Many scholars suggest that this letter was designed as a “circular letter” to be sent out to many churches around Asia Minor. This theory has a lot of merit to it for two reasons. First, Paul doesn’t begin his letter with greetings to any church leaders that he knows. (This is fairly common for his other writings.) Second, the letter sounds much more general. In many of Paul’s other writings, he addresses specific people and problems. Paul was a pastor in Ephesus for several years. Yet, he writes as if he doesn’t fully know the recipients of the letter (Eph. 1:15). Therefore, it is likely that Ephesians was written originally not directly to the city of Ephesus, but rather to the general area under Ephesian influence aka Asia Minor.

Paul was the pastor of the church in Ephesus for several years (Acts 19:9-10). During that time, “all of Asia heard the gospel” (Acts 19:10). So many people were converting to Christianity that the local idol economy suffered, resulting in local silver workers causing a riot meant to persecute the Christians in Ephesus. Along with persecution, the church in Asia Minor was surrounded by many different spiritual beliefs about spirits, demons, magic and special ceremonies. With this in mind, Asia Minor needed some encouragement in the basics of the Gospel and community life in the face of trials and false religions.

• Bible Project
• Beale, G. K., & Gladd, B. L. (2020). The Story Retold: A Biblical-Theological Introduction to the New Testament. InterVarsity Press.
• Klein, W. W. (2006). Ephesians. In Expositor’s Bible Commentary (pp. 19-176). Zondervan Academic.
• Snodgrass, K. (1996). Ephesians. Zondervan.