CHART 82: THE PLACE OF THE CHRISTOLOGICAL EPISTLES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT B PAUL THE PRISONER All four of the prison epistles contain direct references to Paul’s imprisonment Read Ephesians 3:1; 4:1; 6:20; Philippians 1:7, 13; Colossians 4:3, 18; Philemon 10, 13, 22, 23 Paul had previously experienced being jailed (2 Cor 11:23), but the rst Roman imprisonment was of long duration and involved extensive ministry outreach Read Acts 28:16-31 for Luke’s reporting of some activities from part of that period C PLACE OF WRITING It is generally held that the prison epistles were written at Rome, during the imprisonment of Acts 28 Some advocate either Caesarea or Ephesus as the place of writing.3 D ORDER OF WRITING Colossians, Ephesians, and Philemon were written rst, dispatched at the same time by the same messengers (Read Ephesians 6:2122; Colossians 4:7-9; Philemon 12.) Philippians was written at a later time (The date will be discussed when that epistle is studied later.) II BACKGROUND A AUTHOR Twice in the text of Ephesians, Paul is identi ed as the author Read 1:1 and 3:1 Internal evidences of style and content, as well as the external witness of tradition, support this observation Paul was about sixty- ve years of age when he wrote the letter He referred to himself as “the aged” when he wrote to Philemon at this same time B DATE AND PLACE OF WRITING A date assigned to the writing of Ephesians is A.D 61 This is based on Paul’s writing the epistle during his rst imprisonment in Rome, which lasted at least two years (A.D 61-62) At that time he also wrote Colossians, Philemon, and Philippians, as noted above Read Acts 28:30-31 Were circumstances favorable to Paul to meditate, study, and write during this imprisonment? John Bunyan wrote the classic The Pilgrim’s Progress while in prison Have you read of other “prison masterpieces”? How you account for such a phenomenon, from the human standpoint? Of course, in the case of a canonical book like Ephesians, God was the originator and user of the writing’s setting C DESTINATION Main views There are two main views regarding the original destination of ... wrote the classic The Pilgrim’s Progress while in prison Have you read of other “prison masterpieces”? How you account for such a phenomenon, from the human standpoint? Of course, in the case of. .. reporting of some activities from part of that period C PLACE OF WRITING It is generally held that the prison epistles were written at Rome, during the imprisonment of Acts 28 Some advocate either... book like Ephesians, God was the originator and user of the writing’s setting C DESTINATION Main views There are two main views regarding the original destination of