Ephesians 4:7-10

b. The gift of Christ to individuals

(Ephesians 4:7-10)

7But unto every [to each] one of us is given grace [was the13 grace given] according to the measure of the gift of Christ. 8Wherefore he saith, When he ascended 9up on high, he led [a] captivity captive, and14 gave gifts unto [to] men. ([omit parenthesis] Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first [omit 10first]15 into the lower parts16 of the earth? He that [who] descended is the same also that [he it is also who] ascended up far [omit far] above all [the] heavens, that he might fill all things.) [omit) ].

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Ephesians 4:7. Every one is cared for by Christ.—But to each one of us, ἑνὶ δὲ ἑκάστῳ ἡμῶν.—Antithetical to “through all and in all,” in order to explain it and to give prominence to the subjective condition, which is a motive for the preservation of unity; “of us” holds fast to the circle of Christians, of believers; it recalls Ephesians 3:20 : “in us.” After the seventh “one” and the fourth “all,” prominence is given to the specializing of what is common to all, to what is peculiar to the individuals. [Hence ἑνὶ in addition to ἑκάστῳ.—R.] It cannot be referred to teachers (Passavant), or to extraordinary Christians (Baumgarten-Crusius), or to the relation of Jewish and Gentile Christians (Olshausen). Each has a part in salvation, and should prove it in concord; each has a part in salvation, and hence should be treated in a fraternal manner.

Was the grace given [ἐδόθη ἡ χάρις].—The verb stands first for emphasis: Every one has received, no one has it of himself; each has to recognize that, for himself, in order not to be proud, for another, in order not to despise or avoid him. That which was given by Christ is “the grace,” God’s grace, which is active and noticeable in Christianity,17 and of which he has already spoken in ver.6 (Harless); or the grace imparted.

According to the measure of the gift of Christ [κατὰ τὸ μέτρον τῆς δωρεᾶς τοῦ Χριστοῦ].—One kind of grace is given, and yet very differently. It is given by Christ; hence the genitive Χριστοῦ is the genitive subjecti, on which account we find in ver.Eph 8: “and gave gifts,” Ephesians 4:11 : “and He gave,” accordingly that gift which He has given, not received (Oeder, in Wolf). He gives to each individual, to one more, to another less, to each the entire grace, but in peculiar form, with differently manifested strength, efficacy and tendency; hence “according to the measure of the gift of Christ.” [“In proportion to the amount of the gift which Christ gives” (Ellicott), the first genitive being a simple possessive genitive, and the second that of the agent, or both being subjective. Stier tries to combine the ideas of giving and receiving in the phrase: “of Christ.” “The rule is not our merit, or our previous capacity, nor our asking, but His own good pleasure” (Hodge).—R.]

Christ has power thereto; Ephesians 4:8-10. a) The quotation (Ephesians 4:8). b) The further exposition and application (Ephesians 4:9-10).

Ephesians 4:8. Wherefore he saith.—Διό denotes that in the quotation there is a reference and proof, i.e., for “the gift of Christ;” as will appear. We most naturally supply ἡ γραφή, the Scripture, with λέγει, “saith” (James 4:6; Romans 15:10; Galatians 3:16; 1 Corinthians 6:16 : φησίν), and not ὁ θεός (Meyer, Schenkel), or ὁ λέγων (Bleek: the writer). [The fact that Paul frequently supplies ἡ γραφή (Romans 4:8; Romans 9:17; Romans 10:11; Galatians 4:30; 1 Timothy 5:18) is against Braune’s view; for in some of these passages there is a reason for its insertion (see Romans, p. 314), and as the Scriptures are God’s Word (Meyer), the natural aim and obvious subject is ὁ θεός. So Alford, Ellicott and most.—R.] The quotation is from Psalms 68:19 : עָלִיתָ לַמָּרוֹס שָׁבִיתָ שֶׁבִי לָקָחְתָּ מַתָּנוֹת בָּאָדָם: LXX: ἀναβὰς εἰς ὕψος ἠχμαλώτευσας αἰχμαλωσίαν ἔλαβες δὁματα ἐν . In Paul it reads:

