Ephesians 2:14 - Exposition

For he is our peace. Explanatory of the preceding verse—of the way by which we are brought nigh. Christ is not only our Peacemaker, but our Peace, and that in the fullest sense, the very substance and living spring of it, establishing it at the beginning, keeping it up to the end; and the complex notion of peace is here not only peace between Jew and Gentile, but between God and both. Consult Old Testament predictions of peace in connection with Messiah ( Isaiah 9:5 , Isaiah 9:6 ; Micah 5:5 ; Zechariah 9:10 , etc.). Who made both one ; literally, both things , both elements ; so that there is now no ground for separating between a Jewish element and a Gentile; they are unified. And broke down the middle wall of the partition. The general idea is obvious; the particular allusion is less easily seen. Some think it is to the veil that separated the holy of holies from the holy place ( Hebrews 10:20 ); but that could hardly be called a wall . Others the wall that separated the court of the Jew from that of the Gentiles; but that wall was literally standing when the apostle wrote, and besides, the Ephesians could not be supposed to be so familiar with it as to make it a suitable illustration for them. In the absence of any specific allusion, it is best to understand the words generally, "broke down that which served as a middle wall of partition"—what is mentioned immediately in the following verse.