ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

Ephesians 2.14-15

Book: Ephesians · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV

12. that ye were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13. But now in Christ Jesus ye that once were far off are made nigh in the blood of Christ.

14. For he is our peace, who made both one, and brake down the middle wall of partition, 15. having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; that he might create in himself of the two one new man, so making peace;

  1. and might reconcile them both in one body unto God through the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: 17. and he came and preached peace to you that were far off, and peace to them that were nigh: (Ephesians 2:12-17, ASV)
WEB

12. that you were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ.

14. For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of partition, 15. having abolished in his flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man of the two, making peace;

  1. and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the hostility thereby. 17. He came and preached peace to you who were far off and to those who were near. (Ephesians 2:12-17, WEB)
KJV

12. That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: 13. But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

14. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; 15. Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;

  1. And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: thereby: or, in himself 17. And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. (Ephesians 2:12-17, KJV)
YLT

12. that ye were at that time apart from Christ, having been alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, having no hope, and without God, in the world; 13. and now, in Christ Jesus, ye being once afar off became nigh in the blood of the Christ,

14. for he is our peace, who did make both one, and the middle wall of the enclosure did break down, 15. the enmity in his flesh, the law of the commands in ordinances having done away, that the two he might create in himself into one new man, making peace,

  1. and might reconcile both in one body to God through the cross, having slain the enmity in it, 17. and having come, he did proclaim good news, peace to you, the far-off and the nigh, (Ephesians 2:12-17, YLT)

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Setting

  • Speaker: Paul the Apostle.
  • Audience: Believers at Ephesus. Several of the earliest witnesses, including P46 and the original hands of Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus, lack the words "in Ephesus" at 1:1, which has long suggested the letter circulated among the churches of the Roman province of Asia rather than addressing one congregation alone.
  • Location: Written from imprisonment. Paul calls himself "the prisoner of Christ Jesus" (Eph 3:1, 4:1) and "an ambassador in chains" (Eph 6:20); the traditional identification is the Roman custody of Acts 28.
  • Time period: c. AD 60-62 on the traditional Roman-imprisonment dating.

Theological reading

Paul's claim is not that Christ made peace but that He is it. The Greek is emphatic, autos gar estin hē eirēnē hēmōn, "for He Himself is our peace," putting a person rather than a treaty in the predicate. Whatever reconciliation the passage describes is therefore not a policy God adopted but a person God gave.

The dividing wall. To mesotoichon tou phragmou, "the middle wall of the partition," is a doubled construction with no exact English equivalent. Many readers hear an allusion to the soreg, the low barrier in the Herodian temple beyond which no Gentile could pass on pain of death, an arrangement Josephus describes and whose warning inscription has been recovered. Paul is writing while that barrier still stood, which makes the claim that it has been broken down a striking one to put in a circular letter read in Asian cities.

What exactly was abolished. The aorist participles carry the action. Lusas, having broken down, governs the wall; katargēsas, having rendered inoperative, governs tēn echthran, the enmity, which is then specified as ton nomon tōn entolōn en dogmasin, "the law of commandments in decrees." The object of the abolishing is the enmity as expressed in a body of ordinance that marked Jew off from Gentile. It is not the moral character of God, which Paul spends chapters 4 to 6 pressing on these same readers as binding.

One new man. Hena kainon anthrōpon uses kainos, new in kind, rather than neos, new in time. The result is a third thing. Gentiles are not absorbed into ethnic Israel, and Israel is not dissolved into the nations; both are made into something that did not previously exist. The clause hina tous duo ktisē en hautō, "that He might create the two in Himself," uses the verb of creation, not of merger.

Where the passage does work. Two live disputes turn on it, in opposite directions. Against the claim that Gentile believers must take on Torah observance to be fully included, the text says the ordinance-barrier is the very thing removed. Against a crude supersessionism, the text says the outcome is a new creation containing both, not a replacement of one by the other. Anyone using the verse for either purpose has to reckon with the fact that it forecloses both.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word.

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Notes

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Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

  • ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
  • WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
  • KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
  • YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.