Ephesians itself can be seen as a skilful and creative appropriation of earlier tradition for its own time and setting. It is an interpretation of Colossians and of the Pauline gospel for a new situation. As such, it offers help to the contemporary interpreter in at least two ways. It already offers some important clues about how the Pauline gospel can be recontextualized in a setting removed from some of the original issues which shaped it and thereby be made more universal in its scope. It also encourages the contemporary interpreter to continue the inevitable hermeneutical process, to take its appropriation of the Pauline tradition and engage in his or her own critical appropriation of the appropriation.

What is involved in critical appropriation of a text? On the one hand, there must be a willingness to accept the invitation of the text to participate in the symbolic world it projects, to be caught up in its vision of Christian existence. On the other hand, for a critical appropriation to take place, there will also be the sort of distancing that has first allowed the text to retain its own identity and otherness and that then allows those who have been caught up in its world to retain their own identity, as they address questions to the text from their own time and place and assess its truth claims from the perspective of the Christian consciousness of contemporary communities of faith.