Pauls prison epistles (Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon, and Research Paper

Pauls prison epistles (Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon, and Philippians) - Research Paper Example His fashion majorly credits his apostolic ability to Jesus Christ and the will of God. Evidence is in the wording and letter structure that is unique of all Paul’s writings. The epistle of Ephesians was written in Rome in A.D 60 (Walvoord & Zuck 434). This is well explained by the opening of the revelation of John of Patmos. The revelation shows that John was aware of Paul’s letters to seven centers of Christianity in which Ephesus was one of them. Another evidence is the letter known as ‘I Clement’ written in A.D 96 by Clement, Bishop of Rome to the church at Corinthian (Ackroyd 3). According to the salutation that Paul uses, the epistle was a general letter meant for several readers. In the opening greetings, Paul conveys his greetings to God’s people at Ephesus while in some manuscript like in the beginning of chapter three, the word Ephesus is omitted and instead the word Gentiles is used. This shows that this letter was meant to be read in a number of churches in the province of Asia, of which Ephesus was one of them. The occasion for writing this latter is not clear since it does not have a specific audience. However, the book of acts brings out Paul as having spent a significant time on his last visit to Ephesus. In his time in Ephesus, he taught and baptized disciples, taught in the synagogue and the cities where he met a conflict with the pagans. It was in the same occasion that he did a speech of exhortation to the city elders. Therefore, the events mentioned could be suggested as the occasions that lead Paul to write this Epistle (BibleU 1). This letter was written when Paul was in prison in Rome. The supporting evidence is that it was sent together with the letter to Colossae, Philemon, and Philippians, which were all written in a Roman prison. In this letter there is no evidence of who he was with while writing this letter. According to Bruce (245), the epistle was written as an encouragement to