Bible Discussion Thread

INTRODUCTION TO EPHESIANS (Part 1):

I. ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

The author is Paul. His inscription is on all thirteen of his letters.

II. TO WHOM IT WAS WRITTEN

It was written to the church in Ephesus. Ephesians is believed to be a circulation letter distributed throughout Asia. The reason: Because many older manuscripts do not contain the words "in Ephesus" as in Verse 1. And so, in Ephesians 1:1, Paul writes and says to the believers who are in Ephesus. And the older manuscripts don't have the words "in Ephesus."

And that causes us to believe that once the church in Ephesus received this letter, they wrote their name in the copy of it, and then sent it to the other churches where other churches could copy it and put their name on it. It's not addressed to specific individuals, nor is it to correct a specific problem in a certain church. The whole presentation of the letter was as if it was distributed to the whole body of Christ, which indeed it is.

III. THE HISTORY OF EPHESUS:

Ephesus was the Roman capital of Asia. Paul, during his third missionary journey came all the way over to Ephesus and he ministered there for about three years. He went up the coast over into Philippi, and down the coast through Macedonia and Achaia, and then came back over to Miletus, and then went back to Jerusalem.

He actually started his missionary journey out of Antioch of Assyria, where all of the believers had gone after the persecutions began in Jerusalem.

Ephesus is the hub of Asia as far as the missionary work goes. The apostle John himself pastored here right before he died. He came back either before or after his time on the island of Patmos.