Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ephesians 4:8
Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
8. Wherefore he saith ] Or it, i.e. the Scripture, saith. St Paul’s usage in quotation leaves the subject of the verb undetermined here and in similar cases (see e.g. ch. Eph 5:14). For him, the word of the Scripture and the word of its Author are convertible terms. “ Wherefore ” : as if to say, “the Scripture statement of course answers to the spiritual fact just given.”
When he ascended, &c.] Psalms 68 (LXX. 67) 18. The Heb. there is lit., “Thou didst ascend on high; Thou didst lead captive a captivity (a band of captives); Thou didst take gifts amongst men,” or more lit., “in man.” The LXX. renders, “When Thou didst ascend on high, Thou didst lead captive a captivity; Thou didst take gifts in man.” The Targum, or Chaldee paraphrase, which is little likely to have been influenced by this passage, renders, “Thou hast given to them gifts, even to the sons of men.”
On this quotation, we first examine the discrepancy between “ take gifts” and “ give gifts,” and between “ among men” and “ for ” or “ to men,” and then briefly remark on the use made of the Psalmist’s words by the Apostle.
. The first discrepancy is not to be reconciled by an attempt to make the Heb. verb mean both “give” and “take.” But what if the “taking” was for the purpose of “giving”? The Conqueror, Divine or human, in Psalms 68 may well be conceived as receiving grants for distribution among his vassals. If so, the Targum (see above) and the Apostle rightly convey the intention of the Psalmist.
“ Among men”; “ for men.” The great compression of Hebrew poetical diction makes it quite possible to explain, “ so as to be among men.” Thus again “to,” or “for,” will rightly convey the intention of the Psalmist, whatever were his precise and conscious thought in depicting the Conqueror as making gifts and grants to “ man.”
. The “first reference” of Psalms 68 is a large and difficult question. See Dean Perowne’s full statement of problems and theories in his Commentary on the Psalms; see too Dr Kay’s notes. It is enough here to say that the Psalm celebrates, apparently, some great sacred triumph, or triumphs, at the Sanctuary of Zion; an occasion on which the supreme Conqueror, Jehovah, is represented as “ascending” after battle to His throne. One type of criticism will see in this nothing beyond a national Ode of Victory, and will regard the Apostle’s quotation as an “unscientific” accommodation. For ourselves, believing that our Lord taught a very different view of the Ancient Scriptures, we feel free to recognize any “first reference” fairly provable, but also bound to believe that the Divine Author worked through the human author, so as to convey eternal and permanent truth through his imagery and words, and so as to make the whole terminate on Christ, whether or no the human author was aware of it. And we believe that the same Divine Author worked here through the memory and thought of the Apostle, so as to secure, in his quotation and exposition, the true development of the Divine intention of the earlier passage.
We thus accept the present verse as reciting a true testimony of the Spirit of Prophecy to the foreseen facts of the Ascension of the Divine Messiah after conflict and conquest, and the distribution of blessings consequent upon it. The “captivity” will denote whatever persons or powers are in any way His conquest; whether as “enemies under His feet” (1Co 15:25, &c.), or self-surrendered rebels reconciled to His will (2Co 10:3-5, &c.). For the thought, “He received gifts (to distribute) amongst men,” cp. Act 2:33.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Wherefore he saith – The word he is not in the original; and it may mean the Scripture saith, or God saith. The point of the argument here is, that Christ, when he ascended to heaven, obtained certain gifts for people, and that those gifts are bestowed upon his people in accordance with this. To prove that, he adduces this passage from Psa 68:18. Much perplexity has been felt in regard to the principle on which Paul quotes this Psalm, and applies it to the ascension of the Redeemer. The Psalm seems to have been composed on the occasion of removing the ark of the covenant from Kirjath-jearim to Mount Zion; 2Sa 6:1 ff it is a song of triumph, celebrating the victories of Yahweh, and particularly the victories which had been achieved when the ark was at the head of the army. It appears to have no relation to the Messiah; nor would it probably occur to anyone upon reading it, that it referred to his ascension, unless it had been so quoted by the apostle.
Great difficulty has been felt, therefore, in determining on what principle Paul applied it to the ascension of the Redeemer. Some have supposed that the Psalm had a primary reference to the Messiah; some that it referred to him in only a secondary sense; some that it is applied to him by way of accommodation; and some that he merely uses the words as adapted to express his idea, as a man adopts words which are familiar to him, and which will express his thoughts, though not meaning to say that the words had any such reference originally. Storr supposes that the words were used by the Ephesian Christians in their hymns, and that Paul quoted them as containing a sentiment which was admitted among them. This is possible; but it is mere conjecture. It has been also supposed that the tabernacle was a type of Christ; and that the whole Psalm, therefore, having original reference to the tabernacle, might be applied to Christ as the antitype.
But this is both conjectural and fanciful. On the various modes adopted to account for the difficulty, the reader may consult Rosenmuller in loc. To me it seems plain that the Psalm had original reference to the bringing up the ark to Mount Zion, and is a triumphal song. In the song or Psalm, the poet shows why God was to be praised – on account of his greatness and his benignity to people; Eph 4:1-6. He then recounts the doings of God in former times – particularly his conducting his people through the wilderness, and the fact that his enemies were discomfited before him; Eph 4:7-12. All this refers to the God, the symbols of whose presence were on the tabernacle, and accompanying the ark. He then speaks of the various fortunes that had befallen the ark of the covenant. It had lain among the pots, Eph 4:13, yet it had formerly been white as snow when God scattered kings by it; Eph 4:14.
He then speaks of the hill of God – the Mount Zion to which the ark was about to be removed, and says that it is an high hill – high as the hills of Bashan, the hill where God desired to dwell forever; Eph 4:16. God is then introduced as ascending that hill, encompassed with thousands of angels, as in Mount Sinai; and the poet says that, in doing it, he had triumphed over his enemies, and had led captivity captive; Eph 4:18. The fact that the ark of God thus ascended the hill of Zion, the place of rest; that it was to remain there as its permanent abode, no more to be carried about at the head of armies; was the proof of its triumph. It had made everything captive. It had subdued every foe; and its ascent there would be the means of obtaining invaluable gifts for people; Mercy and truth would go forth from that mountain; and the true religion would spread abroad, even to the rebellious, as the results of the triumph of God, whose symbol was over the tabernacle and the ark.
The placing the ark there was the proof of permanent victory, and would he connected with most important benefits to people. The ascending on high, therefore, in the Psalm, refers, as it seems to me, to the ascent of the symbol of the Divine Presence accompanying the ark on Mount Zion, or to the placing it on high above all its foes. The remainder of the Psalm corresponds with this view. This ascent of the ark on Mount Zion; this evidence of its triumph over all the foes of God; this permanent residence of the ark there; and this fact, that its being established there would be followed with the bestowment of invaluable gifts to people, might be regarded as a beautiful emblem of the ascension of the Redeemer to heaven. There were strong points of resemblance. He also ascended on high. His ascent was the proof of victory over his foes. He went there for a permanent abode. And his ascension was connected with the bestowmerit of important blessings to people.
It is as such emblematic language, I suppose, that the apostle makes the quotation. It did not originally refer to this; but the events were so similar in many points, that the one would suggest the other, and the same language would describe both. It was language familiar to the apostle; language that would aptly express his thoughts, and language that was not improbably applied to the ascension of the Redeemer by Christians at that time. The phrase, therefore, he saith – legei – or it saith, or the Scripture saith, means, it is said; or, this language will properly express the fact under consideration, to wit, that there is grace given to each one of us, or that the means are furnished by the Redeemer for us to lead holy lives.
(For remarks on the subject of accommodation. in connection with quotations from the Old Testament into the New Testament, see the supplementary notes, Heb 1:5, and Heb 2:6, note. The principle of accommodation, if admitted at all, should be used with great caution. Doubtless it is sanctioned by great names both in Europe and America. Yet it must be allowed, that the apostles understood the mind of the Spirit, in the Old Testament, that their inspiration preserved them from every error. When, therefore, they tell us that certain passages have an ultimate reference to the Messiah and his times, through we should never have discovered such reference without their aid, nothing of the kind, it may be, appearing in the original places, yet we ate bound to receive it on their testimony. It is alleged, indeed, that the apostles sometimes use the ordinary forms of quotation, without intending to intimate thereby any prophetic reference in the passages titus introduced, nay, when such reference is obviously inadmissible. This, in the opinion of many, is a very hazardous statement, and introduces into the apostolic writings, and especially into the argumentative part of them, where so great use is made of the Old Testament, no small measure of uncertainty. Let the reader examine the passages in question, keeping in view. at the same time, the typical nature of the ancient economy, and he will have little difficulty in admitting the prophetic reference in most, if not in all of them. See Haldane on Rom 1:17, for a very masterly view of this subject, with remarks on Mat 2:16, and other passages supposed to demand the accommodation theory.
Nothing can be more dishonorable, says that prince of English commentators, on the Epistle to the Romans, to the character of divine revelation, and injurious to the edification of believers, than this method of explaining the quotations in the New Testament from the Old, not as predictions or interpretations, but as mere illustrations, by way of accommodation. In this way, many of the prophecies referred to in the Epistles are set aside from their proper application, and Christians are taught that they do not prove what the apostles adduced them to establish. In reference to the quotation in this place, there seems little difficulty in connection with the view, that though the primary reference be to the bringing up of the ark to Mount Zion, the ultimate one is to the glorious ascension of Jesus into the highest heavens. The Jews rightly interpret part of this psalm Ps. 68 of the Messiah. Nor is it to he believed that the apostle would have applied it to the ascension of Christ unless that application had been admitted by the Jews in his time, and unless himself were persuaded of its propriety.
When he ascended up on high – To heaven. The Psalm is, Thou hast ascended on high; compare Eph 1:22-23.
He led captivity captive – The meaning of this in the Psalm is, that he triumphed over his foes. The margin is, a multitude of captives. But this, I think, is not quite the idea. It is language derived from a conqueror, who not only makes captives, but who makes captives of those who were then prisoners, and who conducts them as a part of his triumphal procession. He not only subdues his enemy, but he leads his captives in triumph. The allusion is to the public triumphs of conquerors, especially as celebrated among the Romans, in which captives were led in chains (Tacitus, Ann. xii. 38), and to the custom in such triumphs of distributing presents among the soldiers; compare also Jdg 5:30, where it appears that this was also an early custom in other nations. Burder, in Res. Alt u. neu Morgenland, in loc. When Christ ascended to heaven, he triumphed ever all his foes. It was a complete victory over the malice of the great enemy of God, and over those who had sought his life. But he did more. He rescued those who were the captives of Satan, and led them in triumph. Man was held by Satan as a prisoner. His chains were around him. Christ rescued the captive prisoner, and designed to make him a part of his triumphal procession into heaven, that thus the victory might be complete – triumphing not only over the great foe himself, but swelling his procession with the attending hosts of those who had been the captives of Satan, now rescued and redeemed.
And gave gifts unto men – Such as he specifies in Eph 4:11.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Eph 4:8
Wherefore He saith, when He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
The glory of the ascended Christ
I. The ascension of Christ secured and declared His triumph.
1. The glory of Christ was foreshadowed by the triumphal procession of Jehovah to Zion.
(1) The captives of the Lord of salvation: the redeemed; sin; death; Satan.
(2) The riches of the Lord of salvation: gifts, not of gold, etc., but of spiritual life, endowment, and reward.
2. The descent and ascension of Christ reveal the universal character of His triumph. There is no sphere of the universe He did not enter, and there is nothing that remains unaffected by His influence.
II. The gifts conferred upon Christians and exercised in the Church are a portion of the glory of the ascended Lord. Instead of fretting at the manifold distinctions of the Christian ministry, we ought to look upon these as showing forth the unspeakable fulness and glory of Jesus Christ. The varied functions of the ministry, and the private gifts of the membership, are signs not of weakness, but of all-conquering power, and they all emanate from the one Lord. The rich variety of nature is surpassed by the more significant and glorious variety of grace. (A. E. Muir, M. A.)
The ascension of Christ
I. The fact of Christs ascension.
1. It should afford us supreme joy to remember that He who descended into the lower parts of the earth has now ascended up far above all heavens. Shame is swallowed up in glory, pain is lost in bliss, death in immortality. Well deserves the Warrior to receive glory, for He has dearly won it (Psa 6:8).
2. Reflect yet again that from the hour our Lord left it, this world has lost all charms to us. If He were in it, there were no spot in the universe which would hold us with stronger ties; but since He has gone up He draws us upward from it. The flower is gone from the garden, the first ripe fruit is gathered. Earths crown has lost its brightest jewel, the star is gone from the night, the dew is exhaled from the morning, the sun is eclipsed at noon. Joseph is no more in Egypt, and it is time for Israel to be gone. No, earth, my treasure is not here with thee, neither shall my heart be detained by thee.
3. We must henceforth walk by faith, and not by sight. Jesus is no more seen of human eyes; and it is well, for faiths sight is saving, instructing, transforming, and mere natural sight is not so.
4. Reflect how secure is our eternal inheritance now that Jesus has entered into the heavenly places. Our heaven is secured to us, for it is in the actual possession of our legal representative, who can never be dispossessed of it.
II. The triumph of the ascension (see Psa 24:1-10; Psa 68:1-35).
1. Our Lords Ascension was a triumph over the world, He had passed through it unscathed by its temptations; He had been solicited on all hands to sin, but His garments were without spot or blemish. He rises above all, for He is superior to all. As the world could not injure His character by its temptations, so no longer could it touch His person by its malice.
2. There, too, He led captive sin. Evil had assailed Him furiously, but it could not defile Him.
3. Death also was led in triumph. Death had bound Him, but He snapped each fetter, and bound death with his own cords. Our Saviours ascension in that same body which descended into the lower parts of the earth is so complete a victory over death, that every dying saint may be sure of immortality, and may leave his body behind without fear that it shall forever abide in the vaults of the grave.