When he ascended upon high he led a captivity captive, and gave gifts to men, ἀναβὰς εἰς ὕψος ἠχμαλώτευσεν αἰχμαλωσίαν καὶ ἔδωκε δόματα τοῖς .—The citation is unmistakable up to the last clause: Paul has used the third person instead of the second, because he would mark the application and not merely quote; but in the last clause he substitutes “give” for “receive,” and the dative τοῖς for ἐν . The article is found in the Hebrew, in the Kamets, and in the singular, the general idea, which Paul expresses by the plural, inheres. Accordingly there remains but three variations of any consequence: לקח, λαμβάνειν, to receive, what is in itself inadmissible, δίδοναι, to give; instead of באדם, the dative, which is not represented by בְ, but by לְ, and the added καί. What in the glorious Psalm is said of God, whose triumphant doings on the earth are praised, and who takes up His abode on Mount Zion, in His sanctuary, to which the people festively draw near, and whither the Gentiles also will come, this the Apostle here applies to Christ. David sang of the ark of the covenant, which, after a great victory, was transferred (Stier) or brought back (Hengstenberg) to Zion. In this fact he sees the principle of the history of the Kingdom of God, appearing in ever widening circles and nobler manner; the fact is to him a type of the method and course of the Messianic kingdom. Hence the general view (Ephesians 4:2-7; Ephesians 4:29-32) and the reminiscence of the journey through the wilderness from Sinai to Zion (Ephesians 4:8-19). So that the Apostle is perfectly justified in finding the singer’s eye directed towards Christ and thus interpreting it. The height (“on high”) in the Psalm is first of all Zion (Ephesians 4:16-17; comp. Jeremiah 17:12, 38; Jeremiah 31:12; Jeremiah 34:14, where מַרוֹם is spoken of Zion); but this is a type of heaven; of the most holy height, on which account the Apostle has heaven in his mind (Ephesians 4:10).18 By “captivity,” αἰχμαλωσία, according to Jdt 2:9; Ezra 6:5; Revelation 13:10, we must understand captives, a troop or group of them, and not prison, captivity (Luther). This the parallelism which follows in the Psalm (Eph 70: ἀπειθοῦντες, Vulgate: non credentes) teaches us; indeed the next clause (ἔλαβες δόματα ἐν ) indicates plainly enough that the notion of αἰχμαλωσία is that of a turba captivorum, a crowd of captives, since the passage speaks of gifts in the man (in the human race), in men, presents consisting in men, whom He received and bore with Him into the same sanctuary.19 This however the Apostle does not simply take up in his quotation, does not place it after the first clause without any connecting particle, but with καί, which denotes advance, something further, passes from the quotation over into the meaning: and He gave. For what God conquers, overcomes, leads with Himself, takes to Himself, makes His own, He does not wish to retain for Himself, but He transforms it, endows it, and makes it a gift: His captives become His servants, Israel’s servants. He makes the enemies and antagonists of His theocracy its servants. So in a higher sense Christ; He made Saul Paul, the enemy and destroyer of His church an Apostle. God’s taking, receiving, points to a subsequent giving, Christ’s giving to a previous receiving. Thus the taking of gifts in men passes over into a giving for men, and the citation from David’s Psalm the Apostle interprets as referring to Christ. By “men,” τοῖς we must understand chiefly men conquered by Him, His men, to whom He has given gifts of grace, that they themselves may and can become gifts for men in wider circles (see Ephesians 4:11; Acts 2:33).

After all this, it cannot be said that the citation is not from Psalms 68:19, but ex carmine, quod ab Ephesiis cantitari sciret (Storr, Flatt), or that Paul did not know the exact words (Rueckert), nor nonnihil a genuino sensu detorsit, de suo adjecit (Calvin), or to invent an exegetical tradition from the Targums (which were made not earlier than the third century, and the Syriac and Arabic versions, altered to accord with the Apostle, and to suppose the Apostle had followed this (Holzhausen, Meyer and others). Nor should we go beyond the context, and find a reference, as in Colossians 2:15, to Satanic powers, which He has led captive (Chrysostom, Beza, Calov., Bengel, Stier and others), since this does not comport with the Apostle’s interpretation, or to the souls released from Hades (Estius, Delitzsch, Psychology, p. 358, and others), since enemies are spoken of. Finally we cannot infer from this passage in the Psalms and the use Paul makes of it this difference between the Old and New Testaments, that in the former God receives gifts from or among men, but in the latter gives to men (Schenkel).

