An Exegetical Approach to Ephesians 3 1-13: What Could Paul Have Meant?
The Book of Ephesians is a treasure trove of insight on the mystery of Christ, as well as instruction on Christian conduct, with a particular emphasis on Christian identity in the third chapter of the letter. The Apostle Paul showcases the idea of the grafting of the Gentiles in the text of Ephesians chapter 3 and brings the entire concept to the forefront of belief in the Messiah.
This ancient idea—in which Paul has found an answer to the mystery of the gospel—goes back to the book of Genesis, where Ephraim and Manasseh are receiving the firstborn blessing. The Apostle Paul stresses the importance of answering the question of Christian identity with the Israelites, as well as unity through the sacrifice of the Messiah.
In this exegetical analysis, we will take an exciting dive into the theological ocean of Ephesians 3 and find out just what Paul is conveying to the audience in solving the “mystery of the gospel.”
The Context
The believers of the 21st century have often (though not always) lost their connection to the Hebrew cultural framework, as well as shrugged off the Messiah’s restoration of the Hebrew people with the Gentiles in favor of replacement theology because most Jews reject Jesus.
Replacement theology is not an issue of faith; though there is an Israel and church dichotomy that divides the Body of Christ into two separate sections. Historically, Israel is the prototype of the church assembly, and there is no difference between the two.
Today, we have modern establishments that serve as gathering places, yet in Paul’s time believers were simply meeting inside of homes and had a minimal environment to worship in. One can find God in a building, and on top of a hiking trail. He is not limited because of a church building.
There was a sense of community and trust that is simply not present in our more refined environments of the modern age en masse. Not to say it isn’t on offer, but rather, early church meetings were quite intimate.
As such, the ideas of unity and Christian identity are more akin to a family than a community. Paul was speaking to an audience that understood their fellow Christians as family, rather than peers.
There were cases where Christians would be overly eager and out in the streets, such as when Paul went to Ephesus, but the community was mostly a close-knit family.
Noting the difference in the culture of the Ephesian Christians in contrast with our modern churches will make deciphering what Paul referred to as the Body of Christ easier to understand. We have since lost the family aspect of being Christians and have made the church closer to a holy business than a home.
In a literal sense, Paul explains he had a revelatory experience with God, which showed him that the Gentiles and the Jewish people are one within the same body. The division between the Jews and Gentiles was unjustified, due to God creating all men, not just the Hebrews. Unity within the body means that both sides of the faith are partakers of God’s promises in the covenant of the Old Testament.
He made connections with Old Testament Scriptures, such as the Book of Genesis, to get the Ephesians thinking about the origins of the Hebrews. Paul was an unworthy emissary himself according to Ephesians and showed the idea of God’s grace among all men in this statement. Perhaps the Gentiles were unaware of the fact that they were fellow heirs of the promise, so Paul was enlightening them in a letter to come together with the Hebrew followers of the Messiah. “This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Ephesians 3:6 [ESV]).
In Paul’s time, the Gentiles were unclean and separate from the Jewish people, so he is clarifying to the church at Ephesus that all men are welcome to receive the promises God gave to Israel.
A Matter of Interpretation
How can we use the insight of Paul’s wisdom to pick apart the varied content of the letter? The man was a Hebrew; therefore, we need to adopt his mindset in our interpretation of Ephesians. This will help us bridge the gap between his culture and our own. According to Ephesians 3:8, the unsearchable riches of Christ are given to the Jewish believers and made known to the Gentiles.
This would imply that the Gentiles were ignorant of the God of Israel, let alone the Messiah. Hebrew scholars and Torah-observant citizens of Israel at least recognized that the Messiah was supposed to liberate them from oppression and falsehood. The case with pagan people was that they were not even aware that a Messiah existed.
Where does this idea help readers digest Paul’s letter, and just what is the mystery of the gospel?
Most of Christianity considers the gospel message the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Greek word for gospel literally means “the good news,” and the idea of a substitute sacrifice for our sins is something to be happy about.
