Description: This brief study is intended primarily for theological students, and perhaps also for ministers who wish to update their scholarship. It seeks to show the issues facing those who seek to study Ephesians or interpret it. The first part examines in detail the normal questions of authorship and destination. The second offers a brief survey of the content of the letter drawing out its main points. The third part concentrates attention on its theology, treating in detail its teaching about the church and behaviour. In this it is claimed that these two areas of life together in the Christian community and conduct within it reflect on one another and influence each other; in that sense the letter is a unity of thought. While an attempt is made to solve the problems which present themselves, for example whether, the author was not Paul but a disciple, there is no suggestion that the writer's own solutions are the only possible ones.
Brief description: Andrew Lincoln is Portland Professor of New Testament, University of Gloucestershire, UK.