Free Study Guide IncludedEphesians: A Friends Illuminated Commentary
The whole armor of God, the mystery of Christ, and the church as one body in whom all distinction dissolves. Penn drew deeply on Ephesians for his vision of holy community and the spiritual warfare that shapes it.
- 6 chapters · ~30,000 words
- EPUB + Study Guide
About This Edition
Ephesians gave early Quakers their language of spiritual warfare and their vision of the church as a unified body in which national, social, and gender distinctions are dissolved in Christ. The passage on putting on the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6:10–18) was read not as metaphor but as a description of the actual experience of the Friends who went to prison for their faith — the truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and the word of God were the only armor they carried, and they believed it was sufficient. William Penn’s writings on holy community drew repeatedly on Ephesians’ vision of the church as the fullness of Christ, the household of God, and the place where the mystery hidden from ages is made known.
The commentary traces the Quaker engagement with Ephesians chapter by chapter: the great doxology of chapter 1 with its vision of a cosmic plan centered in Christ, the remarkable claim of chapter 2 that Jew and Gentile have been made one new humanity through the cross, the prayer for power to comprehend the love that surpasses knowledge, and the ethical instructions of chapters 4–6. Friends found in Ephesians both a description of what the gathered meeting was meant to be and an account of why it required courage to build it. The free Group Study Guide accompanies this commentary.