《Eadie’s Commentary on Ephesians (Vol. )》(John Eadie) 04 Chapter Introduction Chapter 4



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What, then, are the enemies of Messiah? Not simply as in the miserable rationalism of Grotius, the vices and idolatries of heathendom, nor yet as in the equally shallow opinion of Flatt, the hindrances to the spread and propagation of the gospel. Quite peculiar is the strange notion of Pierce, that the “captives” were the good angels, who, prior to Christ's advent, had been local presidents in every part of the world, but who were now deprived of this delegated power at Christ's resurrection, and led in triumph by Him as He ascended to glory. Notes on Colossians, appendix. The enemies of Messiah are Satan and his allies-every hostile power which Satan originates, controls, and directs against Jesus and His kingdom. The captives, therefore, are not merely Satan, as Vorstius and Bodius imagine; nor simply death, as is the view of Anselm; nor the devil and sin, as is the opinion of Beza, Bullinger, and Vatablus; but, as Chrysostom, Calvin, Calixtus, Theophylact, Bengel, Meyer, and Stier show, they include Satan, sin, and death. “He took the tyrant captive, the devil I mean, and death, and the curse, and sin”-such is the language of Chrysostom. The psalm was fulfilled, says Calvin-quum Christus, devicto peccato, subacta morte, Satanâ profligato, in coelum magnifice sublatus est. Christ's work on earth was a combat-a terrible struggle with the hosts of darkness whose fiercest onsets were in the garden and on the cross-when hell and death combined against Him those efforts which repeated failures had roused into desperation. And in dying He conquered, and at length ascended in victory, no enemy daring to dispute His right or challenge His march; nay, He exhibited His foes in open triumph. He bruised the head of the Serpent, though His own heel was bruised in the conflict. As the conqueror returning to his capital makes a show of his beaten foes, so Jesus having gone up to glory exposed His vanq uished antagonists whom He had defeated in His agony and death.

[ καὶb ἔδωκεν δόματα τοῖς ἀνθρώποις—“and He” (that is, the exalted Saviour) “gave gifts to men.” Acts 2:33. There is no καί in the Septuagint, and it is omitted by A, C2, D1, E, F, G, the Vulgate, and other authorities; while it is found in B, C1 (C3), D3, I, K, L, and a host of others. Lachmann omits it; Tischendorf omitted it in his second edition, but inserts it in his seventh; Alford inserts and Ellicott rejects it. The Septuagint has ἐν ἀνθώρπῳ, which Peile would harshly render—“after the fashion of a man.” In their exegesis upon their translation of the Hebrew text, Harless, Olshausen, and von Gerlach understand these gifts to be men set apart to God as sacred offerings. “Thou hast taken to Thyself gifts among men-that is, Thou hast chosen to Thyself the redeemed for sacrifices,” so says Olshausen with especial reference to the Gentiles. According to Harless, the apostle alters the form of the clause from the original to bring out the idea—“that the captives are the redeemed, who by the grace of God are made what they are.” But men are the receivers of the gift-not the gift itself. Comment. in Vet. Test. vol. iii. p. 178. Lipsiae, 1838; Uebersetz. und Ausleg. der Psalmen, p. 305. Hofmann understands it thus-that the conquered won by Him get gifts from Him to make them capable of service, and so to do Him honour. Schriftb. ii. part 1, p. 488. See also his Weissagung und Erfüllung, 1.168, 2.199. Stier says rightly, that these δόματα are the gifts of the Holy Spirit - die Geistes-gaben Christi. These gifts are plainly defined by the context, and by the following καὶ αὐτὸς ἔδωκεν. Whatever they are-a “free Spirit,” a perfect salvation, and a completed Bible-it is plain that the office of the Christian ministry is here prominent among them. The apostle has now proved that Jesus dispenses gifts, and has made good his assertion that grace is conferred “according to the measure of the gift of Christ.”

Verse 9

(Ephesians 4:9.) τὸ δὲ, ἀνέβη, τί ἐστιν—“Now that he ascended, what is it?” Now this predicate, ἀνέβη, what does it mean or imply? The particle δέ introduces a transitional explanation or inference. The apostle does not repeat the participle, but takes the idea as expressed by the verb and as placed in contrast with κατέβη-