[The real difficulty of this verse lies in the form of the last clause. That Paul quotes from the Psalm which has a Messianic reference, that Christ is represented as returning victoriously to heaven with a crowd of captives, is evident, and occasions no difficulty. But as the point of the section is Christ’s giving to men, it is singular that the words: “gave gifts to men” are not found in the Psalm, which says: “received gifts among men.” (בָאָדָם, lit., in the man), or as Braune takes it, “consisting in men,” i.e., the captives. Dr. J. A. Alexander (Psalms, in loco): “To receive gifts on the one hand and bestow gifts on the other are correlative ideas and expressions, so that Paul, in applying this description of a theocratic triumph to the conquests of our Saviour, substitutes one of these expressions for the other.” If this be deemed satisfactory, and Braune’s view, which obviates the difficulty in בָאָדָם, be accepted, the solution is complete. But if the latter be rejected (see footnote on αἰχμαλωσίαν), then we can render the original passage: “has taken gifts among men” (the collective sense is clearly correct) and consider the whole phrase recast by the Apostle to express the correlative idea which is at hand, and which is contained in the further, fuller, and deeper meaning of the Psalm, here succinctly, suggestively and authoritatively unfolded (Ellicott). This seems to be more satisfactory than to attempt to prove that the Hebrew expresses this meaning. It may be admitted that it is often=danda sumpsit (as Eadie clearly proves) but that it means this in the Psalm in question is very doubtful. The same view would render בָאָדָם, for men, which becomes to men, after the bestowal of the gift. See Eadie in loco.—R.]

Ephesians 4:9. Now that he ascended, τὸ δὲἀνέβη, taken from the ἀναβάς.—[Not the word, which does not occur in the passage quoted, but the predicate, which is contained in ἀναβάς (Meyer). The δέ introduces a slight explanatory transition; not strictly a proof (Hodge, Ellicott, following Hofmann and Meyer) of the correctness of the Messianic application of the passage cited, but a further explanation of what it means as thus applied. Meyer now (4th ed.) gives up his former view, remarking that such a proof was unnecessary and illogical, since the subject of the Psalm in its Messianic fulfilment was self-evident, and God Himself is conceived of in the Old Testament as ὁ καταβάς—R.]

What is it [What does it imply] but that he also descended [τί ἐστιν εἰ μὴ ὅτι καὶ κατέβη].—Τί ἐστιν=what is thereby expressed (Matthew 9:13; John 16:17 ff; John 10:6)? Ὅτι καὶ κατέβη, He has not merely ascended, but has also previously descended; the former presupposes the latter: Thus heaven is indicated as His original dwelling-place (John 3:13) and His Person as that glorious, helping One, who can and will give gifts. [So Meyer. It is impossible to understand the verse otherwise than as indicating heaven to be the point of departure and the place of return for Him who descends and ascends. The doubt respects only the place whither He descended and whence He ascended.—R.]

Into the lower parts of the earth, εἰς τὰ κατώτερα μέρη τῆς γῆς.—This closer definition of the descending evidently indicates the depths of the lower world, the subterranean world, which is below the surface of the earth; the genitive is partitive, governed by μέρη. The thought occurs in a variety of forms (Philippians 2:10 : καταχθονίων; Acts 2:27; Acts 2:31 : εἰς ᾅδην; 1 Peter 3:19 : ἐν φυλακῇ. The expression here corresponds to κατώτατα τῆς γῆς (Psalms 63:10), grammatically τῆς γῆς might be the genitive of apposition (Winer, p. 494), like εἰς τὸ ὕψος τοῦ οὐρανοῦ (Isaiah 38:14). It is also true that the context up to this point would permit us to refer the phrase to the earth alone. But the following τὰ πάντα (Ephesians 4:10) and the design of the Apostle to show the power of Christ, require the fullest justifiable meaning of the expression, and hence the application to Hades. There is no reference to burial (Chrysostom and others), nor in accordance with Psalms 139:15 to the mother’s womb (Calixtus and others).

