Ephesians 2:19-20 is a passage that is often said to prove that God no longer gives the gift of prophecy.
In this passage, the apostle Paul, speaking to Gentile Christians, states:
In this passage, the apostle Paul, speaking to Gentile Christians, states:
“19 So then, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with the Messiah Jesus Himself as the cornerstone.”
The argument
Christians who claim that God
no longer gives the gift of prophecy frequently argue in the following way
about this passage:
Paul uses the metaphor of a
foundation to describe the apostles and prophets of the church, and he implies
that the rest of the church is built on this foundation. A foundation is the
first part of a building to be built. Therefore, the fact that Paul uses this
picture to describe the apostles and prophets shows that they had a role only
in the early stages of the church. This must mean that God no longer gives the
gift of prophecy.
Not the only possible interpretation
This is not a forced or unnatural
way of taking Paul’s words. Nevertheless, it isn’t the only way they can be interpreted,
as I will argue below.
Preliminary points
Before I give an
alternative interpretation, I want to make some preliminary points about this passage.
I won’t try to defend them, because in all of them I agree with at least the
majority of those who say that God no longer gives the gift of prophecy.
(1) We should understand
the foundation in this passage to consist of the apostles and prophets (and
Jesus). It is not something that is laid by
the apostles and prophets.
(2) Although Paul doesn’t refer
to the church explicitly in these verses, that is what he is talking about. And
he is saying that the apostles and prophets (and Jesus) form a foundation, on
which the rest of the church is built.
(3) The apostles and
prophets here are two separate groups, as in Ephesians 4:11 and 1 Corinthians
12:29. The text is not referring to a single group of Christians, each of whom
is both an apostle and a prophet.
That is not to say that no
Christians fell into both categories. But basically, Paul is referring here to
two groups of Christians.
(4) The prophets in view
are Christian prophets, not Old Testament prophets.
(5) The foundation is
apostles and prophets who ministered in the early decades of the church. The
idea is not that apostles and prophets who minister throughout the church age
are a foundation.
(6) Although in the Greek text
there is a definite article before “apostles” but not before “prophets,” “prophets”
should be regarded as a definite noun. The text could just as easily have been
written, “the apostles and the prophets.”
(7) From other passages of
Scripture, I accept that there have been no apostles, in the full sense of the
word, since the original apostles. I also believe that Ephesians 2:20 is referring only to apostles in
the full sense, not to any lesser sort of apostles (whether or not lesser
apostles have ever existed). I therefore believe that this verse has in view
all the apostles, in the full sense, that there have ever been and that they
all lived in the first decades of the church age.
(8) As a related point, I accept
that Ephesians 4:11-13 doesn’t prove that apostles and prophets exist
throughout the church age.
These are the preliminary
points, and in all of them I agree with at least the majority of those who say
that the gift of prophecy has ceased.
The alternative interpretation
Let’s turn now to the
alternative interpretation.
I believe that this is the
scenario underlying this passage:
Apostles, in the full sense
of the word, had a role only in the early stages of the church. Prophets exist
throughout the church age (although much more commonly at some times than at
others). But crucially, the most important prophecies were all given in the
first decades of the church age, meaning that all the most important prophets
lived at that time.
It is entirely plausible
that this scenario could be described by saying that the church is built “on
the foundation of the apostles and prophets,” as we find in Ephesians 2:20.
Let me now defend this
interpretation in a bit more depth.
Biblical metaphors often correspond loosely to
reality
To begin with, there is the
nature of biblical metaphors to consider.
Those who say that this
passage proves that the gift of prophecy has ceased typically take the
foundation metaphor in v. 20 in a very precise way. They look at the picture
Paul is giving and seem to assume that it must correspond to reality very
precisely.
When we look at how the
Bible uses metaphors, however, we often find that they don’t correspond precisely to reality.
A good example of this can be seen in
Matthew 20:28. Here Jesus says:
“. . . the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
In this verse, Jesus’ death is
metaphorically described as a ransom for people.
This is an excellent metaphor for
illustrating what His death accomplished. Nevertheless, this metaphorical
ransom doesn’t correspond to a literal ransom in every respect. A literal
ransom has to be paid to someone. Yet if we ask to whom Jesus’ metaphorical
ransom was paid, we are demanding too much of the metaphor. There is no one to
whom Jesus’ ransom was paid.
This metaphor of ransom, then,
corresponds quite loosely to reality. It is a mistake to interpret it too
precisely.
Another good example can be found in Hebrews
12:1. Here the author encourages his readers with these words:
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a large cloud of witnesses, let us get rid of every weight and the sin that so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that lies before us . . .”
In this verse, the Christian life is
described using the metaphor of a long distance running race.
Again, this is a great metaphor, but we
mustn’t demand too much from it. In a literal race we run against competitors.
However, in the metaphorical race being described in this verse there are no
competitors we run against.
This is another metaphor, then, that
corresponds quite loosely to the reality it is describing. And many more
similar examples could be given from Scripture.