4. So, too, Satan was utterly defeated!
5. Brethren in Christ, everything that makes up our captivity Christ has led captive. Moral evil He has defeated, the difficulties and trials of this mortal life He has virtually overcome.
III. We may now turn to consider the gifts of the ascension. The blessings which come to us through the ascension are for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. Observe next, that these filling blessings of the ascension are given to all the saints. Does not the first verse of our text say: Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. The Holy Spirit is the particular benediction of the ascension, and the Holy Spirit is in measure given to all truly regenerated persons. Trace all gospel success to the ascended Saviour. Look to Christ for more successful workers. As they come, receive them from His hands; when they come, treat them kindly as His gifts, and daily pray that the Lord will send to Zion mighty champions of the faith.
IV. We shall conclude by noticing the bearing of our Lords ascension unto sinners. He received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also. When the Lord went back to His throne He had thoughts of love towards rebels still. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The ascension of Christ
Having spoiled His enemies on the cross, He further makes a public triumphal show of them in His own person, which is a second act; as the manner of the Roman emperors was, in their great triumph, to ride through the city in the greatest state, and have all the spoils carried before them, and the kings and nobles, whom they had taken; and this did Christ at His ascension, plainly manifesting, by His open show of them, that He had spoiled and fully subdued them. (T. Goodwin.)
Gifts for men
It was the custom of the Roman emperors at their triumphal entrance to cast new coins among the multitudes; so doth Christ, in His triumphal ascension into heaven, throw the greatest gifts for the good of men that were ever given. (T. Goodwin.)
Ascension of Christ
Must the sun need come to us, or else cannot his heat and light profit us? Nay, it doth us more good, because it is so far off: so this Sun is gone from as, that He may give more light to us, which made Him say, It is good for you that I go from you. Therefore, away with this carnal eating of spiritual things. (Henry Smith.)
Diversity of gifts
Everyone hath some excellency or other in him, can we but find and improve it. God hath dispensed His gifts diversely, for the common benefit. And as, in the same pasture, the ox can find fodder, the hound a hare, the stork a lizard, the fair maid flowers; so there is none so worthless, but something may be made of him; some good extracted out of the unlikeliest. Yea, wisdom is such an elixir, as by contraction (if there be any disposition of goodness in the same metal) it will render it of the property. (John Trapp.)
Captivity captured
Two things are referred to in these words, as following from the ascension of Christ into heaven. One has reference to the manifest accomplishment of His work in the fact of His ascension; the other is a statement of what He does in consequence of that success–not resulting from it, but as the expression of His goodwill on the occasion of His success.
I. Christ overcame those special foes which He came to earth to encounter.
II. Having overcome them, He still holds them in His power. He lives now; He has taken His place before God; there He waits. He waited once before till the fulness of time came; He waits now till the appointed season comes. He has not let His prisoners free; He had not let them go out of His hand.
III. Christ bestows a special gift on men that they may share in His victory. He gave gifts in the shape of apostles, pastors, teachers, and so on, for the definite purpose of carrying on His work–the perfecting of the saints. He thus bestows, not spoils which He has gained from His enemies, but the special gift of His own favour.
IV. But one more very important thought. Who shall thus not only share with Him. The spoils, but enjoy the free gift of Christ? Why, those who follow Him. (H. W. Butcher.)
Christs ascension
I. The exaltation of Christ. His work was done, and therefore He ascended up on high in His official capacity.
II. The achievements of Christ. When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive. Look at the expression captivity. Then it seems that the souls for whom He bled and suffered were captives; the prophet calls them lawful captives, and the prey of the terrible. What! lead them captives again? Some may be inclined to say, Oh, its only being transferred from one captivity to another. First, He overcomes them by grace, and then He leads them captive into His blessed and glorious captivity, and leads them to say, We were in captivity to Satans malice once; the old serpent held us fast once, but now we are in captivity to the Lord Jesus Christ, to His love, to His sway, to His sovereignty; with His three-fold cord in our hearts, fixed and twined completely round our affections.
III. The treasures that Christ distributes. How grand and glorious is the catalogue of the gifts He gives to believers! He has given all gifts. He never made a saving or exception of any. There is no limit to His bounty. Everything in Christianity is the free gift of God. He gave gifts to men. In order to condense here as much as I can, I shall classify a little, and just observe, in the first place, the first gift bestowed after His ascension. If I go not away, the Comforter will not come; but if I go away, I will send Him to you, and when He is come He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance. So that this is the first ascension gift. Oh, what an amazing gift! There is another gift that we must mention. When He ascended up on high, He gave the gift of imputed righteousness to those new-created souls of whom the Holy Ghost became the Teacher. (J. Irons.)
The purpose of Christs gifts
I. Christ gave special gifts, in order that through an endless diversity of lives and works and thoughts, we may be all united to one another in one Body, pervaded and animated by one Spirit. The first grand object in our Lords mind was and is union among men, union with God. As a rule we value ourselves on our diversities. And that without ever asking ourselves, Why am I different? God makes nothing in vain. If He has made me different from my friend in some point of character, it is surely that I may supply something in him; that he and I together may effect something for each other and for others which separately could not be accomplished.
II. The gifts of Christ to us are directed to producing in us steadiness of character through reality. We are to measure ourselves and our opportunities truly, and to get rid of self-deceptions.
1. How common it is for earnest persons to fancy that a wide gulf exists between their capacities for doing Gods service and the opportunities which He affords them! Is not this in reality a very specious form of murmuring against God? We need to use earnest prayer for nothing more than a true faculty of vision.
2. Another and very lowering habit of mind and life which interferes still more with that steadiness through reality of which we are in quest, is what I may venture to call frivolity in the very discharge of earnest duty. There are many most noble occupations which ought to have an inspiring power, that are not glorified at all by those who use them, and that seem to haw no elevating effect on them. Now, one cause of this is to be found in secret impurities of the thought and imagination of the heart. Nothing so protects a man–awful thought! from the influence of Gods Spirit; nothing so certain to prevent his acquiring that steadiness which truth of knowledge and truth of thought and of will bring with them. But second only to this in its miserable blighting effect, is to approach earnest duties in a frivolous, light, unprayerful spirit.
III. The third object of Christ in giving us gifts from heaven is, that we may grow in spiritual strength by living lives of spiritual activity. (Archbishop Benson.)
The gifts of Christ to His Church
I. The nature of the gift. It was–
1. A gift of men. Not merely a record, but a living voice speaking to living men.
2. A varied gift. Variety in unity, shown–
(1) By distinct offices.
(2) By individual characteristics.
II. The object of the gift. For the perfecting of the saints, etc., shown–
1. By enabling them better to discharge their ministry. Christs own life of service our pattern (Mat 20:28).
2. By edifying Christs body.
III. The ultimate end. Till we all come, etc., The end is perfect conformity to Christ, the perfect Man. The means–knowledge of the Son of God (Joh 17:3); full knowledge hereafter (Eph 3:19; Php 3:10; 1Co 13:12). Practical application:
1. Consider the priceless blessing the Gospels have been. Charter of our faith (Luk 1:1-4). Christs own gift by His Spirit (Joh 14:26).
2. Are we ourselves becoming like Christ our Pattern? This the practical object. A Church of living stones–true disciples of the Master. (A. C. Hellicar, M. A.)
Jesus gives mercy
When the Duke of Argyll was taken before James II to receive sentence for the part he had taken in the rebellion in Scotland, the king said to him, You know that it is in my power to pardon you. The duke, who knew the king well, replied faithfully, It may be in your power, but it is not in your nature, and he was led forth to prison and death. It is not so with King Immanuel. He who says, All power is given unto Me both in heaven and in earth, is the same who says, Him that cometh to Me I will in nowise cast out. (R. Brewin.)
The Conquerors gifts
As in the Roman triumphs the victor ascended up to the capitol in a chariot of state, (the prisoners following on foot with their hands bound behind) and threw certain pieces of coin abroad to be picked up by the common people; so Christ in the day of His solemn inauguration into His heavenly kingdom triumphed over sin, death, and hell, and gave gifts unto men. (J. Trapp.)
Gifts for the rebellious
Mr. Moody tells us how his elder brother ran away from home soon after their fathers death, and the absence of the beloved boy was the perpetual grief of his mothers heart. She waited years and years for a letter from the wanderer, but none came. Long years had rolled away, and the mothers hair had grown grey, when, one summers afternoon, a sunburnt man was seen coming into the gate at Northfield. He knocked at the door. The mother went and opened the door, and invited the stranger in. He held back for a moment, until the tears started, and he exclaimed, No, mother, I will not come in until you forgive me! He did not stand there long. Her big motherly heart rejoiced more over the returning prodigal than over all of the boys that had never run away. Jesus keeps no sinner waiting outside His open door. The forgiveness of a lifetimes sin is the very first boon to the hungry penitent. (T. L. Cuyler, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 8. Wherefore he saith] The reference seems to be to Ps 68:18, which, however it may speak of the removal of the tabernacle, appears to have been intended to point out the glorious ascension of Christ after his resurrection from the dead. The expositions of various commentators have made the place extremely difficult. I shall not trouble my reader with them; they may be seen in Rosenmuller.
When he ascended up on high] The whole of this verse, as it stands in the psalm, seems to refer to a military triumph. Take the following paraphrase: Thou hast ascended on high: the conqueror was placed in a very elevated chariot. Thou hast led captivity captive: the conquered kings and generals were usually bound behind the chariot of the conqueror, to grace the triumph. Thou host received gifts for (Paul, given gifts unto) men: at such times the conqueror was wont to throw money among the crowd. Even to the rebellious: those who had fought against him now submit unto him, and share his munificence; for it is the property of a hero to be generous. That the Lord God might dwell among them: the conqueror being now come to fix his abode in the conquered provinces, and subdue the people to his laws.
All this the apostle applies to the resurrection, ascension, and glory of Christ; though it has been doubted by some learned men whether the psalmist had this in view. I shall not dispute about this; it is enough for me that the apostle, under the inspiration of God, applied the verse in this way; and whatever David might intend, and of whatever event he might have written, we see plainly that the sense in which the apostle uses it was the sense of the Spirit of God; for the Spirit in the Old and New Testaments is the same. I may venture a short criticism on a few words in the original: Thou hast received gifts for men, lakachta mattanoth baadam, thou hast taken gifts in man, in Adam. The gifts which Jesus Christ distributes to man he has received in man, in and by virtue of his incarnation; and it is in consequence of his being made man that it may be said, The Lord God dwells among them; for Jesus was called Immanuel, God with us, in consequence of his incarnation. This view of the subject is consistent with the whole economy of grace, and suits well with the apostle’s application of the words of the psalmist in this place.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Wherefore he saith; the psalmist.
When he; Christ, God manifested in the flesh: and then what was spoken by the psalmist prophetically in the second person, is spoken by the apostle historically in the third.
Ascended up on high; Christ ascended up on high after his death, both as to place, in his human nature, into heaven; and chiefly as to his state, in his being glorified.
He led captivity captive; either led those captive who had taken us captive, or rather led them captive whom he had taken captive;
captivity being here put for captives, as elsewhere poverty for poor, 2Ki 24:14. This Christ did when, having conquered sin, death, Satan, he triumphed gloriously over them in his ascension, Col 2:15. It is spoken with allusion to conquering princes or generals, who in their triumphs had their captives attending upon their chariots.
And gave gifts unto men; he alludes in this likewise to the custom of conquerors casting money among the people that were the spectators of their triumphs, or giving largesses to their soldiers. Christ upon his ascension sent the Holy Ghost on the disciples, Act 2:1-47, and continues ever since to furnish his church with gifts and graces: see on Psa 68:18.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8. Wherefore“For whichreason,” namely, in order to intimate that Christ, the Head ofthe Church, is the author of all these different gifts, and thatgiving of them is an act of His “grace” [ESTIUS].
he saithGod, whoseword the Scripture is (Ps 68:18).
When he ascendedGODis meant in the Psalm, represented by the ark, which was beingbrought up to Zion in triumph by David, after that “the Lord hadgiven him rest round about from all his enemies” (2Sa 6:1-7;1Ch 15:1-29). Paul quotesit of CHRIST ascending toheaven, who is therefore GOD.
captivitythat is, aband of captives. In the Psalm, the captive foes of David. In theantitypical meaning, the foes of Christ the Son of David, the devil,death, the curse, and sin (Col 2:15;2Pe 2:4), led as it were intriumphal procession as a sign of the destruction of the foe.
