NT Text: Ephesians 2:13
OT Source(s):
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Promise-Fulfillment
Significance: Isaiah 57:19 declares God's healing word over the scattered and estranged: "Peace, peace to those far and near," says the LORD, "and I will heal them." Paul takes up the "far / near" pairing directly — the Gentiles "who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ" (Eph 2:13) — and explicitly applies the oracle a few verses later: "He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near" (2:17). This is Promise-Fulfillment: Isaiah's promised peace to the distant is realized in Christ, who "Himself is our peace" (2:14), the one who reconciles both Jew and Gentile in one body through the cross (2:16). The healing Isaiah announced for a covenant people in exile (the Exile-and-Return arc) widens in fulfillment to embrace the once-godless nations. What the prophet held out as future divine speech becomes accomplished fact in the crucified and risen Lord — peace not as the cessation of conflict only, but as restored nearness to God, the deepest good of the human heart now opened to the far-off by blood.