the Greek katargeo.  This word is used of making anything `void' or of `none

effect' (Rom. 3:3,31) and is used of the veil in 2 Corinthians 3:14.  The word

katargeo is a compound of kata `down' and erg `work', and literally means to put

anything out of working order, to render inoperative, to abrogate.  What was

abrogated or rendered powerless, was `the enmity which was contained in

ordinances'.  These ordinances we have already seen, were the decrees issued by

the council of Jerusalem as recorded in Acts 15 which, while solving an

immediate problem, only intensified another.  This, together with the whole

system of ceremonials `meat, drink, holy day, new moon or sabbath day' were

after all but shadows of things to come and have been nailed to the cross (Col.

2:14-17), or as Ephesians 2:15 puts it:

`Having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments

contained in ordinances'.

While we read of the veil `that is to say His flesh' which was rent, so

making a way into the presence of God, we must set aside the suggestion that the

enmity was `in His flesh' in Ephesians 2:15.  The order of the words ten exthran

en te sarki autou `The enmity in His flesh' if lifted out of the passage, might

lead to such a translation, although, as Alford and others point out it would

certainly require the specifying article ten to be repeated.  Just as `in

Himself' is preceded and linked with the verb ktizo `to create in Himself', so

in the same verse the words `in His flesh' are preceded and linked with the verb

lusas `Having abolished in His flesh' and that flesh is but a prelude to

the fuller statement `by the cross' of verse 16 where this enmity was slain.

Peace and reconciliation are placed over against enmity and explain its

nature.  It was not the enmity of the unregenerate heart; it was rather the

incipient enmity contained in the separating decrees, decrees which made `fish

of one and fowl of the other' as the proverb has it, in entire opposition to the

extraordinary equality of the members of the One Body presently to be explained

(Eph. 3:6).  The goal before this wondrous creation was peace.  We have already

indicated that the Revised Version is to be followed here.  Ktizo means to

create, as distinct from making, moulding or fashioning.  It nearly always

carries with it the idea of something new.  In one passage creation is ascribed

to man, namely in 1 Peter 2:13 where the Authorized Version reads `submit

yourselves to every ordinance (ktisis) of man', and then goes on to speak of

kings and governors and magistrates.  So, in Ephesians 2:15, we have created of

the twain `one new man' even as the Romans said creare consulum `to create a

consul', the material man remaining the same, but a new office being created.

The four occurrences of ktizo in Ephesians are as follows:

A

Eph. 2:10.

Created in Christ Jesus unto good works.

B  Eph. 2:15.

To create in Himself of the twain one new man.

A

Eph. 3:9.

The Mystery ... hid in God Who created all things.

B  Eph. 4:24.

The new man ... created in righteousness,

where the `new man' of the doctrinal position is echoed by the new man of the

practical.  The former is created, the latter is put on.

We must now turn our attention to the words `the twain' and ask the

question, why did the apostle not use the word `the both' as in the three other