Charles Ellicott Commentary Ephesians 2:14

"For he is our peace, who made both one, and brake down the middle wall of partition," — Ephesians 2:14 (ASV)

He (Himself) is our peace. This clearly alludes not only to the many promises in the Old Testament of the “Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:5–6 and other passages), but also even more to the “Peace of Earth” of the angelic song of Bethlehem, and to the repeated declarations of our Lord, such as, “Peace I leave with you: My peace I give unto you.”

Here, however, our Lord is called not merely the giver of peace, but peace itself—His own nature forming the actual bond of unity between God and humankind, and between people. A double meaning runs through the whole passage thus introduced: a declaration of peace in Christ between Jew and Gentile, and between both groups and God. However, it is not always easy to determine for any particular expression whether it belongs to one or the other aspect of this meaning, or to both. It is well to compare this with the obvious parallel in Colossians 2:13-14, where (in accordance with the whole characteristic spirit of that Epistle) only the latter aspect of the meaning is found—the union of all with the Head, not the unity of the various members of the Body.

Who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us. In this verse, the former subject begins. The reunion of Jew and Gentile is described in close connection with the breaking down of “the middle wall of the partition” (or, hedge). The words “between us” are not in the original Greek, and Chrysostom interprets the partition as being not between Jew and Gentile, but between both and God.

But the former idea seems, in any case, to predominate in this clause.

Whether “the middle wall of the hedge” refers to the wall separating the court of the Gentiles from the Temple proper (Josephus, Antiquities, Book 15, § 5), which bore an inscription warning that any foreigner who passed it would be put to death (see Lewin’s St. Paul, vol. II, p. 133), or whether it refers to the “hedge” set about the vineyard of the Lord (Isaiah 5:2)—to which the Jewish teachers of the Law probably alluded when they called their ceremonial and legal subtleties “the hedge” of the Law—has been disputed.

It may, however, be noted that the charge of bringing Trophimus, an Ephesian, beyond that Temple wall was the cause of St. Paul’s arrest in Jerusalem (Acts 21:29), and nearly of his death. Hence, the Asiatic churches might well have been familiar with its existence.

It is also notable that this Temple partition perfectly suits the double meaning of this passage. For, while it was primarily a separation between Jew and Gentile, it was also the first of many partitions—of which the “veil of the Temple” was the last—that cut all people off from the immediate presence of God. At our Lord’s death, the last of these partitions was rent in twain; how much more, then, may His death be described as breaking down the first!

On verses 14-18:

Ephesians 2:14–18 moves on from describing the call of the Gentiles to personal union with God in Christ, to focus on the perfect unity and equality of Jew and Gentile with each other in Him, and the access of both to the Father.