gave gifts unto meninthe Psalm, “received gifts for men,” Hebrew,“among men,” that is, “thou hast received gifts”to distribute among men. As a conqueror distributes in tokenof his triumph the spoils of foes as gifts among his people. Theimpartation of the gifts and graces of the Spirit depended onChrist’s ascension (Joh 7:39;Joh 14:12). Paul stops short inthe middle of the verse, and does not quote “that the Lord Godmight dwell among them.” This, it is true, is partlyfulfilled in Christians being an “habitation of God through theSpirit” (Eph 2:22). Butthe Psalm (Ps 68:16) refers to”the Lord dwelling in Zion for ever“; the ascensionamidst attendant angels, having as its counterpart the second adventamidst “thousands of angels” (Ps68:17), accompanied by the restoration of Israel (Ps68:22), the destruction of God’s enemies and the resurrection(Psa 68:20; Psa 68:21;Psa 68:23), the conversion of thekingdoms of the world to the Lord at Jerusalem (Ps68:29-34).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Wherefore he saith,…. God in the Scripture, Ps 68:18
when he ascended up on high; which is not to be understood of Moses’s ascending up to the firmament at the giving of the law, as some Jewish writers q interpret it; for though Moses ascended to the top of Mount Sinai, yet it is never said that he went up to the firmament of heaven; nor of David’s going up to the high fortresses of his enemies, as another of those writers r would have it; nor of God’s ascent from Mount Sinai, when he gave the law, of which there is no mention in Scripture; but of the Messiah’s ascension to heaven, which may very well be signified by this phrase, “on high”; see Ps 102:19, and which ascension is to be taken not in a figurative, but literal sense, and as real, local, and visible, as Christ’s ascension to heaven was; being from Mount Olivet, attended by angels, in the sight of his apostles, after he had conversed with them from the time of his resurrection forty days; and which ascension of his was in order to fulfil the type of the high priest entering into the most holy place; and to make intercession for his people, and to send down the Spirit with his gifts and graces to them, and to make way and prepare mansions of glory for them, and receive the glory promised and due to him: in the Hebrew text it is, “thou hast ascended”; there the psalmist speaks to the Messiah, here the apostle speaks of him; though the Arabic and Ethiopic read there, “he ascended”, as here:
he led captivity captive; which is expressive of Christ’s conquests and triumph over sin, Satan, the world, death, and the grave; and indeed, every spiritual enemy of his and his people, especially the devil, who leads men captive at his will, and is therefore called captivity, and his principalities and powers, whom Christ has spoiled and triumphed over; the allusion is to the public triumphs of the Romans, in which captives were led in chains, and exposed to open view s:
and gave gifts unto men; meaning the gifts of the Holy Ghost, and particularly such as qualify men for the work of the ministry; these he received , “in man”; in human nature, in that nature in which he ascended to heaven; , “in the man that is known above” t, as say the Jews; and these he bestows on men, even rebellious ones, that the Lord God might dwell among them, and make them useful to others: wherefore the Jews have no reason to quarrel with the version of the apostle as they do u; who, instead of “received gifts for” men, renders it, “gave gifts to men”; since the Messiah received in order to give, and gives in consequence of his having received them; and so Jarchi interprets the words, , “to give them” to the children of men; and besides, as a learned man has observed w, one and the same Hebrew word signifies to give and to receive; to which may be added that their own Targum renders it
, “and hast given gifts to the children of men”; and in like manner the Syriac and Arabic versions of Ps 68:18 render the words; very likely the apostle might use the Syriac version, which is a very ancient one: it was customary at triumphs to give gifts to the soldiers x, to which there is an allusion here.
q Targum & Jarchi in Psal. lxviii 18. r Aben Ezra in loc. s Alex. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 6. c. 6. t Zohar in Numb. fol. 61. 4. u R. Isaac. Chizzuk Emuna, par. 2. c. 91. w Pocock. not. Misc. p. 24. x Alex. ab. Alex. ib. ut supra. (Genial. Dier. l. 6. c. 6.)
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Wherefore he saith ( ). As a confirmation of what Paul has said. No subject is expressed in the Greek and commentators argue whether it should be (God) or (Scripture). But it comes to God after all. See Ac 2:17. The quotation is from Ps 68:18, a Messianic Psalm of victory which Paul adapts and interprets for Christ’s triumph over death.
He led captivity captive ( ). Cognate accusative of , late word, in N.T. only here and Re 13:10. The verb also () is from the old word , captive in war (in N.T. only in Lu 4:18), in LXX and only here in N.T.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Wherefore. Confirming by Scripture what has just been said.
When He ascended, etc. Quoted from Psa 68:19 (LXX Psa 67:18). The Hebrew reads : “Ascending to the height thou didst lead captive captivity, and received gifts in man.” So Sept. Paul changes thou didst lead, didst receive, into he lead and he gave. The Psalm is Messianic, a hymn of victory in which God is praised for victory and deliverance. It is freely adapted by Paul, who regards its substance rather than its letter, and uses it as an expression of the divine triumph as fulfilled in Christ ‘s victory over death and sin.
Ascended. The ascent of Jehovah is realized in Christ ‘s ascent into heaven.
Captivity. Abstract for the body of captives. See on Luk 4:18. The captives are not the redeemed, but the enemies of Christ ‘s kingdom, Satan, Sin, and Death. Compare on Col 2:15, and 2Co 2:14. Gave. In the Hebrew and Septuagint, received or took; but with the sense received in order to distribute among men. Compare Gen 14:9, take for me : Gen 18:5, I will fetch for you : Exo 27:20, bring thee, i e., take and present to thee : Act 2:33, “Having received of the Father, etc., He hath shed forth.” Thus Paul interprets the received of the Old Testament. His point is the distribution of grace by Christ in varied measure to individuals. He confirms this by Scripture, seeing in the Jehovah of this Old – Testament passage the Christ of the New Testament – one Redeemer under both covenants – and applying the Psalmist’s address to Christ who distributes the results of His victory among His loyal subjects. These results are enumerated in ver. 11 sqq.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Wherefore he saith” (dio legei) “Wherefore he says,” or “in confirmation of which he affirms. “‘ There follows an Old Testament quotation to establish the ancient purpose and plan of God in carrying on His work of grace and redemption through the church, Psa 68:18.
2) “When he ascended up on high” (anabas eis hupis) “Having ascended to height – This refers to the triumphant resurrection of Jesus Christ and His ascension into heaven, His former and present habitation, after He effected victory for the redeemed. This is a prophetic fulfillment of Israel’s triumphant ascent to Zion, Act 2:33; Heb 1:3.
3) “He led captivity captive” (echmaloteusen aichmalosian) “He led captive captivity,” or the captivator, death. The term “aichmalosian” means a “body of captives” as used in Jdg 5:12, suggesting nothing of who they were. Since the term “a body of captives” is indefinite, it is best that commentators leave it that way, rather than conjure up visions of taking souls or bodies of dead saints out of a self-created portioned place called Paradise and moving them up to heaven. Perhaps nothing more is affirmed than that Christ conquered sin, Satan and death forever, Rev 1:18.
4), “And gave gifts unto men” (edoken domata tois anthropois) “And he gave gifts to men.” The dispensing of charismatic gifts to men in the church began according to promise, on the day of Pentecost and lasted only until the Bible was completed and became man’s complete or perfect rule of faith in practice, Joh 14:17-18; Joh 16:7-11; Act 2:1-4; 1Co 12:1-27; 1Co 13:13; Jas 1:25.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
8. Therefore he saith. To serve the purpose of his argument, Paul has departed not a little from the true meaning of this quotation. Wicked men charge him with having made an unfair use of Scripture. The Jews go still farther, and, for the sake of giving to their accusations a greater air of plausibility, maliciously pervert the natural meaning of this passage. What is said of God, is applied by them to David or to the people. “David, or the people,” they say, “ascended on high, when, in consequence of many victories, they rose superior to their enemies.” But a careful examination of the Psalm will convince any reader that the words, he ascended up on high, are applied strictly to God alone.
The whole Psalm may be regarded as an ἐπίνικιον, a song of triumph, which David sings to God on account of the victories which he had obtained; but, taking occasion from the narrative of his own exploits, he makes a passing survey of the astonishing deliverances which the Lord had formerly wrought for his people. His object is to shew, that we ought to contemplate in the history of the Church the glorious power and goodness of God; and among other things he says, Thou hast ascended on high. (Psa 68:18.) The flesh is apt to imagine that God remains idle and asleep, when he does not openly execute his judgments. To the view of men, when the Church is oppressed, God is in some manner humbled; but, when he stretches out his avenging arm for her deliverance, he then appears to rouse himself, and to ascend his throne of judgment.
“
Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine. And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts; he put them to a perpetual reproach.” (Psa 78:65.)
This mode of expression is sufficiently common and familiar; and, in short, the deliverance of the Church is here called the ascension of God.
Perceiving that it is a song of triumph, in which David celebrates all the victories which God had wrought for the salvation of his Church, Paul very properly quoted the account given of God’s ascension, and applied it to the person of Christ. The noblest triumph which God ever gained was when Christ, after subduing sin, conquering death, and putting Satan to flight, rose majestically to heaven, that he might exercise his glorious reign over the Church. Hitherto there is no ground for the objection, that Paul has applied this quotation in a manner inconsistent with the design of the Psalmist. The continued existence of the Church is represented by David to be a manifestation of the Divine glory. But no ascension of God more triumphant or memorable will ever occur, than that which took place when Christ was carried up to the right hand of the Father, that he might rule over all authorities and powers, and might become the everlasting guardian and protector of his people.
He led captivity captive. Captivity is a collective noun for captive enemies; and the plain meaning is, that God reduced his enemies to subjection, which was more fully accomplished in Christ than in any other way. He has not only gained a complete victory over the devil, and sin, and death, and all the power of hell, — but out of rebels he forms every day “a willing people,” (Psa 110:3,) when he subdues by his word the obstinacy of our flesh. On the other hand, his enemies — to which class all wicked men belong — are held bound by chains of iron, and are restrained by his power from exerting their fury beyond the limits which he shall assign.
And gave gifts to men. There is rather more difficulty in this clause; for the words of the Psalm are, “thou hast received gifts for men,” while the apostle changes this expression into gave gifts, and thus appears to exhibit an opposite meaning. Still there is no absurdity here; for Paul does not always quote the exact words of Scripture, but, after referring to the passage, satisfies himself with conveying the substance of it in his own language. Now, it is clear that the gifts which David mentions were not received by God for himself, but for his people; and accordingly we are told, in an earlier part of the Psalm, that “the spoil” had been “divided” among the families of Israel. (Psa 68:12.) Since therefore the intention of receiving was to give gifts, Paul can hardly be said to have departed from the substance, whatever alteration there may be in the words.
At the same time, I am inclined to a different opinion, that Paul purposely changed the word, and employed it, not as taken out of the Psalm, but as an expression of his own, adapted to the present occasion. Having quoted from the Psalm a few words descriptive of Christ’s ascension, he adds, in his own language, and gave gifts, — for the purpose of drawing a comparison between the greater and the less. Paul intends to shew, that this ascension of God in the person of Christ was far more illustrious than the ancient triumphs of the Church; because it is a more honorable distinction for a conqueror to dispense his bounty largely to all classes, than to gather spoils from the vanquished.
The interpretation given by some, that Christ received from the Father what he would distribute to us, is forced, and utterly at variance with the apostle’s purpose. No solution of the difficulty, in my opinion, is more natural than this. Having made a brief quotation from the Psalm, Paul took the liberty of adding a statement, which, though not contained in the Psalm, is true in reference to Christ — a statement, too, by which the ascension of Christ is proved to be more illustrious, and more worthy of admiration, than those ancient manifestations of the Divine glory which David enumerates.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(8) Wherefore he saith.The reference is to Psalms 68a psalm which (as the quotation from Num. 10:35, in the first verse, shows) is a psalm celebrating some moving of the ark, traditionally (and most probably) connected with Davids bringing up of the ark (2 Samuel 6) to Mount Zion. The very change from the second person to the third person shows it to be a free quotation; and this is made far more evident by the remarkable variation from the text of the original, which runs, Thou receivedst gifts in mani.e., probably, among men; and adds, even the rebellious, that the Lord God might dwell among thema clause which (from Eph. 4:29-31) we may suppose to refer to the homage of the heathen to the Lord Jehovah. Now, it has been noted that the word received is used constantly for receiving, or fetching, for another (Gen. 15:9; Gen. 18:5; Gen. 27:13, et al.); and it appears that the Chaldee Targum actually has here, as a gloss: Thou hast given gifts to the sons of men, interpreting the words, curiously enough, of Moses as a mediator between God and man. The psalm also was recognised as a Messianic psalm, foreshadowing the dwelling of God with us in the universal kingdom of the true Mediator. St. Paul accordingly uses it with a bold variation suiting his context. The key to this use is found in the truth enunciated of our Lord in Act. 2:33, that being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He hath shed forth this. Our Lord, as the Head of humanity, receives only in order to give. From the means, therefore, the Apostle passes to the end.
He led captivity captive.The modern use of these words as describing our Lords triumph over the power of evil, hitherto triumphant over man, and so giving freedom by leading captive the power of captivity, although in itself profoundly true, is not supported by the original, in which it is simply used for a body of captives. St. Pauls use of it here is probably best interpreted by Col. 2:15, where it is said of the principalities and powersthe powers of sin and deaththat He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in the cross. (See Note on this passage.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8. Wherefore In illustration of these gifts, St. Paul now quotes a passage (Psa 68:18, where see note) in which Jehovah is represented as having ascended on high, and applies it to the ascended Christ, just mentioned as the divine giver. The psalm is a song of Jehovah’s victory, on what occasion written is not certain, but unquestionably applicable to Christ, who is the Jehovah of the Old Testament. But the particular verse quoted seems to describe the triumphant Jehovah ascending Mount Zion, or some other capital, leading his captives and spoils won in battle. The He may refer to Christ, who spoke through the inspired psalmist, and thus shadowed his future triumphant ascension. Yet the same method of introducing Scripture quotation is used at Eph 5:14; 1Co 6:16; Gal 3:16; and even in the Apocrypha, ( 1Ma 7:16 ,) and by Philo; from all which it is clear that a divine He was reverently held as speaking, with more or less distinctness and personality, through the old Scriptures. That Jehovah-Jesus is that divine He, is strikingly stated in Rev 19:10: “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
When he St. Paul, for convenience of application without changing the sense, changes thou to he.
Led captivity captive Literal Greek, He captured a captivity; or, He captured a capture. That is, He took a body of captives. Dr. Craven, the American editor of Lange’s “Revelation,” maintains that the phrase implies simply a rescue of friends from captivity in the hands of enemies. But the Greek verb, which is rendered by the phrase led captive, or captured, must mean to reduce to captivity, not deliver from it.
Gave men The words of the psalm are, “He received gifts for men;” that is, to bestow upon men. Paul simply supplies the sense which the psalmist implies. The psalmist says that the ascending Jehovah took gifts for men; that is, to bestow on men; the apostle, now that the giving is being done, says, he gave gifts unto men. Yet a more literal rendering would be, “he took gifts in men;” that is, he took captives to be distributed as spoils or gifts to his followers.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Which is why he says, ‘When he ascended on high he led captivity (or ‘prisoners of war’) captive and gave gifts to men.’
‘He says.’ Some see this as meaning simply ‘it is said’. But there are good grounds in seeing this as demonstrating Paul’s view that the Scriptures were the voice of God (a view certainly taken by the Jewish theologian Philo).