εἰ μὴ ὅτι καὶ κατέβη εἰς τὰ κατώτερα [ μέρηb τῆς γῆς;—“unless that He also descended to the lower parts of the earth.” The word πρῶτον found in the Textus Receptus before εἰς has no great authority, but Reiche vindicates it (Com. Crit. p. 173); and μέρη is not found in D, E, F, G. Tischendorf rejects it, but Scholz, Lachmann, Tittmann, Hahn, and Reiche retain it, as it has A, B, C, D3, K, L, and the Vulgate in its favour. The Divinity and heavenly abode of Christ are clearly presupposed. His ascension implies a previous descent. He could never be said to go up unless He had formerly come down. If He go up after the victory, we infer that he had already come down to win it. But how does this bear upon the apostle's argument? We can scarcely agree with Chrysostom, Olshausen, Hofmann, and Stier, that the condescension of Christ is here proposed as an example of those virtues inculcated in the first verse, though such a lesson may be inferred. Nor can we take it as being the apostle's formal proof, that the psalm is a Messianic one-as if the argument were, descent and ascent cannot be predicated of God the Omnipresent; therefore the sacred ode can refer only to Christ who came down to earth and again ascended to glory. But the ascension described implies such a descent, warfare, and victory, as belong only to the incarnate Redeemer.

εἰς τὰ κατώτερα τῆς γῆς—“to the lower parts of the earth.” Compare in Septuagint such places as Deuteronomy 32:22; Nehemiah 4:13; Psalms 63:9-10; Psalms 86:13; Psalms 139:15; Lamentations 3:55, and the prayer of Manasseh in the Apocrypha. The phrase represents the Hebrew formula- תַחְתִּ ˆ יּוֹתהָ† ָארֶ6 ׃, the superlative being commonly employed- κατώτατος. The rabbins called the earth sometimes generally הַתַחתוֹנִים . Bartolocci, Bib. Rab. i. p. 320.

1. Some suppose the reference to be to the conception of Jesus, basing their opinion on Psalms 139:15, where the psalmist describes his substance as not hid from God, when he was “made in secret,” and “curiously wrought in the lower parts of the earth.” Such is the opinion of scholars no less distinguished than Colomesius, Observat. Sacrae, p. 36, Cameron, Myrothecium Evang. p. 251, Witsius, Piscator, and Calixtus. But the mere poetical figure in the psalm denoting secret and undiscoverable operation, can scarcely be placed in contrast to the highest heaven.

2. Chrysostom, with Theophylact and OEcumenius, Bullinger, Phavorinus, and Macknight, refer it to the death of Christ; while Vorstius, Baumgarten, Drusius, Cocceius, Whitby, Wilke, and Crellius, see a special reference to the grave. But there is no proof that the words can bear such a meaning. Certainly the descent described in the psalm quoted from did not involve such humiliation.



