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

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