The words are a quotation from Psa 68:18, but there the Massoretic text reads, ‘You have ascended on high, you have led captivity captive, you have received gifts among men.’ However the Aramaic Targum (Rabbinic commentary) on the book of Psalms and the Syriac Peshitta ( Old Testament in Syriac) both read ‘you have given gifts to men’ which suggests either a translation from a Hebrew text which contained these words, which was also clearly known to Paul, or an authentic oral tradition. He Who received gifts also gave them. The receiving of tribute by a great conquering king would regularly be accompanied by a giving of gifts to those who had served him faithfully.
So the picture is of a conquering lord leading prisoners of war captive and receiving tribute, and giving from the tribute to those who had proved faithful, and this is clearly the basis for the alternative rendering which is cited from some source. So Paul has in mind here the triumph of Christ on the cross, defeating the powers of the Enemy (Col 2:15) and giving gifts to His faithful people. The source of our gifts is the triumph of the great Giver.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Eph 4:8 . If it had just been said that by Christ the endowment of grace was distributed in varied measure to each individual, this is now confirmed by a testimony of the Scripture . Nothing is to be treated as a parenthesis, inasmuch as neither course of thought nor construction is interrupted.
] wherefore , because the case stands, as has been said, Eph 4:7 , He saith. Who says it (comp. Eph 5:14 ), is obvious of itself, namely, God , whose word the Scripture is. See on 1Co 6:16 ; Gal 3:16 ; the supplying or must have been suggested by the context (Rom 15:10 ). The manner of citation with the simple , obviously meant of God, has as its necessary presupposition, in the mind of the writer and readers, the Theopneustia of the O. T. The citation that follows is not “ ex carmine , quod ab Ephesiis cantitari sciret,” and in which Psa 68:18 had partly furnished the words (Storr, Opusc . III. p. 309; Flatt), which is quite an arbitrary way of avoiding the difficulty, and at variance with the divine , but is the passage of Scripture Psa 68:18 itself according to the LXX. with free alteration . This psalm, in its historical sense a song of triumph upon the solemn entry of God into Zion, [204] is here understood according to its Messianic significance an understanding, which has its warrant, not indeed in the much too general and vague proposition, that one and the same God is the Revealer of the Old and of the New Covenant (Harless), but in the circumstance that the triumphal procession of Jehovah, celebrated in the psalm, represents the victory of the Theocracy ; and that, as every victory of the Theocracy is of a typical and in so far prophetic Messianic character, the return of Christ into heaven appears as the Messianic actual consummation of the divine triumph. The free deviation from the original text and the LXX . consists partly in the immaterial circumstance that Paul transfers into the third person that which is said in the second, and adds to the article wanting in the LXX.; partly in the essential point, that instead of the original sense: “Thou receivedst gifts (namely, gifts of homage) among [205] men” ( , LXX.: , or according to another reading: ), he expresses the sense: He gave gifts to men , , while in other respects reproducing the transition of the LXX. Consequently Paul has, as regards the , given a sense opposite to the original one a degree of variation such as, with all freedom in the employment of Old Testament passages, is nowhere else met with in the writings of the apostle, on which account the book Chissuk Emuna accused him of falsifying the words of the psalm, while Whiston looked upon the Hebrew text and the LXX. in Psa 68:18 as corrupt. This difference is not to be explained , with Rckert, by lightly asserting: “Paul did not even perhaps know exactly how the words ran,” etc.; for in this way he would be chargeable with a shallow caprice, for which there is no warrant; moreover, the agreement, in other respects, of the citation with the original text and the LXX. leads us to infer too exact an acquaintance with the passage adduced, to allow us to assume that Paul adduced the words in the full belief that was read in the Hebrew, and in the LXX. Rather must he have in reality understood the passage of the psalm, as to its main substance, just as he gives it. Inasmuch, namely, as he had recognised the words in their bearing upon the antitypical Messianic fulfilment, and that as a confirmation of what had been said of Christ in Eph 4:7 , this latter special application must either have been suggested to him by another reading , which he followed ( instead of ), or else with the freedom of a Messianic interpretation of the words by an exposition of the Hebrew words, which yielded essentially the sense expressed by him. If the latter is the case (for in favour of the former there is no trace of critical support), he took , etc., in the sense: thou didst take away gifts, to distribute them among men (on the , see Ewald, Ausfhrl. Lehrb. der Heb. Spr. 217 f. 1), and translated this in an explanatory way : ; in connection with which the transposing into the third person is to be regarded as an unintentional variation in citing from memory. , namely, has often the proleptic sense to fetch [Germ. holen], i.e. to take anything for a person and to give it to him. See Gen 18:5 ; Gen 27:13 ; Gen 42:16 ; Gen 48:9 ; Job 38:20 (and Hirzel in loc. ); 2Sa 4:6 , al. ; see Gesen. Thes . II. p. 760, and Hoelemann, p. 97 f. Comp. Bengel: “ accepit dona, quae statim daret. ” The utterance, however, as thus understood, [206] Paul has reproduced, interpreting it as he has done, in order to place beyond doubt the sense which he attached to it, for the reader who might have otherwise understood the words of the LXX. The Chaldee Paraphrast likewise understood in such wise, that, while interpreting the passage of Moses , he could expound: , dedisti dona filiis hominum . It is evident from this, since there is good reason for presupposing in the Targum the more so, as in our passage the Peshito agrees therewith (which likewise, Psa 68 l.c. , has dedisti dona filiis hominum ) older exegetical traditions, that Paul himself may have followed such a tradition (Holzhausen, Baumgarten-Crusius, Credner, Beitrge, II. p. 121 f.). To assume that he actually did so, is in itself, and in reference to the previous Rabbinical training of the apostle, free from objection, and has sufficient warrant in that old and peculiar agreement, even though we should explain the agreement between the same citation in Justin, c. Tryph. 39, 87, and the quotation of the apostle, by a dependence upon the latter (Credner, Beitr. II. p. 120). On the other hand, it is not to be said, with Beza, Calovius, and most older expositors, [207] that the explanation given by Paul really corresponds with the historic sense of the passage in the Psalm (see especially, Geier, ad Ps. l.c. p. 1181; comp. also Hoelemann, p. 98 f.), which, judging by the context, is decidedly incorrect3. Even Calvin says: “nonnihil a genuino sensu hoc testimonium detorsit Paulus;” and already Theodore of Mopsuestia aptly remarks: , , (in the psalm) , (in our passage) . The deviation from the historic sense cannot be set aside with fairness and without arbitrary presuppositions. This holds not only of the opinions of Jerome and Erasmus (that in the psalm is used, because the giving has not yet taken place, but is promised as future) and of Calvin (“quum de Christi exaltatione pauca verba Psalmi citasset, de suo adjecit , eum dedisse dona, ut sit minoris et majoris comparatio, qua ostendere vult Paulus, quanto praestantior sit ista Dei ascensio in Christi persona, quam fuerit in veteribus ecclesiae triumphis”), but also of the expedients to which Harless and Olshausen have recourse. According to Harless, namely, Paul wishes to express the identity of God , whose deeds at that time the word of Scripture represents in a form which, as identical with the form of Christ’s action, makes us recognise the word of the O. T. as pointing forward. to what was to come, and the Christ of the N.T. as the God who already revealed Himself under the O. T.; in the words of the psalm the captives themselves are described as sacrificial gifts , which the victor as God takes to Himself among men; the apostle changes merely the form of the words, so far as the context makes it necessary, inasmuch as he wishes to make out that those vanquished ones who have not made themselves what they are, but have been made so of God are those , of whom he had said that on every one according to the measure of the gift of Christ the grace had been bestowed which was already pointed to in the psalm. “There is no other there,” says the apostle, “than He who had descended to earth, to gain for Himself His own; not that they would have presented themselves to Him, but He takes them as it pleases Him, and makes them what it pleases Him.” But (1) Paul does not wish to express the identity of God , etc., but to show that what is said of Christ in Eph 4:7 was also already prophesied Psa 68:18 ; it was a question of the identity of the thing , as to which it was self-evident that the triumph celebrated in Psa 68 is in the N.T. fulfilment celebrated by Christ , who had come in the name of the Lord. (2) In the Ps. l.c. , applies to the gifts of homage which the triumphing Jehovah has received among (from) men. Certainly, according to another explanation (see above, Ewald’s view, and comp. also Bleek), the men themselves, namely, the vanquished, may be regarded as the gifts or offerings which God has received; but who could withal read between the lines in the apostle’s citation what, according to Harless, one ought to read between them, in order in the end to find only the form of the words changed? Olshausen, who, we may mention, quite erroneously (see Eph 4:9-10 ) specifies as the point of the citation, [208] agrees with Harless in so far as he is of opinion that the thought of the psalmist: “Thou hast taken to Thyself gifts among men,” affirms nothing else than: “Thou hast chosen to Thyself the redeemed as offerings;” but further adds: “But the man whom God chooses as an offering for Himself, i.e. as an instrument for His aims, He furnishes with the gifts necessary to the attainment of the same; and this side (?) the apostle, in accordance with his tendency, here brings into special prominence.” Similarly also Hofmann, Schriftbew . II. 1, p. 484 f., who is of opinion that here, in the N.T. application of the passage from the psalm, it is one and the same thing whether one say: that Christ has, for the accomplishment of the work of His honour, caused to be given to Himself by His vanquished that which they possessed, or: that He has given them gifts to this end; “for He takes that which is theirs into His service, when He gives to them what is His, to make them capable of service.” Essentially so also Delitzsch on the Psalm, l.c. Such subtleties, by means of which any quid pro quo at pleasure may easily enough be got out of the alleged light and significance of the “history of the fulfilment” (Delitzsch), may be conveniently foisted upon the words of the apostle, but with what right?
] Whether we understand the in the original text of the ascending of the victorious God into heaven (Hengstenberg, Lengerke, Hitzig, Harless, Hoelemann, and others) or to Zion (Ewald, Bleek), or leave it without more precise definition of place (Hofmann); according to the Messianic accomplishment of the divine triumphal procession, which takes place through Christ, the words apply to Christ ascended (comp. , Act 2:33 ) to heaven (Psa 102:20 , al. ; Sir 13:8 ; Luk 1:78 ), who has brought in as captives enemies that have been vanquished by Him upon this triumphal march.
, namely, is the abstract collective for ( Jdt 2:9 ; Ezr 6:5 ; Rev 13:10 ; Diod. Sic. xvii. 70), like for , etc. See on Eph 2:2 . On the connection with the kindred verb (to take captive, to lead, to bring in as such), comp. 2Ch 28:5 ; 1Ma 9:72 ; and see, in general, Winer, p. 201 [E. T. 282]; Lobeck, Paral. p. 501. The character of as Greek is even worse than that of . See Lobeck, ad Phryn p. 442. But what subjects are meant by ? Not the redeemed , as already Justin, c. Tryph. 36; further, Theodoret ( , , ), Oecumenius, Thomas, Erasmus (“captivorum gregem e peccati diabolique tyrannide liberatum”), and others, including Meier, Harless, Olshausen (“men upon earth, so far as they are held captive by sin and in the ultimate ground by the prince of this world, and among these, in particular, the Gentile world”), Baumgarten-Crusius (“those gained for the kingdom of Christ”), have interpreted it; seeing that the captives, both according to the original text and according to our citation, are different from the who are subsequently mentioned, namely, such vanquished ones as are visited by the victor with the hard penal fate of captives in war. Hence also it cannot be the souls delivered by Christ from Hades (Lyra, Estius, and many Catholic expositors; Knig, von Christi Hbllenfahrt, p. 26; Delitzsch, Psychol . p. 414; and Baur) that are spoken of. It is the enemies of Christ and His kingdom, the antichristian powers , including those of hell (but not these alone); their power is broken by the completed redeeming work of the Lord. By His resurrection and exaltation they have been rendered powerless, and subjected to His victorious might; consequently they appear, in accordance with the poetical mould of our passage, as those whom He has vanquished and carries with Him on His procession from Hades into heaven (see Eph 4:9 ), so that He, having gone up on high, brings them in as prisoners of war . Not as if He has really brought them in captivity to heaven, but under the figure of the triumphator , as which the ascended Christ appears in accordance with the prophetic view given in Psa 68 , the matter thus presents itself, namely, the overcoming of His foes displaying itself through His ascension. This vanquishing, we may add, in its actual execution still continues even after the entering upon the kingly office which took place with the exaltation of Christ; , 1Co 15:25 . Not the final overcoming of the foes of Christ is thus meant, but the actual . ofttimes recurs until the final consummation, until at length , 1Co 15:26 , namely, at the resurrection on the last day. In this case, however, there is the more reason for leaving the matter without more precise definition of the hostile powers vanquished (Satanic and human), as the context suggests nothing more special, and as, speaking generally, the . . does not form for the aim and connection of our passage the essential point of the psalmist’s saying, but the latter would have been quite as fully in its place here, even though that . . had not been inserted, since the element confirmatory of Eph 4:7 lies simply in the . [209] Yet we have not, with Morus (comp. flatt), to rationalize the conception of the apostle: “removit omnia, quae religionis suae propagationi et felicitati hominum obstarent impedimenta,” by which the sense is altered, and vanquished foes become obstacles taken out of the way.
] according to Paul, gifts in which 7, thus equivalent to . An appropriate commentary on the sense in which Paul has taken the citation, is Act 2:33 . But to look upon the interpretation of the of the Ps. l.c. , in the sense of gifts of the Spirit as current among the disciples of the apostles (de Wette), is the more arbitrary, inasmuch as de Wette himself finds it probable that some apostle has allegorized the passage of the psalm.
