Who is the author of the Epistle to the Ephesians and when did he write it?Today everybody is convinced that St. Paul did not write the Epistle to theEphesians; mainly due to the following reasons: 1. The author has not met this community before. 2. The style is not the style of Paul. 3. The content and the meaning of the letter: It is impossible that Paul wrote anything like this. 4. There are similarities between the Epistle to the Ephesians and the Epistle to the Colossians. Can they have been written by the same author? I answer to these points: 1. Indeed the author has not metthis community. But because the tradition of the texts can prove that this letter originally was not sent to Ephesus this is not an argument against Paul. 2. The style of this letter can be called doxological. In other letters Paul sometimes uses elements of the same style. It is not impossible that he wrote this letter. 3. Most importantly, there are several points proving that this letter could not have been written in later times: The letter's main problem is how to achieve unity between pagans and Jews in the one Christian church - an important problem in the days of Paul. In writing that the church is founded on "the apostles and prophets" he is referring to Christian prophets (not the biblical prophets). In later times the christian prophets could not be considered asa foundation of the church. Here the "prophet" can be interpreted as the suffering prophet. Paul sees himself in this manner. The ministries of the church mentioned in this letter seem to be those of the early times, not oflater times. 4. According to Col 4, 16 Paul sent another letter to the community of Laodicea. Marcion called our "Epistle to the Ephesians" the "Epistle to Laodicea" which lies next to Colossae. Comparing both letters: Eph says: God has chosen the church in his son before Creation, whereas Colsays: In Jesus Christ all the creation was created; he is the head of the church. Therefore Col seems to be a commentary to Eph. If God has chosen th

---

---

Personen: Beisser, Friedrich

Schlagwörter: Exegese Gnosis Paulusbriefe Epheser Kolosser