Some Things I Would Like to See More Comment On in Ephesians (Part One?)

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  • Ephesians 1:3 is about praising God for the resurrection/ ascension/ enthronement of Jesus. Jesus was raised to God’s right hand and given the promised Holy Spirit to share with the Church.
  • The election (1:4) and predestination (1:5) of Paul’s readers is not merely that which is true of all believers in all history before and after Jesus’ death and resurrection. Rather, it is the election and predestination of that generation to see God keep his promises in Christ.
  • The phrase in 1:6, “to the praise of his glorious grace,” is a mistranslation. Paul really writes “to the praise of his gracious glory” (i.e. graciously given). Paul himself abbreviates the phrase twice, and drops out grace, not glory (1:12, 14).
  • God’s raising up Jesus did not simply prove the greatness of His “power toward us” (1:19). Rather, God’s raising up Jesus was the definitive exercise of his power toward us. In other words, God raised up Jesus as an act to rescue us from death and bring us into new life, not as proof that he was capable of rescuing people.
  • Ephesians 2:1ff is not an account of what happened to anyone when he or she was converted. It is an account of the history of humanity, when Jesus was raised by God and brought up to Him in a new life.
  • Ephesians 2:11ff explicitly references “we” Jews and “you” Gentiles. Since, he discusses the union of Jew and Gentile in the second half of chapter 2, and the nature of the Gospel as the message of the union of Jew and Gentile in chapter 3, this seems to be an important topic to Paul. It looks like the conclusion of an argument or the climax that he has been working toward. So it seems probable (at least) that “the Gospel of your salvation” (1:13) is elaborated in 3:6 “This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”
  • One could easily assume from 2:1ff that Paul thinks no one before his generation was saved, or from 2:11ff that no Gentiles were saved. But since that cannot possibly be true, what does Paul mean?