Ephesians, the bible’s cure for insomnia – Ephesians 1-4 (NTiR)

By | August 16, 2010

Bible and magnifying glassI really should take some time out to do some research here. There are some details that I am uncertain of. For example, which of Paul’s letters were written first? How do they relate time-wise to the letters from Paul and Timothy? When do the letters relate to Paul’s travels as described in Acts?

The chronological order of Paul’s letters would assist me in figuring out Paul’s moods. Paul sounded annoyed in Romans and pissed off in both letters to the Corinthians. However, he sounded genial and paternal in his letter to the Galatians. Could Paul have just been having good/bad years? This is actually intriguing to me…

Anyway, let’s move on to:

The Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians

Chapter 1
God is great, and has put Jesus in charge of everything. Save yourself from reading the other 22 verses: this is the sum total of the chapter.

Chapter 2
Paul gives a different take on why Jesus was crucified. In this one, Jesus’s death killed the hostility between the uncircumcised and circumcised, creating a unified nation under god. This allowed Gentiles to take a place in the church, to be brought back to life after being dead because of their prior place in the world.

Chapter 3
Amen! Moving on…

Chapter 4
Jesus went into hell, then rose above to the heavens. He has given people gifts, for some to be apostles and preachers and teachers and plain ol’ Joes. All to strengthen the church and its members of course.

Do you know what else will help strengthen members of the church? Abstaining from sex, of course! Paul returns to his pet subject, stating that those Gentiles who turned away from god abandoned themselves to sensuality and sexual perversion. Since they aren’t doing so with Paul, it is not a good thing at all.

Paul demands that everyone move on to a new life, stripping away the frailty and faults of their old ways of life. He wants people to no longer lie, be angry, quarrel or – and this is the fun one – talk dirty. Again with disparaging sex! Paul, have ye no shame?

Up next: Sexism in disguise?

New installments of The New Testament In Review will be posted each Monday and Thursday. The new posts will always be on my blog, http://biffster.org. The entire series is accessible via http://biffster.org/ntir. If you are one of my Facebook friends, you can get an advance preview on my Facebook page. You can also follow me (@biffster) on Twitter to be alerted to new posts.

One thought on “Ephesians, the bible’s cure for insomnia – Ephesians 1-4 (NTiR)

  1. Pingback: The return of Paul the lawyer – Galatians 3-6 (NTiR) - Biffster's World

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