However, Paul doesn’t focus on this aspect of the gospel at all in Ephesians 3. What he does highlight is the inclusion of the foreigners with the children of Israel. As a student of Gamaliel, Paul was an expert in the Old Testament, and the Torah of Moses in particular.
He tells us that the mystery of the gospel was revealed to him in a supernatural revelation, and that it had long been hidden for centuries past.
This concept of the mystery of the gospel is not new information, but rather an ages-long riddle that goes back to Genesis 48.
“But his father refused and said, ‘I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great. Nevertheless, his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall become a multitude of nations’” (Genesis 48:19 [ESV]).
The blessing of Ephraim is one of two keys that unlock the mystery Paul has found an answer to. Manasseh was the real first-born son, but Ephraim was given a double-portion inheritance due to a prophetic word of becoming a multitude of nations. The phrase within Genesis 48:19 about a “multitude of nations” literally translates to “fullness of the Gentiles.” With this idea in mind, we see that a lineage development over the generations will culminate in a multitude of Gentile spiritual seed.
This is not related to the more common theory of Jesus having to die and resurrect to remarry His bride as the church. Jay Carper at American Torah has recently written an amazing article on why that theory does not work. I suggest reading it on his website.
What does the fullness of the Gentiles have to do with the gospel? Why does Paul refer to the solution to this mystery in Ephesians 3? These questions are vital if we are to come to the same conclusions as Paul.
If anything, fully understanding the Bible relies on this component of theology that is often overlooked.
Ephesians 3 can only be understood with the background and context found within the pages of the Old Testament. We as Christians today need to remember that there wasn’t a New Testament in Paul’s time, so any insight that he has within Ephesians is strictly from the Tanakh.
In Ephesians 3:9, we are told that the mystery plan was hidden for ages. In Paul’s time, his insight was unique and fresh. Where others did not understand God’s purpose for the Messiah as it relates to the Gentiles, Paul shone the light of truth.
The Two Houses of Israel
Often ignored and cast aside in traditional theology, the House of Israel and House of Judah are key pieces of the puzzle of the mystery of the gospel.
During the reign of Jeroboam and Rehoboam, the kingdom of Israel was united as 12 tribes initially, of which only one was Jewish.
Jews descend from Judah, and some of Benjamin, and the other tribes are not counted among them. “And when Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he assembled all the House of Judah with the tribe of Benjamin, one hundred and eighty thousand chosen men who were warriors, to fight against the House of Israel” (1 Kings 12:21 [NKJV]).
This is the first occasion in the entire Bible where the children of Israel are divided against one another due to a heavy burden of taxation.
God in turn tells them to call off the battle, for the division was from Him and divinely ordained. Surprisingly, Rehoboam listened to the instruction of the LORD, and the kingdoms ended up remaining divided.
From that moment on, the House of Israel comprised 10 tribes in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and the House of Judah held Judah and Benjamin in the Southern Kingdom of Judah.
However, the Northern Kingdom of Israel was prone to corruption and idolatry, which God considered spiritual adultery.
The priesthood ended up moving south to the House of Judah, and the northern kingdom was in even greater sin than at the beginning.
Eventually, God was so angry with the House of Israel that He divorced them metaphorically.
“Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also” (Jeremiah 3:8 [NKJV]). Now, the House of Israel was called “not my people” or Lo-Ammi according to Hosea chapter 1, yet He proclaimed mercy upon the House of Judah.
“Therefore, the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them from His sight; there was none left but the tribe of Judah alone” (2 Kings 17:18 [NKJV]).
The punishment for both Houses of Israel was captivity into Assyria and Babylon respectively, with the House of Israel gradually losing its identity and purpose over the years. What the text does not say (as Jay Carper notes in his recent article on this subject) is that they were literally divorced from a literal marriage.
Judah was given mercy by God and allowed to return with Levites and a mixed multitude of a few bordering tribes, yet lacking all the tribes of Israel.
The Wisdom of Paul in Ephesians 3
Paul reveals the answer to this age-old question of just how God is going to restore the covenant to the House of Israel. The scholars of the Torah in the time of Paul were aware of the lost tribes of Israel and debated for centuries when they would return.
