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A Re-Examination of ‘the Heavenlies’ in Ephesians

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

A. T. Lincoln
A. T. Lincoln
Affiliation:
(Cambridge, England)
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Type
Short Studies
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New Testament Studies , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , July 1973 , pp. 468 - 483
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

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References

page 469 note 1 Odeberg, H., The View of the Universe in the Epistle to the Ephesians. Lunds Universitets Arsskrift N.F. Avd. 1 Bd. 29 Nr. 6 (Gleerup, C. W. K., Lund, 1934).Google Scholar

page 469 note 2 Ephersians is treated here as part of the Corpus Paulinum and used as a source for Pauline theology.

page 469 note 3 Cf. Kirby, J. C., Ephesians, Baptism and Pentecost (S.P.C.K., London, 1968), pp. 84 ff.Google Scholar

page 469 note 4 Schlier, H., Der Brief an die Epheser (Patmos-Verlag, Düsseldorf, 1965), P. 45.Google ScholarOthers who can be cited in support of this view include Arndt and Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (Cambridge University Press, 1957), p. 306;Google ScholarAbbott, T. K., The Epistles to the Ephesians and to the Colossians (T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1897), p. 5;Google ScholarDibelius, M., An die Kolosser, Epheser, an Philemon (J. C. B. Mohr, Tübingen, 1953), p. 58;Google ScholarPercy, E., Die Probleme der Kolosser- und Epheserbriefe (C. W. K. Gleerup, Lund, 1946), p. 181Google Scholar; Pope, R. M., ‘Studies in Pauline Vocabulary: Of the Heavenly Places’, Exp. T. XXIII (1912), 365 f.Google Scholar

page 470 note 1 Thus although Gibbs, J. G., Creation and Redemption: A Study in Pauline Theology (E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1971), p. 131,Google Scholar is undoubtedly right in pointing out that the significance of heaven is that it is where God's throne is, i.e. the source of His sovereign rule and that ‘the blessing with which God blessed us is έν Τοις έπουρανίοις because it originates at the source of his sovereignty and, when given to us, continues to express to us his sovereignty’, he is wrong in limiting the meaning of the phrase simply to a symbol of sovereignty.

page 470 note 2 Cf. H. Schlier, op. cit. p. 44.

page 470 note 3 Just as Davies, W. D., Paul and Rabbinic Judaism (Harper Torchbooks, New York, 1967), p. 308,Google Scholar in commenting on οῶμα πνευματικόν warns us not to think of the spiritual as immaterial, so we should not think of the heavenly as necessarily a-spatial - pace J. G. Gibbs, op. cit. p. 131, who speaks of heaven ‘as a reality which is a-spatial’.

page 470 note 4 As Vos, G., ‘The Eschatological Aspect of the Pauline Conception of the Spirit’ in Biblical and Theological Studies (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1912), p. 244,Google Scholar says, ‘By pneumatic as a synonym of heavenly Paul does not mean heaven or the spiritual in abstract, but heaven and the spiritual as they have become as a result of the process of redemption. Τό πνευματικόν is second (εīτα) and Christ as πνεῦμα ζωοποιοῦν “became” (έγένετο).’

page 471 note 1 E. Percy, op. cit. p. 181.

page 471 note 2 Cf. Conzelmann, H., Der Brief an die Epheser, NTD 11th ed. (Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1968), p. 63Google Scholar; M. Dibelius, op. cit. p. 64; Käsemann, E., ‘Epheserbrief’ in RGG II, 517 f.Google Scholar; J. C. Kirby, op. cit. p. 139; H. Schlier, op. cit. p. 86.

page 471 note 3 Cf. Salmond, S. D. F., The Epistle to the Ephesians, E.G.T. (Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1903), p. 209.Google Scholar

page 471 note 4 Cf. also Bietenhard, H., Die himmlische Welt im Urchristentum und Späjudentum (J. C. B. Mohr, Tübingen, 1951), p. 211Google Scholar n. 1. ‘Daß beiden Ausdrücken - έν Τοίς έπουρανίοις und έν Τοίς οόρανοίς - dieselbe Vorstellung zugrunde liegt, zeigt ein Vergleich von Eph. 6: 9 mit Eph. 1: 20 und 2: 6 … Der Ausdruck έν Τοίς έπο∪ρανĺο|ς ist also im lokalen Sinne zu verstehen.’

