Verse 16 continues without a break from verse 15, “and (in order) to reconcile both in one body to God through the cross.” Good News Translation has restructured the material, and a comparison between the Good News Bible text and the literal translation of the Greek in the notes under verse 14 will show what Good News Bible has done. Exegetical comments on verse 16 discuss the material according to its order in the Greek, after which the translational comments take up the same material following the order of Good News Bible.
The Greek has the one main verb, “to reconcile”; this is followed by the direct object “both,” followed by the prepositional phrase indicating circumstance “in one body”; this is then followed by the indirect object “to God,” which is followed by the prepositional phrase “through the cross,” indicating the means by which the action is achieved. Good News Translation has used two verbs: he united … and brought them back. Two things are implicit in the verb “to reconcile”: (1) There was a previous state of estrangement, or alienation, and what is explicitly said throughout the New Testament and is implicit here is that mankind alienated itself, separated itself, from God. It is not God who is estranged; he does not need reconciling. (2) The work of reconciliation is done by God through Christ; it is not achieved by human beings. See Colossians 1.20.
The Greek translated both is the same form used in verse 14.
Into one body: Good News Translation takes this to represent the one new people (of verse 15). Most commentators and translators take the Greek phrase “in one body” here to be the union of Gentiles and Jews; Phillips, however, takes it to refer to Christ’s body, “by the sacrifice of the one body on the cross,” but the Greek does not seem to allow this.
By means of the cross; “through the cross”: it is the death of Christ that achieves this reconciliation of Jews and Gentiles, and of both, united, to God.
The last part of the verse in Greek is a clause governed by the aorist participle, “having killed the enmity” (Good News Translation destroyed their enmity). The participle denotes action that either occurs at the same time as that of the main verb (“to reconcile”) or is prior to it. Here a chronological sequence does not seem intended (“he killed the enmity … and [then] he reconciled”); rather the same event is seen in positive terms (reconciliation) and negative terms (removal of the enmity).
This enmity is the same as in verse 14, that is, enmity between Jews and Gentiles; it could be taken to mean mankind’s enmity toward God.
The last two words in Greek in verse 16, “in him (or, in it),” are taken by most to refer back to the cross (so Good News Translation By his death on the cross; also New English Bible and others); some, however, take it to refer to Christ; so Jerusalem Bible “In his own person he killed the hostility”; see also New English Bible footnote. Most commentators take it to refer to the cross.
The phrase By his death on the cross may be expressed in many languages as “By his dying on the cross.” But since historically the cross in question was simply one of many crosses, it may be far more appropriate in some languages to translate “By his dying on a cross.”
The verb destroyed in connection with enmity is difficult to express in a number of languages, since destroyed is used almost exclusively in terms of buildings, fortifications, armies, and people, but not of a state of being such as enmity. Instead of destroyed their enmity it may be more appropriate to speak of “getting rid of their enmity” or “causing people to no longer have enmity toward one another” or “causing people no longer to be enemies of one another.”
The phrase by means of the cross is simply another reference to Christ’s death on the cross, and it may be more satisfactory to repeat the initial phrase in a form such as “by his dying on a cross” or “he died on a cross, and in this way he united….”
It may be quite impossible in some languages to speak of united both races into one body, since the term body would refer only to the body of a single individual. The closest equivalent might be “bring together as one group both different kinds of people” or “causing both tribes of people to become as though they are only one.”
In some languages it may be possible to preserve the figurative language of “bringing people back to God” as a very vivid way of speaking about reconciliation, for example, “and led them back to God.” Since verses 17 and 18 constitute a type of conclusion to a number of preceding verses, it is quite appropriate to begin with a conjunction such as “so.” In some languages this is equivalent to “this means that.” It would not be proper, however, to use an expression such as “as a result,” for Christ’s ministry has already been referred to.
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 .