3. Many refer the phrase to our Lord's so-called descent into hell-descensus ad inferos. Such was the view of Tertullian, Irenaeus, Jerome, Pelagius, and Ambrosiaster among the Fathers; of Erasmus, Estius, and the majority of Popish expositors; of Calovius, Bengel, Rückert, Bretschneider, Olshausen, Stier, Turner, Meyer in his third edition, Alford, and Ellicott. See also Lechler, das Apost. Zeit. p. 84, 2nd ed. 1857; Acta Thomae, xvi. p. 199, ed. Tischendorf, 1851. Thus Tertullian says, that Jesus did not ascend in sublimiora coelorum, until He went down in inferiora terrarum, ut illic patriarchas et prophetas compotes Sui faceret, De Anima, 55; Opera, vol. ii. p. 642, ed. OEhler. Catholic writers propose a special errand to our Lord in His descent into hell, viz., to liberate the old dead from torment-or a peculiar custody in the limbus patrum, or Abraham's bosom. Catechismus Roman. § 104. These doctrines are, however, superinduced upon this passage, and in many parts are contrary to Scripture. Pearson on the Creed, p. 292, ed. 1847. Stier admits that Christ could suffer no agony in Hades. Olshausen's tamer idea is, that Jesus went down to Sheol, not to liberate souls confined in it, but that this descent is the natural consequence of His death. The author shrinks from the results of his theory, and at length attenuates his opinion to this—“That in His descent Jesus partook of the misery of those fettered by sin even unto death, that is, even unto the depths of Hades.” Such is also the view of Robinson (sub voce). But the language of the apostle, taken by itself, will not warrant those hypotheses. For, 1. Whatever the view taken of the “descent into hell,” or of the language in 1 Peter 3:19, the natural interpretation of which seems to imply it, it may be said, that though the superlative κατώτατος may be the epithet of Sheol in the Old Testament, why should the comparative in the New Testament be thought to have the same reference? Is it in accordance with Scripture to call Hades, in this special sense, a lower portion of the earth, and is the expression analogous to Philippians 2:10; Matthew 12:40 ? 2. The ascension of Jesus, moreover, as has been remarked, is always represented as being not from Hades but from the earth. John 3:13; John 16:28, et c. 3. Nor is there any force in Ellicott's remark, that the use of the specific term ᾅδης “would have marred the antithesis,” for we find the same antithesis virtually in Isaiah 14:13; Isaiah 14:15, and expressly in Matthew 11:23, while ὑπεράνω and κατώτερα are in sharp contrast on our hypothesis. But heaven and earth are the usual contrast. John 8:23; Acts 2:19. And the phrase, “that He might fill all things,” depends not on the descent, but on the ascension and its character. 4. Those who suppose the captives to be human spirits emancipated from thraldom by Jesus, may hold the view that Christ went to hell to free them, but we have seen that the captives are enemies made prisoners on the field of battle. 5. Nor can it be alleged, that if Satan and his fiends are the captives, Jesus went down to his dark domain and conquered him; for the great struggle was upon the cross, and on it “through death He destroyed him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.” When He cried, “ It is finished,” the combat was over. He commended His spirit into the hands of His Father, and promised that the thief should be with Himself in paradise-certainly not the scene of contention and turmoil. But if we adopt Hebrew imagery, and consider the region of death as a vast ideal underworld, into which Jesus like every dead man descends, there would then be less objection to the hypothesis under review. 6. If we suppose the apostle to have had any reference to the Septuagint in his mind, then, had he desired to express the idea of Christ's descent into Hades, there were two phrases, any of which he might have imitated- ἐξ ᾅδου κατωτάτου (Psalms 86:13); or more pointed still, ἕως ᾅδου κατωτάτου. Deuteronomy 32:22. See Trom. Concord. Why not use ᾅδης, when it had been so markedly employed before, had he wished to give it prominence? Unmistakeable phraseology was provided for him, and sanctioned by previous usage. But the apostle employs γῆ with the comparative, and it is therefore to be questioned whether he had the Alexandrian version in his mind at all. And if he had, it is hard to think how he could attach the meaning of Hades to the words ἐν τοῖς κατωτάτω τῆς γῆς; for in the one place where they occur (Psalms 139:15), they describe the scene of the formation of the human embryo, and in the only other place where they are used (Psalms 63:9), they mark out the disastrous fate of David's enemies,-a fate delineated in the following verse as death by the sword, while the unburied corpses were exposed to the ravages of the jackal. Delitzsch in loc. Nor is there even sure ground for supposing that in such places as Isaiah 44:23, Ezekiel 26:20; Ezekiel 32:18-24, the similar Hebrew phrase which occurs, but which is not rendered ᾅδης in the Septuagint, means Sheol or Hades. In Isaiah 44:23, it is as here, earth in contrast with heaven, and perhaps the foundations of the globe are meant, as Ewald, the Chaldee, and the Septuagint understand the formula. In Ezekiel 26:20 “the low parts of the earth” are “places desolate of old;” and in Ezekiel 32:18-24 the “nether parts of the earth” are associated with the “pit,” and “graves set in the sides of the pit”-scenes of desolation and massacre. The phrase may be a poetical figure for a dark and awful destiny. It is very doubtful whether Manasseh in the prayer referred to deprecates punishment in the other world, for he was in a dungeon and afraid of execution, and, according to theocratic principles, might hope to gain life and liberty by his penitence; for, should such deliverance be vouchsafed, he adds, “I will praise Thee for ever, all the days of my life.” It is to be borne in mind, too, that in all these places of the Old Testament, the phraseology occurs in poetical compositions, and as a portion of Oriental imagery. But in the verse before us, the words are a simple statement of facts in connection with an argument, which shows that Jesus must have come down to earth before it could be said of Him that He had gone up to heaven.

