'l'HE CAMBRIDGE BIBLE FOR SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES THE EPJSTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE EPHESIANS CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS C. F. CLAY, MANAGER LONDON : FETTER LANE, E.C. 4 NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN CO. BOMBAY } - CALCUTTA MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD, MADRAS TORONTO THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CAN ADA, LTD. TOKYO : MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA ALL RIGHTS RESERVED THE EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE EPHESIANS Edited by THE RT. REV. H. C. G. MOULE, D.D. WI'TH IN'TRODUC'TION .AND NO'TES CAMBRIDGE: at the University Press 1923 First Edition 1886 Reprinted 1887 (iwke), 1888, 1889, 1891, 1893, 1895, 1899, 1901 1906, 1910, 1923 PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN PREFACE BY THE GENERAL EDITOR. THE General Editor of The Cambridg-e Bible for Schools thinks it right to say that he does not hold himself responsible either for the interpretation of particular passages which the Editors of the several Books have adopted, or for any opinion on points of doctrine that they may have expressed. In the New Testament more especially questions arise of the deepest theological import, on which the ablest and most conscientious interpreters have differed and always will differ. His aim has been in all such cases to leave each Contributor to the unfettered exercise of his own judgment, only taking care that mere controversy should as far as possible be avoided. He has contented himself chiefly with a careful revision of the notes, with pointing out omissions, with vi PREFACE. suggesting occasionally a reconsideration of some question, or a fuller treatment of difficult passages, and the like. Beyond this he has not attempted to interfere, feeling it better that each Commentary should have its own individual character, and being convinced that freshness and variety of treatment are more than a compensation for any lack of uniformity in the Series. DEANERY, PETERBOROUGH, CONTENTS. PAGES J. INTRODUCTION. Chapter I. Ephesus: Asia: St Paul's connexion with Ephesus .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. • 9-16 Chapter II. St Paul at Rome: occasion and date of the Epistle.............................. 16-2,i Ckapter III. Authenticity of the Epistle ...... ....•• 2z-2+ Chapter IV. In what sense was the Epistle ad- dressed to the Ephesians? ............ z4-z9 Ckapter V. Parallels between the Epistle to the Ephesians and the Epistle to the Colossians ... ...... ...... ........ ....... ... 29-32 Chapter VI. The Charge of St Paul to the Ephesian Elders: the Epistles to Timothy: the Apocalyptic Epistle to the Ephe- sian Angel ......... ........................ 31-33 Chapter VII. Argument of the Epistle ... ............ 33-40 II. TEXT AND NOTES ....................................... ···••• 43-164 III. APPENDICES··········" ......................................... 165-171 IV. INDEX ............................................................ 173-175 . The Text adopted in this Edition is that of Dr Scrivener's * Cambridge Paragraph Bible. A few variations from the or<li• nary Text, chiefly in the spelling of certain words, and in the use of italics, will be noticed. For the principles adopted by Dr Scrivener as regards the printing of the Text see his Intro• duction to the Paragraph Bible, published by the Cambridge University Press. Ephesus is the Metropolis of Asia, and was consecrated to Artemis ,.,Pythagoras is said to have come from Ephesus ...The schools of Parmenides, Zeno, and Democritus, and many philosophers even of our time, are to be found there. This I say not for the sake of saying it, but to shew that Paul needed much earnest care in writing to the Epbesians .•• The Epistle overflows with lofty thoughts and doctrines. He writes it from prison at Rome ... Tbings which he scarcely anywhere else utters, he here expounds. ST CHRYSOSTOM, l?reambletQ his Homilies Qn the Epistle, INTRODUCTION'. CHAPTER I. EPHESUS: ASIA: ST PAUL'S .CONNEXION WITH EPHESUS. A BRIEF notice of EPHESUS itself will be sufficient here, for the Epistle, whatevi:r was its destination (see pp. 24, &c.), deals scarcely at aU with local features and interests. Its pictures of surrounding forms of thought and life are common, if not to the world of the apostolic age in general, certainly to t}J.e then world of western Asia Minor1• Ephesus was colonized mainly from Athens, and the Ephesians inherited something of Athenian genius. The great painters, Parrhasius (cent. 5 B.C.) and Apelles (cent. 4 B.c.), were both Ephesians. But Asiatic• elements, no doubt, largely entered into the race and thought of the people. For a great harbour and emporium the situation of the city was remarkable. It stood some miles from the open coast, on a landlocked basin, the Sacred Port. This was artificially embanked, and con­ nected with the sea by a broad channel which communicated with the river Cayster between the city and the shore. In primeval times the sea, not yet shut out by the alluvium of the Cayster, had washed the buildings of the city, but long before the apostolic age a process of silting, made worse by mistaken engineering, had begun to choke the channel, and ultimately cut off altogether the waterway to the sea. It was already difficult in St Paul's time to sail into the Sacred Port. 1 On the supposed allusion, eh. ii., to the Temple of Artemis (Diana), sec the remark, p. z7. 