He abolished: this means that, so far as Christians are concerned, what Christ did and taught made the Law of no effect; he nullified it, and it is no longer binding. In the context, the primary effect of this annulment was the abolition of the distinction between Jews and Gentiles in the eyes of God.
The Jewish Law with its commandments and rules: “the law of commandments in rules” is another phrase in Ephesians which may be translated several ways: Revised Standard Version “the law of commandments and ordinances”; New English Bible “the law with its rules and regulations” (similarly New International Version, Good News Translation, and others). It is quite certain that “the law” is the Mosaic Law, the Torah, which was the basis for the whole Hebrew religious legal system; the plural “(of) the commandments” can be taken to mean the Ten Commandments specifically or the whole range of commandments in the Law. The Greek prepositional phrase “in decrees” refers to specific rules or regulations (see Luke 2.1 and Acts 17.7, which speak of imperial decrees; in Acts 16.4 the word is used of a ruling by the apostles; and see also Col 2.14).
In translating He abolished the Jewish Law, it is important to use an expression which will not seem completely contradictory to history, for Jews have continued to follow the commandments and rules of the Law to the present time. What is meant here is that “he made the Jewish Law of no validity” or “he made it so that the Jewish Law need not be obeyed any more.”
The phrase Jewish Law must be expressed in some languages as “the rules which Jews must follow” or “… must obey.” In fact, in many languages there is no term which is an inclusive designation for a body of laws.
In some languages it is necessary to describe commandments and rules in terms of “what people must do or must not do.”
If “in his flesh” (in verse 14) goes with “abolishing the law of commandments in rules” (in verse 13), it can be taken to indicate either the crucifixion of Christ (as in the similar Col 2.14) or to the incarnation (as Barclay and Goodspeed do); but it seems difficult, if not impossible, to say that “in his flesh” here refers to the incarnation, since the whole section points to Christ’s death on the cross as the means whereby the reconciliation between Jews and Gentiles was achieved (specifically in verses 13, 16). So “in his flesh” also refers to the crucifixion of Christ.
The purpose of Christ’s reconciling work is (see Hdb|fig:Table_EPH2-14.jpg) (1) “to create the two in himself into one new man” (verse 15b) and (2) “to reconcile both in one body to God” (verse 16a).
The “one new man” that Christ creates is, so to speak, the new Adam (the name “Adam” means “man, mankind”); New English Bible “a single new humanity”; Jerusalem Bible “a single New Man”; Twentieth Century New Testament “one New Man”; Translator’s New Testament is like Good News Translation one new people. It is to be noticed that this “new humanity” is achieved not by transforming Gentiles into Jews or vice versa; both are re-created into a new people, neither Jewish nor Gentile, but Christian.
Technically speaking, the Jews and the Gentiles did not consist of two races. They were simply “two different kinds of people,” and so it may be best to translate the purpose clause as “in order to make two different kinds of people into one new kind of people” or “… to make two different tribes of people into one new tribe.” This new tribe of people could then be characterized as those “who are closely linked with Christ.”
For the verb “to create,” see 2.10.
In union with himself translates the Greek phrase “in him.” The Greek manuscripts have no accents, and so this may be accented as a reflexive, hautō (so W&H, New English Bible), but Good News Bible, Nestle, BFBS have autō, which in Hellenistic Greek often stood for the reflexive.
The verse in Greek ends with the participial phrase “making peace.” The simplest way is to take it as the result: “and so he achieved peace” (New English Bible “thereby making peace”; New International Version “thus making peace”). Another way to represent the meaning is “in this way he made different peoples be at peace with one another.” If the phrase is understood as expressing result, one may say “and so he caused people to be at peace.”
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1982. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .