Sunday, April 30, 2023

Constantine R. Campbell on Ephesians 2:14, 15

On Eph 2:14:

 

The dividing wall of the temple torn down in Christ’s flesh points to a theme that will grow toward the end of the chapter, namely the construction of a new temple. When Christ was crucified, the gospels record that the curtain of the temple was torn top to bottom (Matt 27:51; Mark 15:38), symbolizing that his death had unblocked access to the holy of holies. Jesus also referred to his body as the temple that he would rebuild in three days (John 2:19-21). Paul will go on in this passage to show that a new temple now exists with Christ as the cornerstone, and with Jews and gentiles built into it together as a dwelling place for God (2:19:22). The physical temple in Jerusalem is no longer the exclusive place in which God’s presence is accessed, with its attendant restrictions for gentile worship. Now in Christ, Jew and gentile may worship freely with God’s presence mediated by the Spirit, free from the restrictions of a physical location that discriminated against non-Jews. Thus, the Jerusalem temple’s dividing wall is now rendered against non-Jews. Thus, the Jerusalem temple’s dividing wall is now rendered irrelevant and ineffectual; there is nothing to hinder Jewish and gentile worship of the same God together. (Constantine R. Campbell, The Letter to the Ephesians [The Pillar New Testament Commentary; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2023], 114)

 

On Eph 2:15:


2:15 The next way in which “Christ is our peace” (2:14) is by having nullified the law with its commands and regulations. This law, which is described literally as “the law of commandments in regulations,” no doubt refers to the law of Moses, with its 613 commandments (cf. Rom 10:4; Gal 3:23-26). Christ has nullified this law “so that he might create in himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace.” Thus it is implied that the law stood as a barrier between Jew and gentile, reinforcing the distinctions between them. . . . the law, and the old covenant to which it belonged, has been nullified since—through his death—Christ sealed a new covenant about which Paul cites Jesus’s own words, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood” (1 Cor 11:25; cf. Luke 22:20). (Constantine R. Campbell, The Letter to the Ephesians [The Pillar New Testament Commentary; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2023], 114-15)