5. Christ, History and Eschato1ogy in the Letter to the Ephesians

The Christological vision of Ephesians transforms both the meaning of protology and that of eschatology, and thence offers a penetrating insight into the meaning of history.

Most references in the NT to the κατβολ? (του) κ?σμου take it as a starting point, and hence have it preceded by απο. In Ephesians 1:4 the election of Christians by God in Christ is said to have taken place before the foundation of the world [προ καταβολη? κ?σμου]. This same idea occurs in Jn 17:24, but there what took place before the foundation of the world was the love of the Father for the Son. Similarly, in 1Pet 1:20, what took place before the foundation of the world was the knowledge of Jesus (objective genitive). Ephesians is alone, then, in seeing a pre-temporal election by the Father, and the same idea may be contained in the προητο?μασεν of 2:10. 151

5.1 History and Eschatology

We have already mentioned that Hammer contends that Paul's notion of κληρονομια and related concepts is quite different from that of the Letter to the Ephesians. Relative to the problem of history and eschatology in Ephesians and Paul he says:

"In terms of the eschatology of κληρονομ?α we may venture to ask whether what Abraham is for Paul does not correspond to what Christ is historically for Ephesians; whether the "promise" to Abraham in Paul does not correspond to the "plan" of Christ in Ephesians. Paul begins with Abraham and ends with Christ in the present. Ephesians begins with Christ in the present and ends with cosmic unity in the future. For Paul, Christ is the historic event which is the echatological content of the inheritance; for Ephesians, Christ is the historic event which is the eschatological means to the inheritance whose content lies beyond history." 152

It is true that the eschatological now is of great importance in Paul, thus distinguishing him from the mystagogues of Qumran. 153 It is also true that, verbally at least, the eschatological now is missing in Ephesians, and that the heavenly horizon of the Letter to the Ephesians, as reflected in the phrase εν τοι? επουραν?οι?, 154 is, verbally at least, missing in the major Pauline letters. When the word επουραν?οι? does occur in 1Cor, it is in Paul's attempt to explain the nature of the resurrection. It is perhaps not entirely irrelevant to remark that where the concept of eschatology tends most markedly towards "realized eschatology", in the Letters to the Colossians and Ephesians, it is also closely allied with the idea of resurrection, 155 which will be effected at the parousia. 156 This latter idea is reflected in the use of "Saviour" in Eph 5:23, which elsewhere in the Pauline corpus occurs only at Phil 3:20. This title of Christ has a "strong eschatological accent." 157

Hans Urs von Balthasar has several ideas which would be of the greatest interest for a development of the theology of history and eschatology in the Letter to the Ephesians: the need for a subject working in and revealing himself in the whole of history, thus grounding an interpretation of history that is not Gnostic myth; 158 the work of the Spirit in history making it into the history of salvation by prophetically orienting it to the Son, thus grounding the relation of history in its promise and fulfilment to the Trinity; 159 the significance of the end for an understanding of the beginning, derivative of the interweaving of all human destinies. 160

5.2 Realized and Eschatological Salvation, Redemption, Resurrection

For Paul, life and death are the visible manifestations of humanity's greatest good or greatest penalty, and hence physical death and bodily resurrection are symbols of the absence or presence of the life of grace. 161 In Ephesians the interplay of realized and presently possessed salvation and resurrection in the future is a complicated one.

Eschatological redemption in the resurrection is definitely envisaged in 1:14 and 4:30: in these verses the word απολυτρωσι? has the same eschatological meaning as in Rom 8:25 and Lk 21:28, with the same watering down of the idea of ransom. 162 Redemption is thus not a redemption from the body but a redemption of the body. 163 It is perhaps in light of this that we should accept περιποιησεω? of 1:14 as epexegetical genitive, the taking possession of an inheritance already mentioned rather than the becoming a possession of God. 164

Realized salvation is clearly envisaged in 2:5, 8, a realization based on the indwelling Spirit. 165 In these verses, Paul's aorist of Romans 8:24 becomes a perfect tense, a use unique to them, though the viewpoint is the same as Col 3:1-4. 166 In a similar fashion, Paul's eschatological salvation expressed through the phrase "the Good News...the power of God saving all..." (Rom 1:16) seems to have become realized salvation in Eph 1:13, "the good news of your salvation". 167

It would seem, then, that the relation between realized and eschatological possession of Christ, and hence of salvation, is not to be solved merely on the κληρονομ?α concept. If there were such a clear dichotomy between Paul's concept of Christ as both the means and the end or content of inheritance and the concept which Hammer finds in Ephesians of Christ as the historical means to non-historical ends, one might have expected the parousia to have played a greater part in the theology of Ephesians. As it is, the parousia is only implicit in Ephesians, in the presentation of the Church as a spotless bride (5:26f) and in the eschatological verses 1:14 and 4:30. 168

