Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)
7. Who shall descend, &c.] The Heb. has “Who shall go over (or on) the sea?”; the LXX., “to the other side of the sea?” St Paul takes the sea, as surely Moses took it, to be the antithesis of “heaven” the “great deep; ” and thus the idea is of exploring depth rather than breadth. The Jerusalem Targum on Deuteronomy has a remarkable paraphrase: “Neither is the law beyond the great sea, that thou shouldest say, O that we had one like Jonah the prophet, to descend into the depths of the sea, and bring it to us!” (Etheridge’s Translation.) To Moses, sky and sea were suggestive of heights and depths of supernatural mystery. St Paul finds in this use of them the latent truth of the special Height of Christ’s pre-existent majesty and the special Depth of His entrance at death into the world of souls; and so sees here an inspired declaration that this His Descent and Ascent were so “finished” as to make the means of salvation a prepared and present reality to the believing soul, which is asked (thanks to Divine mercy) not to elaborate, but to accept, the “righteousness of God” in the Incarnate and Risen Christ.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Or who shall descend into the deep? – These words are also a part of the address of Moses, Deu 30:13. But it is not literally quoted. The Hebrew is, Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldst say, Who shall go over the sea for us, etc. The words of the quotation are changed, but not the sense; and it is to be remembered that Paul is not professing to quote the words of Moses, but to express the language of faith; and this he does mainly by words which Moses had used, which also expressed his meaning. The words as used by Moses refer to what is remote, and therefore difficult to be obtained. To cross the sea in the early times of navigation involved the highest difficulty, danger, and toil. The sea which was in view was doubtless the Mediterranean, but the crossing of that was an enterprise of the greatest difficulty, and the regions beyond that were regarded as being at a vast distance.
Hence, it is spoken of as being the widest object with which they were acquainted, and the fairest illustration of infinity, Job 11:9. In the same sense Paul uses the word deep, abusson – the abyss. This word is applied to anything the depth or bottom of which is not known. It is applied to the ocean (in the Septuagint), Job 41:31, He maketh the deep to boil as a pot. Isa 44:27, that saith to the deep, Be dry, etc. Gen 7:11; Gen 8:2; to a broad place Job 36:16; and to the abyss before the world was formed, Gen 1:2. In the New Testament it is not applied to the ocean, unless in the passage Luk 8:31 (see the note on that place), but to the abode of departed spirits; and particularly to the dark, deep, and bottomless pit, where the wicked are to dwell forever. Rev 9:1-2, and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; Greek, The pit of the abyss.
Rev 11:7; Rev 17:8; Rev 20:1, Rev 20:3. In these places the word means the deep, awful regions of the nether world. The word stands opposed to heaven; as deep as that is high; as dark as that is light; while the one is as vast as the other. In the place before us it is opposed to heaven; and to descend there to bring up one, is supposed to be as impossible as to ascend to heaven to bring one down. Paul does not affirm that Christ descended to those regions; but he says that there is no such difficulty in religion as if one were required to descend into those profound regions to call back a departed spirit. That work was in fact done, when Jesus was recalled from the dead, and now the work of salvation is easy. The word abyss here, therefore, corresponds to Hades, or the dark regions of departed spirits.
That is, to bring up Christ … – Justification by faith had no such difficult and impossible work to perform as would be an attempt for man to raise the dead. That would be impossible; but the work of religion is easy. Christ, the ground of hope, is not by our efforts to be brought down from heaven to save us, for that is done; nor by our efforts to be raised from the dead, for that is done; and what remains for us, that is to believe, is easy, and is near us. This is the meaning of the whole passage.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Who shall descend into the deep? By the deep, here, understand hell: see Luk 8:31; Rev 9:1; 20:1,3. q. d. Do not inquire distrustfully, and despairingly, whether thou shalt go to hell, or who shall go thither, to see, and bring thee word, if such as thou are there.
