Ephesians 2:14

he is our peace "He:" the glorious living Person gives its essence to the sacrificial Work.

" Our peace:" i.e., as the connexion indicates, the "peace" between the Tribes of the New Israel, the Gentile and Jewish believers; such peace that now, within the covenant, "there is neither Jew nor Greek" (Galatians 3:28; Colossians 3:11). The special aspect of this truth here is the admission of the non-Jewish believer to the inmost fulness of spiritual privilege; but this is so stated as to imply the tender companion truth that he comes in not as a conquering intruder but as a brother, side by side with the Jewish believer, in equal and harmonious peace with God.

who hath made both one Lit., Who made both things one thing. "Both" and "one" are neuters in the Gr. The idea is rather of positions and relations than of persons (Monod). "One:" "one thing," one community, or rather, one organism. (By the same word is expressed the Unity of the Father and the Son, John 10:30.) In Galatians 3:28 ("ye are all one") the Gr. has the masculine, "one [person]," "one [man," as expressly in the next verse here.

hath broken down … partition Lit., did undo the mid-wall of the fence, or hedge. The next verse makes it clear that this means the Law. In Divine intention the Law was a "hedge" (Isaiah 5:2) round the Old Israel, so long as their chief function was to maintain a position of seclusion. And it thus formed a "partition" between the Old Israel and the outer world, not only hindering but, for the time, forbidding such fusion as the new order brought in.

It is possible that the phrase was immediately suggested by the demarcation between the Court of the Gentiles and the inner area of the Temple.