καὶ�. Cf. Colossians 1:22 ἀποκατήλλαξεν ἐν τῷ σώματι τῆς σαρκὸς αὐτοῦ διὰ τοῦ θανάτου. The difference between these passages should be noticed as well as the resemblance. In Col. the reference is to a single act of reconciliation wrought by our Lord when He died in His earthly body. In Ephes. the reference is to the application of the power of that act in bringing Jew and Gentile now united in one body, Christ’s mystical body, into a state of reconciliation with God. The reconciliation of man to man is a condition precedent to reconciliation to God. Cf. Matthew 5:24; Matthew 18:35.

ἀποκτείνας τὴν ἔχθραν ἐν αὐτῷ. St Paul now comes back to the point from which he had digressed. ἐν αὐτῷ sc. τῷ στ. as in Colossians 2:15.

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Old Testament