14. he--Greek, "Himself" alone, pre-eminently, and none else.
Emphatical.
our peace--not merely "Peacemaker," but "Himself" the price of our
(Jews' and Gentiles' alike) peace with God, and so the bond of union
between "both" in God. He took both into Himself, and reconciled them,
united, to God, by His assuming our nature and our penal and legal
liabilities
(Eph 2:15;
Isa 9:5, 6; 53:5;
Mic 5:5;
Col 1:20).
His title, "Shiloh," means the same
(Ge 49:10).
the middle wall of partition--Greek, ". . . of
the partition" or "fence"; the middle wall which
parted Jew and Gentile. There was a balustrade of stone which
separated the court of the Gentiles from the holy place, which it was
death for a Gentile to pass. But this, though incidentally alluded to,
was but a symbol of the partition itself, namely, "the enmity"
between "both" and God
(Eph 2:15),
the real cause of separation from God, and so the mediate cause of
their separation from one another. Hence there was a twofold wall of
partition, one the inner wall, severing the Jewish people from entrance
to the holy part of the temple where the priests officiated, the other
the outer wall, separating the Gentile proselytes from access to the
court of the Jews (compare
Eze 44:7;
Ac 21:28).
Thus this twofold wall represented the Sinaitic law, which both
severed all men, even the Jews, from access to God (through sin, which
is the violation of the law), and also separated the Gentiles from the
Jews. As the term "wall" implies the strength of the partition,
so "fence" implies that it was easily removed by God when the due time
came.
JFB.
Picture Study Bible