4. So that we agree with the majority of expositors who understand the words as simply denoting the earth. Such is the view of Thomas Aquinas, Beza, Aretius, Bodius, Rollock, Calvin, Cajetan, Piscator, Crocius, Grotius, Marloratus, Schoettgen, Michaelis, Bengel, Loesner, Vitringa, Cramer, Storr, Holzhausen, Meier, Matthies, Harless, Wahl, Baumgarten-Crusius, Scholz, de Wette, Raebiger, Bisping, Hofmann, Chandler, Hodge, and Winer, § 59, 8, a. A word in apposition is sometimes placed in the genitive, as 2 Corinthians 5:5, τὸν ἀῤῥαβῶνα τοῦ πνεύματος-the earnest of the Spirit-the Spirit which is the earnest; Romans 8:23; Romans 4:11, σημεῖον περιτομῆς-the sign of circumcision, that is, the sign, to wit, circumcision. Acts 4:22; 1 Peter 3:7; Colossians 3:24; Romans 8:21, etc. The same mode of expression occurs in Hebrew-Stuart's Heb. Gram. § 422; Nordheimer's do. § 815. So, too, we have in Latin-Urbs Romae-the city of Rome; fluvius Euphratis-or as we say in English, “the Frith of Clyde,” or “Frith of Forth.” Thus, in the phrase before us, “the lower parts of the earth” mean those lower parts which the earth forms or presents in contrast with heaven, as we often say-heaven above and earth beneath. The ὕψος of the former verse plainly suggested the κατώτερα in this verse, and ὑπεράνω stands also in correspondence with it. So the world is called ἡ γῆ κάτω. Acts 2:19. When our Lord speaks Himself of His descent and ascension, heaven and earth are uniformly the termini of comparison. Thus in John 3:13, and no less than seven times in the sixth chapter of the same gospel. Comparantur, says Calvin, non una pars terrae cum altera, sed tota terra cum coelo. Reiche takes the genitive, as signifying terra tanquam universi pars inferior. Christ's ascension to heaven plainly implies a previous descent to this nether world. And it is truly a nether or lower world when compared with high heaven. May not the use of the comparative indicate that the descent of Christ was not simply to ἡ γῆ κάτω, but εἰς τὰ κατώτερα? Not that with Zanchius, Bochart (Opera, 1.985, ed. Villemandy, 1692), Fesselius (Apud Wolf., in loc.), Küttner, Barnes, and others, we regard the phrase as signifying, in general, lowliness or humiliation-status exinanitionis. Theologically, the use of the comparative is suggestive. He was born into the world, and that in a low condition; born not under fretted roofs and amidst marble halls, but He drew His first breath in a stable, and enjoyed His first sleep in a manger. As a man, He earned His bread by the sweat of His brow, at a manual occupation with hammer and hatchet, “going forth to His work and to His labour until the evening.” The creatures He had formed had their house and haunt after their kind, but the Heir of all things had no domicile by legal right; for “the foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head.” 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.”

Verse 10

(Ephesians 4:10.) ῾ο καταβὰς, αὐτός ἐστιν καὶ ὁ ἀναβὰς ὑπεράνω πάντων τῶν οὐρανῶν—“He that descended, He it is also who ascended high above all the heavens.” ῾ο καταβάς is emphatic, and αὐτός is He and none other. Winer, § 22, 4, note. οὐ γὰρ ἄλλος κατελήλυθε, says Theodoret, καὶ ἄλλος ἀνελήλυθεν. The identity of His person is not to be disputed. Change of position has not transmuted His humanity. It may be refined and clothed in lustre, but the manhood is unaltered. That Jesus-

“Who laid His great dominion by,

On a poor virgin's breast to lie;”

who, to escape assassination, was snatched in His infancy into Egypt-who passed through childhood into maturity, growing in wisdom and stature-who spoke those tender and impressive parables, for He had “compassion on the ignorant, and on them that were out of the way”-who fed the hungry, relieved the afflicted, calmed the demoniac, touched the leper, raised the dead, and wept by the sepulchre, for to Him no form of human misery ever appealed in vain-He who in hunger hasted to gather from a fig-tree-who lay weary and wayworn on the well of Jacob-who, with burning lips, upon the cross exclaimed “I thirst”-He whose filial affection in the hour of death commended his widowed mother to the care of His beloved disciple-HE it is who has gone up. No wonder that a heart which proved itself to be so rich with every tender, noble, and sympathetic impulse, should rejoice in expending its spiritual treasures, and giving gifts to men. Nay, more, He who provided spiritual gifts in His death, is He who bestows them in His ascension on each one, and all of them are essential to the unity of His church. But as His descent was to a point so deep, His ascent is to a point as high, for He rose-

