Subversive speech acts? An evaluation of an imperial-critical reading of Ephesians

While recent publications have examined how NT texts engage with early Roman imperial ideology, no full-scale exploration of Ephesians has been constructed to date. This project provides an original contribution in the field of study by utilizing an eclectic hermeneutic in order to evaluate the plausibility of an imperial-critical reading of Ephesians. Current literature related to imperial-critical readings of Ephesians are surveyed, demonstrating that there are significant gaps in the scholarly literature. This study then employs an eclectic hermeneutic: drawing on speech-act theory, implied/empirical distinctions, and a narrative hermeneutic to construct and evaluate an anti-imperial reading of Ephesians. In doing so, the empirical life-setting of Ephesians is re-examined. Previously underexplored elements of the Roman context of Ephesians, with a focus on maiestas [treason] charges, imperial cults, and Roman imperial eschatology, are examined in light of the two major theories of the date of the epistle. New proposals for the epistle’s implied elements are then explored in light of the possibilities offered for the Roman imperial empirical life-setting. A bi-focal exploration of the implied and empirical life-settings of Ephesians provides the foundations for constructing an imperial-critical reading of Ephesians. Since no full-scale anti-imperial reading of Ephesians exists to date, this study first provisionally constructs one within the two major sections of Ephesians (1-3; 4-6) in order to evaluate its plausibility. An eclectic hermeneutic is then employed to evaluate whether speech acts within Ephesians were intended to carry anti-imperial overtones. This study concludes that, while there are prospects and limitations with an imperial-critical reading of the epistle, some of the epistle’s speech acts can be understood to have subverted Roman imperial ideology on a narrative level.