Editing Epistle to the Ephesians (section)

==Composition==
According to tradition, the Apostle Paul wrote the letter while he was in prison in Rome (around AD 62). This would be about the same time as the [[Epistle to the Colossians]] (which in many points it resembles) and the [[Epistle to Philemon]]. However, many critical scholars have questioned the authorship of the letter and suggest that it may have been written between AD 80 and 100.<ref name="Ehrman 2004 381–384"/><ref name="nccbuscc.org"/><ref name=barth/>

==={{anchor|Authorship}}Authorship===
{{Main|Authorship of the Pauline Epistles}}
The first verse in the letter identifies Paul as its author. While early lists of New Testament books, including the [[Muratorian fragment]] and possibly [[Marcion|Marcion's]] canon (if it is to be equated with the [[Epistle to the Laodiceans]]), attribute the letter to Paul,<ref name="Bruce142">{{cite book |last=Bruce |first=F. F. |author-link=F. F. Bruce |title=The Canon of Scripture |date= 1988 |publisher=InterVarsity Press |place=Downers Grove, IL |isbn= 978-0-83081258-5 |pages=142, 158–60}}</ref> more recently there have been challenges to Pauline authorship on the basis of the letter's characteristically non-Pauline syntax, terminology, and [[eschatology]].<ref name= "HarperCollinsSB">{{cite book |title=The HarperCollins Study Bible |edition= rev. |date=2006 |publisher= HarperCollins |place=New York |isbn= 978-0-06122840-7 |editor-last1=Attridge |editor-first1= Harold W. | editor-link1=Harold W. Attridge |editor-last2=Meeks |editor-first2= Wayne A. |pages=1982–83}}</ref>

Biblical scholar [[Harold Hoehner]], surveying 279 commentaries written between 1519 and 2001, found that 54% favored Pauline authorship, 39% concluded against Pauline authorship and 7% remained uncertain.<ref name="Hoehner 2002" /> [[Norman Perrin]] and Dennis C. Duling found that of six authoritative scholarly references, "four of the six decide for pseudonymity, and the other two ([[Peake's Commentary on the Bible]] and the [[Jerome Biblical Commentary]]) recognize the difficulties in maintaining Pauline authorship. Indeed, the difficulties are insurmountable."<ref name=PerrinDuling1982/> Bible scholar [[Raymond E. Brown]] asserts that about 80% of critical scholarship judges that Paul did not write Ephesians.<ref name=Brown1984/>{{rp|p.47}}

There are four main theories in biblical scholarship that address the question of Pauline authorship.<ref>These four views come from Markus Barth, Ephesians: Introduction, Translation, and Commentary on Chapters 1–3 (New York: Doubleday & Co., 1974), 38</ref>
* The traditional view that the epistle is written by Paul is supported by scholars that include [[Ezra Abbot]], Ragnar Asting, [[Markus Barth]], [[F. F. Bruce]], A. Robert, and André Feuillet, Gaugler, Grant, [[Adolf von Harnack|Harnack]], [[Erich Haupt|Haupt]], [[Fenton John Anthony Hort]], [[Albertus|Klijn]], [[Johann David Michaelis]], A. Van Roon, [[James A. Sanders|Sanders]], Schille, [[Klyne Snodgrass]], [[John R. W. Stott]], Frank Thielman, [[Daniel B. Wallace]], [[Brooke Foss Westcott]], and [[Theodor Zahn]].<ref name="Ephesians"/> For a defense of the Pauline authorship of Ephesians, see ''Ephesians: An Exegetical Commentary'', [[Harold Hoehner]], pp.&nbsp;2–61.<ref name="Hoehner 2002"/>
* A second position suggests that Ephesians was dictated by Paul with interpolations from another author. Some of the scholars that espouse this view include Albertz, Benoit, Cerfaux, Goguel, Harrison, [[H. J. Holtzmann]], [[Jerome Murphy-O'Connor|Murphy-O'Connor]], and Wagenführer.
* A third group thinks it improbable that Paul authored Ephesians. Among this group are Allan, Beare, Brandon, [[Rudolf Bultmann]], Conzelmann, [[Martin Dibelius|Dibelius]], Goodspeed, Kilsemann, J. Knox, W.L. Knox, Kümmel, K and S Lake, Marxsen, Masson, Mitton, Moffatt, [[Dennis Nineham|Nineham]], Pokorny, Schweizer, and J. Weiss.
* Still other scholars suggest there is a lack of conclusive evidence. Some of this group are Cadbury, Julicher, McNeile, and Williams.

===Place, date, and purpose of the writing of the letter===
While most English translations indicate that the letter was addressed to "the saints who are in [[Ephesus]]" (1:1), the words "in Ephesus" do not appear in the best and earliest manuscripts of the letter, leading most [[Textual criticism|textual critics]], like [[Bart Ehrman]], to regard the words as an [[Interpolation (manuscripts)|interpolation]].<ref name= "Ehrman 2004 381–384"/> This lack of any internal references to [[Ephesus]] in the early manuscripts may have led [[Marcion]], a second-century [[heresiarch]] [[Development of the New Testament canon#Marcion of Sinope|who created the first New Testament canon]], to believe that the letter was actually addressed to the church at [[Laodicea on the Lycus|Laodicea]]. For details see [[Epistle to the Laodiceans]].<ref name="Bruce142"/>

Furthermore, if Paul is regarded as the author, the impersonal character of the letter, which lacks personal greetings or any indication that the author has personal knowledge of his recipients, is incongruous with the account in Acts of Paul staying more than two years in Ephesus.<ref name="OBrien5">{{cite book |last=O'Brien |first=Peter T. |author-link=Peter O'Brien (theologian) |date=1999 |title=The Letter to the Ephesians |publisher=Eerdmans |place=Grand Rapids, Michigan |series=The Pillar New Testament Commentary |isbn= 978-0-80283736-3 |editor-last=Carson |editor-first=D. A. |editor-link=D. A. Carson |page= 5}}</ref> For these reasons, most regard Ephesians to be a circular letter intended for many churches.<ref name= "HarperCollinsSB"/><ref name= "OBrien5" /><ref>{{cite book |last= Snodgrass |first=Klyne |author-link= Klyne Snodgrass | series = The NIV Application Commentary | title = Ephesians |date= 1996 |publisher= Zondervan |isbn= 978-0-31049340-2 |page= 21}}</ref> The [[Jerusalem Bible]] notes that some critics think the words "who are" would have been followed by a blank to be filled in with the name of "whichever church was being sent the letter".<ref>Jerusalem Bible (1966), Footnote 'a' at Ephesians 1:1</ref>

If Paul was the author of the letter, then it was probably written from Rome during Paul's first imprisonment,<ref>{{Bibleref2-nb|Eph|3:1}}; {{Bibleref2-nb |Eph|4:1}}; {{Bibleref2-nb|Eph.|6:20}}</ref> and probably soon after his arrival there in the year 62, four years after he had parted with the Ephesian elders at Miletus. However, scholars who dispute Paul's authorship date the letter to between 70 and 80 AD.<ref name= "barth" /> In the latter case, the possible location of the authorship could have been within the church of Ephesus itself. [[Ignatius of Antioch]] seemed to be very well versed in the epistle to the Ephesians, and mirrors many of his own thoughts in his own epistle to the Ephesians.<ref name= "barth">[[Markus Barth]], Ephesians: Introduction, Translation, and Commentary on Chapters 1–3 (New York: Doubleday & Co., 1974), 50–51</ref>