ὑπεράνω πάντων τῶν οὐρανῶν—“above all the heavens.” John 3:13; Hebrews 7:26. See under Ephesians 1:21. οἱ οὐρανοί are those regions above us through which Jesus passed to the heaven of heavens-to the right hand of God. The apostle himself speaks of the third heaven. 2 Corinthians 12:2. It is needless to argue whether the apostle refers to the third heaven, as Harless supposes, or to the seventh heaven, as Wetstein and Meyer argue. There was an ἀήρ, an αἰθήρ, and τρίτος οὐρανός (Schoettgen, 773; Wetstein under 2 Corinthians 12:2); but the apostle seems to employ the general language of the Old Testament, as in Deuteronomy 10:14, 1 Kings 8:27, where we have “the heaven, and the heaven of heavens;” or Psalms 68:33; Psalms 148:4, in which the phrase occurs—“heavens of heavens.” We find the apostle in Hebrews 4:14 saying of Jesus- διεληλυθότα τοὺς οὐρανούς-that He has “passed through the heavens,” not “into the heavens,” as our version renders it. Whatever regions are termed heavens, Jesus is exalted far above them, yea, to the heaven of heavens. The loftiest exaltation is predicated of Him. As His humiliation was so low, His exaltation is proportionately high. Theophylact says-He descended into the lowest parts- μεθ᾿ ἃ οὐκ ἔστιν ἕτερόν τι, and He ascended above all- ὑπὲρ ἃ οὐκ ἔστιν ἕτερα. His position is the highest in the universe, being “far above all heavens”-all things are under His feet. See under Ephesians 1:20-22. And He is there-

ἵνα πληρώσῃ τὰ πάντα—“that He might fill all things.” The subjunctive with ἵνα, and after the aorist participle, represents an act which still endures. Klotz-Devarius, ii. p. 618. The ascension is past, but this purpose of it still remains, or is still a present result. The translation of Anselm, Koppe, and others, “that He might fulfil all things,” that is, all the prophecies, is as remote from the truth as the exegesis of Matthies and Rückert, “that He might complete the work of redemption.” Nor is the view of Zanchius more tenable, “that he might discharge all his functions.” The versions of Tyndale and Cranmer, and that of Geneva, use the term “fulfil,” but Wickliffe rightly renders, “that he schulde fill alle thingis.” Jeremiah 23:24. The bearing of this clause on the meaning of the term πλήρωμα, the connection of Christ's fulness with the church and the universe, and the relation of the passage to the Lutheran dogma of the ubiquity of the Redeemer, will be found in our exegesis of the last verse of the first chapter, and need not therefore be repeated here. We are not inclined to limit τὰ πάντα to the church, as is done by Beza, Grotius, and Meier, for reasons assigned under the last clause of the first chapter. The church filled by Him becomes “His fulness,” but that fulness is not limited by such a boundary. The explanation of Calvin, that Jesus fills all, Spiritus sui virtute; and of Harless, mit seiner Gnadengegenwart-appears to be too limited. Chrysostom's view is better - τῆς ἐνεργείας αὐτοῦ καὶ τῆς δεσποτείας. Stier compares the phrase with the last clause of the verse quoted from Psalms 68, that “God the Lord might dwell among them,” to which corresponds the meaning given by Bengel-Se Ipso.

Verse 11

(Ephesians 4:11.) The apostle resumes the thought that seems to have been ripe for utterance at the conclusion of Ephesians 4:7.

καὶ αὐτὸς ἔδωκε—“And Himself gave”- αὐτός emphatic, and connected with the αὐτός of the preceding verse, while at the same time the apostle recurs to the aorist. This Jesus who ascended-this, and none other, is the sovereign donor. The provider and bestower are one and the same; and such gifts, though they vary, cannot therefore mar the blessed unity of the spiritual society. There is no reason, with Theophylact, Harless, Meier, Baumgarten-Crusius, and Bisping, to call ἔδωκε a Hebraism, as if it were equivalent to ἔθετο-the term which is used in 1 Corinthians 12:28; Acts 20:28. See under chap. Ephesians 1:22. ῎εδωκε is evidently in unison with ἐδόθη and δωρεά in Ephesians 4:7, and with ἔδωκε δόματα in Ephesians 4:8. The object of the apostle, in harmony with the quotation which he has introduced, is not simply to affirm the fact that there are various offices in the church, or that they are of divine institution; but also to show that they exist in the form of donations, and are among the peculiar and distinctive gifts which the exalted Lord has bequeathed. The writer wishes his readers to contemplate them more as gifts than as functions. Had they sprung up in the church by a process of natural development, they might perchance have clashed with one another; but being the gifts of the one Lord and Benefactor, they must possess a mutual harmony in virtue of their origin and object. He gave-

τοὺς μὲν ἀποστόλους—“some as, or to be, apostles.” On the particle μέν, which cannot well be rendered into English, and on its connection with μία-see Donaldson's New Cratylus, § 154, and his Greek Grammar, § 548, 24, and § 559. The official gifts conferred upon the church are viewed not in the abstract, but as personal embodiments or appellations. Instead of saying—“He founded the apostolate,” he says—“He gave some to be apostles.” The idea is, that the men who filled the office, no less than the office itself, were a Divine gift.


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