The ascension, pleroma and ecclesia concepts in Ephesians

Abstract

The basic aim of the study is to investigate the relationship between a number of christological and ecclesiological themes. The first section of the essay is concerned with the identification of the traditions employed by the author in his presentation of an ascension theology in 1:20-23 and 4:8-10. Having once established these traditions, an attempt is made to trace a Traditiongeschichte for them. The second part of the essay is concerned with the relationship between the ascension theology and the kephale and pleroma motifs which are present in both pericopes. This investigation necessitates an examination of the Pauline theology. At the same time within this section an attempt is made to trace the source of the pleroma terminology as used by the author of the epistle. In the third section of the essay the interest is more general; an attempt is made to discover how the "component parts" of the author's ascension theology are used elsewhere in the epistle. In the fourth and last section of the essay the interest is again with traditions, specifically the use made of the traditions inherent in the ascension pericopes in the epistle in the writings of both the Church Fathers and of authors outside the main stream of Christian thought.