[204] On what particular historic occasion this highly poetic song was composed, is for our passage a matter of indifference. According to the traditional view, it was composed by David on the occasion of the removal of the ark of the covenant from the house of Obed-edom to Jerusalem (2Sa 6:12 ff.; 2Sa 1 Chronicles 15 f.); according to Ewald, for the consecration of the new temple after the captivity; according to Hupfeld, upon the return from the captivity and the restoration of the kingdom; according to Hitzig, in celebration of the victory after the war of Jehoram and Jehoshaphat against the Moabites (2Ki 3 ). Others explain it otherwise. See the different views and explanations in Keuss, d. acht u. sechzigste Psalm, tin Denkmal exeget. Noth u. Kunst , 1851, who, however, himself very inappropriately (without “exegetical exigency and art”) places the Psalm in the late period between Alexander and the Maccabees, when the wish for the reunion of the scattered Israelites in Palestine is supposed to be expressed in it; while Justus Olshausen even interprets it of the victories of the Maccabees under Jonathan or Simon. See Ewald, Jahrb. IV. p. 55 f. Certainly the psalm is neither Davidic nor of the Maccabaean age, but belongs to the restoration of the Theocracy after the captivity.
[205] Yet might also denote that men themselves are the gifts. So Ewald takes it, l.c. (and comp. his Ausfhrl. Lehrb. der Hebr. Sprache, 287 h), referring it specially to the humbler servants of the temple, whom David and Solomon, e.g., gathered from among the subjugated peoples and settled around the temple, whom thus God, as if in a triumphal procession from Sinai to Zion, Himself brought in as captives, and then caused to be devoted by men to Him as offerings, in order that they, who were once so turbulent, might dwell peacefully in His service (“even rebellious ones must dwell with Jah God,” as Ewald renders the closing words of the passage). The sense: “through men,” which Hoelemann, on account of ver. 11, finds as a “secondary” meaning in , is not to be thought of, not even according to the apostle, who has expressed his view with such simple definiteness by .
[206] The phrase formerly so often compared, (Exo 21:10 ; Exo 34:16 ), is not in place here, since , in that phrase, signifies nothing else than the simple take.
[207] Chrysostom, without, however, entering into any particulars, says merely: the prophet says thou hast received , but Paul: he has given ; and the two are one and the same. Theodoret more precisely explains himself: (the taking and giving) . Comp. Oecumenius.
[208] “Paul does not wish by the quotation primarily to represent Christ as the dispenser of the gifts, but to prove from the O. T. itself the universality of the gifts of Christ , consequently the equal title of the Gentiles; He has by His redemption conferred gifts not merely on this one or that one, not upon the Jews alone, but upon men as such, upon mankind .” What Olshausen has further advanced respecting the dative expression with the article (instead of which the Hebrew text has among men , while no article is used in the LXX.) to wit, that by . , which applies to all men, it is not intended to say: all men must be redeemed, and as redeemed receive gifts; but: all men may be redeemed, and as redeemed obtain gifts of grace; and in so far this deviation from the original was altogether immaterial is pure invention. The difference certainly does not lie in the fact that points only to some, and the expression of Paul to all men, as Olshausen supposes, but solely in the of the original text and the of Paul. As well as designates men according to the category; but according to the original text it is men who are the givers, so that the Triumphator takes them; whereas, according to Paul, the men are the recipients, to whom He gives.
[209] Chrysostom, Theophylact, Beza, Calovius, and many others understood specially the devil and those things connected with him, death, condemnation, and sin. Comp. Luther’s gloss: “that is sin, death, and conscience, that they may not seize or keep us.” Grotius rationalizes: “ per apostolorum doctrinam vicit et velut captivam egit idololatriam et vitia alia .” Most comprehensively, but with an admixture of heterogeneous elements, Calvin says: “Neque enim Satanam modo et peecatum et mortem totosque inferos prostravit, sed ex rebellibus quotidie facit sibi obsequentem populum, quum verbo suo carnis nostrae lasciviam domat; rursus hostes suos, i.e. impios omnes quasi ferreis catenis continet constrictos, dum illorum furorem cohibet sua virtute, ne plus valeant, quam illis concedit.”
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
Ver. 8. He led captivity captive, &c. ] As in the Roman triumphs, the victor ascended up to the Capitol in a chariot of state, the prisoners following on foot with their hands bound behind, and they threw certain pieces of coin abroad, to be picked up by the common people; so Christ in the day of his solemn inauguration into his heavenly kingdom, triumphed over sin, death, and hell, Col 2:15 , and gave gifts to men.
And gave gifts unto men ] The Hebrew hath it,Psa 68:18Psa 68:18 ; “Thou receivest, gifts for men.” Christ received them that he might give them, and said, “It is a more blessed thing to give than to receive.” The Psalmist adds, “Ever for the rebellious.” To them also Christ gives common gifts, for the benefit of his people. Augustus in his solemn feast gave gifts; to some gold, to others trifles. So God in his ordinances, to some saving grace, to others common grace, and with this they rest content.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
8 .] Wherefore (‘qu cum ita sint:’ viz. the gift bestowed by Christ on different men according to measure) He (viz. God, whose word the Scriptures are. See reff. and notes: not merely ‘it,’ es heisst, as De W. al.: nor, : had it been the subject, it must have been expressed, as in Rom 4:3 ; Rom 9:17 al.) says (viz. in Psa 68:18 , see below: not, in some Christian hymn, as Flatt and Storr, which would not agree with , nor with the treatment of the citation, which is plainly regarded as carrying the weight of Scripture. With the question as to the occasion and intent of that Psalm, we are not here concerned. It is a song of triumph, as Eph 4:1 (cf. Num 10:35 ) shews, at some bringing up of the ark to the hill of Zion. It is therefore a Messianic Psalm. Every part of that ark, every stone of that hill, was full of spiritual meaning. Every note struck on the lyres of the sweet singers of Israel, is but part of a chord, deep and world-wide, sounding from the golden harps of redemption. The partial triumphs of David and Solomon only prefigured as in a prophetic mirror the universal and eternal triumph of the Incarnate Son of God. Those who do not understand this, have yet their first lesson in the O. T. to learn. With this caution let us approach the difficulties of the citation in detail) He ascended up on high (viz. Christ, at His Ascension: not ‘ having ascended:’ the aorist participle denotes an action not preceding, but parallel to, that expressed in the finite verb which it accompanies: see Bernhardy, Synt. p. 383. The ascending in the Psalm is that of God, whose presence was symbolized by the ark, to Zion. The Apostle changes the words from the 2nd person to the 3rd; the address asserting a fact , which fact he cites), he led captive a captivity (i.e. ‘those who suffer captivity:’ a troop of captives: such is the constant usage of the abstract for the concrete in LXX: cf. reff.: and it is never put for captivatores , ‘those who cause captivity,’ as some would interpret it. In the Psalm, these would be, the captives from the then war, whatever it was: in the interpretation, they were God’s enemies, Satan and his hosts, as Chr., ; . , , he gave gifts to mankind (Heb.: , LXX, (- [ [8] ] F [A def.]). The original meaning is obscure. There seems to be no necessity to argue for a sense of ‘thou receivedst in order to give;’ as the qualifying will shew for what purpose, in what capacity, the receipt took place. But certainly such a sense of seems to be substantiated: see Eadie’s note here, and his examples, viz. Gen 15:9 ; Gen 18:5 (where the sense is very marked, E. V. ‘I will fetch’), Gen 27:13 (ib. ‘fetch me them’), Gen 42:16 , Exo 27:20 (‘that they bring thee’), 1Ki 17:10 (‘fetch me,’ ), al. Then, what is ? First, is clearly used in a collective sense: we have Jer 32:20 , , ‘Israel and the rest of mankind,’ see also Isa 43:4 al. In Pro 23:28 , we have used for ‘inter homines,’ which is evidently its simplest meaning. If then we render here, ‘hast taken gifts among men,’ hast, as a victor, surrounded by thy victorious hosts, brought gifts home, spoils of the enemy, the result of such reception of gifts would be naturally stated as the distribution of them among such hosts, and the people, as indeed Eph 4:12 of the Psalm has already stated. And so the Chaldee paraphrast (and Syr. and Arabic vss.: but their testimony, as Christian, is little worth) understood the words, interpreting the passage of Moses (which does not invalidate his testimony: against Harl.): ‘thou hast given gifts to the sons of men.’ The literature of the passage may be seen in De W. and Meyer: and more at length in Stier, Eadie, and Harless. To give even a synopsis of it here would far exceed our limits).
[8] The CODEX SINAITICUS. Procured by Tischendorf, in 1859, from the Monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai. The Codex Frederico-Augustanus (now at Leipsic), obtained in 1844 from the same monastery, is a portion of the same copy of the Greek Bible, the 148 leaves of which, containing the entire New Testament, the Ep. of Barnabas, parts of Hermas, and 199 more leaves of the Septuagint, have now been edited by the discoverer. A magnificent edition prepared at the expense of the Emperor of Russia appeared in January, 1863, and a smaller edition containing the N.T. &c., has been published by Dr. Tischendorf. The MS. has four columns on a page, and has been altered by several different correctors, one or more of whom Tischendorf considers to have lived in the sixth century. The work of the original scribe has been examined, not only by Tischendorf, but by Tregelles and other competent judges, and is by them assigned to the fourth century . The internal character of the text agrees with the external, as the student may judge for himself from the readings given in the digest. The principal correctors as distinguished by Tischendorf are: A, of the same age with the MS. itself, probably the corrector who revised the book, before it left the hands of the scribe, denoted therefore by us -corr 1 ; B (cited as 2 ), who in the first page of Matt. began inserting breathings, accents, &c., but did not carry out his design, and touched only a few later passages; C a (cited as 3a ) has corrected very largely throughout the book. Wherever in our digest a reading is cited as found in 1 , it is to be understood, if no further statement is given, that C a altered it to that which is found in our text; C b (cited as 3b ) lived about the same time as C a , i.e. some centuries later than the original scribe. These are all that we need notice here 6 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Eph 4:8 . : wherefore He saith, when He ascended on high . The introduces the words which follow as a confirmation of what has just been said; and these words are not a parenthesis, but part of a direct and continuous statement; = “the fact that it is thus with Christ and His gift, and that the grace which we possess is bestowed by Him on each of us in varying measures as He distributes it, has the witness of God Himself in OT Scripture”. The quotation which follows is obviously taken from Psa 68:18 , and in the main in the form in which it is given in the LXX. There are difficulties in the rendering which Paul uses and in the application he makes of it. But they are not such as to justify the assertion that the passage is a quotation from some Christian hymn, and not from Scripture. There is nothing in the verse or in the context to suggest anything else than the Psalm. The question is raised whether the introductory is personal or impersonal; and whether, if personal, , or , or is to be understood. OT quotations are usually introduced by the personal term in such forms as (Act 2:17 ), (Rom 10:17 ), (Rom 10:16 ; Rom 10:20 ), (Rom 10:19 ), (Rom 4:6 ), (Rom 10:6 ). Sometimes, again, passive forms are used, (Rom 10:15 ), (Heb 7:17 ), etc. In other cases the simple (1Co 6:16 ; Heb 8:5 ), (Heb 4:4 ), or ( Gal 3:16 ; 2Co 6:2 ; Eph 4:8 ; Eph 5:14 ) is used; and in one case the is introduced as continuing (Rom 15:10 ). Some, therefore, hold that, in cases like the present, is impersonal, = “it is said,” as is used impersonally in Attic (Abb.; cf. Light, on Gal 3:16 ). As the NT, however, makes a very limited use of impersonal verbs of any kind, most take these undefined verbs by which quotations are introduced as personal, and so it is with here. The subject to be supplied must be the one most readily suggested by the context; and here, as in most cases, that will be neither nor , but . The full formula occurs in Act 2:17 , and is implied in the , “ ,” of Heb 4:7 . It is also confirmed in some degree by the analogous mention of the Holy Ghost in Heb 10:15 ( cf. Win.-Moult., p. 656; Blass, Gram. of N. T. Greek , p. 75). : when He ascended on high . In the Psalm the victorious Subject is addressed in the second person; here the “Thou” becomes “He”. In the Psalm the ascent expressed by (= “Thou hast gone up to the height”) is the triumphant ascent of the God of Israel to Zion , the place of His earthly rest, or (better) to heaven His proper habitation, after the victory He achieved for His people. Here it is the ascension of Christ to the right hand of God ( cf. Act 2:33 ). The aor. part. has its most proper temporal force, denoting something that preceded the main event in view. It means here, therefore, that Christ’s ascension had taken place before He distributed the gifts of grace. : He led captivity captive . In the original , the abstract (= “a body of captives”) chosen according to a familiar usage ( cf. Num 31:12 ; 2Ch 28:11 ; see Win.-Moult., p. 282), instead of the concrete (“captives”), adds to the force of the sentence. The verb belongs to late Greek; it is pretty freely used in the LXX and the Apocrypha. The phrase is a general one, meaning nothing more than that He made captives ( cf. Jdg 5:12 ), and suggesting nothing as to who these captives were. Neither in the Psalm nor in Paul’s use of it here is there anything to warrant the idea that the captives are the redeemed (Theod.), or men in the bonds of sin on earth (Harl.), or souls detained in Hades (Est., Knig, Delit., etc.). The most that the words themselves, or passages more or less analogous (1Co 15:25-26 ) warrant us to say is that the captives are the enemies of Christ; just as in the Psalm they are the enemies of Israel and Israel’s God. But these are left quite undefined, and the whole idea of the clause is subordinate to that next expressed, viz. , the giving of the gifts. : and gave gifts unto men . The of the TR is found in [377] [378] [379] 3 [380] 3 [381] [382] , etc.; but is omitted in [383] [384] [385] [386] 2 [387] * [388] , 17, etc. It is put in brackets by WH, and omitted by LT, but retained (on the whole rightly) by RV. Here the quotation diverges widely, both from the original Hebrew, which has (= “Thou hast received gifts among men”); and from the LXX which renders it (or ). The idea in the Psalm is that of Jehovah, the Conqueror, receiving gifts, that is to say, gifts of homage ; or, possibly, receiving the captured men themselves regarded as gifts or offerings, the being capable of that sense ( cf. Ewald, Aus. Lehrb. d. Hebr. Sprache , 287 h ). The idea expressed here is that of the ascended Christ giving gifts to men; being substituted for , and for the generic (or ). Thus in order to suit the purpose of a testimony to the statement made regarding Christ and the gift of grace, the OT passage is materially changed. OT quotations introduced in the NT are given without much regard to the literal faithfulness with which quotations are expected to be made in modern times; and in other passages made use of by Paul ( e.g. , Rom 10:6-10 ) we discover a remarkable liberty both in reproduction and in application. But in none is the change so great as in the present case. There is first the departure from the historical meaning of the Psalm; in which, however, this passage stands by no means alone. The Psalm in which this magnificent description of the victorious march of Israel’s God occurs, celebrates the establishment of Jehovah’s kingdom in the past and proclaims the certainty of its triumph over all enemies and in all nations in the future. It does this in connection with some great event in the history of Israel. All possible opinions have been expressed as to the particular occasion of the Psalm. It has been identified with the removal of the Ark to Zion in David’s time (2Sa 6:12 , etc.; 1Ch 15 ); with some unnamed victory of David or with David’s victories generally; with the placing of the Ark in Solomon’s Temple; with the victory of Jehoshaphat and Jehoram over Moab (2Ki 3 ; Hitzig); with the check given to the Assyrians in Hezekiah’s time; with the consecration of the Temple of the Restoration (Ewald); with the return from the captivity (Hupfeld); with the struggle between Egypt and Syria for the possession of the Holy Land towards the close of the third century B.C.; with the victories of Jonathan or Simon in the Maccabean wars (Olsh.); with the struggle between Ptolemy Philometor and Alexander Balas (1 Maccabees 14), etc. But all this uncertainty as to the particular date and occasion does not affect the fact that what is dealt with is some great passage in the history of the Jewish nation. The probabilities are that the Psalm belongs to the latter part of the Babylonian exile; but Paul passes by the actual historical intention of the words and puts on them a quite different sense. There is, secondly , the notable change from Jehovah receiving gifts to Christ giving gifts. Some have explained this by supposing that Paul followed a Hebrew text which read , or some such form, instead of ; but of this there is no evidence. It is possible, indeed, that the Apostle adopted a traditional version or interpretation of the passage which was familiar, and of which some indication is found in the Peshitta Syriac and the Chaldee Paraphrase (both having a rendering = “Thou didst give gifts to the children of men”). Something also may be said in support of the explanation that the of the original, which is used elsewhere in the sense of fetching or taking in order to give (Gen 18:5 ; Gen 27:13 ; Gen 42:16 ; Gen 48:9 , etc.), has that meaning here. But after all such explanations the fact remains that both the terms and the idea are changed. There is thirdly the Messianic interpretation. It is here that the justification of the change is found. The Psalm, there is good reason to believe, had been regarded as a Messianic Psalm; and the use made of it by Paul was in all probability in accordance with views of Messianic prophecy which had become current, and with a method of dealing with the OT which was generally understood. But in any case it is an application rather than an interpretation in the strict sense of the word that we have here. And the justification of such an application lies in the fact that the unknown event celebrated in the Psalm was a victory of the Theocratic King, and in that sense a part of that triumph of the Kingdom of God which was to be carried to its consummation by the Messiah.
