What does it mean that Jesus descended into the lower parts of the earth (Ephesians 4:9)?

κατώτερα does not mean anything particular but what is below, the apparent earth in contrast with above all heavens, so as to fill all things. It naturally suggests Hades, which gives no definite idea, and is not meant to do so.

Nor does Ephesians 4:9 give countenance to any descent of the Lord to carry on high the departed saints. Granted, that the verse does not express His descent as the Son from heaven to become man; but it goes no farther than His descent when a man on earth to the grave. He tasted death, truly died, and was buried. Jehovah would not leave His soul in Sheol or Hades, nor suffer His pious One to see corruption. He that descended so low ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things. But Ephesians 6:12 does present the solemn truth of spiritual powers of evil in the heavenlies, with whom, instead of being yet expelled, we have now to contend in energy of the Holy Spirit. Through these world-rulers of this darkness the Lord did pass victorious in His ascent through the heavens to the throne of God. Possibly the marginal alternative of "a multitude of captives" captivates persons of an imaginative turn of mind, who are under the delusion that such alternatives are more faithful than the text. Here it appears that it is not mere "multitude" which is the point, but the completeness of His victory over the enemy. Yet in any case there was a multitude.

By "the heart," or "lower parts," of the earth, we understand the grave. Our Lord not only died, but was buried" and "rose again the third day." Of this Jonah was a sign. Ps. 139:15 may serve to guard us from a too literal interpretation of the words which would seem to indicate that by the lowest parts of the earth is meant what is plainly out of sight — "in secret." The sepulchre was made sure and the stone sealed (Matt 27:66). Thus no human eye should peer into that holy domain where lay the body of Jesus.

“Wherefore He says, when He ascended up on high He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.” Now to say that He ascended involves the fact that He first descended into the lower parts of the earth, for the point of His departure is not here from heaven but from earth. When He came down from heaven He came only to earth. He came here to reveal the Father, and bring the love of God to men; but when man would have none of Him He went down further, even into the lower parts of the earth. He said in the day of His rejection: “As Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matt. 12:40). Truly He might have said in the words of Jonah, “I went down to the bottoms of the mountains: the earth with her bars was about me for ever” (Jon. 2:6).

If you look further to the application of all this to ministry, you see, when he is beginning, he says, "Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith [it is the ground and basis that is given for ministry], When he ascended upon 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. And he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers." We first get the basis of all these gifts, Christ, but not Christ on earth as the Jew had Messias. All this has disappeared from the apostle's mind; and he sees Him going down into the dust of earth, and then ascending far above all heavens, whereof he takes up the effects. He went down into the lower parts of the earth, the grave, but hades for his soul. He went into the under world, the lower parts of the earth, and then He is far above all heavens. He has been below creation, for death and hades are in a certain sense below it, and then He is above it and in this way He fills all things. We see Christ in His redemption power filling everything. All service and ministry have their place in that, and they flow from it. He has come down where Satan had his power, death and hades (called hell). He goes down where Satan's power was, and breaks it; He leads captivity captive; and He puts man in the glory of God in His own Person far above all heavens; so that He has met on the one hand the power of evil, and on the other set man in the glory of God. As Man He gets these gifts, as we were reading in the Acts, "Being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit" (the Holy Spirit is the promise of the Father), "he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear." He has done that as Man, not merely as God, observe; but Christ, in virtue of this redemption by which He fills all things, receives the Spirit and sends Him to men whom He has rescued out of Satan's hands and builds up His church here. It gives a wonderful place to ministry.

Christ has been down here, has seen the misery of man, and the malignity of Satan, has defeated the one, and delivered the other, and then gone on high to carry on His work of grace. That is what the next verse of our chapter brings out. "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" (vers. 9, 10). He has been in this scene, as Man, and met man's victor and captor, Satan. Morally He overcame him in the wilderness, where as you know, when tempted to the uttermost for forty days, He completely defeated the enemy, by dependence, and obedience, so that he left Him. He then came out, and, having bound the strong man, He rifled his palace, the world, spoiling his goods, — in other words, delivering his captives, and setting them free. Still there remained work to be done. The question of sin before God had to be taken up, and Satan's title over man, as a sinner, had to be met. Further, He Himself must pass back into glory, and on the ground of the work He was to accomplish, He would have those who are His, with Him. When therefore He descended into the lower parts of the earth, I apprehend that the descent there spoken of, is not His coming from heaven to earth, when He assumed manhood, but the cross and its consequences.

