05_Biblica_1_A_Ferda_Layout 1 30/01/13 13:17 Pagina 578 578 TUCKER S. FERDA wir sein Eigenthum würden” (“to our redemption, that we should be his possession”), and many agree 68. There are good parallels in the Septuagint and other literature for this usage (Mal 3,17 LXX; 1 Thess 5,9; 1 Pet 2,9), and the notion that God here acquires a peo- ple for God’s name befits the theocentric character of the berakah better than the alternative that the Spirit-sealed people acquire a re- ward termed “the possession” 69. The logic of v. 14 therefore is sim- ilar to Paul’s inference in Romans 8 that the “children of God” are also “heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ” (8,16-17) but here stated inversely: those who have received an earnest of the inheri- tance are certainly guaranteed redemption as God’s chosen. Fifthly, sociologists of religion have shown that religious groups often understand new situations and even model new rites and rituals on older prototypes or cultural assumptions 70. The relevance for Eph 1,13-14 is obvious: what better way to signal the “conversion-initi- ation” of Gentiles into the movement begun and sustained by Jews than the rite of circumcision which some Jews themselves used to signal the inclusion of Gentile proselytes into the fold? So too, as circumcision was a statement about the identity of the community of Israel — e.g., that they are marked out as descendants of Abraham and members of an ancient covenant — so does Spirit-sealing make the statement that the ekklesia of Jews and Gentiles is a community that lives “in the fullness of times” (v. 10) and experiences the out- pouring of God’s Spirit (e.g. Ezek 36,26-27; Joel 2,28-29). Cf. J. EADIE, A Commentary on the Greek Text of the Epistle of Paul to the 68 Ephesians (New York, NY 21861) 70. Others who would agree with Luther in- clude CALVIN, Commentaries on the Epistles of Paul to the Galatians and Eph- esians, 210, who says the possession obtained “is not the kingdom of heaven, or a blessed immortality, but the Church itself”. Cf. BENGEL, Gnomon of the New Testament, IV, 69; WESTCOTT, Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians, 17-18; THIELMAN, Ephesians, 83. This point is made by P. PERKINS, Ephesians (ANTC; Nashville, TN 1997) 69 44. Though it should be said that if “the possession” is epexegetical and thus corresponds to “the inheritance” in the preceding phrase, the overall argument in this article would stand. Circumcision and Spirit-sealing marked out God’s people as God’s possession and also guaranteed God’s people the inheritance or “possession”. Cf. SCHNACKENBURG, Der Brief an die Epheser, 66. Cf. e.g. C.M. BELL, Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice (Oxford – New York, 70 NY 1992); B.C. ALEXANDER, “Ritual and Current Studies on Ritual. Overview”, Anthropology of Religion (ed. S.D. GLAZIER) (Westport, CT – London 1997) 139-160. © Gregorian Biblical Press 2012 - Tutti i diritti riservati