When I started this study on Ephesians, I framed it in terms of a desire to see what it would be like to apply the ‘Integral Hermeneutic’ framework I developed a few years ago to a whole book of the Bible. And, while I definitely did this in terms of preparation, thought process, and ultimate … Continue reading The Life in Christ, Putting it All Together: Ephesians in Integral Perspective
The last post in this series on Ephesians looked at the controversial Household Code in 5.21-6.9. We saw there that, while Paul was unquestionably a spiritual revolutionary, he was very cautious — we might say conservative — in how he applied that spirit to the social structures of the first century Mediterranean world. He attempted … Continue reading The Household Codes of Ephesians 5.21-6.9 under the Microscope
One of the major themes of Paul's writings is the importance of unity within the Christian community. While it would be nice to think that this reflected a time when Christians were indeed unified, the fact that he felt the need to write so much about it demonstrates that it has always been something elusive. … Continue reading Unity as Witness: Ephesians 4.1-6
Now that we’re half way through our study of Ephesians, I thought I’d do something different to wrap up the first half and prepare us for the second. What I’d like to do is a targum, an extended paraphrase of the Scriptures applied to contemporary circumstances. This is an ancient rabbinic practice, but has been … Continue reading A Targum on Ephesians 1-3
It is customary for Paul’s letters to begin with an often dense exploration of the theological themes that he will unpack in the rest of the text. In this way, Ephesians is no exception, as 1.3-14, the passage we’ll look at today (and in the next few posts), is a single, complicated, two-hundred-word sentence in … Continue reading Blessing God: Ephesians 1.3-14
