A necessary preliminary to the study of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is a survey of the circumstances in which the ecclesia in Ephesus was established. This in turn will give support to the conviction that the epistle was intended not only for the believers in Ephesus itself, but also for disciples in other towns in the province of Asia. The length of the apostle’s sojourn in the city is his longest in any centre where his labors resulted in an ecclesia.
Understandably, the size of the city in which Paul and his associates preached the gospel bore a relationship to the length of the period spent there (see Acts 18:10). While Corinth was a large centre, Ephesus was greater, ranking third in the empire behind Rome and Alexandria. One estimate is that the city had approximately a third of a million inhabitants.1It had been Paul’s ambition to carry the gospel to Ephesus in the course of the second missionary journey and doubtless to its hinterland, but he was prevented by divine guidance (see Acts 16:6). Even so, at the conclusion of his great work in Corinth, he called in at Ephesus on his way to Jerusalem (Acts 18:19,20).
There is a detail at this point worthy of our attention: though the sojourn was brief, the apostle preached in the synagogue and appears to have aroused interest, for he was asked to stay longer (v. 20). This apparently small detail may well possess special significance, as we hope to demonstrate. Encouraged by the initial response, Paul departed, promising that if it was God’s will, he would be back (v. 21).
Another important piece of information is provided in the record of Apollos’ ministry in Ephesus. This eloquent Alexandrian Jew, although his knowledge of the Lord’s ministry was limited, nevertheless “powerfully confuted the Jews… shewing by the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ” (Acts 18:28).
These preliminary reflections appear to throw light upon the reasons for the early success of Paul’s witness in Ephesus, for the synagogue provided a platform for three months (Acts 19:8). This presents a contrast with what occurred at Thessalonica: there, after only three Sabbaths, the synagogue door was closed to Paul and Silas, and the orthodox Jews, incensed by the success of Paul’s preaching, organized such opposition to him that he and Silas were reluctantly obliged to leave the city (Acts 17:10). So resolved were the Jews of Thessalonica to frustrate Paul’s work that Silas and he were pursued as far as Berea (v. 13).
When we return to consider Paul’s witness at Ephesus, it must be evident that in so large a centre the Jews were much more numerous than those in Thessalonica. From the information Luke gives us, it is clear that an element among the orthodox Jews was prepared to give Paul an extended hearing. Presumably, some embraced the offer of eternal life in the Lord Jesus. But this development gave the Jews no joy and in Ephesus, as elsewhere, they organized fierce opposition to Paul. The apostle himself provides eloquent comments on what happened — in his two letters to the Corinthians, both written during his Ephesian ministry. In the first he speaks of fighting with beasts at Ephesus (1 Cor. 15:32), which language, whether it be literal or metaphorical, speaks volumes. Then there is the brief but eloquent comment: “For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries” (1 Cor. 16:9). In like manner, in the second epistle, his language is expressive: his experiences have been such that he despaired of life itself, and his recovery is likened to resurrection (2 Cor. 1:8,9).
All this is confirmed by what he said to the Ephesian elders when he addressed them at Miletus, after he had concluded his work in the Aegean area and was on the way to Jerusalem. He reminded them how he had served the Lord with all lowliness of mind and that he had been subjected to “the plots of the Jews” (Acts 20:19). Towards the end of his discourse, he mentions that he had spent three years in Ephesus (v. 31). Paul may well be speaking here in round terms; even so it is an indication of the considerable time spent in the city.
If we bring together the scattered chronological clues, we find incidental confirmation of Paul’s claim. First we take into account the three months spent in the synagogue (Acts 19:8). Jewish opposition constrained him to find a platform elsewhere and this he found in “the school of Tyrannus” (v. 9), where he spent two years (v. 10), but he may not have been able overnight to move from the synagogue to the new venue. Luke now informs us that, as the result of the apostle’s witness and the outstanding miracles performed by him, the word of the Lord spread throughout the province of Asia. This is a detail to bear in mind when we come to the subject of the other ecclesias which may have been established at this time.
A remarkable incident concerns the seven sons of a so-called Jewish high priest, who with others had spuriously invoked the name of the Lord Jesus; these Jews suffered complete discomfiture (vs. 13-17). The episode became widely known, serving as it did to demonstrate the total contrast between a true follower of the Lord and the charlatans. In the process, the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified, this being in itself a witness to the unique greatness of the Lord. It is an indication also that Paul, like Peter, had performed the miracles in the name of the Lord Jesus (see Acts 3:6).
