Subject: Understanding Eph. 2:14-15 (from Aramaic) Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1998 00:29:51 +0000 To: "Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup"<heb_roots_chr@geocities.com>
To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com From: James Trimm Subject: Understanding Eph. 2:14-15 (from Aramaic) Understanding Eph. 2:14-15 from the Aramaic text Ephesians 2:14-16: 14 He is, therefore, our shalom who made the two of them one and loosed the hedge which stood between us 15 and therefore the enmity (by His flesh and the torah because of the statutes within the commandments) is abrogated, that from the two of them He might create in Himself one new man, and He made shalom, 16 reconciling you two into one body with Eloah, so that by His crucifixion the enmity has been slain. see next footnote. footnotes to 2:14-16: Lit. Aram. "and the law (namosa) of the statutes (puqada) within the commandments (puqdana)." Aram. namosa=Heb. torah and puqada=Heb. mitzvah, and also puqdana=mitzvot (ie: Mk.10:19). In Aram. puqada also equals Heb. choq which means statute. Mitzvot = commandments or ordinances. Gr. has "the law (nomos) of the decree (dogma) in the commandments (entole)". Here Gr. dogma=decree or statute which is equivalent to the Heb. mitzvah or choq. The passive verb "is abolished" is singular and cannot have two subjects. As a result only "enmity" is abolished. "by His flesh is conjuncted to "and the torah". The next phrase is a dalet clause and begins with "because" as in Dan. 3:29,4:9, 6:3, 23, and 7:11. The reference here in 2:15 concerns the enmity between Jews and Gentiles due to the unique "customs of Israel" (v. 12) that necessarily produced estrangement between them. The particular customs that Paul here refers to are hedges about the law that separated, such as the laws of separation from Gentiles given in the Mishna (ie: Avodah Zarah) which were in effect in the N.T. period (ie: John 4:9, 21-22). The phrase "and loosed the hedge" in the Aram. reads sh'ra s'yaga and was used as a technical halachic term in Judaism. Sh'ra was used to mean "loose" or "permit" (as in Mt. 18:18 and in various places in Rabbinic literature) The term s'yaga appears in the Mishna Avot 1:1 "make a hedge about the torah". To "loose the hedge" would mean to permit activities that these hedge rules had effectually discouraged such as, to (truly) love thy neighbor. Paul is pointing out that the flesh of the Messiah was given as a sacrifice for the whole world and that even the Torah itself demanded the abrogation of enmity. Kol v' chomer (light and heavy) is applied as the reasoning - the work of the Messiah is of higher consequence than the differences between Jew and Gentile that the statutes produced, for even the law itself teaches to love your neighbor. It is emphasized that Messiah died for the whole world and now has become the unifying factor above all else, in whose redeeming work, all enmity between men can be set aside. James Trimm **********************************************************************