thinking bible.

You asked

what were the historical boundaries and customs that created division between jewish and gentile people in paul's time?

The passage, plainly, with room to sit with it.

Ephesians 2:14-16

For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in his flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man of the two, making peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the hostility thereby.

The Apostle Paul, writing from prison, addresses Christians in Ephesus, a major city in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). In this letter, he's celebrating the radical inclusion of Gentile (non-Jewish) believers into God's covenant family, which was a huge shift from earlier Jewish practices.

What 'dividing walls' in our own communities or societies might need to be broken down for greater peace?

Keep thinking

Read alongside it

  • Acts 15:1-21

    Describes the Jerusalem Council's debate over whether Gentile converts needed to follow Jewish law.

  • Galatians 3:28

    Paul's bold statement that in Christ 'there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female.'

  • Isaiah 56:3-7

    An Old Testament prophecy envisioning a future where foreigners join God's people and worship in the Temple.

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