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Eph_2:13. But now in Christ Jesus ye, once afar off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
νυνὶ δέ ] contrast to τῷ καιρῷ ἐκείνῳ , Eph_2:12 : but as your relation now stands. Comp. Rom_6:22; Rom_7:6; Col_1:21; Col_3:8.
ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ ] not to be supplemented by ἐστέ (Baumgarten-Crusius), nor yet a more precise definition of νυνί (Rückert: “under the new constitution, founded by Christ”), in which case several, proceeding more accurately, supply ὄντες (Calvin: “postquam in Christo estis recepti,” Koppe, Harless, Bleek). But such a more precise definition would be very unnecessary, and would have significant weight only if a special emphasis rested upon ἐν as in contradistinction to χωρίς , Eph_2:12, which, however, cannot be the case, since there is not again used merely ἐν Χριστῷ , but ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ . The ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ εἶναι of the readers, moreover, was not prior to the ἐγγὺς ἐγενήθητε , but its immediate consequence; hence we should have at least to explain it, not: postquam in Christo estis recepti, but: cum in Christo sitis recepti, wherewithal there would still remain the very unnecessary character of this more precise definition, or of this conditional accessory clause (de Wette). Accordingly ἐν Χρ . Ἰ . is to be connected with ἐγγὺς ἐγενήθ .: ye are in Christ Jesus, in whom this has its efficient cause, made near; and ἐν τῷ αἵματι τοῦ Χρ . is then the more precise definition of the mode of ἐν Χρ . Ἰ . Comp. διὰ τοῦ αἵματος αὐτοῦ , Eph_1:7. Hence we have not to place a comma, as Lachmann and Tischendorf have done, either before or after ἐν Χρ . Ἰ .
Ἰησοῦ ] could not be added at Eph_2:12, but might be added here, where the Christ who historically appeared in the person of Jesus is intended.
μακράν ] figurative description of the same relation as was expressed in Eph_2:12 by ἀπηλλοτριωμένοι τῆς πολιτ . τοῦ Ἰσρ ., and ξένοι τῶν διαθηκ . τῆς ἐπαγγ .
ἐγγὺς ἐγενήθ . ἐν τῷ αἵμ . τ . Χρ .] For, by the fact that Christ shed His blood, the separation of the Gentiles from the Jews was done away, and consequently the fellowship of the former with the community of God’s people (which the true Christian Israel henceforth was) was effected. See Eph_2:14 ff. The bringing to participation in the blessings of the theocracy is, after the precedent of Isa_49:1; Isa_57:19, expressed often also among the Rabbins by the figurative propinquum facere (which with them is, with special frequency, equivalent to proselytum facere), and in that case the subject to whom the approach is made is always to be derived from the context; as e.g. Vayikra R. 14, where God, and Mechilta, f. 38. 12, where, as here, the theocracy is to be thought of. See, in general, the passage in Wetstein and Schöttgen, Horae, p. 761 ff.
ἐγγὺς γίνεσθαι , to come near; only here in the N.T., frequent in the classic writers (Xen. Anab. v. 4. 16, iv. 7. 23; Thuc. iii. 40. 6).