words "to the Ephesians".

* See the book entitled The Volume of the Book or,the article: The

Volume of the Book,in An Alphabetical Analysis Part 7; both by

Charles H.Welch

That all the extant Manuscripts, except those just mentioned have

the words "at Ephesus" in verse 1.

That the ancient church universally received this epistle as

addressed to the Ephesians' (Wordsworth).

Dr. Lardner (a learned dissenting divine, a.d. 1684-1768), wrote:

`That this epistle was sent to the church at Ephesus, we are assured by

the testimony of all catholic Christians of all past ages.  This we can

now say with confidence, having examined the principal Christian writers

of the past ages, to the beginning of the twelfth century; in all which

space of time, there appears not one who had any doubt of it'.

Ignatius (a disciple of the apostle John, and bishop of Antioch circa a.d.

110) in a letter to the Ephesians says:

`Ye are the companions in the mysteries of the gospel of Paul, the

sanctified ... who, throughout all his epistle, makes mention of you in

This epistle of Ignatius was written in the tenth year of Trajan according

to Bishop Pearson, and if so, there are only forty-five years between the

writing of Paul and that of Ignatius.

When we read in Ephesians 6:21,22 that the apostle intended sending

Tychicus to make known all things to them concerning himself, one wonders to

whom Tychicus would have gone, had the letter been unaddressed.

The truth of the matter seems to be that the epistle was originally

addressed to Ephesus, but that copies of it were circulated among the churches,

and that in some few of these copies a space had been left so that the name

might be filled in.  The matter is of no importance from one point of view, but

of great importance if the omission of the words `at Ephesus' leads to the

fantastic interpretation `the saints which are'.

The R.V. reading `Christ Jesus' calls for comment, for every title of the

Lord is used with discrimination in the inspired Word.  As this title will

recur, and as it is important that we should appreciate its relation to the

truth of the Mystery, we will now give a concordance to the title as found in

the R.V.

Paul has been declared `an apostle', but obviously no one can be an

apostle, `a sent one', without a `Sender', and so we come to the Lord Who sent

him.  The A.V. reads `Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ', the R.V. reads `Paul,

an apostle of Christ Jesus'.

The question of the order of words in a title is important, especially so

when that title is the Lord's.  Let us examine the R.V. and see what light it

throws upon the question.  The first occurrence of the title is found in Acts

3:20, and Alford's translation there is suggestive, `Him Who was predestined