490 Introduction

thought that Ephesians was genuine and Colossians the copy. If one Epistle is copied from the other, suspicion is aroused only against the copy; and since, if this is the relation, Colossians is more likely than Ephesians to be the original, we should find in this fact a proof of the genuineness of the former. For if a later writer wrote a letter purporting to come from Paul, and used in it a letter that bore Paul’s name, there is a strong presumption that the latter would be of well-attested genuineness. But the problem is hardly so simple. Holtzmann, in a work described by Godet “as a masterpiece of exactness, patient labour and wisdom,” reached the conclusion that the Epistles exhibit the phenomenon of mutual indebtedness. Sometimes Ephesians seems to be the original, sometimes Colossians. Accordingly he formulated the theory that Paul wrote an Epistle to the Colossians, on the basis of which a later writer composed Ephesians. He then returned to the original Epistle and expanded it by free extracts from his own writing, adding also a polemic against Gnosticism. This theory was examined by Von Soden, who tested very carefully Holtzmann’s reconstruction of the original Epistle. He also pointed out that it was justifiable to eliminate only such passages as Paul could not have written. He rejected only i. 15-20, ii. 10, 15, 18%. This was in 1885. A more exhaustive study of Paulinism has led him to accept the authenticity of the Epistle as a whole in his commentary (1891). Holtzmann’s theory is examined by Dr. Sanday and Dr. Robertson in the articles “Colossians” and “ Ephesians” in Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible (2nd ed.), and to these discussions the reader may refer for fuller details. J. Weiss in a review of Abbott’s commentary has recently expressed himself in favour of a solution, not precisely in Holtz- mann’s form, but on his lines (Theol. Literaturseitung, 29th Sept., 1900). It may be said here that it is hard to understand why a writer should give himself so much trouble. His purpose would have been served by one Epistle, a still larger “ Ephesians,” in which what he inserted in Colossians should have found its home. Very few have accepted the theory im its entirety. Yet if Holtzmann’s observations are correct, only two theories seem to be tenable, one the theory he has himself proposed, the other that both Epistles are genuine. His own theory is far too complicated to be probable. The similarities occur often in different contexts, and express quite different ideas, yet each is natural in its place. This is difficult to account for in an imitator, who would be fettered by the document which he was using; but in a writer such as Paul, rich in ideas but unused to formal composition, such resemblance and yet such