Strengthened in Spirit and grounded in love

A literary-pragmatic analysis of Eph 3:14-21

Abstract

The letter to the Ephesians has two prayer accounts by the author: 1:15-23 and 3:14-21. In this latter, he perceives in his readers a need to understand more deeply the love of Christ. Thus, he prays to the Father on their behalf, showing a full conviction that he will be answered, by ending his prayer with a doxology. While his prayer is basically a request for inner strengthening and understanding of Christ's love (vv. 16-19), the doxology (vv. 20-21) is an attribution of praise, which stresses God's power to do far beyond what is asked or thought. Both the prayer and the doxology are connected through an implicit Trinitarian and ecclesiological emphasis, observed in the speech with which the speaker addresses God. This article proposes a study according to a synchronic approach, focusing on the communicative aspect and identifying through a literary-pragmatic analysis the linguistic cohesion and semantic coherence of Eph 3:14-21.