2. The Trinitarian Background to the Christology of Ephesians

As the divinity of Christ implies the Trinity, an examination of the Christology of the Letter of the Ephesians must be related to an examination of the Trinitarian theology implicit or explicit in it. This theology is conveyed both structurally, in associated references to Father, Son and Spirit, and thematically, in statements and presuppositions concerning the Father and the Spirit as individuals and the Son, Christ, as divine. While the divinity of Christ enters into Part 3 of this paper, here we shall treat briefly the Trinitarian structure of some passages and the concepts of Father and Spirit.

2.1 Trinitarian Structure of Some Passages

"Through him (Christ), both of us have in the one Spirit our way to come to the Father" (2:18). This statement, with its association of Father, Christ and Spirit is clearly Trinitarian, and its structure is repeated in 2:22, though there the word "Father" is replaced by "God", a not unusual New Testament transposition. In this text, the word προσαγωγ? is borrowed from oriental court language, where it denoted the introduction of a person into the king's presence. 40

The clearest Trinitarian structure is the passage 1:3-14, which David Stanley has called the definitive formulation of Pauline soteriology. 41 A first problem is the relationship of the passage to the rest of the Letter. Sanders thinks that the evidence available indicates the probability that the passage is not a quotation but the composition of the author, 42 for every attempt at a reconstruction of the hymn which is supposedly being quoted have failed and Kuhn's study 43 of the relation of Eph 1-3 to the hymnic language of Qumran further increases the doubt. 44 Moreover, the passage fits perfectly in its present context, for the eulogia of verse 3 is in its proper place in a Pauline letter, while verse 14 provides the link with the rest of the letter. 45

Coutts46 exhibits the Trinitarian structure of the passage by means of the following summary: (textual references added):

Section 1 After the opening blessing of God the Father (1: 3a), it proceeds:

I He blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus (1:3b)

II He chose us in him before the foundation of the world (1:4)

III He foreordained us to adoption as sons (1:5)

Section 2 - He bestowed grace on us in the beloved (1:6)

I In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins (1:7-10b)

II In him all things are to be summed up (1:10bc)

III In whom we have been chosen as God's portion (1: 11-12)

Section 3 - In him, having heard the Gospel and having believed, you were sealed by the Holy Spirit.

As Coutts points out, the Trinitarian formula is not rigid, for in section 1 each of the clauses refers to the mediation of the Son in the operation of the Father, while the second section continues to demonstrate the initiative of the Father. 47 The third section, too, insists on the mediation of the Son, but it misses the Trinitarian nature of the whole structure to see the theme of the canticle as the celebration of the perspicuous and singular role played by Christ in human salvation, 48 for the subject of much of the passage is the Father.

Though it belongs to a discussion of the meaning of the formula εν Χριστω in the whole letter, we may mention here that for Stanley no other passage in the whole of Paul's letters uses this phrase, εν Χριστω or its equivalent, with such depth of meaning, as none uses it with such frequency. 49 Chrysostom thinks that in 1:3 the phrase is equivalent to δια Χριστ?ν 50 but the instrumental use of δι? occurs in verses 5 and 7 51 and one would be justified perhaps in distinguishing the meanings of εν and δι?. Dacquino, however, insists that the meaning is primarily instrumental though he does not exclude the idea of solidarity, 52 and Allan would agree with this for the whole Letter: the formula does not express the idea of incorporation but merely that of instrumentality, for Christ has become the source of God's grace for humankind, the instrument of God's activity. 53

2.2 God the Father in the Letter to the Ephesians

It is a basic principle in Pauline soteriology that the work of Christian salvation is properly that of the Father 54 from whom it originates, a principle derivative of the OT view, though Paul stresses the mediatorial activity of Christ. 55 Paul advances the Christian understanding of this principle by showing that both the death and the resurrection of Christ are properly the work of the Father. 56 This gives the basis of the most common characterization of the Father in Pauline theology, as the One who raised Christ from the dead, a characterization which occurs in Ephesians also, 1:20. 57 This work of the Father is an expression of his might, his power (1:19): the word κρ?το? is almost invariably 58 used of the Father. 59

Important for a consideration of the divinity of Christ is the attribution to him of δ?ξα through his resurrection, for, in Paul's mind, δ?ξα is closely associated with the Father, so that God is ο πατηρ τη? δοξη? (1:17). 60

While it may be true that there is no NT doctrine of a universal fatherhood of God 61 if we understand that concept in the sense given it in the European Enlightenment or in the sense of the primal Father in Greek thought, 62 still the fact that there is only one God is the basis for an affirmation of a universal fatherhood of God 63 - "one God and Father of all" (4:6) - in the sense that he is the revealed Father in Christ 64 through whom all may become children of God. Beyond the relationship of God to humankind as Father, there is the assertion of Paul that every patria is named from the πατ?ρ (3:14). The meaning of πατρι? here is problematic. While it may refer to the "families" of human beings and of angelic beings, 65 or even to Gnostic families or "generations" thought to rule the universe, 66 the important point is that every πατρια is so named after the Father, without whom there could not be any question of πατρι?, for he precedes all such naming. 67

2.3 The Spirit in the Letter to the Ephesians

The doctrine of the Spirit is one point in which the Letter to the Ephesians differs radically from the Letter to the Colossians, where the Spirit is only mentioned incidentally in 1:8. 68 Paul may be said to have made two distinctive contributions to the theology of the Spirit, both of them occurring in the major letters, Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians and Galatians, and emphasized in Ephesians. The contributions are: that the Holy Spirit is the present earnest (αρραβ?ν) of the coming resurrection and glory; and that it is in the Holy Spirit that the people of Christ have been baptized into one corporate unity. 69

The first of these ideas occurs in Eph 1:13, where all Christians are reminded that they have "been stamped with the seal of the holy Spirit of the Promise", an association of the ideas of "seal" and "promise" found also in 2Cor 1:22, and therefore scarcely a point of non-Pauline doctrine in Ephesians. In Eph 4:30, the Holy Spirit is he in whom we have been sealed for the day of redemption. Though it would seem that between Romans and Ephesians there is a shift in viewpoint on the meaning of redemption, 70 it seems certain that in Eph 1:14 and 4:30 redemption is eschatological, and identical in meaning with Romans 8:23 "the redemption of our bodies". 71

The second contribution of Paul to the theology of the Spirit is most forcibly expressed in 1Cor 12:13 "In the one Spirit we were all baptized, Jews as well as Greeks, slaves as well as citizens, and one Spirit was given to us all to drink". Ephesians is more concerned with the result of that baptism, namely that unity (4:3,4), of which the Spirit is the source in that he is the single inner source of the Christian life. 72

The indwelling of the Spirit in the Christian and in the Church is what allows Paul to speak of realized salvation (in 2:5,8). 73 Though it is more usual for Paul to speak of the indwelling of the Spirit, the close connection in Rom 8:9-11 between the Spirit and Christ, who is the source of the Spirit (cf. Acts 2:33), allows the coincidence, although scarcely the identification, in Colossians and Ephesians, of the presence of the glorified Christ with the indwelling of the Spirit. 74