10 INTRODUCTION. The two architectural features of Ephesus which come up in the Scripture narrative are the Temple of Artemis (Diana), and the Theatre. The Ephesian Artemis had little if any connexion with the Huntress of Hellenic mythology. Her statue, with its many breasts, betokened the fertility of Nature, and was engraved, in Greek letters, with a magic legend. The mighty Temple, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, stood facing eastward, outside the city walls. First and last, it was the work of 220 years ; built of shining marble; 342 feet long by 164 feet broad; supported by a forest of columns each 56 feet high; a sacred museum of master-pieces of sculpture and painting. At the centre, hidden by curtains within a gorgeous shrine (ndos), stood the very ancient image of the Goddess, of wood or ebony1, reputed to have fallen from the sky. Behind the shrine was a treasury where, as in "the safest bank in Asia," nations and kings stored their most precious things. The Temple, as St Paul saw it, subsisted till A. D. 262, when it was ruined by the Goths. The Theatre, excavated on the western side of Mount Cores­ sus, and, like all ancient theatres, open to the sky, was the largest in the Hellenic world, capable of containing 50,000 spec­ tators. Not far to the north of it lay the Stadium, or Race­ course, where also the fights of beasts; and of men with beasts, were shewn. To this we can trace figurative references in the great Epistle written from Ephesus (1 Cor. iv. 9, ix. 24, 25, xv. 32). Ephesus was the capital of Procons)llar Asia. The Roman province so called included the whole western coast of our Asia Minor and a considerable interior region. It was governed by a Proconsul, chosen by lot from only the Consulars, or Past­ Consuls; a distinction confined to Asia and Libya. The Pro­ consul was assisted, or checked, by the Agent (Procurator) of the Emperor, and by other Roman officials. But the province was permitted in a subordinate degree to administer its own affairs, through municipalities, a Senate, and a popular As- 1 The material was uncertain. It may have been even an aerolite. INTRODUCTION. II sembly, which Assembly met usually in the Ephesian Theatre. The President of the Senate and Assembly was the "Clerk," or "Recorder," of Acts xix. He held office for a year, and the year was dated by his name. Another important dignity was that of "Asiarch" (Acts xix. 31; "chief of Asia," A.V.; "chief officers of Asia," R.V.). The Asiarchs had for their main function, along· with a priestly office, the duty of providing (in a large measure) and of controlling1 the great public games and shows, all of which bore a quasi-sacred character. The earliest N. T. allusion to the region of Ephesus may be found in Acts ii. 9, where we find some pious Jews from "Asia" among the crowd at Pentecost Through these men, or some of them, the first intimations of the Gospel may have reached the plain of the Cayster. St Paul, in the early stages of his great second missionary circuit (A.D. 5I) was divinely "forbidden to preach the word in Asia" (Acts xvi. 6). But at its close, on his way from Greece to Syria, he visited Ephesus (Acts xviii. 18-21), bringing Aquila and Priscilla with him, and leaving them there. His own stay was short, as he was hastening to keep a festival, probably Pentecost, at Jerusalem; and his evangelistic work consisted wholly in "reasonings" (perhaps in one isolated "reasoning," for the verb is aorist, ver. 19) with the Jews in their synagogue. The impression made by his message must have been favourable, for he was pressed to stay, and departed with a promise to return. During his absence, in Syria and Asia Minor (Acts xviii. 22, 23, xix. 1), Apollos visited Ephesus, received full Christian instruc­ tion from Aquila and Priscilla, and passed on to Corinth (Acts xviii. 24-28). St Paul's second visit lasted over three years (Acts xx. 31), probably from A.D. 54 to A.D. 57. He arrived from the interior of Asia Minor (Acts xix. 1, where" upper coasts" means "inland parts"). He found, no doubt, some results already of the labours 1 "The Asiarch Philip" appears in the narrative of St Polycarp's martyrdom (A.D. 166) at Smyrna (eh. xii.), as the authority to whom the populace appeal to let a lion loose upon the martyr.