page 471 note 5 Cf. Grundmann, W., ‘δεξιός’, T.D.N.T. II, 37 ff.Google Scholar

page 472 note 1 Pace T. K. Abbott, op. cit. pp. 31 f.

page 472 note 2 Cf. J. C. Kirby, op. cit. pp. 154 ff.;Mussner, F., Christus, das All und die Kirche (Paulinus-Verlag, Trier, 1955), p. 91;Google ScholarSchille, G., Frühchristliche Hymnen (Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Berlin, 1955), pp. 53 ff.Google Scholar; H. Schlier, op. cit. pp. 110 f.; Schnackenburg, R., Baptism in the Thought of St Paul (Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1964), pp. 73 ff.Google Scholar

page 472 note 3 Knox, W. L., St Paul and the Church of the Gentiles (Cambridge University Press, 1939), pp. 190 ff.Google Scholar

page 472 note 4 H. Conzelmann, op. cit. p. 66.

page 473 note 1 Traub, Cf. H., ‘ούρανός’, T.D.N.T. v, 501.Google Scholar

page 473 note 2 In Paul and qumran, ed. J. Murphy-O'Connor (Chapman, London, 1968), cf. pp. 164–7.Google Scholar

page 474 note 1 Pace Allan, J. A., ‘The “In Christ” Formula in Ephesians’, N.T.S. v (1958–1959), 58.Google Scholar

page 474 note 2 M. Dibelius, op. cit. p. 68, points Out that έν Τοίςέπουραν ίοις cannot refer to heavenly powers, for to talk of spiritual powers in the spiritual powers would be ‘eine unverträgliche Tautologie’.

page 474 note 3 Martin, R. P., ‘Ephesians’ in New Bible Commentary Revised (Inter-Varsity Press, London, 1970), p. 1113.Google Scholar

page 475 note 1 Roels, E., God's Mission: the Epistle to the Ephesians in Mission Perspective (T. Wever, Franeker, 1962), p. 160,Google Scholar observes, ‘The witness to God's wisdom would then be given by a Church which is in the heavenlies “in Christ” to those who are in the heavenlies not “in Christ”.’

page 475 note 2 That the reference is again a local one, incorporating the view of heaven found in the other passages, is confirmed indirectly by the fact that γ 40 has omitted the phrase in this verse, quite probaly because the copyist could not conceive of such an explicit reference to wicked powers in heaven.

page 475 note 3 E. Percy, op. cit. p. 182.

page 475 note 4 A question naturally arises concerning the relationship between έν Τοίς έπουρανίοις where the spiritual hosts of wickedness are found and the air (τοῦ άέρος) of ii. 2 which is the realm of the malevolent agencies mentioned there. Such an idea of evil spiritual beings living in the cosmic heavens was not alien to Judaism (Job i. 6; Zech. iii. 1; Jubil. xvii. 16; I Enoch xl. 7) and there are parallels to Eph. ii. 2 in the Ascension of Isaiah (vii. 9; x. 29; xi. 23) where Satan and his angels are represented as living in the firmament. In laterJudaism the ‘air’ is thought of as the region under the firmament. II Enoch xxix. 4, 5 reads ‘And I threw him out from the height with his angels, and he was flying in the air continuously above the abyss’ (cf. also Targum of Job v. 7; Strack, and Billerbeck, , Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch iv, 516).Google Scholar Although the number seven was coming to the fore, there was however in the late Judaism of the first century A.D. no fixed doctrine withregard to the heavens; and since there is no indication that the Biblical writers adopted the sevenfold divisions of the heavens, it is not necessary to think that in Ephesians the ‘air’ is one definite and distinct sphere while the heavenlies are another. Rather the localities of the evil powers in ii. 2 and vi. 12 are more or less synonymous; but, whereas vi. 12 has them in the heavenlics to emphasize more their supernatural aspect, ii. 2 makes their sphere of operation the air in order to stress their proximity in influencing the lives of men. As regards the expression in ii. 2, Percy (op. cit. pp. 255 f.) makes the valid observation that the author probably felt it necessary to vary the terminology since he had used the normal phrases for the devil's sphere of dominion - ό κόσμος ο$τος and ό αίών ο$τος in the previous sentence.

