Editing Epistle to the Ephesians (section)

==={{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.