[377] Codex Vaticanus (sc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.
[378] Codex Ephraemi (sc. v.), the Paris palimpsest, edited by Tischendorf in 1843.
[379] Codex Sinaiticus (sc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.
[380] Codex Claromontanus (sc. vi.), a Grco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.
[381] Codex Mosquensis (sc. ix.), edited by Matthi in 1782.
[382] Codex Angelicus (sc. ix.), at Rome, collated by Tischendorf and others.
[383] Autograph of the original scribe of .
[384] Autograph of the original scribe of .
[385] Codex Alexandrinus (sc. v.), at the British Museum, published in photographic facsimile by Sir E. M. Thompson (1879).
[386] Codex Ephraemi (sc. v.), the Paris palimpsest, edited by Tischendorf in 1843.
[387] Codex Claromontanus (sc. vi.), a Grco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.
[388] Codex Boernerianus (sc. ix.), a Grco-Latin MS., at Dresden, edited by Matthi in 1791. Written by an Irish scribe, it once formed part of the same volume as Codex Sangallensis ( ) of the Gospels. The Latin text, g, is based on the O.L. translation.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
When, &c. From Psa 68:18. See App-107.
up. Omit.
on. App-104.
high. See Luk 1:78. Rendered “height” in Eph 3:18. Rev 21:16.
led . . . captive. Greek. aichmaloteuo. Only here and 2Ti 3:6. In Luk 21:24. Rom 7:23. 2Co 10:5, the word is aichmalotizo.
captivity = a body of captives. See Mat 27:52. Rom 1:4.
gave. Having received according to Psa 68:18, He gave.
gifts. Greek. doma. Here; Mat 7:11. Luk 11:13. Php 4:17.
unto = to.
men. App-123.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
8.] Wherefore (qu cum ita sint: viz.-the gift bestowed by Christ on different men according to measure) He (viz. God, whose word the Scriptures are. See reff. and notes: not merely it, es heisst, as De W. al.: nor, : had it been the subject, it must have been expressed, as in Rom 4:3; Rom 9:17 al.) says (viz. in Psa 68:18, see below: not, in some Christian hymn, as Flatt and Storr,-which would not agree with , nor with the treatment of the citation, which is plainly regarded as carrying the weight of Scripture. With the question as to the occasion and intent of that Psalm, we are not here concerned. It is a song of triumph, as Eph 4:1 (cf. Num 10:35) shews, at some bringing up of the ark to the hill of Zion. It is therefore a Messianic Psalm. Every part of that ark, every stone of that hill, was full of spiritual meaning. Every note struck on the lyres of the sweet singers of Israel, is but part of a chord, deep and world-wide, sounding from the golden harps of redemption. The partial triumphs of David and Solomon only prefigured as in a prophetic mirror the universal and eternal triumph of the Incarnate Son of God. Those who do not understand this, have yet their first lesson in the O. T. to learn. With this caution let us approach the difficulties of the citation in detail) He ascended up on high (viz. Christ, at His Ascension: not having ascended: the aorist participle denotes an action not preceding, but parallel to, that expressed in the finite verb which it accompanies: see Bernhardy, Synt. p. 383. The ascending in the Psalm is that of God, whose presence was symbolized by the ark, to Zion. The Apostle changes the words from the 2nd person to the 3rd; the address asserting a fact, which fact he cites), he led captive a captivity (i.e. those who suffer captivity: a troop of captives: such is the constant usage of the abstract for the concrete in LXX: cf. reff.: and it is never put for captivatores, those who cause captivity, as some would interpret it. In the Psalm, these would be, the captives from the then war, whatever it was: in the interpretation, they were Gods enemies, Satan and his hosts, as Chr., ; . , , he gave gifts to mankind (Heb.: ,-LXX, (- [[8]] F [A def.]). The original meaning is obscure. There seems to be no necessity to argue for a sense of -thou receivedst in order to give; as the qualifying will shew for what purpose, in what capacity, the receipt took place. But certainly such a sense of seems to be substantiated: see Eadies note here, and his examples, viz. Gen 15:9; Gen 18:5 (where the sense is very marked, E. V. I will fetch),-Gen 27:13 (ib. fetch me them), Gen 42:16,-Exo 27:20 (that they bring thee),-1Ki 17:10 (fetch me, ), al. Then, what is ? First, is clearly used in a collective sense: we have Jer 32:20, , Israel and the rest of mankind, see also Isa 43:4 al. In Pro 23:28, we have used for inter homines, which is evidently its simplest meaning. If then we render here, hast taken gifts among men, hast, as a victor, surrounded by thy victorious hosts, brought gifts home, spoils of the enemy,-the result of such reception of gifts would be naturally stated as the distribution of them among such hosts, and the people,-as indeed Eph 4:12 of the Psalm has already stated. And so the Chaldee paraphrast (and Syr. and Arabic vss.: but their testimony, as Christian, is little worth) understood the words, interpreting the passage of Moses (which does not invalidate his testimony: against Harl.): thou hast given gifts to the sons of men. The literature of the passage may be seen in De W. and Meyer: and more at length in Stier, Eadie, and Harless. To give even a synopsis of it here would far exceed our limits).
[8] The CODEX SINAITICUS. Procured by Tischendorf, in 1859, from the Monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai. The Codex Frederico-Augustanus (now at Leipsic), obtained in 1844 from the same monastery, is a portion of the same copy of the Greek Bible, the 148 leaves of which, containing the entire New Testament, the Ep. of Barnabas, parts of Hermas, and 199 more leaves of the Septuagint, have now been edited by the discoverer. A magnificent edition prepared at the expense of the Emperor of Russia appeared in January, 1863, and a smaller edition containing the N.T. &c., has been published by Dr. Tischendorf. The MS. has four columns on a page, and has been altered by several different correctors, one or more of whom Tischendorf considers to have lived in the sixth century. The work of the original scribe has been examined, not only by Tischendorf, but by Tregelles and other competent judges, and is by them assigned to the fourth century. The internal character of the text agrees with the external, as the student may judge for himself from the readings given in the digest. The principal correctors as distinguished by Tischendorf are:-A, of the same age with the MS. itself, probably the corrector who revised the book, before it left the hands of the scribe, denoted therefore by us -corr1; B (cited as 2), who in the first page of Matt. began inserting breathings, accents, &c., but did not carry out his design, and touched only a few later passages; Ca (cited as 3a) has corrected very largely throughout the book. Wherever in our digest a reading is cited as found in 1, it is to be understood, if no further statement is given, that Ca altered it to that which is found in our text; Cb (cited as 3b) lived about the same time as Ca, i.e. some centuries later than the original scribe. These are all that we need notice here6.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Eph 4:8. , he says) David, nay, rather God Himself, Psalms 68 :(19) 20, , . Some also in the LXX. read . But in the version of the LXX. that reading is generally inferior, which too closely agrees with the text of the New Testament, because it has been (probably) made to be in conformity to it.-, on high) So the heavens are called in Hebrew poetry; likewise in Isa 32:15.- , led captivity captive) A frequent repetition; for example, 2Ch 28:5. Here the forces of hell are denoted, 2Pe 2:4, that are opposed to men. Christ, at His ascension, led them captive; nor, however, does it fare the better for that reason with the malefactor, who is to be tried for his life, when he is led from prison to the forum or court of justice. This leading captive did not interfere with their condition in hell; [it gave them no respite from torment.] If ever there had been for them any hope of escape, that would have been the time; comp. ch. Eph 6:12, and Col 2:15. Nor does every ascension, but only the ascension which has captivity taken captive joined with it, presuppose and infer a descent into the lower parts of the earth.- , He gave gifts) To this expression may be referred He gave, Eph 4:11, and is given, and of the gift, Eph 4:7. In Hebrew, is an abbreviated expression; to wit, Christ received gifts, which He might immediately give. Comp. , Gen 15:9 [Take me an heifer, abbreviated for, Take and sacrifice to me]; 2Ki 2:20; where sudden action is denoted by a concise expression; so , Exo 27:20; Lev 24:2.- , for men) The dative of advantage for . Gifts are of advantage, not only to those who receive them, but to all.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Eph 4:8
Eph 4:8
Wherefore he saith, When he ascended on high,-The giving of these gifts to men was dependent upon his ascending on high, just as he said to his disciples: It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I go, I will send him unto you. (Joh 16:7).
he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.-Captivity refers to death, as death had held dominion over every living thing on earth. Jesus Christ went down into deaths inner prison, and struggled with the powers of death and hell; bursting asunder the bars of death, and rose a triumphant victor over the power of death and hell. In his triumph he secured mans resurrection, and won his crown as King of kings and Lord of lords. By virtue of his victory over death, his angelic convoy, as it approached the city of God, cried: Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors: and the King of glory will come in. (Psa 24:7-10). In this glorious ascension, convoyed by an angelic host, he led death a captive, a conquered captive, in his train. Since that day, death reigns not as an unconquered and independent sovereign, but by the permission and subject to the will of its conqueror and captor-Christ the Lord. But the question arises: If death has been conquered by the Lord, is held captive by him, is subject to his will, and reigns by his permission, why does he permit death still to reign over all that is on the earth?
Death is an evil, truly, but not the greatest of evils; sometimes as a result, and must exist as a restrainer, an antidote for greater evils. So death is an evil, but not the greatest evil. Sin is a greater evil than death. Death is the prison house for sinners-the boundary line beyond which no active rebel against God can ever pass. Without, then, the restraining of death, man must have been an eternal sinner. Now, this side of that line he may set God at defiance; he may stiffen his neck and harden his heart. On that side his knee must bow; his stubborn will must flex, and in hell he must pay the fearful penalty of his rebellion against God by submission to its horrors forever.
