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 EPHESIANS

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EPHESIANS

treated than on the autlior himself; in fact, even in the dogmatic expositions in the great Epistles, St. Paul's language is frequently involved (cf. Rom., ii, 13 sq.; iv, 16sq.; v, l'2sq.; etc.). Moreover, it must be observed that all these peculiarities spring from the same cause: they all indicate a certain redundancy of ideas surging in upon a deep and tranquil meditation on a sublime subj ect, the various aspects of which simul- taneously appear to the author's mind and evoke his admiration. Hence also the lyric tone that pervades the first three chapters, which constitute a series of praises, benedictions, thanksgivings, and prayers. A sort of rhythmic composition has been pointed out in chapter i (cf. T. Innitzer, " Der ' Hymnus' im Eph., i, 3-14 " in '' Zeitschrift furkatholischeTheologie", 1904, 612 sq.), and in chapter iii traces of liturgical hymnol- ogy have been observed (Eph., iii, 20), but they are no more striking than in I Cor. and are not to be com- pared with the liturgical language of I Clement.

(2) Doctrines. — The doctrines on justification, the Law, faith, the flesh, etc., that are characteristic of the great Pauline Epistles, are not totally lacking in the Epistle to the Ephesians, being recognizable in chap- ter ii (1-16). However, the writer's subject does not lead him to develop these particular doctrines. On the other baud, he clearly indicates, especially in chapter i, the supreme place which, in the order of na- ture and grace, is allotted to Clirist, the author and centre of creation, the point towards which all things converge, the source of all grace, etc. Although, in his great Epistles, St. Paul sometimes touches upon these doctrines (cf. I Cor., viii, 6; xv, 45 sq.; II Cor., v, 18 sq.), they constitute the special object of his let- ter to the Colossians, where he develops them to a much greater extent than in that to the Ephesians. In fact this Epistle treats more of the Churcli than of Christ. (On the doctrine of the Church in the Epistle to the Ephesians see Meritan in " Revue biblique ", 1898, pp. 343 sq., and W. H. Griffith Thomas in the "Expositor", Oct., 1906, pp. 318 sq.) The word church no longer means, as is usual in the great Epis- tles of St. Paul (see, however, Gal., i, 13; I Cor., xii, 28; XV. 9), some local church or other, but the one uni- versal Church, an organic whole uniting all Christians in one body of which Christ is the head. Here we find the systematized development of elements insinuated from time to time in the letters to the Galatians, Cor- inthians, and Romans. The author who has declared that there is now neither Jew nor Greek but that all are one in Christ Jesus (Gal., iii, 2S); that in each Christian the life of Christ is made manifest (Gal., ii, 20; II Cor., iv, 1 1 sq.); that all are led by the Spirit of God and of Christ (Rom., viii, 9-14); that each one of the faithful has Christ for head (I Cor., xi, 3), could, by combining these elements, easily come to consider all Christians as forming but one body (Rom., xii, 5; I Cor., xii, 12, 27), animated by one spirit (Eph., iv, 4), a single body having Christ for head. To this body the Gentiles belong by the same right as the Jews. Un- doulitedly this mysterious dispensation of Providence was, according to the Epistle to the Ephesians, made manifest to all the Apostles, a declaration which, moreover, the Epistle to the Galatians does not contra- dict ((!al., ii, 3-9); however, this revelation remains, as it were, the special gift of St. Paul (Eph., iii, 3-8). The right of pagans seems to be no longer questioned, which is easily understood at the close of the Apostle's life. At the death of Christ the wall of separation was broken down (cf. Gal., iii, 13), and all have since had access to the Father in the same spirit. They ilo not meet on the .Jewish ground of the abnlished Law but on Christian ground, in the edifice foundeil dinrtly on Chri.st. The Church being thus constituted, the au- thor contemplates it just as it appears to him. Be- sides, if in the extension of the (!luireh he l)eholds the realization of the eternal decree by which all men have been predestined to the same salvation, he is not

obliged to repeat the religious history of mankind in the way he had occasion to describe it in the Epistle to the Romans; neither is he constrained to explain the historical privileges of the Jews, to which he neverthe- less alludes (Eph., ii, 12), nor to connect the new econ- omy with the old (see, however, Eph.. iii, 6), nor indeed to introduce, at least into the dogmatical exposition, the sins of the pagans, whom he is satisfied to accuse of having lacked intimate communion with God (Eph., ii, 12). For the time being all these points are not hi£ main subject of meditation. It is rather the recent, positive fact of the union of all men in the Church, the body of Christ, that he brings into prominence; the Apostle contemplates Christ Himself in His actual influence over this body and over each of its mem- bers; hence it is only occasionally that he recalls the redemptive power of Christ's Death. (Eph., i, 7; ii, 5, 6.) From heaven, where He has been exalted, Christ bestows His gifts on all the faithful without distinction, commanding, however, that in His Church certain offices be held for the common welfare. The hierarchical terms used so constantly later on (iirlcTKOTroij irpea^iTepoi, SiaKomi) are not met with here. The apostles and prophets, always mentioned together, in the Epistle to the Ephesians, play a like part, being the founders of the Church (Eph., ii, 20). Thus placed on an equality with the prophets, the apostles are not the chosen Twelve but, as indicated in the letters of St. Paul, those who have seen Christ and been commissioned by Him to preach His Gospel. It is for the same purpose that the prophets in the Epistle to the Ephesians used the charisma, or spiritual gifts described in I Cor.,xii-xiv. The evangelists, who are not noticed in Eph., ii, 20, or iii, 5, are inferior in dig- nity to the apostles and propliets in connexion with whom they are, nevertheless, mentioned (Eph., iv, 11). In his first letters St. Paul had no occasion to allude to them, but they belong to the Apostolic age, as at a later epoch they are never referred to. Finally the "pastors and doctors" (A. V. pastors and teach- ers), who are clearly distinguished (Eph., iv, 11) from the apostles and propliets, founders of the churches, seem to be those local authorities already indicated in I Thess., v, 12; I Cor., xvi, 15 sq.; Acts, xx, 28. AVliile the attention given to these different ministers forms a distinctive note in the Epistle to the Ephe- sians, we cannot therefore admit (with Klopper, for example) that the author is preoccupied with the hierarchy as such. The unity of the Church, a point that he clearly emphasizes, is not so much the juridical unity of an organized society as the vital unity that binds all the members of the body to its head, the glorified Christ. Nor is it true that the author already predicts centuries of future existence for this Church (Klopper) as, properly speaking, the ages to come, re- ferred to in the Epistle to the Ephesians (ii, 7), are to come in the Kingdom of Heaven (cf. ii, 6). On the other hand we know that St. Paul's hope of soon wit- nessing Christ's second coming kept constantly dimin- ishing, and therefore, in the latter years of his life, he might well define (Eph., v, 22 sq.) the laws of Chris- tian marriage, which at an earlier period (I Cor., vii, 37 sq.) he regarded only in the light of the approach- ing advent of Christ.

■The exposition that we have given of the doctrines proper to the Epistle to the Ephesians has been so made as to show that none of these doctrines taken separately contradicts the theology of the great Paul- ine Epistles and that each one individually can be con- nected with certain elements disseminated in these F^pistles. It is nevertheless true that, taken in its entirety, this letter to the Ephesians constitutes a new doctrinal system, the Pauline authenticity of which can only be critically defended by pointing out the cir- cumstances in consequence of which the Apostle was able thus to develop his first theology and profoundly to modify his manner of setting it forth. Naturally