Church in Philemon's house; thanksgiving for
Philemon's faith; a plea for the pardon of Onesimus, St. Paul promises
to be responsible for what was stolen; a lodging to be prepared for St.
Paul; concluding salutations, benediction.

[1] Lightfoot, _Colossians and Philemon_, p. 325.

{180}

CHAPTER XV

THE EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE EPHESIANS

[Sidenote: The Author.]

The Pauline authorship of this Epistle is well attested by external
evidence. Before 150 we have proof of its wide use among both heretics
and Catholics; it is quoted probably by St. Clement and St. Polycarp,
and some of its characteristic ideas are to be found in a more
developed form in the _Shepherd_ of Hermas. There is one clear
reference to it in St. Ignatius, and two other possible references. We
trace an interesting connection between the thought of this Epistle and
that of the Revelation and the Gospel of St. John (_e.g._ ch. xvii.)
and the First Epistle of St. Peter. Perhaps we may account for it by
accepting Renan's suggestion that St. Peter, St. John, and St. Paul
were in Rome together. The strongest argument for the Pauline
authorship lies in the undesigned coincidences between Ephesians and
Romans. In both we notice the same courtesy of manner and sensitive
frankness, the same setting forth of God's method of salvation, the
same valuation of the relative position of Jews and Gentiles, and of
their union in Jesus Christ; the same thought of God's eternal and
unchanging purpose very gradually revealed, and extending in its
ultimate operation to all creation. It has been well said that the
Epistle to the Ephesians is required to give completeness to the
argument of Rom. xv. Though we do not find here the controversial
reasoning of the earlier Epistle, we have some of those characteristic
passages in which the {181} writer, carried away by emotion, leaves
statement for prayer or praise (cf. Rom. xi. 33 and Eph. iii. 20). We
have, indeed, in this Epistle evidence which points to a date later
than that of some of his Epistles. We miss the expectation of Christ's
immediate coming; the Gentiles are now quite secure in the Church;
there is proof of the growth of Christian hymns (v. 14, 19). But the
names of the ministers of the Church seem very primitive, the words
"presbyter" and _episkopos_ not being mentioned. And words such as
"worlds," "fulness," "generations," which were used in a special sense
by the Gnostics