ephemerum

[Mod. Lat., from Gr. ephem eros lasting but a day.] Bot .: The typical genus of the tribe Ephemeree (q. v.). E-phe-sian (sian as zhyun), s. & a. [Lat., ., Ephesus; Gr. Ephesos ; i connective, and Eng., ., adj. suff. -an.] A. As adj .: Pertaining to Ephesus, a celebrated city in cla ic times, one of those belonging to the Ionic Confederation. It is now in ruins. B. As substantive: 1. Geog .: A native of Ephesus. 2. ( Pl .) Scrip . Canon : St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians (q. v.). St. Paul 8 Epistle to the Ephesians: Scrip . Canon: One of the books of the New Testament. It seems to have been sent forth by St. Paul about A. D. 62, while he was a prisoner at Rome. (Acts xxviii. 30-31; Eph. iii. 1, iv. 1.) He sent it to its destination by the hand of Tychicus (Eph. vi. 21). The Church at Ephesus had been founded by Paul himself, or at least he had raised it from the feeblene in point of numbers and knowledge in which it had been when he commenced his mi ionary work in that city. For two years he preached Christ, not merely to the permanent residents in Ephesus, but to the multitudes who resorted thither as pilgrims to visit the celebrated Temple of Diana, then one of the wonders of the world (Acts xix. 10). When driven from the city, owing to a riot raised by one whose craft would have been in danger had idolatry fallen, he retained a deep interest in his converts; and, dispatching Tychicus to inquire after their welfare (Eph. vi. 21), gave him the canonical Epistle to the Ephesians, for the Church just named, with another to the Church at Colo e (Col. iv. 7). Between these two there is great similarity, and that to the Colo i ans seems to have been written first. In consequence of the similarity, De Wette, rejecting the testimony of antiquity, considered the epistle to the Ephesians a mere imitation of that to the Colo i ans, allow ing it, however, to be a production of the first century; while Ferdinand Baur rejected both, believing at least the Epistle to the Colo i ans to show traces of Gnosticism and Montanism. It is evident from the Epistle to the Ephesians that the converts at Ephesus were mainly Gentiles (Eph. ii. 11, iii. 1), and prominent in the didactic part of the letter is the doctrine that Christ has broken down the middle wall of partition which severs Jew and Gentile, putting both on the same level of privilege within his Church (Eph. ii. 11-22, iii. 1-6). The Epistle concludes with a series of practical exhortations. which it occurs.]