That is, to bring up Christ again from the dead; this were in effect to frustrate and make void the death of Christ; it is as much as to say, he never died for us, or he must come again, and suffer, and shed his blood for the remission of our sins. He died to deliver us from death and damnation; he endured the wrath of God, that we may escape it. The sense of the whole is this, That the doctrine of justification by faith, doth not propose such difficult and impossible terms, as the doctrine of justification by works. The righteousness of the law, that speaks terror, and puts us into a continual fear of hell, and despair of heaven; but the righteousness of faith, that speaks comfort, and forbids all amazing fear and troubles about our salvation or damnation.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. Or, Who shall descend,c.another case of impossibility, suggested by Pr30:4, and perhaps also Am 9:2probably proverbial expressions of impossibility (compare Psa 139:7-10Pro 24:7, &c.).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
[See comments on Ro 10:6].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Into the abyss ( ). See Lu 8:31 for this old Greek word ( privative and ) bottomless like sea (Ps 106:26), our abyss. In Re 9:1 it is the place of torment. Paul seems to refer to Hades or Sheol (Acts 2:27; Acts 2:31), the other world to which Christ went after death.
To bring Christ up ( ). Second aorist active infinitive of and dependent on (shall descend). Christ has already risen from the dead. The deity and resurrection of Christ are precisely the two chief points of attack today on the part of sceptics.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Descend into the deep. Rev., abyss. Septuagint, Who shall pass through to beyond the sea ? See on Luk 8:31. Paul changes the phrase in order to adapt it to the descent of Christ into Hades. The two ideas may be reconciled in the fact that the Jew conceived the sea as the abyss of waters on which the earth rested. Compare Exo 20:4. Thus the ideas beyond the sea and beneath the earth coincide in designating the realm of the dead. Compare Homer’s picture of the region of the dead beyond the Ocean – stream :
” As soon as thou shalt cross.
Oceanus, and come to the low shore And groves of Proserpine, the lofty groups Of poplars, and the willows that let fall Their withered fruit, moor thou thy galley there In the deep eddies of Oceanus, And pass to Pluto’s comfortless abode. “” Odyssey,” 10. 508 – 513.
” Our bark Reached the far confines of Oceanus.
There lies the land and there the people dwell Of the Cimmerians, in eternal cloud And darkness. “” Odyssey,” 11. 13 – 15.
To bring up. There is no need. He is already risen.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Or, who shall descend into the deep,” (a tis katabesetai eis ten abusson;) “or who will descend into the Abyss?” The Righteousness of God is here said to speak like Wisdom in the Proverbs. These are anxious and questioning doubts of one who thinks salvation is unattainable for him. It is God’s work to provide salvation and man’s work is to “believe on him whom he hath sent,” and thereby receive his righteousness, Joh 6:29; Rom 4:4-5. Incarnate Jesus came, bearing out sins he died, and rising he justifies all who believe; that the law could not do, Act 13:38-39; 1Pe 2:24; Rom 4:25.
2) “that is (tout estin) “That or that is”; that exists as the essence, the essential element of the inquiry: He has already descended and ascended 1) In life, 2) In death, and 3) 1n Iife again, alive forevermore, Rev 1:18; Rev 2:8.
3) “To bring up Christ again from the dead),” (christon ek nekron anagagein) “To bring or lead up Christ from (among) the dead, dead corpses, or city of the dead ones?” The “who shall” is a too late question! God has already raised him up and set him at His own right hand where he appears on behalf of believers’ faith in his blood.
Question it not, he is raised, Act 2:24; Act 2:32; Act 3:15; Act 3:26; Act 4:10; Act 5:30; Act 10:40; Act 13:30; Act 13:33-34; Act 17:31; 1Co 15:1-4.
Acceptance of the Christ as Resurrected, Redemptive hope, gives hope and assurance, Rom 8:11. Rejection brings gloom and doom, Rom 8:3; Joh 8:24; Joh 5:24.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(7) Into the deep.In the original, beyond the sea. The word which St. Paul uses is found in the LXX. for the sea, but here means the abyss of Hades.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
7. Into the deep In the Hebrew and the Septuagint the phrase is to beyond sea. And as to the ancients the sea was conceived as unbounded, so this phrase would mean to a limitless distance. The apostle’s word is abyss, which was conceived as a bottomless deep. Where its place, is not distinctly said; but as earth to the ancient conception was the limitless plane of sublunary existence, (as being antithetic to heaven,) it would, verbally, be in the depths of earth. When our conceptions are purified by astronomy, however, the abyss, hell, is no longer necessarily located in our earth. In substituting the bottomless abyss for the limitless ocean, the apostle simply adapts the phrase to his present purpose; which is, to use the term abyss as hades, or the state of the dead, into which Christ descended after his crucifixion. (See notes on Luk 16:23.)