Grace is given by Christ, according to His wisdom and sovereign pleasure, to all His saints; each receiving what Christ desires to be expressed in testimony in this world. Every bit of grace given sets forth the triumph of Christ over the enemy, for before communicating it He must first lead captivity captive. There are also special gifts from Christ, enumerated in verse 11; they are given from the place of His exaltation and supremacy. While on earth the Lord appointed twelve apostles, but when He went on high their apostleship was reckoned to them in a new way, and there were others who received this same gift (Acts 14:14; Gal. 1:19). It is not that the apostleship of the twelve is gone forever; their names are found in the heavenly city as "The twelve apostles of the Lamb;" but the foundation of the building of Eph. 2:20 not only contains all the apostles of the glorified Christ, but also the prophets given from heaven. Before imparting these gifts the Lord Jesus went down into the lower parts of the earth, into the dark domain of death. Coming forth in triumph He has ascended, having overcome every hostile principality and authority; leading captive every foe; annulling the power of the enemy; ascending above all the heavens to fill all things. The descent of the Lord here is not from heaven, as in Phil. 2:6-7; it is from the earth, where, as Man He had been for the glory of God. Have we not here the presentation of a Man great enough to enter in His own might into the domain of death, and great enough in His glorious triumph to pass through the heavens? How blessed to see the greatness of Man, the Man of God's right hand, whom He has made strong for Himself. Like Samson, He goes down to the citadel of the enemy, where the gates are closed upon Him, and in triumph He tears away the door, bar and all, and carries them in triumph to the top of the hill. This glorious Man is going to fill all things! In passing from the lower parts of the earth to His place above all heavens, He has passed through every sphere in the universe in the might of His glory and in the display of His wonderful victory; none in all these spheres could challenge His power or His title, and when His present session is completed, He will be manifested to fill all things.

1912 79 Q. — What is the teaching of Holy Scripture as to Sheol or Hades? Does the "three days the Son of man was in the heart of the earth," and our Lord's descent "into the lower parts of the earth," refer to anything more than, in the former the grave; and in the latter the dust of death and the grave? Would it be according to scripture to say that Sheol or Hades (including Abraham's bosom, and Paradise) were below the earth? and that the Lord Jesus went there and emptied one compartment of it taking them on high? Or was Paradise or Abraham's bosom always in heaven, and never below the earth even in Old Testament times? If so what is the force of such expressions as going down into Sheol? Is the "bottomless pit" distinct from Hades? Could the word Sheol or Hades be applied to heaven in that it also was part of the unseen? J.C.B.

The "abyss" is a Greek word (abyssos), meaning, "bottomless," which occurs in the New Testament nine times, and is rendered in our Authorised Version as follows: "deep," in Luke 8:31; Rom. 10:7; "bottomless," in Rev. 9:1-2; and "bottomless pit," in Rev. 9:11 Rev. 11:7; Rev. 17:8; Rev. 20:1, 3. In the Septuagint Version of the Old Testament, out of the thirty-four occurrences of its use it is the rendering, in thirty-one instances, of the Hebrew word t'höhm — "the deep," "deep places," "the depth." We give at the foot of this page all the references in the Old Testament, from which the general sense of the word is plain. And so also the New Testament gives no warrant whatever for such a thought as a descent of our Lord into the bottomless pit! Our Lord "descended into the lower parts of the earth." He was buried, and He raised from the dead by the glory of the Father.

If human order and arrangement had prevailed in the grouping of the Psalms, it would pretty certainly have reversed the order of the two series. We should have arranged things in historic order, first His trouble and suffering, second His triumph and ascension, third His millennial glory. But doubtless we should have been wrong. The order here agrees with that observed in Ephesians 4:9-10, where, having quoted the eighteenth verse of Psalm 68, the comment is made "Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth." The descent was first historically, but it is only mentioned parenthetically because His triumphant ascension is the main point before the mind of the Spirit. So it is in these Psalms, and 69-71 may be viewed as a parenthesis between 68 and 72.

He "descended first." So let us first consider Psalm 69, in which He is seen as sinking in "deep mire," and "deep waters" (ver. 2), and as going down into "the waterflood," "the deep," and "the pit" (ver. 15). Ephesians 4:9 speaks of Him as descending "into the lower parts of the earth," an expression that occasions some little difficulty. If, however, we connect it in our minds with the Psalm before us the difficulty largely disappears. Indeed it may be that the Apostle Paul, when he wrote the words, had this Psalm in his mind, just as he had Psalm 68 in his mind and quoted from it in the previous verse.