22. in the Lord, shall make known to you all things: whom I have sent unto you for this very purpose, that ye may know our state, and that he may comfort your hearts. 23. Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from 24. God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in uncorruptness.

paragraph and epistle to the Colossians had already been written and the meaning would be here: But that ye also (as well as the Colossians, to whom I have written the same words) may know my affairs, etc. Ellicott says that “though the word 'also' per se cannot safely be relied on as an argument to prove the priority of Colossians, still on that hypothesis it admits of an easy and natural explanation."

23. As he began by wishing them peace and grace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, so, substantially, he closes. Compare 1: 2. Love with faith. Faith was already there (1:15); he prays that love may be with it; may love be joined with your faith. 24. In uncorruptness those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an incorruptible, imperishable love.

=

And the epistle closes without a single personal salutation.

Surely

it could not have been written as a letter to the Ephesians alone, whose pastor Paul had been for three years (Acts 20: 31).

APPENDIX I

THE RELATION BETWEEN COLOSSIANS AND EPHESIANS

THE relation between the Epistle to the Colossians and that to the Ephesians is a question of much interest. Indeed, it has been ascertained that in seventy-eight out of the one hundred and fifty-five verses of Ephesians even the phraseology is almost the same. This similarity led De Wette to consider_Ephesians as practically a verbose amplification of Colossians. Lists of parallel passages have been prepared by De Wette, Meyer, and others, in which the following parallel passages are cited:

H. J. Holtzmann has built on these parallelisms an elaborate and complicated theory as to the relations of the two epistles; but it is so improbable and fanciful that it is not taken seriously by anybody but himself. Paul's mind was full of what he had just written to the Colossians; and besides, he knew that what he had just written to one Asiatic church was probably suitable for others as well.

Col. 3: 20

Col. 3: 21

Col. 3: 22 f.

Col. 4: I

Col. 4 : 2 f.
Col. 4 : 7 f.

Eph. 55

Eph. 56

Eph. 5: 15

Eph. 5 21 Eph. 5 25 Eph. 6: 1 Eph. 6: 4 Eph. 6: 5 f. Eph. 6:9

Eph. 6: 18 f.

Eph. 5: 19 f.

Eph. 6 21 f.

APPENDIX II

THE RELATION OF EPHESIANS TO OTHER NEW TESTAMENT BOOKS

I Peter.

There are many parallelisms between 1 Peter and Ephesians, both in matter and phraseology.

The language of 1 Pet. 1: 3 is strikingly similar to that of Eph. 1:3. The general structure of the long sentences immediately following (1 Pet. 1: 5-13; Eph. 1 : 5-15) is quite similar. The emphasis laid on "hope" in I Pet. 1: 3-5 corresponds with that of Eph. 1 18-20; the object of the hope in both is "the inheritance,' the ground of it in both is the resurrection of Christ, and in both the power of God is the means by which it is to be realized. There is a strong resemblance between 1 Pet. 2: 4-6 and Eph. 2 : 18–22. 1 Pet. 3 18 is like Eph. 2 18 in thought and language, while I Pet. 3 22 is still more like Eph. 1: 20-22. Again, I Pet. I : 20 is in substance and form like Eph. 39: while the unusual thought of the interest of angels in the plan of redemption is brought out in I Pet. I 12 and Eph. 3: 10. Compare also the paragraphs of 1 Pet. 2 18-3: 7 with those of Eph. 5: 22-6: 9. The probability is that Peter was consciously or unconsciously influenced by the contents of Ephesians, and so, consciously or unconsciously, made use of some of the thoughts and even the expressions therein contained. But what of it? There is nothing strange in that. The probability is that he was similarly impressed by Paul's Epistle to the Romans also and that this showed itself in parts of his own Epistle; for there are striking parallelisms between 1 Peter and Romans. If it be said that it is not easy to understand how Peter could have been acquainted with Ephesians, it may be answered, as it has been answered, that "if I Peter was written by Silvanus (i.e. Silas, who was at other times an attendant of Paul) under the direction of Peter, which is probably the meaning of 1 Pet. 5: 12, then the use of Paul's thoughts and language is sufficiently accounted for.”

The Gospel of John.

Still more real and vital are the resemblances between the Epistle to the Ephesians and the Gospel of John. For here the resemblances are in thought, in the occurrence and recurrence of certain

great conceptions, such as the contrast between light and darkness, the dominating emphasis, in both the Epistle and the Gospel, on the ideas of grace, knowledge, love, the recurrence in both of the word fulness (pleroma), the relations between Christ and God the Father "before the foundation of the world" (comp. Jn. 17: 24 with Eph. I 4, 6). The work of salvation is in both that of sanctifying (cf. Jn. 17 17, 19 and Eph. 5: 26), which is accomplished by means of the word (Jn. 15:3; 17: 17 and Eph. 5: 26). The regeneration of the soul is in both described as a raising from the dead (Jn. 5:21, 25, 28 and Eph. 2: 5, 6). In both are references to the descent of Christ from heaven and the ascent of Christ to heaven (Jn. 3 13, 31; 6: 62 and Eph. 4: 9, 10). The statement of Jn. 3 34, that the Father "giveth not the Spirit [to the Son] by measure," becomes intelligible when read in connection with Eph. 4:7, "unto each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ."

There is a sustained parallelism of thought between the seventeenth chapter of John and Ephesians.

There is nothing strange in supposing that "St. John read and valued St. Paul's writings," especially this epistle to the Ephesians, as John spent many years of his life at Ephesus, where it was preserved and was well known. Nor is there anything unnatural or strange in his being influenced by the great conceptions of this "supreme exposition of the meaning and aim of the Christian revelation."