Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Ephesians 3:1-13, The prisoner, the steward and the mystery shown to the powers
Paul, a prisoner for the sake of the Gentiles, breaks off to explain the stewardship of grace given him: the mystery, now revealed, that Gentiles are co-heirs, made known through the church even to the rulers in the heavenly realms.
Ephesians 3:1-13, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul starts to pray for the Gentile believers, then stops to explain his own role. God showed him a secret kept hidden for ages: Gentiles share fully with Israel in the inheritance, the body and the promise. His task is to announce it, so that through the church God's wisdom is shown even to the powers in the heavens, and his imprisonment for that work should not discourage them.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/the-household\/","n":"The household and its head","s":"A household gathered family, slaves, freed slaves and workers under one head, and it was expected to follow that head's religion. When the head turned to a new god, the house often came too.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/powers-over-the-nations\/","n":"Rulers and powers over the nations","s":"Many Jews believed each nation had a spiritual ruler set over it, often hostile to God's people. Paul's rulers, authorities, powers and thrones belong to that picture.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/honor-and-shame\/","n":"Honor before a crowd","s":"Public standing was the currency of the ancient Mediterranean. People competed for honor and dreaded being shamed in front of others.","r":""}
Roman custody was normally a mark of shame, but Paul counts it an honor because of why he is held (Keener and his notes). Verses 2-13 are a digression, the thread taken up again at 3:14 (the cultural backgrounds notes; the ESV and CSB Study Bibles). Mystery was a word of the mystery cults, but Keener finds Paul's background in Daniel 2 and the Dead Sea Scrolls, God's plan once hidden and now revealed; the CSB Study Bible sets Paul's open mystery against the cults' secrets. No other New Testament book uses the word as often as Ephesians (Carson, Moo and Morris). Uncircumcised Gentile co-heirs would sound like heresy to many Jewish readers (Keener and his notes). Wright hears the Wisdom of Solomon, which told pagan rulers to seek wisdom from Israel's God. How the rulers of 3:10 take what the church shows them is read differently: the ESV and CSB Study Bibles see angels watching with interest; Heiser and Arnold hold that the hostile powers did not know the plan until it was revealed; and Wright, who reads earthly rulers and their heavenly counterparts, thinks them "unlikely to take this kindly".
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, introduction to 3:1-13, and on Ephesians 3:1-2, 3:3-5 and 3:6
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Ephesians 3:1 and 3:2
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on Ephesians 3:1 and 3:10
- CSB Study Bible, notes on Ephesians 1:9, 3:1 and 3:10
- Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm, ch. 37, This Means War
- N. T. Wright, Paul: A Biography, ch. 11, Ephesus II
- N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters, comment on Ephesians 3:8-13
- Clinton E. Arnold, Powers of Darkness, ch. 7, The Attempt to Ruin God's Redemptive Plan (1 Cor 2:6-8)
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 11, Ephesians, The Contribution of Ephesians
