This chapter forms an introduction to the letter to the Ephesians. Introductory matters addressed are its authorship, the literary character of the letter, the recipients, the date and setting of Ephesians in Paul’s career, the circumstances that prompted Ephesians, and its structure.
Thielman is convinced that if one is to understand how justification functions in Paul's writings, one needs to understand how the righteousness language functions in Romans 1:17. He argues in this article that part of the reason for the volatile interpretive history of this verse is that the phrase is polyvalent. He further argues that the "righteousness of God” has three meanings in Romans 1:17.
