EPHESIANS: Ascending and Descending

EPHESIANS Number 43
Ascending and Descending

Ephesians 4:8–10 (KJV)
“Wherefore he saith, ‘When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.’ (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)”

This text seems to be derived from Psalm 68:18. That verse says in part, “Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: Thou hast received gifts for men.” You may notice that Paul does not quote this verbatim. Rather than indicating that the One who ascended received gifts for men, Paul says He gave gifts to men.

A couple of proposals have been made to explain this. First, some think that the Apostle modified the quote to better support the point he was making here. Rabbinical teaching sometimes made such changes, so that is certainly a possibility.

Another proposed possibility is that this text was part of an early Christian hymn. It would be unsurprising for the lyrics of a song to draw from well-known Scripture, modifying it to suit the message.

Lastly, W. H. Harris in his work, “The Descent of Christ” proposed that Paul may have quoted a variant text known to Paul, but which has not survived outside this quotation. (Sourced from the NET Bible translator’s note (7) on this verse)

Whatever the explanation for this difference, we can rely upon the Holy Spirit who inspired Paul and who capably protects the purity of His message to us. The point that Paul is making is that this Jesus who ascended is the same One who had descended as we see in verse 10.

In His ascension, the risen Lord Jesus “led captivity captive.” In the Psalm from which this is derived, these are the captive foes of King David. Here, Paul is speaking of the foes of Christ Jesus, the son of David. The devil, the curse, and sin are taken captive by the risen Lord Jesus. We find this well expressed in Colossians 2:15, which says that “having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them.” Similarly, Romans 6:9, speaking of the curse of death, tells us that, “Christ being raised from the dead dies no more; death has no more dominion over him.” Verse 10 there in Romans 6 continues the thought, adding sin to the list of conquered foes. There we find that, “he died unto sin once [for all]”.

We will talk about the gifts shortly but first let’s address another interpretive challenge.

The phrase “into the lower parts of the earth” is easy enough to translate, but not so easy to interpret. In other words, we can render the meaning of the Greek words into English well enough, but accurately articulating the meaning of the sentence with confidence is more problematic.

“Into the lower parts of the earth” has been interpreted in several ways. I have drawn heavily on the NET Bible translator’s notes and the Jamieson, Fausset, Brown commentary for these facts.

The traditional view of this phrase, and the one with which you are most likely to be familiar, understands this to be a reference to hell (the underworld) where, it is proposed, Jesus descended during the three days of His death. The Greek supports this view if the grammar of the phrase “of the earth” is taken to refer to the earth as the whole and “the lower parts”, or hell, as a part of the earth.

The phrase can also be interpreted to mean “to the lower parts, namely, the earth.” If we interpret the phrase this way, the text is referring to the incarnation in which Jesus descended to earth as a human. Many recent scholars hold this view.

A third option, relying on the same understanding of the Greek grammar as the second option (above), is that the descent occurs after the ascent and thus refers us to the descent of the Holy Spirit at Penticost. I find this the least tenable of these options because if this were the case, it is very likely simply a refutation of Rabbinic teaching that Psalms 68:18 was referring to Moses ascending Sinai. In the context of Ephesians, that seems an unlikely motive to me.

According to Jamieson, Fausset, Brown, “Paul reasons that (assuming Him to be God) His ascent implies a previous descent; and that the language of the Psalm can only refer to Christ, who first descended, then ascended. For God the Father does not ascend or descend. Yet the Psalm plainly refers to God. It must therefore be God the Son.”

In John 3:13, Jesus said, “And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.” Yet we know that there were several including Enoch and Elijah who ascended in a similar way but none of them can be referred to in the Psalm except Christ because it speaks of God.

Jesus talked about this in John 6:33 saying, “For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.” He later asks, “What if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?” (John 6:62)

That Psalm 68:18 refers to God seems very clear. So, in my view the best way to interpret this is either that it tells us that Jesus descended into hell (or at least the place of the dead, hades) or that it refers to His incarnation. I’ll leave further research and conclusions to you.

Now to add a bit more depth to our thinking on this, I want to provide an edited excerpt from Jamieson, Fausset, Brown. I’ve edited it to make the text more readable.

In saying, “lower parts of the earth”—The antithesis or contrast to “far above all heavens,” is the argument of some to show that this phrase means more than simply the earth, namely, the regions beneath it, just as He ascended not merely to the visible heavens, but “far above” them. Moreover, His purpose “that He might fill all things” may imply the same. Also, the leading “captive” of the “captive hand” (“captivity”) of satanic powers, may imply that the warfare reached to their habitation itself. In Psalm 63:9 [we find, “But those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth.”] Christ, as Lord of all, took possession first of the earth, the unseen world beneath it, then of heaven. We see in Acts 2:27 “Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” The Greek word rendered “hell” here is (hades). All we surely know is, that His soul at death descended to Hades, that is, underwent the ordinary condition of departed spirits of men. The leading captive of satanic powers here, is not said to be at His descent, but at His ascension; so that no argument can be drawn from it for a descent to the abodes of Satan.

Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition Notes, (Biblical Studies Press, 2006), Eph 4:9.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 2:350.