Who is the Author?

The authorship of Ephesians became a contentious matter among scholars in the eighteenth century, when Pauline authorship was challenged by F. C. Baur.1 Some scholars suggest that one must determine which type of authorship (authorship in honor of a person, a group of disciples, and so forth) was being employed when someone identified the author of a letter in antiquity. This leads some scholars to suggest that Paul didn’t write this letter, but rather a group of Pauline disciples.2 Other scholars cast doubt on Pauline authorship because of the rhetoric the author employs. But conservative scholars affirm that the author of this letter was Paul.3