Critical issues include those things such as the date the letter was written, who the letter was written by, and where the letter was written. This section of the essay will identify these elements and mention the problems that come about when one thinks logically about the information presented in the letter to the Ephesians.

The letter to the church at Ephesus was written about the same time as the letters to the churches at Colosse and Phillipi. A combination of all of my sources suggests this was somewhere between the years of A.D.60-64.

A major problem that needs to be addressed is the question of setting. Was the letter to the Ephesians only written to the church at Ephesus? Most sources suggest that it was not. The o

The major themes that show up in the letter to the Ephesians are those of building the body of Christ and Christian practice, unity, holiness in life, and responsibility in the household (Bowker, 429). The letter mentions the fact that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in Christians gives them resurrection power (3:16) and it also points out the importance that Christians suffer for their beliefs, using Paul's imprisonment as an example (3:1-14). The second half on the letter encourages everything that sustains the life of the church. It says that the Ephesians need to maintain their common life, because loss of confidence threatens the unity and identity of the church (Bowker, 429).

The purpose of this letter is to celebrate the fact that, through Christ, God is uniting all peoples in Christ's church (Ramsay, 456). Ephesians is written to celebrate that unity and encourages Gentile converts to live as members of that church (Ramsay, 456). The first three chapters use praise and prayer to renew the believers' vision of God and the second half encourages the unity of the church (Bowker, 429).

ldest manuscripts, such as codex Vaticanus and codex Sinaiticus, do not have the church at Ephesus as the recipient of the letter; this was added into later manuscripts (Donze et al, 534). Many state that Ephesians was a circular letter, a letter that was meant to circulate among all of the churches in the area and not meant to be specifically addressed to one church. This theory is supported by the fact that there are very few proper names in the letter, unlike the other letters Paul wrote, and the fact that it does not address specific problems of the church, only general statements are mentioned. Also, if the letter were, in fact written solely to the Ephesians, Paul would probably have included

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Approximate Word count = 1225
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)