page 476 note 1 Simon, U., Heaven in the Christian Tradition (Rockliff, London, 1958), p. 189,Google Scholar observes, ‘This expression has confounded many commentators: it appears to be a cultic one, of Mandaean origin.’ Simon seems to have followed M. Dibelius, op. cit. p. 58, who in a rather erratic hypothesis suggested that the much later Mandaean text Qolasta 17 provided a parallel.

page 476 note 2 Thus definitions, such as that of U. Simon, op. cit. p. 189, ‘In meaning it oscillates between the heavenly spheres where the work of Christ is consummated in reconciliation, and between the very partakers of this reconcilation’, which want to attribute to the phrase both a local and a personal meaning, are unacceptable.

page 476 note 3 Exp. T. XXIII (1912), 365 ff.Google Scholar

page 476 note 4 Ibid. p. 366.

page 477 note 1 Ibid. p. 367.

page 477 note 2 Ibid. p. 368.

page 477 note 3 E. Käsemann, op. cit. p. 518.

page 477 note 4 H. Conzelmann, op. cit. p. 57.

page 477 note 5 For more detailed criticism of the interpretation which links Ephesians with the Gnostic world-view cf. F. Mussner, op. cit. pp. 160 ff. Cf. also the thesis of Kuhn, K. G., ‘Der Epheserbrief im Lichte der Qumrantexte’, N.T.S. VII (1960–1961), 335.Google Scholar ‘Heute kann man nun nicht mehr davon reden, wie Schlier … doch recht vage sagt, die Sprache des Epheserbriefes stehe unter dem Einfluß der judenchristlichen “Gnosis”. Angesichts der umfangreichen Texte von Qumran muß man nun sagen, daß die Sprache des Epheserbriefes unter dem Einfluß dieses Schrifttums steht.’

page 477 note 6 H. Schlier, op. cit. pp. 45–8.

page 477 note 7 Ibid. p. 47.

page 477 note 8 The bulk of his thesis is followed, for example, by Metzger, B., ‘Paul's Vision of the Church’, Theology Today VI (1949), 51 ff.,Google Scholar and J. C. Gibbs, op. cit. pp. 130 ff.

page 477 note 9 Cf. p. 469 n. 1.

page 478 note 1 Ibid. p. 12.

page 478 note 2 Ibid. p. 13.

page 478 note 3 Pace M. Dibelius, op. cit. p. 58, who comments, ‘Für den Autor ad Eph. gilt nur der einfache Sinn “im Himmel”, der aus I. 20 f. leicht zu gewinnen ist.’

page 478 note 4 H. Odeberg, op. cit. pp. 8 f.

page 478 note 5 E. Percy, op. cit. p. 181 n. 7.

page 478 note 6 H. Odcberg, op. cit. p. 9.

page 478 note 7 Ibid. p. 13.

page 479 note 1 Ibid.

page 479 note 2 Ibid. p. 19.

page 479 note 3 H. Bietenhard, loc. cit., correctly sees this and also its eschatological significance in commenting, ‘Dagegen sind die bösen Geistermächte έν τοίσ έπουρανλοισ nicht “in Christo”, weshalb sie auch nicht zum neuen, sondern zu diesem Aeon gehören’.

page 480 note 1 Schoonhoven, C., The Wrath of Heaven (Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1966), p. 64.Google Scholar On this background cf. also H. Bietenhard, op. cit. pp. 6–8; H. Traub, op. cit. pp. 497 ff.

page 481 note 1 I am particularly indebted at this point to Dr R. B. Gaffin, Associate Professor of New Testament, Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, whose lectures on Pauline eschatology provided he initial impetus for this article.

page 481 note 2 Cf. Strack and Billerbeck, op. cit. IV, 799 ff.

page 481 note 3 Cullmann, O., Christ and Time (SCM, London, 1967), p. 81.Google Scholar

page 482 note 1 Cf. Kettler, F. H., ‘Enderwartung und himmlischer Stufenbau im Kirchenbegriff des nachapostolischen Zeitalters’, T.L.Z. LXXIX (1954), 358 ff.Google Scholar

page 483 note 1 Cf. Martin, R. P., ‘An epistle in search of a life-setting’, Exp. T. LXXIX (1968), 296 ff.Google Scholar