hPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS. 135 



Might not some of the copies drop the words of designation 

 h* Ty AaocWeta* which it was of no consequence to an Ephe- 

 sian to letain ? Might not copies of the letter come out 

 into the Christian church at large from Ephesus; and might 

 not this give occasion to a beUef that the letter was written 

 to that church ? And lastly, might not this beUef produce 

 the error which we suppose to have crept into the in- 

 scription ? 



V. As our epistle purports to have been written during 

 St. Paul's imprisonment at Rome, which lies beyond the 

 period to which the Acts of the Apostles brings up his his- 

 tory ; and as we have seen and acknowledged that the epis- 

 tle contains no reference to any transaction at Ephesus 

 during the apostle's residence in that city, we cannot expect 

 that it should supply many marks of agreement with the 

 narrative. One coincidence however occurs, and a coinci- 

 dence of that minute and less obvious kind, which, as has 

 been repeatedly observed, is most to be relied upon. 



Chap. 6 : 19, 20, we read, praying " for me, that I may 

 open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the 

 gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds." " I/t 

 bo7ids" ev akvccL, in a chain. In the twenty-eighth chapter 



* And it is remarkable that there seem to have been some ancient 

 copies without the words of designation, either the words in Ephesus^ 

 or the words in Laodicca. St. Basil, a writer of the fourth century, 

 speaking of the present epistle, has this very singular passage : "And 

 writing to the Ephesians, as truly united to him who is through know- 

 ledge, he," Paul, "calleth them in a peculiar sense such who are / say- 

 ing to the saints who are and^^^ or even, " the faithful in Christ Jesus ; for 

 so those before us have transmitted it, and we have found it m ancient 

 copies." Dr. Mill interprets — and, notwithstanding some obj,*.ctions 

 that have been made to him, in my opinion rightly interprets — tbes':>. 

 words of Basil, as declaring that his father had seen certain copies oi 

 the epistle in which the words "in Ephesus" were wanting. And 

 the passage, I think, must be considered as Basil's fanciful way of 

 explaining what was really a corrupt and defective reading; for I do 

 not believe it possible that the author of the epistle could have origi- 

 nally written dyioig rolg oiViv, without any nair.e of place to follow it 