Then death is the prison house of sin. Let sin cease to abound, and death will be destroyed. Would we then seek to destroy death, we must do it by destroying that greater evil which brought death, and still retains it in and over this world-sin is a rebellion against God. Death came into the world, not as the result of the rule and reign of God. When God ruled over the world, and man, the great head over the under creation, maintained his true allegiance to God, his Spirit was the pervading, controlling power of the world, then death was unknown, and only things which administered to mans well-being and promoted his happiness. When man turned from obedience to God and transferred the allegiance of the world from God to the devil, then Gods Spirit no longer dwelt in a kingdom ruled over by the wicked one. But the devil became the ruling, controlling, animating principle in the earth. As a result of this transfer, spiritual death came, and man with his brother engaged in strife, bitterness, wrath, and bloodshed. All the institutions of earth, built by man under this evil spirit, partake of this same spirit, and are subject to the same rule of the evil one.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
When: Psa 68:18
he led: Jdg 5:12, Col 2:15
captivity: or, a multitude of captives
and: 1Sa 30:26, Est 2:18
Reciprocal: Gen 3:15 – it shall Num 3:9 – General 2Sa 6:19 – he dealt 2Ki 2:12 – he saw him 2Ch 30:24 – did give Psa 24:3 – Who Psa 24:7 – shall Psa 47:5 – God Isa 14:2 – and they Eze 46:18 – inheritance out Joe 2:23 – the former Zec 10:4 – of him came forth Mat 23:34 – I send Mar 16:19 – he was Luk 9:51 – that Luk 22:69 – on Luk 24:51 – he was Joh 3:31 – that cometh Joh 6:62 – General Joh 10:1 – He Joh 16:7 – but Joh 20:17 – I ascend Act 1:2 – the day Act 1:9 – when Act 2:33 – he Act 10:6 – he shall Rom 1:11 – that Rom 10:6 – to bring Eph 1:20 – and set Eph 4:7 – unto Eph 4:11 – he 1Ti 3:16 – received Heb 2:4 – gifts Heb 7:26 – made Heb 9:24 – but Jam 1:17 – good
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
(Eph 4:8.) -Wherefore He saith. This quotation is no parenthesis, as many take it, nor is it any offshoot from the main body of thought, but a direct proof of previous assertion. And it proves those truths-that the ascended Lord confers gifts-various gifts-that men are the recipients, and that these facts had been presented to the faith and hope of the ancient Jewish church. The apostle, too, must have felt that the Jewish portion of the Ephesian church would acknowledge his quotation as referring to Jesus. If they disputed the sense or reference of the quotation, then the proof contained in it could not affect them. The citation is taken from the 18th verse of the 68th Psalm. It is vain to allege, with Storr and Flatt, that the apostle refers to some Christian hymn in use at Ephesus-quod ab Ephesiis cantitari sciret. Opuscula, 3.309. The formula is not uncommon-a pregnant verb, containing in itself its own nominative, though often occurs, as in Rom 4:3; Rom 9:17; Rom 10:11; Gal 4:30; Surenhusius, Bibl. Katall. 9. There are two points which require discussion – first, the difference of reading between the apostle’s citation and the original Hebrew and the Septuagint version; and, secondly, the meaning and reference of the quotation itself.
The change of person from the second to the third needs scarcely be noticed. The principal difference is in the last clause. The Hebrew reads – , and the Septuagint has in the last clause- , or-; but the apostle’s quotation reads- -and He gave gifts to men. Various attempts have been made to explain this remarkable variation, none of them perhaps beyond all doubt. It may be generally said that the inspired apostle gives the quotation in substance, and as it bore upon his argument. Whiston maintained, indeed, that Paul’s reading was correct, and that the Hebrew and Seventy had both been corrupted. Carpzovius, Crit. Sacr. p. 3. On the other hand, Jarchi, one of the Targums, the Syriac, and Arabic, have-Thou hast given gifts to the sons of men. Jerome, followed by Erasmus, relieves himself of the difficulty by alleging that, as the work of Christ was not over in the Psalmist’s time, these gifts were only promised as future, and He may be said to have taken them or received them. But the giving and taking were alike future on the part of the Messiah in the age of David. More acute than this figment of his Eastern contemporary is the remark of Augustine, that the Psalmist uses the word received, inasmuch as Christ in His members receives the gifts, whereas Paul employs the term gave, because He, along with the Father, divides the gifts. The idea is too subtle to be the right one. Some, again, identify the two verbs, and declare them to have the same significance. Such is the view of Ambrosiaster, Beza, Zanchius, Piscator, Hammond, Bengel, and a host of others. The one word, says Chrysostom, is the same as the other. His Greek followers held generally the same view. Theodore of Mopsuestia simpl y says, that to suit the connection the apostle has altered the terms, and the opinion of Harless is much the same. Theodoret says- , a mere Spielerei as Harless terms it. We agree with Meyer, that the Hebrew word , H4374, has often a proleptic signification. The giving, says Hengstenberg, presupposes the taking; the taking is succeeded by the giving as its consequence. The verb seems often to have the peculiar meaning of danda sumere-Gen 15:9-Take for me, that is, take and give to me; Gen 18:5-And I will take you a morsel of bread, i.e. take and give it you; Gen 27:13-Go, take them, i.e. take them and give me them; Gen 42:16-Let him take your brother, i.e. let him take and bring him; Exo 27:20-That they take thee pure oil, i.e. take and present it to thee; so Lev 24:2; 1Ki 17:10-Take me a little water, i.e. take and offer it me; 2Ki 2:20; Hos 14:2; and so in other places; Glassius, Philol. Sacra, p. 185; Buxtorf, Catalecta Philol.-Theol. p. 39. This interpretation is, therefore, not so capricious as de Wette affirms. Such is the idiomatic usage of the verb, and the apostle, as it especially suited his purpose, seizes on the latter portion of the sense, and renders-. The phraseology of Act 2:33 is corroborative of our view-Being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received–from the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this-bestowed upon the church such gifts of the Spirit. It is of the gifts of the Spirit, especially in the administration of the church, that the apostle speaks in this paragraph; and Peter, in the style of the Psalmist, describ es Messiah as receiving them ere He distributes them. The Mediator wins them by His blood, receives them from the Father who has appointed and accepted the sacrifice, and holds them for the very purpose of conferring them on His church. The Psalmist looks on the gifts in Christ’s possession as taken and held by Him for men; but the time of bestowment had fully come, what was so held had now been communicated, and so the apostle from his own point of view says-He gave gifts to man. Still, in the original psalm the taking appears to be taking by force of spoil from the conquered foes. But the martial figure of the Hebrew psalmist is not to be strained.
Our attention must now be turned to the general meaning of the quotation. The 68th Psalm is evidently a hymn of victory. The inspired bard praises God for deliverance vouchsafed-deliverance resulting from battle and triumph. This is also the view of Delitzsch in his Commentar ber den Psalter, published last year (1859). The image of a procession also appears in some parts of the ode. Very many expositors, among them Stier and Hofmann, have adopted the view that it was composed on occasion of the removal of the ark to Mount Zion, and the view of Alford is the same in substance. But the frequent introduction of martial imagery forbids such a hypothesis. What the campaign was at the issue of which this paean was composed, we cannot ascertain. Hitzig refers it to the campaign of Joram and Jehoshaphat against the Moabites (2 Kings 3), and von Lengerke refers it to some period of Pharaoh Necho’s reign. Hengstenberg thinks the occasion was the termination of the Ammonitic wars, and the capture of Rabbah. 2Sa 12:26. One of his arguments is at best only a probability. He says, there is reference to the ark twice in Psalms 68 in Eph 4:1; Eph 4:24, and that the ark was with the army during the warfare with Ammon. But the words in Eph 4:1; Eph 4:24 of the psalm do not necessarily contain a reference to the ark, and the language of Joab to David, in 2Sa 11:11, does not affirm the presence of the ark in the Israelitish camp, but may be explained by the words of 2Sa 7:2. That the psalm is one of David’s times and composition may be proved, against Ewald, de Wette, and Hupfeld, from its style and diction. The last writer, in his recent commentary (Die Psalmen, Dritter Band, Gotha, 1860), refers it to the return from Babylon, and supposes that it is perhaps the composition of the so-called pseudo-Isaiah, that is, the author of the latter half of Isaiah’s prophecies. Reuss, in a treatise full of persiflage, as Hupfeld says, and which Delitzsch truly calls a Pasquill-a Harlekinanzug-brings the psalm down to the period between Alexander the Great and the Maccabees. One of the Targums refers the passage to Moses and the giving of the law. Its pervading idea-probably without reference to any special campaign, but combining what had happened many times when the Lord had shown Himself mighty in battle-is, that He, as of old, had come down for His people’s deliverance, and had achieved it; had vanquished their foes, and given them a signal victory, and that, the combat being over, and captivity led captive, He had left the camp and gone up again to heaven. This portion of the psalm seems to have been chanted as the procession wound its way up Mount Zion to surround the symbols of the Divine majesty.
Thou hast ascended on high. The word -on high-in such a connection refers to heaven, in contrast with earth, where the victory had been won. Psa 18:16; Isa 24:18; Isa 40:26; Jer 25:30.
Thou hast led captivity captive- . The meaning of this idiom seems simply to be-Thou hast mustered or reviewed Thy captives. Jdg 5:12; Gesenius, sub voce. The allusion is to a triumphal procession in which marched the persons taken in war.
Thou hast received gifts for men. There is no need, with de Wette and others, to translate in, and to regard this as the meaning-Thou hast received gifts in men, that is, men constituted the gifts, the vanquished vassals or proselytes formed the acquisition of the conqueror. Commentar ber die Psalmen, p. 412; Boettcher, Proben, etc. 62; Schnurrer, Dissertat. p. 303. The preposition often signifies for or on account of. Gen 18:28; Gen 29:18; 2Ki 14:6; Jon 1:14; Lam 2:11; Eze 4:17, etc.; Noldius, Concord. Part. Heb. p. 158. Hafniae, 1679. Thou hast received gifts on account of men to benefit and bless them; or the preposition may signify among, as in 2Sa 23:3; Pro 23:28; Jer 49:15; Ewald, Gram. der Heb. Sprache, 521, and Delitzsch. These gifts are the results of His victory, and they are conferred by Him after He has gone up from the battle-field. To obtain such a sense, however, it is out of the question, on the part of Bloomfield, to disturb the Septuagint reading and change the into . But how can denote after the fashion of a man, and how can in this connection mean, as Adam Clarke and Wordsworth conjecture, in man-that is, by virtue of His incarnation as the head of redeemed humanity?
In what sense, then, are those words applicable to the ascended Redeemer? They are not introduced simply as an illustration, for the apostle reasons from them in the following verses. This bare idea of accommodation, vindicated by such exegetes as Morus and even by Doddridge, can therefore have no place here. Nor can we agree with Calvin, that Paul has somewhat twisted the words from their original meaning-nonnihil a genuino sensu hoc testimonium detorsit Paulus-an opinion which wins suspicious praise from Rckert. The argument of the next verse would in that case be without solid foundation. Nor does Olshausen, in our apprehension, fix upon the prominent point of illustration. That point is in his view not the proof that Christ dispenses gifts, but that men receive them, so that Gentiles, as partakers of humanity, have equal right to them with Jews. While the statement in the latter part is true, it seems to be only a subordinate inference, not the main matter of argument. That men had the gift was a palpable fact; but the questions were-Who gave them? and does their diversity interfere with the oneness of the church? Besides, it is the term on which the apostle comments. Nor can we bring ourselves to the notion of a typical allusion, or emblem as Barnes terms it, as if the ark carried up to Zion was typical of Christ’s ascent to heaven; for we cannot convince ourselves that the ark is, so formally at least, referred to in the psalm at all. Nor will it do merely to say, with Harless, that the psalm is applicable to Christ, because one and the same God is the revealer both of the Old and New Testaments. Still wider from the tenor of the apostle’s argument is one portion of the notion of Locke, that Paul’s object is to prove to unconverted Jews out of their own scriptures that Jesus must die and be buried. Our position is, that the same God is revealed as Redeemer both under the O ld and New Testament, that the Jehovah of the one is the Jesus of the other, that Psalms 68 is filled with imagery which was naturally based on incidents in Jewish history, and that the inspired poet, while describing the interposition of Jehovah, has used language which was fully realized only in the victory and exaltation of Christ. Not that there is a double sense, but the Jehovah of the theocracy was He who, in the fulness of the time, assumed humanity, and what He did among His people prior to the incarnation was anticipative of nobler achievements in the nature of man. Joh 12:41; Rom. xiv 10, 11; 1Co 10:4; Heb 1:10. The Psalmist felt this, and under the influence of such emotions, rapt into future times, and beholding salvation completed, enemies defeated, and gifts conferred, thus addressed the laurelled Conqueror-Thou hast ascended on high. Such a quotation was therefore to the apostle’s purpose. There are gifts in the church-not one donation but many-gifts the result of warfare and victory-gifts the number and variety of which are not inconsistent with unity. Such blessings are no novelty; they are in accordance with the earnest expectations of ancient ages; for it was predicted that Jesus should ascend on high, lead captivity captive, and give gifts to men. But those gifts, whatever their character and extent, are bestowed according to Christ’s measurement; for it was He who then and now ennobles men with these spiritual endowments. Nor has there been any change of administration. Gifts and graces have descended from the same Lord. Under the old theocracy, which had a civil organization, these gifts might be sometimes temporal in their nature; still, no matter what was their character, they came from the one Divine Dispenser, who is still the Supreme and Sovereign Benefactor. The apostle says-
-having ascended on high, He led captivity captive. The reference in the aorist participle is to our Lord’s ascension, an act preceding that of the finite verb. Winer, 45, 6; Krger, 56, 10; Act 1:9. The meaning of the Hebrew phrase corresponding to the last two words has been already given. Such a use of a verb with its cognate substantive is, as we have seen again and again, a common occurrence. Lobeck, Paralipomena, Dissert. viii., De figura etymologica, p. 499, has given many examples from the classics. The verb, as well as the kindred form , belongs to the later Greek-extrema Graeciae senectus novum palmitem promisit. Lobeck, ad Phrynichus, p. 442. The noun seems to be used as the abstract for the concrete. Khner, ii. 406; Jelf, 353; Diodorus Siculus, 17:76; Num 31:12; Jdg 5:12; 2Ch 28:11-13; Amo 1:6; 1Ma 9:70; 1Ma 9:72; 1Ma 14:7. The prisoners plainly belong to the enemy whom He had defeated, and by whom His people had long been subjugated. This is the natural order of ideas-having beaten His foes, He makes captives of them. The earlier fathers viewed the captives as persons who had been enslaved by Satan-as Satan’s prisoners, whom Jesus restored to liberty. Such is the view of Justin Martyr, of Theodoret and OEcumenius in the Greek church, of Jerome and Pelagius in the Latin church, of Thomas Aquinas in mediaeval times, of Erasmus, and in later days, of Meier, Harless, and Olshausen. But such an idea is not in harmony with the imagery employed, nor can it be defended by any philological instances or analogies. On the contrary, Christ’s subjugation of His enemies has a peculiar prominence in the Messianic or acles; Psa 110:1; Isa 53:12; 1Co 15:25; Col 2:15; and in many other places.
