JoshuaArlaus_HistoricalContext_NGRK505-D02
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Feb 20, 2024
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LIBERTY UNIVERSITY
JOHN W. RAWLINGS SCHOOL OF DIVINITY
Historical Context Assignment
Ephesians 2:1-10
Submitted to Professor Steven Waechter in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of
NGRK 505-D02
Greek Language Tools
by
Joshua Arlaus
Nov 12th, 2023
1
Historical Context
After spending time exploring the deep archives of the Scriptorium in the Rawlings School of Divinity at Liberty University, I believe I have found a passage that belongs to the Bible in the New Testament. When translating this passage from Greek to English the passage reads, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” I have spent an adequate amount of time comparing and analyzing this passage along with other books in the Bible and from both the writing style and the content of the message in the text I believe the author of this passage is the apostle, Paul. In the New Testament the apostle
Paul wrote many epistles or letters to different churches and communities in the surrounding area
of Israel in hopes of strengthening, teaching, and affirming the faith of the Christian followers of his time. Epistles such as Galatians, Romans, Corinthians, Philemon, Philippians, Thessalonians, 2
Timothy, Titus, Philemon, and Hebrews. In these epistles, Paul speaks in a way in hopes to bring
more loyalty and faith to God through reverence for Christ and his teachings. The passage I have found here matches this tone and theme. Paul was believed to have written his epistles between AD 48 and AD 64 so that would put the date of this passage between that time frame as well. From the passage alone it is very challenging to tell where the content was written, but following
the information I know from the other Pauline epistles it is safest to say that this was written in either Macedonia, Corinth, or Rome. Another challenge can be seen when trying to understand who exactly this passage was written to. From the text it cannot be determined but we know the author is talking to individuals
that believe in Christ and are struggling with proper knowledge. If Paul is not speaking to the churches that are already listed in the New Testament this leaves us with one major option. When studying Paul’s work, we can see in the book of Acts that the apostle Paul first visited Ephesus on the return from his missionary journey where he “entered the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews” (Acts 18:19–21). Since we see Paul has communicated with the many other churches that he originally had done work with it can be safe to say this is content for the church of Ephesus, which also means there could be more to this letter than this passage alone. The purpose of this letter is to remind the Ephesians that the work of Christ is most important aspect of our fellowship with God and that we should always honor Christ through our
actions and deeds. We are not saved by our actions, but by our belief in the work of God through the redeeming actions of Christ on the cross. This passage is surely not fictional, but true and historical and I believe this passage along with the remaining epistle should be included in the New Testament along with the other Pauline epistles. 3
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