[This interpretation of the phrase: “the lower parts of the earth” is the one anciently received, current among Romanist expositors, and adopted more recently by Bengel, Rueckert, Olshausen, Stier, Turner, Wordsworth, Alford and Ellicott. The other view: the lower parts, viz., the earth, is accepted by the majority of modern commentators, such as Calvin, Grotius, Harless, De Wette, Hofmann, Hodge and Eadie (who gives a full statement of views and a good defence of this interpretation). It may be remarked that while one class of expositors may have been led to the one conclusion by a desire to sustain the article of the Apostles’ Creed; “He descended into hell,” the other may have been quite as much influenced by a fear of favoring the Romanist appendages to that article. Both views are alike grammatical, for while the positive would more naturally express the latter sense and the superlative the former, we have here the indefinite comparative, which may mean either. Doctrinally either view is admissible, while the considerations mentioned by Braune perhaps make the ancient view the preferable one. On Christ’s descent into Hades, see Dr. Schaff’s note, Matthew, pp. 228–229, and Lange and Mombert, First Peter, pp. 63 f., 67–72. Zanchius, Barnes and others favor the notion that the phrase signifies, in general, lowliness or humiliation, a view altogether untenable, because opposed to the context, and an unnecessary departure from the literal meaning.—R.]

Ephesians 4:10. He who descended, he it is also who ascended [ὁ καταβὰς αὐτός ἐστιν καὶ ὁ ].—Both thoughts are here brought together, without οὖν, in a lively, joyous manner, marking the identity of the Person. Κα·ταβάς stands first, having the emphasis, and αὐτός [He, emphatic], not ὁ αὐτός [the same, as in E. V.], gives prominence to the Person, who ascended out of the deepest depths, above all the heavens, ὑπεράνω πάντων τῶν οὐρανῶν; the strongest antithesis to Ephesians 4:9. Under the term “heavens” there is no necessity for reckoning either three (Harless and others) according to 2 Corinthians 12:2, or seven (Meyer and others), according to the prevalent Jewish opinion.20 Similar expressions: Hebrews 4:14; Hebrews 7:26.

That he might fill all things, ἵνα πληρώσῃ τὰ πάντα.—The Apostle thus gives the motive for what he has presented [in Ephesians 4:7]. There is nothing into which He cannot penetrate. Comp. Ephesians 1:23. Τὰ πάντα designates all regions into which He can carry His gifts, can penetrate with His grace and glory, all regions and all persons within them.21 There is no reference to a fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy (Anselm, Koppe and others), or to the completion of the work of Redemption (Rueckert and others); nor is it to be limited to Christians (Beza, Grotius, Schenkel and others), for He rules also among and in His enemies (Psalms 110:2). Chrysostom is excellent: τοῦτό ἐστι τῆς ἐνεργείας αὐτοῦ καὶ τῆς δεσποτείας, that He lets none slip, gives to every one, who has permitted himself to be conquered; the gracious and efficient presence of Him, the God-man, is thus established, and Ephesians 4:7 explained.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The idiosyncracy and freedom of the individual is as little altered by the gift of Christ’s grace as the former is of itself able to replace the latter by its own self-originated development. There must be giving, and indeed in this there is necessary a repeated proffering, making receptive or preparing, appropriating and preserving; the Lord offers ten times before we once receive, accept, take; so little does the Lord limit the freedom of the recipient. With the gift (Gabe), however, a task (Aufgabe) is at the same time appointed to the recipient: he must use it, gain with it. The gift does not obliterate national, corporate, local, temporal, individual differences, but purifies and ennobles them. Temperament and natural mental powers, talents and inclinations are only refined, directed, moved and used for the Lord’s kingdom and our own salvation. “It is self-evident that the gifts of grace are not mere developments of the natural talents of the man,—but this does not deny that they are planted in a natural talent” (Kahnis, Lehre vom heil. Geist I. p. 72).

