Living to the Praise of God's Glory

A Missional Reading of Ephesians

Mark A. Simon

• Verlag: Wipf and Stock
• Jahr: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781725299689
• Thema: Théologie et religion
• Thema: Études bibliques

The letter to the Ephesians is missional to its core. It effectively exhorts its readers to understand, support, and participate in God's mission to rescue humanity and all creation from the damage and distortion of sin, and so bring about a renewed creation filled with God's glorious fullness. Working at the creative intersection of biblical studies and missiology, this study adopts a missional hermeneutic to overcome the scholarly neglect of mission in Ephesians. The book systematically explores each passage in Ephesians, delving into the characterization of God and his mission; allusions to Old Testament missional texts in Ephesians; and the portrayal of the apostle Paul and believers as participants in God's mission. A multi-faceted vision of mission emerges which encompasses God's actions in salvation history; the church as mediator of God's glory, reconciliation and grace to the nations; prayer; ethical witness; and verbal proclamation of the gospel. Reading Ephesians through this missional lens yields fresh insights into its purpose and context, and the richness of its portrait of mission.

1

Introduction

1.1 Background

I. Howard Marshall claimed that the documents of the NT are “documents of a mission” and that NT theology is essentially “missionary theology.”1 Christopher Wright similarly claims that the whole Bible is “the product of and witness to the ultimate mission of God.”2 For Wright, the overarching theme and hermeneutical key to the Bible is the missio Dei.3 These claims warrant testing at the level of individual books in the canon.

Although Ephesians is routinely portrayed by missionary writers and popular Christian writers as supportive of priorities including church growth, gospel witness, evangelism, and spiritual warfare aimed at extending God’s kingdom on earth, it is construed by some critical biblical scholars (such as Margaret MacDonald) as a letter that eschews such activities and instead reflects an “introversionist” impulse and withdrawal from the world.4 For example, Ernest Best states: “It was [the author’s] intention to deal with the internal life of Christian communities.”5 Best further comments that “Ephesians . . . has no interest in mission activity.”6 Amongst scholars, Clinton Arnold voices a dissenting opinion, claiming that “Paul strongly emphasizes in Ephesians taking the good news of God’s redemptive message to a world that has not heard it.”7 These sharply contrasting interpretations invite investigation and resolution.

Not only is the extent of Ephesians’ interest in mission debated, there are more fundamental uncertainties in the scholarly treatment of Ephesians. Historically, Ephesians held a position close to Romans as one of the most influential Pauline letters in Christian theology. However, in modern critical biblical scholarship, the combination of doubts about its authenticity, original destination, occasion, and purpose have led to the letter being marginalized in some quarters of NT scholarship.8 The variety of opinions regarding its setting and purpose are diverse. It has been seen, inter alia, as wisdom discourse, a summation of Pauline theology, a response to emergent Gnosticism, a baptismal homily, a liturgical work, a response to tension between Jewish and gentile believers, and an attempt to strengthen believers to withstand the spiritual and cultural pressures from their pagan surroundings.9 Most of these proposals share a bias towards internal ecclesiological concerns, rather than a focus outwards. The lack of scholarly consensus regarding purpose and setting, together with the divergent views regarding mission in the letter all indicate that a reappraisal of Ephesians is war...