13. Ephesians, Colossians & Philemon

This is a short commentary by theologian Michael Allen, part of Brazos’s Theological Commentary on the Bible series. The series is founded on the idea that ‘dogma clarifies rather than obscures’ and non-biblical scholars have been deliberately chosen as authors because ‘war is too important to leave to the generals’. This approach is evident in Allen’s thorough-going Reformed theological approach to Ephesians where there are a limited number of engagements with biblical scholarship. I confess I did find it a little strange reading a discussion of an ancient text with little interaction with the social setting of the letter in the first century, notwithstanding the letter’s general nature. Allen seeks to interpret the letter within its canonical context and ‘within the communion of the saints’, and, to be sure, there are various interesting discussions along the way of historical interpretations of the text and theology. The commentary dives straight into the text, without any of the usual introductory background material and proceeds by discussing small blocks of text in six chapters, one for each chapter of the letter. Although the commentary is aimed at pastors, preachers and a general Christian readership, the writing style does not make for easy reading – phrases like ‘missive into ecclesiastical calm’, ‘prudence in divine pedagogy’ and ‘our present yearnings must be transfigured’ are rather typical of the author’s mode of expression. The difficulties of untangling Paul’s long sentences in his letter are perhaps not best served by this.