What, then, are the enemies of Messiah? Not simply as in the miserable rationalism of Grotius, the vices and idolatries of heathendom, nor yet as in the equally shallow opinion of Flatt, the hindrances to the spread and propagation of the gospel. Quite peculiar is the strange notion of Pierce, that the captives were the good angels, who, prior to Christ’s advent, had been local presidents in every part of the world, but who were now deprived of this delegated power at Christ’s resurrection, and led in triumph by Him as He ascended to glory. Notes on Colossians, appendix. The enemies of Messiah are Satan and his allies-every hostile power which Satan originates, controls, and directs against Jesus and His kingdom. The captives, therefore, are not merely Satan, as Vorstius and Bodius imagine; nor simply death, as is the view of Anselm; nor the devil and sin, as is the opinion of Beza, Bullinger, and Vatablus; but, as Chrysostom, Calvin, Calixtus, Theophylact, Bengel, Meyer, and Stier show, they include Satan, sin, and death. He took the tyrant captive, the devil I mean, and death, and the curse, and sin-such is the language of Chrysostom. The psalm was fulfilled, says Calvin-quum Christus, devicto peccato, subacta morte, Satan profligato, in coelum magnifice sublatus est. Christ’s work on earth was a combat-a terrible struggle with the hosts of darkness whose fiercest onsets were in the garden and on the cross-when hell and death combined against Him those efforts which repeated failures had roused into desperation. And in dying He conquered, and at length ascended in victory, no enemy daring to dispute His right or challenge His march; nay, He exhibited His foes in open triumph. He bruised the head of the Serpent, though His own heel was bruised in the conflict. As the conqueror returning to his capital makes a show of his beaten foes, so Jesus having gone up to glory exposed His vanq uished antagonists whom He had defeated in His agony and death.
[b -and He (that is, the exalted Saviour) gave gifts to men. Act 2:33. There is no in the Septuagint, and it is omitted by A, C2, D1, E, F, G, the Vulgate, and other authorities; while it is found in B, C1 (C3), D3, I, K, L, and a host of others. Lachmann omits it; Tischendorf omitted it in his second edition, but inserts it in his seventh; Alford inserts and Ellicott rejects it. The Septuagint has , which Peile would harshly render-after the fashion of a man. In their exegesis upon their translation of the Hebrew text, Harless, Olshausen, and von Gerlach understand these gifts to be men set apart to God as sacred offerings. Thou hast taken to Thyself gifts among men-that is, Thou hast chosen to Thyself the redeemed for sacrifices, so says Olshausen with especial reference to the Gentiles. According to Harless, the apostle alters the form of the clause from the original to bring out the idea-that the captives are the redeemed, who by the grace of God are made what they are. But men are the receivers of the gift-not the gift itself. Comment. in Vet. Test. vol. iii. p. 178. Lipsiae, 1838; Uebersetz. und Ausleg. der Psalmen, p. 305. Hofmann understands it thus-that the conquered won by Him get gifts from Him to make them capable of service, and so to do Him honour. Schriftb. ii. part 1, p. 488. See also his Weissagung und Erfllung, 1.168, 2.199. Stier says rightly, that these are the gifts of the Holy Spirit – die Geistes-gaben Christi. These gifts are plainly defined by the context, and by the following . Whatever they are-a free Spirit, a perfect salvation, and a completed Bible-it is plain that the office of the Christian ministry is here prominent among them. The apostle has now proved that Jesus dispenses gifts, and has made good his assertion that grace is conferred according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
Fuente: Commentary on the Greek Text of Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Phillipians
Eph 4:8. Wherefore he saith indicates a quotation is about to be made, which is from Psa 68:18, and it is a prediction of the ascension of Jesus to Heaven, which is the meaning of on high. Captivity is from a Greek word that is translated “a multitude of captives” in the margin of many Bibles. This rendering agrees with the definitions and comments of both Thayer and Robinson. The fact that Jesus did this leading of the captives when he ascended up on high indicates it applies to some special group. Evidently that consisted of the saints who are mentioned in Mat 27:52-53, who came from their graves after the resurrection of Jesus. It will be well for the reader to see the notes on Rom 8:29-30, in volume 1 of the New Testament Commentary. These saints had been prisoners (captives) in Hades, but they were released from their “narrow chambers of death” by the resurrection of Jesus, who then led them with Him when he ascended to the Eternal Abode of those who are never to die again. As soon as Jesus arrived in the presence of his Father, he prayed that the Holy Spirit (Comforter, Joh 14:16-17) would be sent down upon the apostles. That was done, enabling them to bestow spiritual gifts upon them who had obeyed the Gospel (Act 8:15-18). The purpose of these gifts will be explained a little farther on in this chapter.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Eph 4:8. wherefore he saith. The citation (Psa 68:19) is to prove that Christ gives (wherefore). He, which refers to God, is properly supplied, rather than it = the Scripture. When Paul uses the latter, there is generally a reason for it.
When he ascended up on high, etc. The original, fairly rendered in the LXX., is: ascending to the height, thou didst lead captive (a) captivity, and received gifts in man (Hebrew: in the man). The change to the third person is natural; the main difficulty is found in the last clause (which see). That the Psalm was prophetic is quite obvious. It was probably composed after a victory, and probably first used in bringing the ark to Mount Zion after such a victory. This gives it at once a theocratic and Messianic character. On high points in the Psalm to the holy hill, in the Apostles application to Christs exaltation to heaven.
Led a captivity captive. A captivity suggests the concrete sense which we must accept, the reference being originally to the crowd of captives led in triumph by the returning victor. The application here undoubtedly is to the enemies of Christ who have been overcome, either (1) men who have become His servants (comp. the correct sense of 2Co 2:14), previously prisoners of Satan; or (2) Satan, sin, and death, whom He had conquered through His death and resurrection. The latter view is favored by Col 2:15, gives a forcible meaning, and accords with the metaphor. The former lessens the difficulty in the last clause, making these captives the gifts, who are both received and given. But this lays it open to suspicion. Other views have been suggested, but none of them seem tenable.
And gave gifts to men. The Psalm reads: received gifts in the man, which means either among men, or consisting in men. The E. V. renders for men, which lessens the difficulty, since receiving gifts for men, and giving them to men, are substantially the same. But the original will scarcely bear this sense. We are therefore shut up to two views. (1.) The gifts consist in men, His captives, to whom He has given gifts of grace, that they themselves may and can become gifts to men in wider circles (Braune). This view, by uniting, receiving, and giving in the persons of the captives, seeks to make them synonymous terms. But it seems forced, and compels us to give captivity its less obvious reference. (2.) The Hebrew is to be translated: hath taken gifts among men, since the collective sense of the man is well established. The ideas of the original and Pauls application are thus to be regarded, not as identical, but as correlative. He, as an inspired man, recasts this clause, to bring out, by means of this application, the farther, fuller, and deeper meaning of the Psalm. This view assumes (a) that the Apostle could make an authoritative exposition; (b) that this exposition is not contrary to, but involved in, the original and historical reference. To these points may be added (c) that our tropological expositions are not authoritative; we can use this method only to elucidate doctrine fully established by other passages, or to enforce precept plainly enjoined.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
ARGUMENT 16
THE DESCENSION AND ASCENSION OF CHRIST
8-10. The reader would do well here to exchange this book for Volume 2, and read the Commentary on 1Pe 3:19. It takes in this whole subject, and corroboratively expounds this Scripture. When our Savior expired on the cross, his human soul descended into hell (Act 2:31); the herald of his own victory achieved on Mount Calvary having triumphed over the pandemonium, he crosses the chasm (Luk 16:26) impassable to all finite beings, enters the intermediate paradise, called Abrahams bosom, meets the thief according to promise (Luk 23:43), and all the Old Testament saints there awaiting the verification of the Abrahamic covenant by the sufferings of Christ; on the third morning, abolishing the intermediate paradise, leads them all up, receives his body out of the sepulcher, all the mighty hosts of Old Testament saints accompanying him during his forty day on the earth, invisible because disembodied, and ascend with him into heaven from Mount Olivet; constituting his triumphal procession, as seen by the prophetic eye of David (Psalms 24), they enter the glorified city of God amid the shouts of angels, archangels, and redeemed spirits. Christ, the first-fruits of them that slept, must lead the way into heaven, throwing wide the pearly gates for every disembodied saint in all coming ages to sweep with a shout.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 8
Psalms 68:18.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. 9 (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)
This is a use of Psa 68:18 with a little twist. In the Psalm man gave gifts to God, but here God gives gifts to man. The context of the Psalm is the ark, which would indicate my next paragraph to be correct.
It seems to me that the occasion of the beginning of the gifts was when Christ ascended to heaven. It seems from this context that He went down into Sheol and took captives from their captor and took them to be with the Father.
Now, in my way of thinking this relates directly to Luke sixteen and the rich man and Lazarus. The two went into Sheol after their death and one was in torment and the other in seemingly good surroundings. It is these people, those in Abraham’s bosom, that were captive until the freeing work of the cross. It is these people that Christ took with Him to the Father.
It was upon this occasion that He also gave gifts to believers. Prior to that time there was no need of the gifts. It is at this time that the church was born, though not till Pentecost was it officially off and running. The work was done so that the body could begin to be built. Along with those beginnings, the gifts were given to assist in the work of the church.
Some might wonder about why these were captive, who were they, and why were they there? If you go to my study on regeneration, you will find the answers. In brief it is my contention that the Old Testament saints were not regenerated when they came to God. They came to a relationship under the sacrifices whereby they could have fellowship with God, they could be assured of their future with Him, but the work of Christ had not been done. There was no blood shed and until it was, there could be no regeneration.
Since they weren’t completely ready to enter into the presence of God they were placed in Sheol until the work was accomplished. When the work was done, Christ was able to go to them and take them to the Father. I might add that this is a good reason not to believe in “Soul Sleep” that some teach – that when you die you go into a deep sleep until the resurrection. Luk 16:1-31 shows the dead as conscious and conversant with one another.
I might remind you that the Old Testament sacrifices were not sufficient according to Hebrews. They were a covering for sin – the saints sins were hidden but not removed. The blood of Christ washed them away and this made complete the needs of the Old Testament saints.
There is a passage that speaks to Christ preaching to those confined. 1Pe 3:19 “By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; This seems to be the same occasion in my mind.
Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson
4:8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led {g} captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
(g) A multitude of captives.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Paul’s paraphrase of Psa 68:18 confirms his statement that God gives gifts to people. A military victor has the right to give gifts to those identified with him. Christ, the victor over sinful people, has the right to give those people to the church as gifts. [Note: Who the captives were seems to have been of less interest to Paul than the fact that Christ won a great victory (Morris, pp. 123-24).] In Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 Paul spoke of gifts given to people (cf. Eph 4:7), but here he spoke of people given to the church as gifts.
"Some have alleged that Paul erred in his citation from Psa 68:18 on at least two counts: (1) he altered the verb of the psalm from ’received’ to ’gave,’ thus reversing its meaning, and (2) he gave an interpretation to the Old Testament passage that is unwarranted. With regard to the first point, the origin of the reading ’gave’ is not to be found in Eph 4:8. Rather, this is a variant reading for Psa 68:18 that has an ancient pedigree, as may be seen by its presence in both the Aramaic Targum and the Syriac Peshitta. However, Paul was not necessarily quoting with one of these sources in mind; the reading probably had a history not limited to its appearance in these particular sources. It was apparently a variant reading that was well known, especially within Jewish rabbinic circles. Furthermore, Paul must be permitted some latitude in his citation. His purpose was not to provide a formal and exact representation of the Old Testament phraseology, but rather to expound and apply the passage to the work of Christ as Lord of the church. That the apostle used a variant reading of the psalm should not in itself be overly surprising.
"Regarding the second point, it seems clear that Paul used an analogical patterning of Old Testament teaching within the New Testament context. This was common among New Testament writers. Such a practice does not obviate the Old Testament contextual setting, nor does it purport to provide the only fulfillment of the Old Testament passage. When Matthew, for example, related Hos 11:1 (’Out of Egypt have I called My son’) to the flight of the holy family, he did not thereby deny that Hos 11:1 refers to the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. He simply drew an analogy between the two events. Likewise in Eph 4:8 the application of Psa 68:18 to Jesus as the bestower of gifts for ministry within the church does not eliminate or contradict the Old Testament application of the words to the victorious Israelite King. In keeping with common Midrash pesher techniques, but in a way that avoids the excesses to which the method was pushed by some nonbiblical writers, Paul made a valid application of Christological significance to the Old Testament passage. On the one hand, according to Psa 68:18, God ascended Zion as a victorious king worthy of being the recipient of gifts of homage. On the other hand, according to Eph 4:8, Jesus also ascended to the heavenly Zion as the victorious Lord who lovingly bestowed on His church the gifts of ministry essential to her future well-being. The one passage provides the pattern for the other." [Note: Richard A. Taylor, "The Use of Psa 68:18 in Eph 4:8 in Light of the Ancient Versions," Bibliotheca Sacra 148:591 (July-September 1991):335-36.]
A slightly different interpretation follows.
". . . Paul apparently followed the Jewish interpretation of the day (the Targum), which paraphrased this verse as follows: ’You did ascend to the firmament, O Prophet Moses! You led captivity captive; you taught the words of the Law; you gave [not ’received,’ as in the Heb.] gifts to the sons of men.’ (This interpretation saw Moses as God’s representative.) Paul followed this Jewish exegesis because it explained that the conqueror distributed the gifts to His loyal subjects. The apostle applied that idea to Christ’s victory over the forces of evil and His granting spiritual gifts (cf. Eph 4:11) to those on His side. By this analogy (based more on the Jewish interpretation of the psalm than on the exact Heb. wording) Paul emphasized the greatness of believers’ spiritual victory in Christ." [Note: Allen P. Ross, "Psalms," in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament, p. 843.]