“When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ” (Ephesians 3:4 [ESV]).
“This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Ephesians 3:6 [ESV]).
In a literal context, the apostle is wrapping up the theological concept of Israel’s restoration to glory within all twelve tribes.
Paul calls the gospel message an eternal purpose, and emphasizes the grace afforded to all men, while also speaking of the present suffering being for the glory of the body of Christ. Paul uses the example of his own suffering literally for the sake of showing us that suffering for the rest of the body is for God’s glory. The essential theme of the passages is the restoration of a renewed and spiritual Israel, instead of a broken, stripped, and destitute people, through the Messiah’s sacrifice.
Essentially, the New Covenant of Jeremiah 31:31 is how the lost tribes would come back. A New Covenant enacted on better promises, though still fulfilling God’s promise to Abraham to give him so many spiritual descendants as to be like the stars in the sky.
A Practical Application in Our Lives
It might be hard to imagine how to apply a completely theological concept in the Christian walk, but there are important lessons to be taken from the Book of Ephesians.
There is a special emphasis on Christian identity, and relationship to the Jewish side of the faith. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, because the Gentiles are literally grafted into the promises of Israel.
Ephesians 3: 1-13 summarizes the plan of God from the time of Joseph’s sons, all the way to the cross, with the final restoration still yet to come.
Paul was adamant about the concept of congregating together, and that this would lead to both Houses of Israel understanding their purpose.
The Gentiles of today are not literally the House of Israel of times long past, but their descendants who were born from the metaphorically divorced are redeemed through the blood of our King.
Jewish outreach is of the utmost importance, because our brothers in Judah are unaware that there was a Messiah who had come, which finds a home within the Hebrew culture.
We serve a Hebrew God, who used the Hebrew people to glorify His name, with a Hebrew Messiah to save humanity.
The largely Hellenized and culturally removed Christian church has a very brittle understanding of the necessity of the Messiah outside of the typical gospel message. The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is only a sliver of the story.
He solves the divide between Jew and Gentile. He makes us new in Him.
What is there after the first gospel?
Isn’t there something else we need to understand to fulfill Jesus Christ’s Great Commission from Matthew 28?
The answer to these questions depends on our theology, and how far we dive into the mind of Paul.
The apostle considered it a great honor to be the one to whom God revealed this mystery of the Gentiles.
After so many generations of failed attempts to piece together an answer to God’s casting aside the House of Israel, and centuries of considering them not to be associated with, one man had a supernatural revelation that elevated him above the others in the field of biblical study.
When we examine the statement of grace that Paul asserts over his own shortcomings, we can see that God’s purpose is fully capable of being carried out by broken and sin-tarnished men.
It was by the grace of God that Paul had received supernatural insight, much like it is by the grace of God that we as believers today have the Holy Spirit to guide us in biblical study.
The Bible is open to those who will be attentive to His leading, and Paul is a prime example of this idea. The very grace of God that Paul speaks of in Ephesians 3 is what equipped him for his work, and the same grace and favor of God is what equips us for our work in the Messiah
To reach out to the people of Israel is an important theme found within Ephesians 3: 1-13, as they are just as much our brothers as our fellow Christians.
Finishing the Exegesis
The mystery of Christ is the most prevalent Messianic theme within Ephesians 3: 1-13, as the Apostle Paul figures out the answer to an age-old question.
Dissecting this body of text requires an extensive and exhaustive search into the Old Testament Scriptures, because the Apostle Paul was using the prophecies of the Old Testament on the restoration of the Gentiles into the kingdom to bring us to a point of community.
Fellow brothers and sisters in Christ must unite with the Hebrew people to help realize the return of the exiles (at the resurrection) and their descendants.
From the ancient days of Ephraim and Manasseh to the split in the Kingdom of Israel—even to the Messiah’s cross, God has been working to bring about an eternal purpose.
Using Ephesians 3: 1-13 as a steppingstone into gaining insight into the mystery of the gospel (Christ would resolve the tensions between Israel and Gentiles) was certainly the author’s intent for the letter, where a supernatural revelation had revealed an eternal truth to every generation.
Will we listen?