2. Christ is the Lord, who gives. He has fought the fight of Redemption, and stands as a conqueror there; has overcome as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and as the Lamb of God, who bears the sins of the world. He can give to every one and He is willing to do so. His χρίσμα, by means of which He makes men Christians, is a χάρισμα, grace in a special manner adapted to the individual. Comp. 1 Corinthians 12:8 ff.

3. Respecting the internal connection of the Old and New Testament, as well as for Hermeneutics and Homiletics, much can be deduced from the application of this citation from the Psalms in our passage.

a. “The Apostle knows that what the Old Testament contains, the New Testament must also contain, only in a more glorious manner. Comp. 2 Corinthians 3:7-11. He knows that however different according to the different relations, which are indicated in the very character of the Old Testament revelation, it still inheres in the nature of this unity of the two revelations, to bear witness of this unity to those who can and will seek it. All that was written aforetime was written εἰς ἡμετέραν διδασκαλίαν (Romans 15:4).” Harless. Besides the definite prophecies, there are in the Old Testament enough types and things typical of Christ and what has taken place in and through Him. What occurred in the people of Israel and is narrated as history or sung by holy men of old, is something pointing to the future; while at the time indeed it is accomplished fact or acute sketching of a living person, yet beyond this it has a validity for the Messianic period, so that when this comes in it is related to it as σκιά to σῶμα, shadow to body. In the Old Testament the Logos is concerned, but concealed, in all; in the New Testament manifested openly in all glory, full of grace and truth. The Jehovah of the Old Testament is the Redeemer in the New. Comp. Riehm, Lehrbegriff des Hebräerbriefs, I. p. 131 ff.

b. Hermeneutics should perceive and show forth, in the acts of God narrated or sung in the Holy Scriptures, His administration, both going back to seek the preparatory and prophetic types, and forwards to point out the advancing accomplishment. But there must be a distinction made between what the passage to be expounded expresses as the sense and meaning of the writer, and what the deed or person, so simply and transparently described, signifies in the kingdom of God, in His people, of which signification the writer may be entirely unconscious. “The knowledge which looks back to the guidance of youth is the knowledge belonging to Christianity; the guidance of youth is the history of the Old Testament theocracy; the veil which rests on the guidance of youth disappears with the knowledge of manhood in Christ (2 Corinthians 3:4-16).” Harless. Every important poet, every skilful artist, may first perceive in the later inspection of his work thoughts therein, of which he neither was nor became conscious in making it. So in the Scripture often enough is there more than the writer had in his consciousness. [Comp. Exeg. and Doctr. Notes, Galatians, Galatians 4:19-30. Even Eadie, who is most earnest in the effort to prove that the Apostle cites from the Psalm in accordance with its original and exact sense, says: “Our position is, that the same God is revealed as Redeemer both under the Old and New Testament, that the Jehovah of the one is the Jesus of the other, that Psalms 68:0 is filled with imagery which was naturally based on incidents in Jewish history, and that the inspired poet, while describing the interposition of Jehovah, has used language which Was fully realized only in the victory and exaltation of Christ.”—R.]

c. Homiletics may and should place the biblical history of the Old and New Testament, as a concrete manifestation of a Divine thought or of Divine guidance and ways, which enclose love and wisdom for men, besides others in the present life of the world or of individuals, in order to place these latter in that true light, which the former gives. For God and the Saviour Jesus Christ is the same in the Old and the New Testament, and at all times, ours as well, in His Church. Gaupp (Homiletik I. p. 174) calls this the tropological view. [Admitting both the usefulness of teachings drawn from analogy, since analogy, figure, type, etc., all indicate the harmony of the Divine will in Creation, Providence and Redemption, and the propriety of such extensions and applications of the Old Testament on the part of an inspired Apostle, we must remember that our tropological exposition is not authoritative, and that we can base no doctrine or precept upon it, but only use it to elucidate established doctrine or enforce plain precept.—R.]

