Studies in Ephesians: Introduction Questions, Text- and Edition-Critical Issues, Interpretation of Texts and Themes (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen Zum Neuen Testament) (English and German Edition)

This volume of collected essays on Ephesians is divided into three sections. The first part deals thoroughly with introductory questions such as composition and style, the relationship to other Early Christian literature and Qumran, authorship (with a new suggestion), addressees and social setting. In the second part the extensive history of Early Christian texts and editions (in the Muratorian canon, the Marcionite prologues and the Euthalian apparatus) with special regard to Ephesians is investigated. The third part is dedicated to the interpretation of texts and themes of special importance for the understanding of this pseudo-pauline letter by one of Paul's younger disciples and co-workers. Here the theological and liturgical setting is reflected upon. Through all the detailed scrutiny of the history and the semantics of the epistle to the Ephesians, the question of its illocutionary function remains in focus. Not only what the auctor of Ephesians says in his letter but what he does by saying it is the central issue in Nils Alstrup Dahl's life-long interest in this intriguing letter.More than half of these essays have never been published before, and one essay is translated from Norwegian into English for the first time.

Nils A. Dahl, Born 1911; 1941 Dr. theol. at the University of Oslo; 1936 till the first half of World War II Lecturer at the University of Oslo; 1946-1965 Professor of New Testament at the University of Oslo; 1965-80 Buckingham Professor of New Testament at Yale University, New Haven, USA; since 1980 Professor emeritus.V. Blomkvist, Born 1967; Cand. philol. 1993.; 1998 Lecturer in Greek at the Faculty of Theology, the University of Oslo.Tord Fornberg, Born 1943; 1977 ThD; 1988 Habilitation, both at Uppsala University; taught at the same university until his retirement in 2008; presently teaching at the Newman Institute in Uppsala; member of the Commission for Inter-Religious Dialogue of the Catholic Diocese of Stockholm.David Hellholm, Born 1941; 1980 ThD; 1982 Habilitation, both at Uppsala University; 1990-2008 Ordinary Professor of New Testament and its Environment at the Faculty of Theology in the University of Oslo; 2008 retirement; member of The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.