Ephesians 3.1b-Paul Was A Prisoner of Jesus Christ
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday March 14, 2024
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 3:1b-Paul Was a Prisoner of Jesus Christ
Lesson # 132
Ephesians 3:1 For this reason, I myself, Paul, the prisoner owned by and under the authority of the one and only Christ who is Jesus for the benefit of each and every one of you as a corporate unit, who are Gentiles. (Lecturer’s translation)
In Ephesians 3:1, the expression Toutou charin (Τούτου χάριν), “for this reason” is anaphoric, which means that it is pointing to the immediate preceding context and specifically, the contents of the Ephesians 2:11-22, which serves as the basis for the intercessory prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21.
Now, in Ephesians 3:1, the nominative first person singular form of the personal pronoun ego (ἐγώ), “I myself” serves to emphasize with the reader that the apostle Paul is a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of the Gentile Christian community in order to proclaim this mystery of Christ.
The use of the nominative first person plural form of the personal pronoun ego (ἐγώ) here in Ephesians 3:1 is unnecessary in Greek since the form of a finite verb in this language indicates the person, number and gender of the subject.
In context, the finite verb appears in Ephesians 3:14 and is the verb kamptō (κάμπτω), “I kneel” which indicates the person, number and gender of the subject, which we noted is nominative first person singular form of the personal pronoun ego (ἐγώ) and refers to Paul.
This is what makes Greek an “inflectional” language.
When the personal pronoun is used therefore, it may serve to clarify the subject or contrast the subject with someone else or for emphasis.
Here it is used for emphasis since it serves to emphasize with the reader that the apostle Paul is a prisoner of Christ Jesus Christ on behalf of the Gentile Christian community in order to proclaim this mystery of Christ.
It is also used to mark a contrast between the apostle Paul who was a Jewish Christian and the recipients of this epistle who were Gentile Christians.
The referent of the nominative first person singular form of the personal pronoun ego (ἐγώ) is the apostle Paul, which is indicated by the nominative masculine singular form of the proper name Paulos (Παῦλος), “Paul,” which means “little” or “short.”
He uses this name to refer to himself when he is communicating to or living among the members of the Gentile Christian community.
When living among the Jews, he used his Jewish name Saul and in fact, the Lord Jesus Christ authorized him to be the apostle to the Gentiles (cf. Acts 9:15; 22:21; Romans 11:13; 15:16; Galatians 1:15-16; 2:2, 7-9).
The proper name Paulos (Παῦλος), “Paul” is further evidence in the Ephesian epistle that the apostle Paul was the author of Ephesians.
As we noted in our introduction of this letter, the traditional view of the church from its inception is that the apostle Paul wrote Ephesians, however, in modern times, this view has been challenged.
Some of the modern critics contend that the vocabulary, style and teaching differ from the writings which are universally accepted as Pauline and they also argue that the letter is “pseudonymous.”
The term “pseudonymity” refers to the practice of publishing one’s writings under a revered person’s name.
Ephesians was extensively, indisputably and universally accepted throughout the Roman Empire in the early church as a letter written by the apostle Paul.
Church fathers such as Ignatius, Polycarp, Clement of Rome, and Origen all regarded the epistle as written by Paul and both Marcion and the Muratorian canon list it as Pauline.
Furthermore, as in Ephesians 3:1, Ephesians 1:1 identifies Paulos, “Paul” as the author of the epistle to the Ephesians.
The letter itself contains Pauline language including words that appear not only in this letter but also in the undisputed letters of Paul and yet these words do not appear anywhere else in the Greek New Testament.
In typical Pauline fashion, Paul ascribes his apostolic authority to the will of God (cf. Eph. 1:1; cf. 2 Cor. 1:1; Gal. 1:1; Col. 1:1).
Paul’s name is even found in Ephesians 3:1 just as it does in his so-called undisputed letters (cf. 2 Cor. 10:1; Gal. 5:2; Col. 1:23; 1 Thess. 2:18).
The Ephesian epistle is not a “pseudonymous” letter since this practice was frowned upon by the early church.