4. The Christology of this passage. It says that Christ is originally in heaven; there is His eternal dwelling-place. But He betook Himself into lowliness and penetrated the universe even to the lower regions, in order to fill all with His glory. He works as King, dispensing victoriously, where He has wrought as champion. His pre-existence is taken for granted, while we are especially taught His eternal activity of grace in all directions and for all times and for every man.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Only take what Christ gives thee; thou needst envy no one.—Thankfully recognize what He has given to another; it benefits thee also.—Do not be satisfied with the natural endowments of your nation, your class, your family, or your intellect; let them be sanctified, purified, penetrated by grace in Christ. The most highly gifted natural man is always smaller and poorer than a living Christian (Goethe, Tersteegen).—Christ is King, Lord; His sword is His word, but this is a sword.—He has descended into the deep as a Redeemer: thy sin is not too deep and thy heart is not too bad: He can fill it.

Starke:—Each member must be contented with his measure of gifts, received without pride, shared without envy.—Dear Christian, wilt thou ascend with Christ and reach His glory, then must thou first descend and suffer.

Rieger:—No one has all, and no one need be concerned lest he come away entirely empty.—The origin of all gifts is to be found especially in the exaltation of Christ, which began with the victory over the rulers of darkness, over the principalities and powers who held us captive, who were themselves taken captive in the deep path of Christ’s humiliation, and in the moment of Christ’s death, when they believed they had gained the mastery over Him, must find and feel Him to be their Conqueror and Destroyer.

Heubner:—The diversity of gifts as respects degree and subject, should not occasion boasting or envy. In working together for the Kingdom of God there can be no envy; where there is envy, there the labor is for personal advantage.—Christ’s Kingdom embraces also the invisible Kingdom of God. Would this be conceivable, were He a mere man?

Passavant:—It has ever been the indiscretion and folly of men in the world, that they have forgotten the One Great Giver in the gifts and gifted, looking with especial astonishment to this teacher, with especial love to this benefactor, with especial admiration to this hero;—a virtual idolatry.—The main blow and the victory for all time and for eternity took place in and with the death of Christ—in and with His Resurrection.

Stier:—Each for himself and all together have to walk the same way in Christ.—The gifts of Christ are themselves at the same time men; all gifts of grace are pre-eminently official gifts.

[Eadie:

Ephesians 4:7. The law of the Church is essential unity in the midst of circumstantial variety. Each gift in its own place completes the unity.

Ephesians 4:9. Reproach and scorn and contumely followed Him as a dark shadow. Persecution at length apprehended Him, accused Him, calumniated Him, scourged Him, mocked Him, and doomed “the man of sorrows” to an ignominious torture and a felon’s death. His funeral was extemporized and hasty; nay, the grave He lay in was a borrowed one. He came truly “to the lower parts of the earth.”

Ephesians 4:10. But as His descent was to a point so deep, His ascent is to a point as high. His position is the highest in the universe.—R.]

[Hodge:

Ephesians 4:7. To refuse to occupy the place assigned to us in the Church, is to refuse to belong to it at all.

Ephesians 4:9-10. All other comings were typical of His coming in the flesh, and all ascensions were typical of His ascension from the grave.—It is God clothed in our nature who now exercises this universal dominion; and therefore the Apostle may well say of Christ, as the incarnate God, that He gives gifts unto men.—R.]

Footnotes:

Ephesians 4:7; Ephesians 4:7.—[The article is omitted in B. D.1 F. G. L., a few cursives, by Lachmann; bracketted by Alford; inserted in א. A. C. D.3 K., accepted by Tischendorf and most recent editors. The omission was probably due to the η which precedes, and some glosses still further sustain its genuineness.—The order of the E. V. is altered for the sake of retaining the article, and was substituted for is, to bring out the force of the aorist.—R.]

