Bock Darrell L. - Ephesians

Inter-Varsity Press, England

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Website: www.ivpbooks.com

Email: ivp@ivpbooks.com

InterVarsity Press, USA

P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515, USA

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Email: email@ivpress.com

Darrell L. Bock 2019

Darrell L. Bock has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher or the Copyright Licensing Agency.

Inter-Varsity Press, England, publishes Christian books that are true to the Bible and that communicate the gospel, develop discipleship and strengthen the church for its mission in the world.

IVP originated within the Inter-Varsity Fellowship, now the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship, a student movement connecting Christian Unions in universities and colleges throughout Great Britain, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. That historic association is maintained, and all senior IVP staff and committee members subscribe to the UCCF Basis of Faith. Website: www.uccf.org.uk .

InterVarsity Press , USA, is the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. Website: www.intervarsity.org .

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are taken from the NET Bible copyright 19962016 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com , all rights reserved; or the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1946, 1952, and 1971 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The quotation marked esv is taken from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

First published 2019

Set in Garamond 11/13pt

Typeset in Great Britain by CRB Associates, Potterhanworth, Lincolnshire

Printed and bound in Great Britain by Ashford Colour Press Ltd, Gosport, Hampshire

eBook by CRB Associates, Potterhanworth, Lincolnshire

UK ISBN: 9781783598946 (print)

UK ISBN: 9781783598953 (digital)

US ISBN: 9780830842988 (print)

US ISBN: 9780830857371 (digital)

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

The Tyndale Commentaries have been a flagship series for evangelical readers of the Bible for over sixty years. Both the original New Testament volumes (19561974) as well as the new commentaries (19832003) rightly established themselves as a point of first reference for those who wanted more than is usually offered in a one-volume Bible commentary, without requiring the technical skills in Greek and in Jewish and Graeco-Roman studies of the more detailed series, and with the advantage of being shorter than the volumes of intermediate commentary series. The appearance of new popular commentary series demonstrates that there is a continuing demand for commentaries that appeal to Bible study leaders in churches and at universities. The publisher, editors and authors of the Tyndale Commentaries believe that the series continues to meet an important need in the Christian community, not least in what we call today the Global South, with its immense growth of churches and the corresponding need for a thorough understanding of the Bible by Christian believers.

In the light of new knowledge, new critical questions, new revisions of Bible translations, and the need to provide specific guidance on the literary context and the theological emphases of the individual passage, it was time to publish new commentaries in the series. Four authors will revise their commentary that appeared in the second series. The original aim remains. The new commentaries are neither too short nor unduly long. They are exegetical and thus root the interpretation of the text in its historical context. They do not aim to solve all critical questions, but they are written with an awareness of major scholarly debates which may be treated in the Introduction, in Additional Notes or in the commentary itself. While not specifically homiletic in aim, they want to help readers to understand the passage under consideration in such a way that they begin to see points of relevance and application, even though the commentary does not explicitly offer these. The authors base their exegesis on the Greek text, but they write for readers who do not know Greek; Hebrew and Greek terms that are discussed are transliterated. The English translation used for the first series was the Authorized (King James) Version, while the volumes of the second series mostly used the Revised Standard Version; the volumes of the third series use either the New International Version (2011) or the New Revised Standard Version as primary versions, unless otherwise indicated by the author.

An immense debt of gratitude for the first and second series of the Tyndale Commentaries was owed to R. V. G. Tasker and L. Morris, who each wrote four of the commentaries themselves. The recruitment of new authors for the third series proved to be effortless, as colleagues responded enthusiastically to be involved in this project, a testimony both to the larger number of New Testament scholars capable and willing to write commentaries, to the wider ethnic identity of contributors, and to the role that the Tyndale Commentaries have played in the church worldwide. It continues to be the hope of all those concerned with this series that God will graciously use the new commentaries to help readers understand as fully and clearly as possible the meaning of the New Testament.

Eckhard J. Schnabel, Series Editor

Nicholas Perrin, Consulting Editor

The epistle to the Ephesians is about a dynamic community. Such a community is what stands behind the writing of this commentary. I taught this epistle in a basic exegesis course at Dallas Theological Seminary for well over twenty years. The interaction with students and their enthusiasm to get serious about the study of the Greek text kept this study from becoming old. My thanks go to the many students who taught me much as we discussed this letter, as well as to the New Testament Department where I have served for more than thirty-five years. These are some of the best colleagues one could spend a career working alongside.

I also must express appreciation to my team past and present at the Hendricks Center. My more recent work on cultural engagement has sought to encourage the application of much of what this letter calls for from believers. So my thanks go to Bill Hendricks, Pam Cole, Kymberli Cook, Amanda Stidham, Mikel Del Rosario, Heather Zimmerman and Carol Rosell, all of whom have taught me much about faith in practice. Special thanks go to Peter Green, who read over this manuscript and made many helpful observations about it in terms of content and clarity. I have used the New English Translation ( net ) or Revised Standard Version ( rsv ) in most cases. In other places, the translation is my own.

I am grateful for the invitation of Eckhard Schnabel to participate in this series and for giving me the choice to work on this great epistle. It was a risk on his part to let this mostly Jesus and Gospels person work on a piece from Paul.