The response of some who practiced magical arts was dramatic for they burnt the books, worth a considerable sum, which contained the magical formulas.2Whatever obstacles were being encountered, the work was blessed and Luke makes one of his “progress reports”: “So mightily grew the word of the Lord and prevailed” (Acts 19:20).
At this juncture Paul felt his work in Ephesus was drawing to a close and he expresses the intention of visiting Rome (v. 21; see also Rom. 15:25-28). He sends Timothy and Erastus ahead but remains in Ephesus “for a while” (Acts 19:22). This may be imprecise, but we need to add this period to what we have already learnt about the duration of Paul’s sojourn in Ephesus. After we have taken into account all the clues, we begin to find increasing support for Paul’s own figure of three years (see once more Acts 20:31). During the final indeterminate period, alarm increases among the local artisans who owe their living to the cult of Artemis. They have a leader in a certain Demetrius who organizes the opposition to the apostle.
What he said to his fellows has special interest for us in our assessment of what Paul had achieved during his time in Ephesus: “And ye see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying they be no gods, which are made with hands” (v. 26). “Ye see and hear” are words which are surely highly significant. Doubtless the great temple had amongst its most frequent visitors worshippers from the surrounding area; they would bring stories of what was happening in their neighbourhood and thus testify to the widespread diffusion of the gospel.
All this leads to what seems a legitimate conclusion: ecclesias were being established throughout the hinterland. In connection with the first missionary journey, Luke records that while Paul and Barnabas were preaching at Antioch, the word of the Lord was spread throughout the region (see Acts 13:49). Inevitably this must have happened during Paul’s much longer sojourn in Ephesus. Later, there were at least seven churches in Ephesus itself and the surrounding country, for we know their names from Revelation 2 and 3. While we cannot afford to dogmatise and maintain that all seven were founded by Paul and his associates, yet we know from Colossians, written during Paul’s first imprisonment in Rome but a few years after he left Ephesus, that the church at Laodicea was in existence, together with one at Hierapolis (see Col. 4:16). The letter to Colosse gives a possible indication how it came into existence: Epaphras is mentioned early (in Col. 1:7) and later Paul mentions approvingly his labour at two ecclesias, neighbours of Colosse: Laodicea and Hierapolis (Col. 4:12,13). Thus, at the time Paul wrote the Colossian letter there is firm evidence of the spread of the gospel to Colosse and its neighbourhood, nearly 100 miles in a straight line from Ephesus.
But where do all these considerations lead us, and what is their relevance to the Ephesian letter? Now it is a significant fact that important early manuscripts of the letter carried originally a blank in the opening salutation.3This at least suggests the epistle might have been conveyed to other destinations. Tychicus was the bearer of the letter we know as the Ephesian letter (see Eph. 6:21). He was also the one who carried the letter to the Colossians (Col. 4:7,8) and the charming letter to Philemon.
Also from Colossians we learn they were to share the epistle they received with the Laodiceans (Col. 4:16) and the Colossians in their turn were to read “the epistle from Laodicea”. Surely only one sensible conclusion seems possible: the letter from Laodicea must have been intended for a number of ecclesias, and this has to be the one we identify as the epistle to the Ephesians.
When we accept this conclusion, we can appreciate why the two letters have so much in common. We shall discover as we study the epistle to the Ephesians how the great themes treated there appear also in the letter to Colosse.
But something will need to be said about the circumstances in which the three letters delivered by Tychicus came to be composed.
- See the article on Ephesus by A. Souter and J. Strahan, Dictionary of the Apostolic Church, 1, Edinburgh 1915.
- See F.F. Bruce: “Many of them also gathered their magical papyri together and made a bonfire of them. A number of such magical scrolls have survived to our day; there are especially famous examples in the London, Paris and Leiden collections. The special connection of Ephesus with magic is reflected in the term ‘Ephesian letters’ for magical scrolls” (The Book of the Acts, Revised Edition, Grand Rapids, Michigan, p. 369).
- J. B. Lightfoot makes some enlightening comments on the manuscript evidence: writing about the salutation “in Ephesus” he states: “In the Codex Sinaiticus {Aleph} [these words] were absent originally, but are supplied by a third hand. In the Codex Vaticanus they have no place in the text, but are supplied in the margin by a later corrector” (Biblical Essays, London 1893, p. 380). These two codices are assigned to the fourth century. Thus early, and very important, manuscript evidence supports the conclusion that the Ephesian letter was intended to be delivered to destinations apart from Ephesus itself.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One