A special problem concerning the relation of Christ and the Spirit arises when we try to understand Paul's use of Psalm 68:18. There are three points to be clarified in a solution of the problem: the chronological relation of αν?βη and κατ?βη (4:9); the genuinity of the reading πρωτον; and the meaning of τα κατ?τερα (μ?ρη) τη? γη?. The manuscript evidence is against the acceptance of the reading πρωτον: it seems to have been added to fix the relation κατ?βη-αν?βη in that order. Those who accept the implication of the reading πρωτον must understand κατ?βη as referring to the Incarnation, 75 or, if τα κατ?τερα is taken to mean the "depths of the earth", the descent into Hades. 76 Caird suggests that αν?βη refers to the ascension of Christ, while κατ?βη refers to his return in the Spirit at Pentecost. Stanley supports this interpretation when he refers the words κα? ελθ?ν of 2:17 to Christ's return to the Church through the operation of the Spirit rather than to his earthly coming, and adds that Paul develops this theme in 4:7-13. 77 Caird investigates the question more in detail, and gives scriptural evidence, textual evidence, grammatical evidence and liturgical evidence to support the interpretation that αν?βη refers to the ascent of Christ and κατ?βη refers to the coming of Christ through the Spirit. 78

The close association of Christ and the Spirit, shown in Paul's identification of the presence of the Glorified Christ and the indwelling of the Spirit, is not only Pauline. According to Peter in Acts 2:33, it is Christ who poured out the Spirit, which he had received from the Father, as the Pentecostal gift. In Jn 14:15-18, the coming of the Paraclete is seen as at least a partial fulfilment of Christ's promise to return. Paul, however, goes further in his identification of the Spirit and Christ: ο δε Κ?ριο? το πνευμα εστιν ("Now this Lord is the Spirit...") (2Cor 3:17); less obviously ο εσχατο? Aδαμ ει? πνευμα ζωοπουν ("...the last Adam has become a life-giving spirit") (1Cor 15:45). Finally, Eph 2:17 following on 2:16 and citing Is 57:19 and Zech 9:10, is a clear reference to a coming of Christ which has taken place since the crucifixion.

The textual evidence, as we have already noted, is for the exclusion of πρωτον. While this does not decide the chronological order αν?βη-κατ?βη, it at least leaves open the possibility that the writer of Ephesians intended the two verbs to be taken precisely in the order in which he gives them.

The grammatical evidence concerns the meaning of the genitive in τα κατ?τερα τη? γη?. Ephesians abounds in examples of genitive of apposition, and there is thus every reason to suppose that in this phrase, too, the genitive is one of apposition, so that the meaning of the phrase would be: "He descended to the earth below". This again does not decide the chronology of ανεβη and κατεβη, for the descent might refer to the Incarnation. It would, however, exclude the descent to Hades as an interpretation.

Lastly there is the liturgical evidence for the interpretation offered. Psalm 68 is one of those appointed for recitation at Pentecost. This was originally a harvest festival, and came to be associated with the giving of the Law on Sinai. Hence the Psalm is associated with the reading of Exodus 19, where Moses performs the ascent and descent of Mount Sinai twice (αν?βη-κατ?βη,: 19:5 and 14; 19:20 and 25). The text of the Psalm quoted by Ephesians differs from the MT and the LXX, but reproduces that of the Targum on the Psalms. This may indicate an earlier exegesis of the text. Further, references to the Torah become references to Christ. The liturgical evidence would seem, then, to favour an understanding of the relation of αν?βη-κατ?βη in which the ascent is prior to the descent, hence allowing the coming of the Spirit to be understood as a coming of Christ.

As we shall see, however, there is a sense in which Christ does not come, but rules from the heavenlies, where he sits enthroned at the right hand of the Father (1:20). In passing we may note Grassi's comment on this verse: the power which God has displayed (attention is to be paid to the meaning of the perfect) in raising Jesus from the dead and enthroning him is revealed in the one continuous act of resurrection, ascension and glorification. 79 This is more akin to Johannine theology than a distinction of Easter-Ascension-Pentecost.