This is supported by the fact that Paul would guarantee the authenticity of his letters to protect against forgeries or someone posing as him in a letter by putting his own distinguishing mark at the end of the letter. (cf. 2 Thess. 3:17-18; Gal. 6:11; Col. 4:18).
Furthermore, as we noted, Paul identifies himself as the author of this letter, which bears his name and there is no evidence whatsoever that this epistle is written by someone else.
Tertullian describes an elder who has falsely written under the name of Paul in an attempt to increase Paul’s fame because he loved him, however, he was removed from his office (On Baptism).
The early church was very much concerned about receiving authentic Pauline epistles and would totally reject the practice of pseudonymity.
The early church was very concerned with problems of literary fraud and Paul was too as we can see in 2 Thessalonians 2:2 and Galatians 6:11.
In the final analysis, the epistle of Ephesians should be regarded as written by the apostle Paul because the authenticity of this letter cannot be disproven.
In Ephesians 3:1, the nominative masculine singular noun desmios (δέσμιος), “the prisoner” is used of Paul’s first Roman imprisonment because of the gospel.
Acts 28 indicates that Paul was under house arrest during his first Roman imprisonment while awaiting his appeal before Caesar, however, in Second Timothy 1:8, the word is used of Paul’s second Roman imprisonment.
The articular construction of the noun desmios (δέσμιος) is monadic, which expresses the “uniqueness” of Paul being a prisoner of the Roman civil authority despite the fact that he is owned by Jesus Christ and under His authority.
Paul had two Roman imprisonments: (1) A.D. 60-62: Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians and Philemon (2) A.D. 68: 2 Timothy, Hebrews.
The apostle Paul wrote Philippians, Ephesians, Colossians and Philemon during his first Roman imprisonment while he was awaiting his appeal before Caesar and he was actually permitted to have his own rented quarters in Rome with a Roman soldier guarding him (See Acts 28).
As was the case in Ephesians 1:2, the proper nouns Iesous (Ἰησοῦς), “Jesus” and Christos (Χριστός), “Christ” here in Ephesians 3:1 are used by Paul to describe the incarnate Son of God as well as His person and work and what He has accomplished in history through this work as well as His status in relation to creation and every creature.
Thus, they also describe His relationship to the church.
Christos (Χριστός) signifies that Jesus of Nazareth served God the Father exclusively and this was manifested by His execution of the Father’s salvation plan which was accomplished by His voluntary substitutionary spiritual and physical deaths on the cross.
The word signifies that Jesus of Nazareth has been given authority by God the Father to forgive sins, give eternal life, and authority over all creation and every creature as a result of His execution of the Father’s salvation plan.
It denotes that Jesus of Nazareth was perpetually guided and empowered by God the Holy Spirit during His First Advent.
Lastly, Christos (Χριστός) signifies that Jesus of Nazareth is the promised deliverer of the human race from the bondage of Satan, his cosmic system and the old Adamic sin nature.
The articular construction of this word indicates that the referent of this word is in a class by himself and the only one deserving of the name since there were many individuals in the first century A.D. who claimed to be the Christ or were proclaimed to be the Christ.
Thus, this construction emphasizes the “incomparability” of Jesus Christ.
The genitive masculine singular form of the proper name Christos (Χριστός), “Christ” functions as a possession, which indicates that Jesus Christ “possesses” Paul or we could say that the Lord “owns” him.
This word also functions as a genitive of subordination, which would indicate that Paul was under the authority of Jesus Christ.
This expression ho desmios tou Christou Iēsou (ὁ δέσμιος τοῦ Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ), “the prisoner, owned by and under the authority of Christ, who is Jesus” is not only used by Paul in Ephesians 3:1 to describe himself but also he used it in Philemon 1 and 9.
He uses the expression ho desmios en kyriō (ὁ δέσμιος ἐν κυρίῳ), “prisoner of the Lord” in Ephesians 4:1 to describe himself.
In each instance, he was under house arrest during his first Roman imprisonment awaiting his appeal before Caesar.
The proper noun Iēsous (Ἰησοῦς), “Jesus” refers to the human nature of the incarnate Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth and functions as a genitive of simple apposition, which indicates that it clarifies who is Christ here, namely Jesus of Nazareth since there were many in the first century who made the claim.