5.5 The Meaning of Πλ?ρωμα 169

The meaning of the word πλ?ρωμα in Ephesians is to a great extent linked with the meaning of the genitive participle πληρουμ?νου in 1:23. Exegesis has understood the word as either a middle voice participle with an active meaning, or a passive participle. This interpretation was held by Origen, Theodore of Mopsuestia and Chrysostom. 170 In both these views the presumption is that the participle is masculine singular genitive. It is suggested by Hermans and Geysels that a much better sense is afforded by taking it as neuter singular genitive. 171 They argue first of all against the general acceptance of the form as middle, using both scriptural evidence 172 and the understanding reflected in Latin and Coptic versions. 173 As neuter participle, πληρουμ?νον would refer to the mystery of salvation, "the all-embracing work of salvation which is in process of being realized". 174

If this explanation of the participle is accepted, the word πλ?ρωμα in 1:23 might refer to the Church. Bogdasavich suggests this, 175 but since he understands the participle as passive, he also understands πλ?ρωμα in its passive sense, as the recipient rather than the complement of Christ. 176 Christ is the middle term of the divine economy in such an understanding of πλ?ρωμα: Christ is the πληρωμα of the Father, and the Church receives the πλ?ρωμα from Christ. 177 However, we might retain the more common active agent meaning, understand to πλ?ρωμα as being in opposition to το σωμα, and see the Body of Christ as the realizing of what is being always and everywhere 178 realized. It seems certain, at any rate, that πλ?ρωμα cannot be taken as the totality of the cosmos. 179 The cosmic triumph of Christ, reflected in the τα π?ντα of 1:10, is far from being a cosmic redemption. 180

If πλ?ρωμα is understood against the background of Wisdom Literature, however, there is seen a renewal of all things, consequent on the salvation of humanity by Christ, the effects of which flow into the entire created universe. 181

151. Grundmann, art. cit., TDNT 2:705; Trinidad, art. cit., p. 7 and note 4 on the same page.

152. Hammer, art. cit., p. 270.

153. Benoit, Qumran, art. cit., p. 291.

154. Benoit, L'Unit? art. cit., p. 75.

155. Smyth, art. cit., p. 229.

156. Stanley, Christ's Resurrection, op. cit., p. 106, also for what follows.

157. Stanley, Christ's Resurrection, op. cit., p. 106, citing Bonnard.

158. Balthasar, op. cit., pp. 7-8.

159. Balthasar, op. cit., p. 59.

160. Balthasar, op. cit., p. 73.

161. Stanley, Christ's Resurrection, op. cit., p. 12, citing Hulsbosch.

162. Stanley, Christ's Resurrection, op. cit., p. 270; B?chsel, art. cit., TDNT 4: 353-354; Cerfaux, Christ, op. cit., pp. 136f, note 28 (French, p. 108f, note 4).

163. B?chsel, art. cit., TDNT 4:352.

164. B?chsel, art. cit., TDNT 4:353, note 8. Jerusalem Bible (ET) does not translate as epexegetical genitive but as a taking possession of us by God.

165. Stanley, Christ's Resurrection, op. cit., p. 217, cf. also p. 220.

166. Stanley, Christ's Resurrection, op. cit., pp. 222-223.

167. Stanley, Christ's Resurrection, op. cit., pp. 217, 220, quoting Schlier.

168. Bruce, art. cit., p. 308.

169. On the meaning of πλ?ρωμα etc., cf. Benoit, P., Corps, T?te, et Pl?r?me dans les ?p?tres de la Captivit?. Revue Biblique 63(1956)5-44 ; Delling, G., article πλ?ρη? κτλ, TDNT 6:283-311, esp. 302-305: πλ?ρωμα had a variety of meanings. This variety of meanings made it a favourite word of St Paul's, p. 302; Virgulin, S. L'Origine del Concetto di Pl?r?ma in Ef 1 :23. Stud.Paul.Cong. Int.Cath., II, 39-43.

170. Grassi, JBC 56:18.

171. Hermans and Geysels, art. cit., p. 297.

172. Hermans and Geysels, art. cit., p. 281: There is no instance of the middle voice in LXX, many of the active and passive; of 32 examples in Paul, no middle voice occurs, (unless 5:18, but this too is more likely passive); the participle of Eph 1:23 occurs at Lk 2:40, a passive. In 1:23, a middle voice participle from πληρ?ω would be a hapax legomenon in Biblical Greek.

173. Hermans and Geysels, art. cit., p. 282.

174. Hermans and Geysels, art. cit., p. 290.

175. Bogdasavich, art. cit., p. 119.

176. Bogdasavich, art. cit., p. 127, note 16 compared with p. 119. Grammatically, πλ?ρωμα can be either the cause or the result of the action of πληρ?ω. The passive meaning is less common, Bogdasavich, art. cit., p. 119.

177. Bogdasavich, art. cit., p. 127.

178. Benoit, L'Horizon, art. cit., p. 175. On translating τα π?ντα εν πασιν as an adverbial phrase, see ib., p. 355; cf. also ib., p. 355, note 1 on the meaning of the "fullness of Christ".

179. Benoit, L'Horizon, art. cit., pp. 354-355.

180. Benoit, L'Horizon, art. cit., p. 356.