Jlay recently attempted, mistakenly, to use Ephesians 2:15 to help prove the Mosaic laws were set aside or temporarily annulled. The following very reasonable analysis of that verse shows that it is far more likely that only the burdensome oral torah (the man made, embellished portion of the torah) was abolished, not the written Mosaic laws as they appear in the Bible.
EPHESIANS 2:14,15: "For he Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace." --- New King James Version
Paul describes apparently the very man made, burdensome Oral Torah as "the law of commandments contained in ordinances." Context is very important to understand this verse. Verse 14 sets the stage for understanding verse 15. Verse 14: "He ........ has broken down the MIDDLE WALL OF SEPARATION." The specific phrase "middle wall" is helpful to understand verse 15 because it identifies and concentrates only on a wall or barrier made by man, not a barrier made by God or His divine laws. The Greek for "middle wall" is mesotoichon, Strong's 3320, a special, rare word appearing only once in the Bible in Ephesians 2:15. The word mesotoichon was used by the famous Jewish historian Josephus to refer specifically to a balustrade in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem to keep gentiles from entering the holy section of the temple. That balustrade (the Jews built the barrier because they wanted to, not by any Scripture) was definitely a man made barrier, not a divinely made barrier or wall created by any Scripture. The Greek word for "of separation" is phragmos, Strong's 5418, which means a "fence" or "railing." In his book Wars of the Jews Flavius Josephus used the terms mesotoichon and phragmos for a particular balustrade or barrier in the Jerusalem temple (Book 5, chapter 5, section 2 and 6). This barrier was built by the Jews to isolate the outer court where the gentiles were, from the the inner part of the temple where all gentiles were banned. Written notices in Greek and Latin were posted at the bottom of the steps leading to the inner area, warning gentiles that death would be the penalty for entering the inner area of the temple. Two of those notices were found, one in 1871 and the other in 1935. The actual, physical "middle wall" was demolished when the temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. by the Romans.
Several years before the middle wall was destroyed, though, Paul pointed it out as an appropriate symbol of racial and religious barriers separating people.
In verse 15 the original Greek for "law" is nomos, Strong's 3551, which can refer to man made laws depending on the context of the verse that nomos is in, since there are more than seven definitions of nomos. "Commandments" in Greek is entole, Strong's 1785, which can also refer to rules and laws created by men. The Greek word for "ordinances" is dogma, Strong's number 1378.
This word appears only 3 other times in the entire Bible besides Ephesians 2:15 and Colossians 2:14, which refers to
man made opinions, judgments, or decrees (in Colossians 2:14, according to the context of Colossians 2:13, dogma logically refers to the written or somehow recorded record [apparently in heaven] of people's sins).
In the other 3 times dogma is used it never clearly refers to the Bible's written Mosaic laws. In 2 cases dogma refers to secular regulations devised by a non-Christian Roman ruler, Caesar, not God's holy laws:
1) Luke 2:1: "......... there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed." The Greek for decree is dogma.
2) Acts 17:7: "........ these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar saying that there is another king ......." The Greek for decrees is dogma.
3) Acts 16:4: "And as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep, that were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem."
In the remaining third case the Greek dogma appears in Acts 16:4 as the English translated "decrees" (again, man made) formulated by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem, primarily informing church members that circumcision was no longer required.
Ephesians 2:15: "having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances ......" The words "that is" is actually an artificial addition to the verse, added by translators. The only Greek word appearing between "enmity" and "law" is the word that has the Strong number 3588, usually translated as "the." Also, remember, scholars believe that the original Greek probably contained no punctuation, so translators put in commas where they think they should be, hoping that they are correct.
Since "the law of commandments contained in ordinances" is
nonspecific, if it really did refer to the written Mosaic laws and if Ephesians 2:15 really did mean that the Mosaic laws have been abolished, then a large number of very good, common sense laws also would have been done away with by Jesus Christ Himself, which is absurd, demonstrating another glittering flaw in mainstreamers' reasoning that Ephesians 2:15 proves that the written Mosaic laws were annulled. Very good, common sense Mosaic laws not specifically listed in the New Testament that even most pagan societies would not break include laws prohibiting removing property landmarks, prohibiting the mingling of lepers with the general population, forbidding incest, forbidding punishing a son for a crime his father committed, forbidding eating armadillos which often carry leprosy (just touching them before cooking them can give you leprosy), prohibiting eating frogs or their legs (if you undercook this forbidden food and eat it or sometimes merely handle it before cooking it, you can contract a potentially deadly gnathostomiasis infection), prohibiting being a member of a vandalizing mob, prohibiting bribery, prohibiting bestiality, prohibiting putting stumbling blocks in front of blind people, and on and on.
Do you really think Jesus thought that the law forbidding putting stumbling blocks in front of the blind created "enmity" between Jews and gentiles?
In conclusion, there is no reasonable way that Ephesians 2:15 can be used to support the mistaken idea that most of the Mosaic laws have been abolished. Only the man made, burdensome Oral Torah additions were done away with, not the written Old Testament laws in the Bible.
It is the gentiles that need to become slightly "more Jewish" than the Jews "more gentile," one might say, so that the two become one according to Ephesians 2:11-14, 3:6, John 4:22, Galatians 3:28, and Romans 1:16, 10:12, 11:11,26.
Some good sites for further study include
http://www.ucg.org/booklet/new-covenant ... ty-christ/ and thercg.org/questions/p154.a.html#c.
This is the New Covenant.