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
7 Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)
Ver. 7. Into the deep ] Those deeps of the earth, Psa 71:20 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
deep. Greek. abussos. See Luk 8:31.
from the dead. Gr. ek nekron. App-139.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Rom 10:7. ), that is. That is construed with to say, as substantive and adjective. Moreover, they are again reproved for perverseness, who say, who shall descend into the deep? for they speak just as if the word concerning the resurrection of Christ from the dead were not nigh at hand, and the heart of the believer acknowledges, that He has risen, in the same Rom 10:9 : and they who wish to fetch salvation from the depths of the earth, wish to bring Christ (since there is no salvation without Him) from the deep, which He left once for all at His resurrection; but as the latter cannot happen, so neither can the former. Therefore the believer, so far as this is concerned, regards not either heaven or the deep, since he has the thing which he desires, as near to him, as he is to himself. But unbelief is always fluctuating; it is always wishing, and knows not what it wishes; it is always seeking, and finds nothing. Hence it looks down at the deep with giddiness, nor can it look up to the heaven with joy.-, Christ) The unbeliever does not fetch Christ in His own name, that is in the name of Christ [in His peculiar attributes as anointed Saviour] either from heaven or from the deep: but the righteousness by faith, speaking here, suggests to the ignorant unbeliever to call upon the name of Christ, as much as to say, that which thou art seeking, O unbeliever [O unbelief], whilst thou art moving heaven and the deep, and art taking refuge in heaven or the deep, (as we find in Virgil, I will move hell[116] [Acheronta movebo], know that it can neither be thought of by me, nor be found by thee, without [outside of] Christ, Rom 10:4. The expression is hypothetical. That, which cannot be done,-to fetch righteousness from afar [opposed to, is nigh thee], from heaven or out of the deep; Paul sets this aside: and so leaves one only refuge, the word of Christ, which is very near.
[116] Aen. 7:312.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
to bring up: Rom 4:25, Heb 13:20, 1Pe 3:18, 1Pe 3:22, Rev 1:18
Reciprocal: Deu 30:12 – General Rev 9:1 – the bottomless
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
0:7
Rom 10:7. And by the same rule as the preceding verse, we need not be concerned about the “hows” of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Deep is from A BUSSOS, and Thayer’s definition of it is, “Bottomless, unbounded, the abyss.” He then explains it to mean, “the common receptacle of the dead.”
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Rom 10:7. Who shall descend into the abyss? LXX. Who shall pass through into beyond the sea? The descent of Christ to the realm of the dead is in any case the undoubted presupposition, which led Paul to substitute the words of our passage for those of the original (Meyer). The next clause compels us to take this view, but various explanations have been given of the variation from the Old Testament language. The probable solution of the difference is, that the ideas beyond the sea and beneath the earth coincide as designations of the realm of the dead (Lange).
That is, etc. See the similar clause in Rom 10:6. The two verses imply that the Incarnation and the Resurrection are accomplished facts; hence that such questions are forbidden by the righteousness of faith. But what kind of questions sure they? simply of unbelief, or also of perplexity, or of anxiety? Certainly the fundamental error is one of unbelief, and that in regard to the main facts here presented (comp. Rom 10:9). But it is not necessary to exclude the other views, which are suggested by the original passage: The anxious follower after righteousness is not disappointed by an impracticable code, nor mocked by an unintelligible revelation; the word is near him, therefore accessible; plain and simple and therefore apprehensibledeals with definite historical fact, and therefore certain (Alford). It is but fair to present another view of the whole passage, as summed up by Godet: All the doing demanded from man by the law (Rom 10:5) and which he can accomplish only imperfectly, has been already perfectly accomplished by Christ, whether it has to do with the conquest of heaven by holiness, or the doing away of condemnation by expiation. There only remains then to man, in order to be saved, to believe in that work by applying it to himself; and this is that which the righteousness of faith commands us (Rom 10:8), after having forbid den us (Rom 10:6-7) to pretend ourselves to open heaven and close hell. . .. Christ having charged Himself with the doing, and having left to us only the believing, the work of Christ puts an end to the legal regime; that which the Apostle would prove (Rom 10:4).
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
or, Who shall descend into the abyss? [Hades, the abode of the dead– Luk 8:31; Rev 17:8; Rev 20:1; Psa 139:8] (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead.)
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
7. Or, Who shall descend into the abyss? (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead.)