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WorkPaul the Apostle

Epistles to the Ephesians and the Colossians

Two prison letters in Paul's name that picture a single worldwide church; many scholars think his followers wrote them.

by Paul the Apostle20 passages held

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Original title
Πρὸς Ἐφεσίους · Πρὸς Κολοσσαεῖς
First published
(aged 57)
Original language
Greek

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Overview

In the oldest manuscripts of the letter called Ephesians, the words naming Ephesus as its destination are missing. The letter greets no one, although Acts has Paul spend more than two years in that city, and Marcion, a Christian teacher of the second century, knew it as the letter to the Laodiceans. This page holds two letters written in Paul's name from prison. Colossians is addressed to the congregation at Colossae, a town in the Lycus valley of Asia Minor that Paul had not founded. Ephesians reads like a circular for several churches, and much of it follows Colossians closely. The tradition receives both as Paul's, written during his imprisonment in Rome around 60–62. Many scholars think they were written after his death, roughly between 70 and 100, by followers writing in his name, for reasons of style (long, piled-up sentences and a vocabulary unlike his), of theology (the church is now one worldwide body with Christ as its head, and believers are spoken of as already raised with him) and of situation (no greetings in Ephesians, no collection for Jerusalem, no sense that the end is near). Others hold that a change of subject, of secretary or of Paul's own thinking explains the differences, and surveys of scholars show opinion divided. Colossians argues against a teaching it calls a hollow and deceptive philosophy, which bound believers to the elemental powers of the world, to the worship of angels, to festivals, new moons and sabbaths, and to rules against touching and tasting; scholars have never agreed on what it was. Its reply is a hymn to Christ as the image of the invisible God, in whom all things were created and hold together, so that nothing needs to be added to him. Ephesians widens this into Jew and Gentile made one new humanity, the wall that divided them broken down. In their closing chapters both letters set out rules for the household, telling wives to submit, children and slaves to obey, and husbands, fathers and masters to be gentle; egalitarian readers take Ephesians' call to mutual submission as the key to them, and others reject that reading. The text given here is the King James Version (1611), translated from the Greek, with the verse numbers removed and the chapters kept.

Key concepts

What are 'principalities and powers' in these letters?

Unseen rulers and forces that people believed governed the world, above and behind its human authorities. The letters make two claims about them: Christ created them, since 'by him were all things created … principalities, or powers', and on the cross he disarmed them and 'made a shew of them openly'. That is why believers are told their real struggle is 'not against flesh and blood'.

What is 'the mystery' in Ephesians and Colossians?

God's plan, hidden for ages and now made known: that the Gentiles 'should be fellowheirs, and of the same body' with Israel. Mystery here does not mean a puzzle that stays unsolved but a secret that has been told. Colossians compresses it into one phrase, 'Christ in you, the hope of glory', said to non-Jewish believers who once had no share in the promises.

What does it mean that Christ is 'the head of the body'?

That the church is one body spread across the world, and Christ rules it and gives it life the way a head directs a body. Ephesians says God made him 'head over all things to the church, which is his body'. The image carries a promise of growth: the whole body, joined together, grows up into him, so unity is something to be reached as well as kept.

What is 'the fulness' these letters speak of?

The whole of what God is and gives, with nothing held back; the Greek word is plḗrōma. Colossians says that 'in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily', so believers, being 'complete in him', need no angels or extra rituals. Ephesians extends the word to the church, 'the fulness of him that filleth all in all'.

What is a 'household code'?

The name scholars give to the paired rules near the end of both letters for the members of an ancient household: wives and husbands, children and fathers, slaves and masters. Each pair is addressed in both directions, the weaker party asked to submit or obey, the stronger reminded of a duty and of a Master in heaven. Ephesians frames all of it with 'submitting yourselves one to another'.

Themes of the book

What this book returns to, gathered into themes and ordered by how much of the text each one occupies.

Christ above every power

If Christ is enough, why add angels, holy days and rules about food? Colossians answers a rival teaching with a hymn that puts Christ above everything that exists.

