05_Biblica_1_A_Ferda_Layout 1 30/01/13 13:17 Pagina 565 05_B “SEALED” WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT (EPH 1,13-14) AND CIRCUMCISION 565 I propose that the similarity here with other “missionary reports” in Acts and the uncontested Pauline letters suggests that the partici- ples are either temporally or logically prior to the sealing 32. (i) Acts provides no diagnostic model for “conversion”, but there is a con- sistent progression from hearing the gospel, which causes conviction and repentance, to baptism and/or reception of the Holy Spirit (2,37; 8,26-38; 19,1-7; cf. Rom 10,14-17; Mark 16,16). (ii) In Galatians 3, Paul asks his readers if they received the Spirit evx e;rgwn no,mou or evx avkoh/j pi,stewj (3,2.5). In this important parallel, which has the cognates of avkou,ein and pisteu,ein in participial form in Eph 1,13, Paul forges a tight connection between evx avkoh/j pi,stewj and receiv- ing the Spirit, but the evx avkoh/j pi,stewj is logically prior as the basis of the reception of the Spirit. (iii) In another epistle, Paul reminds the Thessalonians that the gospel message did not come “in word only” but “also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full con- viction” (1,5). The claim is thus that the “hearing” of the word and the experience of the Holy Spirit (see also 2,13) are not the same. In sum, then, since such “missionary reports” never indicate that hearing and believing are synonymous with reception of the Spirit, but instead suggest a progression that concludes with reception of the Spirit, it is probable that the “missionary report” of Eph 1,13-14 conveys a similar idea 33. It will be important in the discussion below that the Holy Spirit is understood to be the decisive factor in “con- version-initiation”. Exegetical Key to the Greek New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI 1998) 435. On the similarity with “missionary reports”, see H. SCHLIER, Der Brief 32 an die Epheser, 69-70; MACDONALD, Colossians and Ephesians, 204. The grammatical argument here is contra LINCOLN, Ephesians, 39; J.D.G DUNN, Baptism in the Holy Spirit, 159; BEST, Commentary on Ephesians, 149. Many exegetes ancient and modern even understood the participles 33 themselves as consecutive: e.g., hearing, then believing, then being sealed. Origen and Jerome, for example, claim that only those who hear and believe are sealed with the Spirit. See HEINE, The Commentaries of Origen and Jerome on St Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians, 102. Theodoret of Cyrus, Comm. Eph. 509 in Theodoret of Cyrus: Commentary on the Letters of St. Paul (trans. R.C. HILL) (Brookline, MA 2001) II, 35, assumes a similar logic, “You not only heard but also believed; hence you attained the grace of the all-holy Spirit” (my italics). Cf. J. EADIE, A Commentary on the Greek Text of the Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians (New York, NY 21861) 66; J.A. BENGEL, Gnomon of the New Testament (Edinburgh, 1866) IV, 69; EWALD, Die Briefe des Paulus an die Epheser, Kolosser und Philemon, 87; SCHLIER, © Gregorian Biblical Press 2012 - Tutti i diritti riservati