Ephesians 4:8; Ephesians 4:8.—[Καί is omitted in א. A. C.2 D.1 F., versions and fathers; rejected by Lachmann, Tischendorf (Exodus 2:0), Ellicott. It is found in (Rec.) א.3 B. G.13 D.3 K. L., nearly all cursives, versions (Syrian, etc.), fathers; accepted by Tischendorf (Exodus 7:0), Meyer, Alford, Braune. As it is wanting in the LXX, the internal evidence seems to decide in its favor; an insertion for the sake of connection is not probable.—See Exeg. Notes for the text of the original Hebrew and the LXX.—R.]

Ephesians 4:9; Ephesians 4:9.—The Rec. inserts πρῶτον. on the authority of א.3 B. C.3 K. L., cursives, versions and fathers; it is not found in א. A. C. D.1.F?., and is rejected by modern editors as an explanatory gloss.—R.]

Ephesians 4:9; Ephesians 4:9.—[The authority for μέρη is much stronger than for πρῶτον (א. A. B. C. D 3 K. L., nearly all cursives, a few versions and fathers), though it is open to suspicion as an explanatory gloss, and is rejected by Tischendorf, Meyer and Ellicott (omitted in D.1 F, most fathers). It is however retained, on account of the strong uncial support, by Lachmann, Scholz, Rückert, Alford and Braune.—R.]

[17][The aorist points to a definite act: “by Christ, at the time of His exaltation—when He bestowed gifts on men” (Alford).—“The grace,” as the article is to be retained, has some shade of a transitive force, denoting the energizing grace which manifests itself in the peculiar gift (Ellicott) rather than the spiritual gift itself and the influence, function, or office flowing from it (Hodge).—R.]

[18][The inspired and prophetic character of the Psalm, and its antiquity are undoubted (see Hitzig, Hengstenberg, Delitzsch against De Wette and Ewald). It was probably composed after a battle, and quite as probably (against Eadie) “at some bringing up of the ark to the hill of Zion,” which took place after a victory (Hengstenberg: taking of Rabbah, 2 Samuel 12:26). Alford, with reference to the return of the ark. says: “It is therefore a Messianic Psalm. Every part of that ark, every stone of that hill, was full of spiritual meaning. Every note struck on the lyres of the sweet singers of Israel, is but part of a chord, deep and worldwide, sounding from the golden harps of Redemption. The partial triumphs of David and Solomon only prefigured as in a prophetic mirror the universal and eternal triumph of the Incarnate Son of God. Those who do not know this, have yet their first lesson in the Old Testament to learn.” Comp. Doctr. Note 3.—R.]

[19][In the revision, by Four Anglican Clergymen, captives is substituted for captivity. “A captivity” is a literal rendering which points to the concrete sense.—As regards this concrete sense, there is little difference of opinion, the only question being: Who are the captives? Obviously enemies who have been overcome, either (a) men who become His servants, those referred to in τοῖς (Braune, following some fathers, Harless, Olshausen and others), who were previously prisoners of Satan (though Braune does not bring this out, or (b) Satan, sin, death (Chrysostom, Bengel, Meyer, Stier, Eadie, Alford, Hodge, Ellicott); Calvin seeks to combine the two. The former view greatly lessons the difficulty in the last clause of the quotation, helping to justify the substitution of the notion of giving for that of receiving in the original passage. But this very fact lays it open to suspicion as an exegesis for an emergency. The other view is favored by Colossians 2:15 (though not to be limited by the reference there), it preserves the analogy of the comparison, and gives a forcible meaning. Other views have been suggested, but not very probable ones.—R.]

[20][Alford: “It is natural that one who, like St. Paul, had been brought up in the Jewish habit of thought, should still use their method of speaking.” But this does not imply an acceptation of such a division of the heavens; rather this: “Whatsoever heaven is higher than all the rest which are called heavens, into that place did He ascend” (Bish. Pearson in Ellicott).—R.]

[21][So Hodge, Eadie, Alford and Ellicott. Even Dr. Braune does not attempt to justify the use made of this passage to defend the doctrine of the ubiquity of Christ’s body (Farm. Concord.). On which Ellicott aptly says: “Christ is perfect God, and perfect and glorified man; as the former He is present everywhere, as the latter He can be present anywhere.”—R.]