Colossians warns against being taken captive 'through philosophy and vain deceit': a teaching that bound believers to the elemental powers of the world, to the worship of angels, to new moons and sabbaths, and to rules such as touch not, taste not. Its reply is a hymn to Christ as the image of the invisible God, the one in whom all things were created and hold together. The written charges against us were nailed to his cross and the powers led in triumph, so nothing needs to be added to him.

  • christology
  • divine power
  • wisdom
  • truth
  • redemption
  • baptism
  • religious practice

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One new humanity in one worldwide church

What happens to the old line between Jew and Gentile once both belong to Christ? Ephesians says the wall is down, and imagines a single church spanning the world.

Ephesians tells Gentile readers that they were once strangers to the promises and are now fellow citizens, because Christ has broken down the middle wall of partition and made of the two one new man. The church is his body, the fulness of him that fills all in all, and its unity is summed up as one Lord, one faith, one baptism. The letter's prayers reach for a love whose breadth, length, depth and height pass knowledge, and its counsel is to grow up into that unity, speaking the truth in love.

  • church
  • unity
  • reconciliation
  • grace
  • salvation
  • faith
  • community
  • love
  • praise
  • prayer
  • hope

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Putting off the old self

If believers have already died and risen with Christ, why do they still need telling not to lie, steal or rage? Both letters answer with the image of changing clothes, and a list of what to wear.

The old self is to be put off like a garment and the new one put on. The counsel is concrete: put away lying; be angry and sin not, and let not the sun go down on your wrath; let the thief stop stealing and work, so that he has something to give; be kind and forgive as God forgave. Ephesians ends by arming the reader. The struggle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual powers, so the armour of God is truth, righteousness, faith and the word.

  • moral transformation
  • virtue
  • anger
  • forgiveness
  • work
  • labor
  • perseverance
  • courage

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Rules for the household

How should faith in Christ reshape a household of husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and slaves? Both letters answer with paired rules, and readers have argued ever since over which half governs the other.

In their closing chapters both letters address each member of the ancient household in turn. Wives are to submit, children and slaves to obey, the slaves 'with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ'. But each command has a partner: husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, fathers not to provoke their children, masters to give what is just and equal, knowing they have a Master in heaven. Ephesians opens the section by telling all to submit to one another.

  • family ethics
  • authority
  • justice
  • care

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Within this work

passages held
20
distinct concepts
68
by passages held, corpus-wide
#781

Works held

The author's work in order, this book marked in place. Your-language title first, the original beneath it where the two differ; side chips show which full texts are held.

  1. 51 Epistles to the Thessalonians (Πρὸς Θεσσαλονικεῖς Α΄ · Πρὸς Θεσσαλονικεῖς Β΄)

    One of his earliest surviving letters, paired with a second in his name whose authorship is disputed. Between them they hold most of what the letters say about the Lord's return.

     EN
  2. 53 Epistle to the Galatians (Πρὸς Γαλάτας)

    A letter of controversy, written in haste to churches he feared to lose. It holds his fullest account of his early years as an apostle and of his clash with Peter, and states in compressed form the case Romans later sets out at length.

     EN
  3. 55 Epistles to the Corinthians (Πρὸς Κορινθίους Α΄ · Πρὸς Κορινθίους Β΄)

    Not one letter but a correspondence: two of at least four letters Paul wrote to Corinth, the second possibly several joined together. They record his longest struggle with a single congregation he had founded.

     EN
  4. 57 Epistle to the Romans (Πρὸς Ῥωμαίους)

    The longest and most systematic of his letters, and the one later theology was built on: for a church he had not founded, it works out at length the argument about faith and the law that Galatians had made in anger.

     EN
  5. 62 Epistles to the Ephesians and the Colossians (Πρὸς Ἐφεσίους · Πρὸς Κολοσσαεῖς) you are here EN
  6. 62 Epistles to the Philippians and to Philemon (Πρὸς Φιλιππησίους · Πρὸς Φιλήμονα)

    Prison letters, one to the congregation that supported him with money and one to a single household. Philemon is the only one of Paul's undisputed letters written chiefly to one person.

     EN
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