Das Vermachtnis des Apostels: Die Rezeption der paulinischen Theologie im Epheserbrief

Abstract

Das Vermachtnis des Apostels: Die Rezeption der paulinischen Theologie im Epheserbrief, by Michael Gese. WUNT 2/99. Tiibingen: Mohr-Siebeck,1997. Pp. xii + 321. N.P. (paper). It has become a common practice to consider the Deuteropauline letters from the point of view of pseudepigraphy. Michael Gese has chosen this starting point for his Ph.D. thesis (Tubingen,1995). The author seeks to investigate the relationship between Ephesians and Paul in order better to understand the theological approach of its unknown author. The first part of this book offers a short review of the current discussion of the phenomenon of ancient pseudepigraphy. This is followed by a brief discussion of German research on the reception of Paul's theology in Ephesians. Gese argues that the pseudepigraphical authorship of Ephesians can be understood as an attempt to interpret and to preserve Paul's heritage for the author's own generation. In the second part of his book, Gese investigates how and to what extent the form of Ephesians draws upon Paul's letters. He argues that the peculiar form of the letter shows that Ephesians is a conscious reflection of the Pauline letters, while the impersonal style demonstrates that the author has no intention of concealing the pseudepigraphical nature of her/his work. Moreover, with the reception of Colossians the author is clearly drawing upon an existing tradition, while shaping and interpreting it anew. With the help of three criteria, the use of particular forms of expression, unusual terminology, and the argumentative structures, Gese seeks to demonstrate the literary dependence of Ephesians upon all Pauline epistles with the exception of Philippians. The style of Ephesians and the use of OT texts demonstrates an intensive interaction with the letters of Paul. The third and longest part investigates Ephesians' understanding of salvation, of ecclesiology, and of the divine plan of salvation and its image of Paul the apostle. In each case Gese argues that Paul's thoughts are taken up, adapted to a different situation, and developed further in Ephesians. Thus the author of Ephesians presents the salvation brought by the cross, reconciliation, and new creation as an objective fact in the past (Eph 2:116), which is experienced in the church and transmitted to the present by the Word (cf. Eph 2;17-18). In this way, Ephesians overcomes its audience's historical distance from the events of Easter, which lie in the past. The ecclesiology in Eph 2:1-10 emphasizes the subjective side, the believer's actual participation in the resurrection. But this does not replace a futurist eschatology, because the author makes a clear distinction between the believers' actual worldly situation and their transcendental life in Christ (Eph 2:6). The presentation of justification (Eph 2:5, 8-10) radicalizes Paul's thoughts in that it understands God as the single cause of the good works of the new human being. In its ecclesiology, Ephesians draws upon the understanding of Christ as a corporate personality and develops this by relating the Pauline images of body, temple, and bride (2 Cor 11:2) to the OT background. The church, of which Christ is head, and thus source and purpose, binds later generations of believers to Christ. The presentation of the divine plan of salvation can also be traced back to Pauline roots (e. …