Ephesians 4:9

(Now this, he ascended, what is it but that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth?

Now this, he ascended ... Taylor paraphrased this clause as meaning "As to this matter of ascension.[20] Paul in this verse made an argument to the effect that the ascension of Christ proved that Christ had also descended to the earth. His argument was not that any ascension proves a descent. If he meant such a thing as that, it would not have been true. The ascension of Christians to be with the Lord in eternity does not prove that they also descended, etc.

Misunderstanding of Paul's argument lies behind a remark like this: "That an ascent implies a descent ... strange and unconvincing as the argument appears to the modern reader, it is pure midrash!"[21] Such a view is only blindness to the glory of one of the great New Testament texts. Paul did not argue that "an ascension implies a descent"; any child would know better than that, and Paul was no intellectual child. What then was his argument?

Paul, along with the whole New Testament church, believed in the pre-existence of Christ with God, before the world was, worshipping him as Lord, Saviour, King, Creator of the universe, Sustainer of the universe, or as Paul himself titled him, King of kings and Lord of lords (1 Timothy 6:15). Now, when it is declared of Jesus Christ the Lord that he ascended, the inescapable and necessary deduction is imperative: that he also descended! How otherwise could a member of the Godhead ascend? How could the Holy One, with God in the beginning, "the same was God"; how could he have ascended without first descending? This verse, therefore, far from being "pure midrash," is one of the most eloquent passages in the New Testament touching upon the glorious Christian doctrine of the Ascension of Jesus Christ and of his pre-existence from all eternity with the Father.

[20] Williard H. Taylor, op. cit., p. 207.

[21] Francis W. Beare, The Interpreter's Bible, Vol. X (New York: Abingdon Press, 1953), p. 688.