40. The fact that the word may be interpreted either transitively or intransitively carries a consideration of its use in the New Testament beyond this oriental court background. Cf. Grassi, JBC 56:23. Kolbeski, NJBC 55:21, has no comment on the word. Given the references to the Father and Christ in the text, Barth, AB 34, p. 267, is scarcely accurate in supposing that the reference to the "one Spirit" in the text could refer, even secondarily, to the human spirit. However, given the use of the word in Rom 5:2, Eph 2:18, 3:12 and the courtly, cultic and legal usages of the corresponding verb προσαγειν in Ex 21:6, 29:20, Num 8:9-10, 16:5, Acts 16:20 and 1Pet 3:18, as well as the "Gate" parable in Jn 10, (cf. Schmidt, K.L., article αγωγ? κτλ, TDNT 1:128-134), a more detailed consideration of the range of meaning of the term might help to underscore another trait of Protopauline theology in Ephesians.

41. Stanley, Christ's Resurrection, op. cit., p. 216.

42. Sanders, art. cit., pp. 216, 223.

43. Kuhn, K.G., Der Epheserbrief im Lichte der Qumrantexte. New Testament Studies 7 (1960-1961), especially pp. 335-337.

44. Sanders, art. cit., p. 227.

45. Sanders, art. cit., p. 224.

46. Art. cit., p. 117.

47. Ibid.

48. Dacquino, art. cit., p. 340.

49. Stanley, ibid.

50. PG 62:295.

51. Dacquino, art. cit., p. 340, note 5.

52. Dacquino, art. cit., p. 340.

53. Allan, art. cit., p. 59.

54. Stanley, Christ's Resurrection, op. cit., p. 255.

55. Stanley, Christ's Resurrection, op. cit., p. 90. Eph 1:14; cf. Acts 20:28, 2Thess 2:14.

56. Stanley, Christ's Resurrection, op. cit., pp. 222, 255.

57. Stanley, Christ's Resurrection, op. cit., p. 262.5

58. The exception is Heb 2:14, where it is applied to the devil.

59. Michaelis, W., article κρ?τσ? in TDNT 3:905-908, 908; Stanley, Christ's Resurrection, op. cit., 221.

60. Stanley, Christ's Resurrection, op. cit., 262.

61. Grassi, JBC 56:27.

62. Schrenk, G., article pathr ktl , TDNT 5:945-1022, p. 1019.

63. Stanley, Christ's Resurrection, op. cit., p. 256.

64. Schrenk, loc. cit.

65. Insinuated by Jerusalem Bible [ET], note ad loc.

66. Grassi, JBC 56:27.

67. Schrenk, TDNT 5:1017.

68. Bruce, art. cit., 308 and note 2 on the same page.

69. Bruce, art. cit., 309-311.

70. Stanley, Christ's Resurrection, op. cit., pp. 217, 220, 222-223.

71. Bruce, art. cit., 310; B?hsel, F., article απολ?τρωι?, TDNT 4:351-356, pp. 352, 353; Cerfaux, L. Christ in the Theology of St Paul. New York: Herder and Herder, 1959 p. 138, note 28 [French, pp. 108-109, note 4].

72. Grassi, JBC 56:29.

73. Stanley, Christ's Resurrection, op. cit., p. 220.

74. Grassi, JBC 56:27; Stanley, Christ's Resurrection, op. cit., pp. 285-286; Cerfaux, Christ, op. cit., p. 239 [French 183].

75. Cambier, p. 275, seems to support this and understand αν?βη as the Ascension; but this contradicts what he say on p. 270; he rejects any explanation of κατ?βη in terms of the coming of the Spirit, the descent of Christ into Hades, or his coming at the parousia.

76. Cerfaux, Christ, op. cit., p. 409 and note 9 on the same page, (French, p. 308 and note 1 on the same page), however seems to set a descent into the depths of the earth in opposition to a descent into hell.

77. Stanley, Christ's Resurrection, op. cit., p. 226.

78. Cf. Caird, G.B., The Descent of Christ in Eph 4:7-11. St.Ev. II:535-545, p. 537 for scriptural evidence, 537-538 for textual evidence, 538-539 for grammatical evidence, 539-541, for liturgical evidence.

79. Grassi, JBC 56:18.