EPHESIANS
486
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
