As I said last week, in this post we are going to study the cultural/historical context of Ephesus in connection with the book of Ephesians, using the information found in Exalting Jesus in Ephesians by Tony Merida.
Believed to have been written near the end of his 2-year imprisonment in Rome, the letter is a contemporary of Colossians and Philemon, likely written around AD 62. Paul wrote this while chained to a Roman soldier! He was free to receive visitors, so one was likely a a secretary who wrote down his words, and then those letters were sent to the churches.
The author points out that this book was written 7-8 years after Paul left Ephesus, where he spent 3 years (AD 50-52) on his longest stay of any missionary journey (Acts 19). He spent 3 months teaching in the synagogue, then 2 years teaching in a lecture hall during siesta time, and then "some time" after that. It's also where he faced the wild beasts mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15:32 (page 8).
Okay, now that we've looked at the context of the letter, we're going to learn more about the culture of Ephesus next!
I said last week that Ephesians is likely my favorite book in the Bible. In the introduction to this exposition, the authors point out that it is likely the "most contemporary" epistle in the New Testament, because, "apart from the mention of slavery, which is addressed later in the book, it literally could have been written to the modern church" (page 4). The author points out that instead of writing to correct something Paul wrote more reflexively. "It was a circular letter, distributed and read by the churches in the Asia Minor region and therefore, comes to us in a general form.... Ephesians resonates with contemporary Christians because it seems Paul could have written the letter to a 21st century church" (page 4). It was sent to mostly Gentile believers throughout Southwestern Asia (we'll explore this more in a later post).
Believed to have been written near the end of his 2-year imprisonment in Rome, the letter is a contemporary of Colossians and Philemon, likely written around AD 62. Paul wrote this while chained to a Roman soldier! He was free to receive visitors, so one was likely a a secretary who wrote down his words, and then those letters were sent to the churches.
The author points out that this book was written 7-8 years after Paul left Ephesus, where he spent 3 years (AD 50-52) on his longest stay of any missionary journey (Acts 19). He spent 3 months teaching in the synagogue, then 2 years teaching in a lecture hall during siesta time, and then "some time" after that. It's also where he faced the wild beasts mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15:32 (page 8).
Okay, now that we've looked at the context of the letter, we're going to learn more about the culture of Ephesus next!
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