In the Greek text verses 17-18 are one sentence, with a minor break (semicolon) at the end of verse 17.

As the Greek stands, “and coming he preached peace” represents action that follows the crucifixion and death of Christ (of verses 14-16). This is somewhat strange and must be taken to refer, as Abbott says, to “Christ preaching by His Spirit in the apostles and other messengers of His” (so Robinson, Salmond, Westcott). Murray restricts it to Christ’s post-resurrection appearances, but this seems quite impossible. At no time is Christ reported to have preached to Gentiles as a group; his ministry was restricted to the homeland Jews. The best way to handle this seems to be as New English Bible and Good News Translation have done it: “So he came and proclaimed,” So Christ came and preached; Jerusalem Bible “Later he came” is not to be recommended.

Preached the Good News translates the Greek verb “to proclaim good news”; the direct object of the verb is “peace,” which means in this whole section “reconciliation between Jews and Gentiles.”

The Good News of peace may be expressed as “the Good News that tells about peace” or “the Good News that is the means of people becoming reconciled.”

“Peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near” (Revised Standard Version): this takes up the language of verse 13 and more closely reflects the words of Isaiah 57.19, “Peace, peace, to the far and to the near, says the Lord” (Revised Standard Version). Good News Translation has made explicit that those “who were far off” are Gentiles and “those who were near” are Jews.

In some instances there may be a problem involved in the figurative use of far away and near to. Sometimes the distinction may be expressed in terms of the degree of failure or lack in association, for example, “to you Gentiles who lacked so much in relation to God and to the Jews who lacked very little in relationship to God.”

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 .