by the death of Christ.  Instead of this divided company of believers, where

the Jew was first and the Gentile was but a wild olive grafted contrary to

nature, we have the creation of the twain, in Himself, of one New Man.  In

this new company neither Jew nor Gentile as such can be discovered; the

church of the One Body is not something carried over from earlier days,

remodelled and reconstituted in order to give the Gentile a better place than

he had before; it is a new creation, in which all previous privileges and

disadvantages vanish, in which there are blessings enjoyed that were never

before known, and a sphere of blessings hitherto unknown to any son of Adam.

To teach that all Ephesians 2:15 reveals is that the Gentile had been

promoted to an equality with the Jew is such an understatement as to be

virtually a contradiction of truth.  The calling into which these hitherto

divided Jews and Gentiles now found themselves is unrelated either to

Abraham, the New Covenant, or the New Jerusalem.  Neither Jew nor Gentile had

hitherto been associated with a calling that went back to before the

foundation of the world, and went up so high in sphere as to be 'far above

all' where Christ sits.  This calling is unique, and to attempt to see

allusions to Old Testament types is to prevent its essential newness and

uniqueness from being perceived.  There is a superficial likeness in the

wording of Ephesians 2:15 to the record of the creation of Adam and Eve, and

some have been tempted to elaborate that likeness into a definite doctrine.

There are one or two essential features that scripturally characterize the

relationship of Adam and Eve which make it impossible that there should be

any idea of fulfilment here in Ephesians 2:15.  We are distinctly told by

inspired comment, that:

'Adam was first formed, then Eve' (1 Tim. 2:13).

'The head of the woman is the man' (1 Cor. 11:3).

'He is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the

man' (1 Cor. 11:7).

'Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man'

(1 Cor. 11:9).

The same Paul who wrote these inspired comments on Genesis 1 and 2, wrote the

second chapter of Ephesians, and what he wrote after Ephesians (i.e. 1 Tim.

2:13) differs nothing from his comment written before (i.e. 1 Cor. 11).  If

we import into Ephesians 2:15 the type of Genesis 1 and 2, then the Jew must

stand for Adam, and the Gentile must stand in the place of Eve.  In this new

company the Jew will therefore of necessity be still 'head' even as was Adam,

and the explicit teaching of the Mystery is thereby nullified.  The whole

church of the One Body, the church that includes within it both Jew

and Gentile, is looked upon as a perfect Man (aner, 'husband').  The marriage

of this perfect 'man' does not take place during this dispensation, but waits

the Day of the Lord.  At that time another company called 'The Bride' will be

ready.  Both the church which is the perfect Husband, and the church that is

the perfect Wife will then fulfil the primeval type, but that is not in

In the church of the present calling, the Jew and the Gentile as such

do not exist; neither one nor the other is 'head'.  This church is 'a joint -

body', something unique where perfect equality is seen for the first time in

any ekklesia.  Every type will find its anti -type, but like all the ways of

God, the realization will be in its own special season.  To take an event

that is future and attempt to place it on the calendar of God centuries

before its legitimate time is what so many have done who were ignorant of the

great principle of interpretation,