The Mystery of the Gospel Revealed (v.1-13)
Paul was made to understand through revelation that gentiles are eligible to take part in the gospel through Jesus. God gave him the job of preaching to the gentiles, he is the least of the saints.
So basically Paul is saying that he is bringing the gentiles into the fold. He is basically saying to the people he is talking to that they are also eligible for heaven. I think he was trying to be humble when he said he was the least of the saints, but it was right next to a line about how he is in charge of bringing gentiles to Christ, so it almost reads like it is a dig at them. I don't think that is the intention or anything, but it did make me laugh.
Prayer for Spiritual Strength (v.14-21)
This basically just says that everyone should pray for strength.
The Revelation thing got me interested in whether this was related to the book of Revelation. According to wiki, as you pointed out, Ephesians was probably forged anyway. I compared the dates on the two, and revelations, according to tradition was written about 95CE, but others say it was as early as 68 or 69CE. Ephesians was supposedly written 70-80CE. So, I don't know what the dates are, but I am still a bit curious as to whether or not they are related. Maybe someone will come along who actually knows something about this and could say for sure. For all I know, I could be (and probably am) just talking out of my butt.
ReplyDeleteTalking out of your butt is a valuable skill if you want to go into politics or business :)
ReplyDeleteIn all seriousness though, comparing the dates like that is pretty interesting. My (poor) understanding is that the dates that these were actually written is mysterious enough that we can't come to many solid conclusions like that anyway, but it is certainly interesting to investigate.