explores the interpretation of these Pauline passages in contemporary scholarship, describes how the changing of clothing also signified a change of racial identity, and lastly, demonstrates how these insights can impact our understanding of the Pauline expression to “clothe oneself in Christ”. Full article

Interpretation of Ephesians and Colossians has often proceeded on the basis that the stance of the original authors and recipients towards Israel is supersessionist, i.e., that the church has entirely replaced or superseded Israel as the locus of divine scriptural promises. By contrast, this article presents a post-supersessionist reading of Ephesians and Colossians. The reading strategy seeks to read the letters as situated within the dynamics of the apostolic mission to proclaim the gospel of Jesus as the Jewish christos/messiah to the nations. This mission is envisaged in Acts as a priestly dynamic in which the blessings of salvation in the christos/messiah began within a distinctly Israelite original community and proceeded to the nations without necessarily negating Jewish distinctiveness. The reading highlights key instances of this Israel-centered missionary dynamic in Ephesians and Colossians. It also seeks to demonstrate how this dynamic helps to provide satisfactory answers to key exegetical questions in the letters. Furthermore, it offers alternative non-supersessionist readings of critical passages concerning circumcision, law, and Jewish identity in the two letters. The article is a distillation and summary of research in the author’s previously published book Reading Ephesians and Colossians After Supersessionism: Christ’s Mission through Israel to the Nations. Full article

While definitions of spirituality vary, each contains elements of union, a coming together of humanity and divinity. Scholars agree on the centrality of “union with Christ” in Pauline thought, yet not on a definition of union. Ephesians 5:31–32, however, provides important insight through a quotation—“…the two will become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24)—and an explanation—“I say this with reference to Christ and the church”. While scholars highlight the preservation of distinct identities, Paul’s emphasis in the marriage metaphor, both here and elsewhere, is union, an interpenetration logic where two become one. Indeed, interpenetration logic is present in our union with Christ (Galatians 2:19–20) and our union with sin (Romans 7:9–25). Both unions harness the same two-become-one logic with drastically different ends: sin intends to obliterate (Rom. 3:23); Christ intends to resurrect (1 Corinthians 15:22). The crux of Pauline spirituality, then, is not ecstatic experiences or ethical imitations but union—reciprocal residence, where we are in Christ and Christ is in us; a mutual indwelling consummated by “the Spirit of life” (Rom. 8:2). Thus, Eph. 5:31–32 provides insight into interpenetration logic, where two become one without the obliteration of either. This is an insight that profits our understanding of Pauline spirituality and the “profound mystery” of union with Christ. Full article