In view of how biblical metaphors often
correspond imprecisely to reality, it is a mistake to simply assume that the metaphor
of apostles and prophets as a foundation must be interpreted very technically
and precisely. And once we allow that Paul could have used this metaphor
loosely, it is easy to fit what he says with prophetic ministry continuing
throughout the church age at a lower level than in the first few decades.
The Bible often makes simplifications
Something else we need to
take account of is how the Bible often simplifies things. This actually
overlaps with the point about loose use of metaphors.
A good example of simplification
can be seen in 1 Kings 9:4. In this verse, the LORD says the following to
Solomon:
“As for you, if you will walk before Me as your father David walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness . . .”
God says here that David
walked with integrity of heart and uprightness.
We know, however, that
David was in fact guilty of no less sins than murder and adultery (2 Samuel
11:1-27). And we know too that as a sinful human being he must have sinned in a
multitude of other ways too.
In saying that David walked
before Him with integrity and uprightness, then, God is making a big simplification.
Another example of a verse
that simplifies matters is Matthew 5:42. Here Jesus teaches:
“Give to the person who asks you, and do not turn away from the person who wants to borrow from you.”
Actually, there are many
situations when we shouldn’t give to a
person who asks us for something or wants to borrow from us. For example, if
someone asks us for money to buy illegal drugs, we should certainly not oblige.
It would be a big mistake
to take what Jesus says in this verse precisely. Instead, His words give a
general principle that allows for numerous exceptions. Jesus is simplifying
things greatly.
The Bible also contains
many other similar simplifications.
Given that Scripture often
simplifies things, it is wrong to just assume that Paul is not making a
simplification in Ephesians 2:19-20. When he says that
“the apostles and prophets” are a foundation of the church, we should be open
to the possibility that he could be simplifying things somewhat. There could
potentially be other, less important prophets, who are not actually part of the
foundation.
Paul’s emphasis is on the existence rather than
timing of the apostolic and prophetic ministries
Those who say that this
passage proves that God no longer gives the gift of prophecy place a lot of
weight on the temporal aspect of Paul’s metaphor. They claim that the fact that
the apostles and prophets are a foundation, together with the fact that the
foundation in a literal building is the first part to be built, shows that the
apostles and prophets existed only in the first part of the church age.
However, the metaphor
itself encourages us not to emphasize its temporal aspect:
The Greek word underlying
“built” in the above translation is epoikodomethentes, which is a past tense
participle. The fact that it is a past tense means that some of the
non-apostolic and non-prophetic part of the church had already been built on
the foundation at the time Ephesians was written.
Yet it is Paul, an apostle,
who is writing this. So the apostolic ministry is envisaged as ongoing at the
time of writing.
Therefore, it doesn’t make
sense to say that the foundation refers to something that is temporally
completely before the part that stands on the foundation. Otherwise, how could
Paul’s apostolic ministry still be ongoing when there is already a structure
standing on the apostolic (and prophetic) foundation?
This shows that temporal
factors are not at the heart of what this metaphor is being used to express.
Rather, the metaphor places more emphasis on the existence of apostolic and prophetic ministries than on the time of operation of these ministries.
That is where the stress lies.
Paul’s focus is on the early stages of the
church and not a later time
Not only does Paul place
more emphasis on the existence of apostolic and prophetic ministries than on
their time of operation, but, even as regards timing, his focus is on the early
stages of the church rather than on a later time.
By using the metaphor of a
foundation, he is telling his readers that apostles and prophets had key roles
in the early stages of the church. However, he is not attempting to comment on
the roles, or lack of roles, of apostles and prophets after the early stages. That
is not his concern.
Therefore, since Paul’s
focus is on the early decades of the church, it would be unwise to use his
words to draw any firm conclusions about the place of prophecy after the first
decades.
This clause is very brief
Finally, it is important to
note how few words Paul uses to form his metaphor of a foundation.
Paul really says very
little here, and it would be a mistake to draw confident conclusions from these
few words.
Summing up
In the above discussion, I
have noted several things.
First, the way that the
Bible often uses metaphors loosely makes it easy to think that the metaphor in
Ephesians 2:19-20 could be a loose one that allows for the gift of prophecy to
continue throughout the church age in a less important way than in the first
few decades.
Second, the way that
Scripture often simplifies things suggests that “the apostles and prophets” could
easily be a simplification meaning the apostles and most important prophets.
Third, the emphasis in the
metaphor is more on the existence of apostolic and prophetic ministries than on
their time of operation, so it is unwise to use the metaphor to draw firm
conclusions about timing.
Fourth, because Paul’s
focus is on the first decades of the church, it is unwise to use his words to draw
confident conclusions about the place of prophecy after that time.
Fifth, the fact that Paul
says so little also makes it unwise to draw firm conclusions.
Given all these points,
Ephesians 2:19-20 can easily be interpreted to fit with a scenario in which God
still gives the gift of prophecy today. If all the most important prophets
lived in the first century, yet God continues to give this gift in our day,
there is nothing in these verses that would conflict with this understanding of
things.
At the very least, this passage
falls far short of proving that God no longer gives the gift of prophecy today.
See also my longer article:
And see also:
