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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comJamieson Fausset Brown Commentary - Ephesians 4:9 - 4:9
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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 (Eph 4:8, Eph 4:17, Eph 4:18). It must therefore be GOD THE SON (Joh 6:33, Joh 6:62). As He declares (Joh 3:13), “No man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven.” Others, though they did not previously descend, have ascended; but none save Christ can be referred to in the Psalm as having done so; for it is of God it speaks.
lower parts of the earth - The antithesis or contrast to “far above all heavens,” is the argument of Alford and others, to show that this phrase means more than simply the earth, namely, the regions beneath it, even as He ascended not merely to the visible heavens, but “far above” them. Moreover, His design “that He might fill all things” (Eph 4:10, Greek, “the whole universe of things”) may imply the same. But see on Eph 4:10 on those words. Also the leading “captive” of the “captive hand” (“captivity”) of satanic powers, may imply that the warfare reached to their habitation itself (Psa 63:9). Christ, as Lord of all, took possession first of the earth the unseen world beneath it (some conjecture that the region of the lost is in the central parts of our globe), then of heaven (Act 2:27, Act 2:28). However, 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. Act 2:27, Act 2:28, and Rom 10:7, favor the view of the reference being simply to His descent to Hades. So Pearson in Exposition of the Creed (Phi 2:10).