Wherefore he says, Having ascended up on high, he has led captivity captive, and has given gifts to men.
In the middle of writing about the church's unity, Paul quotes an old song of victory and applies it to Christ, risen and gone up. Two questions follow: why does the quotation differ from the psalm, and who are the captives He led away?
In the psalm Christ receives gifts; in Ephesians He gives them. One writer traces that change and the new period it points to:
Notice that the Spirit of God, in quoting this passage, has changed and widened its scope a little. The psalm, after declaring Christ's victory, says: "You have received gifts for men," or, "in the man." The apostle quotes it this way: "and gave gifts to men." The Old Testament shows Christ, as man, receiving gifts because of His triumph. But in the New Testament the Holy Spirit applies the passage to show these gifts actually handed out to those for whom He won them… In the epistle Christ hands out these gifts before that reign and that time of earthly blessing begin. He gives them in the sphere of His present interests, "to every one of us."
The change is the Holy Spirit's own, and that settles its standing:
When the Holy Spirit quotes Scripture in the New Testament, the quotation is as much Scripture in its New Testament place as in its Old. Any change the Holy Spirit makes in the quotation is itself Scripture.
Older translations read "he led captivity captive." The phrase is war language, and its earlier uses set the sense. One writer answers a question about it:
The expression first occurs in Judges 5:12. There it means that Barak was called to lead captive those who had oppressed Israel in their pride. Psalm 68:18 does the same. It celebrates the risen and ascended Lord in the language of war, as victor over the mightiest powers of evil… it says plainly and strongly how completely He beat them. Colossians 2:15 describes the same victory over him who had the power of death, and over his angels… The cross cancels their might. It looked like Christ's defeat, but it is the ground of His triumph.
The scene is a captor taken captive. One writer draws the reversal out as a picture:
When He came into this world He found Satan the captor, and man chained, so to speak, to the wheels of his victory chariot. Man was in captivity, led or driven through the scene by the devil. Now the whole thing is turned around… He is risen from the dead, the mighty Victor, and Satan is chained to the wheels of His chariot… Satan beaten, and man set free to become Christ's willing servant.
Some have taken the captives to be Old Testament believers, carried up to heaven with Christ. One writer answers that:
In ascending, Christ led captive the evil powers that had held man captive before. It had nothing to do with the Old Testament saints or any others. After His death the Lord went to Paradise, where His Father received His Spirit… When the converted robber died, he joined the Lord in Paradise.
Christ received these gifts before He gave them, and He received them as Man:
Thus exalted, He has received gifts in man, that is, in His human character (compare Acts 2:33). It is in this way, "in man," that Psalm 68 puts it, and the quotation comes from there. Here, having received these gifts as the Head of the body, Christ is the channel of their communication to others. They are gifts for men.
The gifts He hands down are people, and the Greek word marks them off from another kind of gift:
The Lord Jesus led captivity captive, went up on high, and from there gave gifts to men. Psalm 68:18. These were apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the building up of the body of Christ. Here persons are the gifts, δόμα… Another list is given in 1 Corinthians 12, where the word is χάρισμα, "grace, favour."
The gift comes to a person, and then the person becomes the gift:
He makes you the holder of a certain gift, and then He takes you, gift and all, and makes a present of you to His church.
The gifts come from the ascended Christ, and He keeps giving even when His people are weak:
Here is another weighty fact. His going up to heaven did not interrupt the gifts. Ephesians 4:8-10 proves that they were given only from Him on high… Outward power in testimony may not adorn the church when it is unfaithful… Yet the love of Christ cannot refuse all that is needed for the perfecting of the saints.
- Victory first. The words are war language. Christ beat the powers that held man captive, and the cross that looked like defeat is the ground of His triumph.
- Spoil second. He does not keep the victory to Himself. The ascended Man received gifts and passed them down at once.
- Persons, not powers. He gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers — people handed to His body as presents.
- Reach. The psalm's fuller blessing waits for a coming day. The epistle shows the gifts already flowing to every one of us.
- Result. The supply comes only from Him on high, so it cannot fail while the saints still need perfecting.
But that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth?
Paul has just quoted a psalm about a conqueror going up on high with gifts for men. Now he stops to ask what going up must mean. The answer goes down before it goes up. How far down do "the lower regions" reach? And why does a verse about the gifts of Christ take this turn at all?
This verse breaks into the flow. One writer explains why the descent comes second in the telling, and gets only a passing mention:
In Ephesians 4:9-10, the eighteenth verse of Psalm 68 is quoted, and then comes the comment that His ascent means He first descended into the lower parts of the earth. The descent came first in time. But it gets only a passing mention, because His triumphant ascension is the main point before the mind of the Spirit.
One writer traces two stages in His going down:
To say that He ascended means that He first descended into the lower parts of the earth. The point He departs from here is not heaven but earth. When He came down from heaven He came only as far as earth. He came here to reveal the Father and bring the love of God to men. But when men would have nothing to do with Him, He went down further, even into the lower parts of the earth. He said in the day of His rejection: "For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" (Matt. 12:40).
One writer sets a firm limit on how far down the phrase reaches — to the grave, the place of the dead, and no further:
Ephesians 4:9 gives no support to any descent of the Lord to carry the departed saints on high. True, the verse does not speak of His descent as the Son from heaven to become man. It goes no further than His descent to the grave, as a man on earth. He tasted death, truly died, and was buried. Jehovah would not leave His soul in Sheol or Hades, nor let His holy One see corruption. He who descended so low ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.
Not everyone stops at the grave. Others read the descent as the whole way down, from becoming man to the cross:
He had the highest place above, if I may say so, naturally and in His own being. It belonged to Him as the Son of God, who was equal with God by right; yet He stooped to be made flesh. God's purpose required that He should be man. Without His becoming man there could have been no undoing of the whole ruin of mankind, and of the dishonour done to God by sin. There could have been no defeat of Satan, and no full and righteous deliverance for man... To have stooped to become man, and to live as He lived, rejected and humbled on earth, would have been much. But what is that compared to the cross? He went down to the very lowest, and because of that humiliation He is now, as man, exalted to the highest.
One writer sets the descent inside a bigger story — man's captivity, and his rescue:
This Deliverer has proved Himself not only mighty in this way, but glorious. He fills all things. He has both descended and ascended. He has been in the lower parts of the earth — the grave, the very stronghold of the Captor. He is now far above all heavens... He carried out the deliverance in the lower parts of the earth. Now, in the highest places, far above all heavens, He has received gifts for those who were once the victims of the Serpent. He has handed them out.
One writer answers a worry: could this supply of gifts ever end?
Perhaps some have already asked: Will this ever end? Will the assembly one day be left without building up? But then we look into the open heaven and see Christ there. He is still there, and He is still the One who gives the gifts. He so loved the assembly that He descended into the lower parts of the earth. So the ministry which those gifts carry out cannot stop while Christ is there!
- Down first. The descent came first in time. It gets only a passing mention, because the triumphant ascension is the main subject.
- Down from earth. He came from heaven only as far as earth. When men rejected Him, He went lower still, into the heart of the earth.
- Down to the grave. Commentators differ here. Some limit the phrase to His death and burial. Others trace the whole stoop, from becoming man to the cross.
- Down into enemy ground. The grave was the Captor's stronghold. He went in, won the deliverance there, and came out.
- Down, therefore up. The One who went lowest now gives from the highest place, and while He is there the supply for His body cannot fail.