Ephesians 4.8a-Paul Quotes Psalm 68.18 as the Basis for the Contents of Ephesians 4.7
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday January 14, 2025
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 4:8a-Paul Quotes Psalm 68:18 as the Basis for the Contents of Ephesians 4:7
Lesson # 215
Ephesians 4:7 Now, however, to each one of us grace was given corresponding to the incomparable Christ’s proportionate gracious giving. 8 Therefore, it says, “When he ascended to the highest place, he captured captives. He generously gave gifts to certain members of the human race.” (Lecturer’s translation)
Ephesians 4:8 is a strong inferential statement, which is composed of the following:
(1) Temporal participial clause anabas eis hypsos (ἀναβὰς εἰς ὕψος), “When He ascended to the highest place” (Author’s translation)
(2) Declarative statement: ēchmalōteusen aichmalōsian (ᾐχμαλώτευσεν αἰχμαλωσίαν), “he captured captives.” (Author’s translation)
(3) Declarative statement: edōken domata ⸀tois anthrōpois (ἔδωκεν δόματα ⸀τοῖς ἀνθρώποις), “He generously gave gifts to certain members of the human race.” (Author’s translation)
This strong inferential statements quotes Psalm 68:18 as confirmation or as the basis for Paul’s assertion in Ephesians 4:7, which we noted asserts that grace in the form of a spiritual gift was given to each church age believer at the moment of justification which corresponds to the incomparable Christ’s proportionate gracious giving.
In Ephesians 4:8, he employs the strong inferential conjunction dio (διό) to introduce a quotation from Psalm 68:18, which actually summarizes the contents of Psalm 68 because as we will note the latter contains many words which are similar to the words found in Psalm 68:18.
This quotation is a prophecy of the Messiah and actually called a “divine Warrior” psalm, which is a call for the Messiah to rescue His people.
It asserts that the Messiah captured captives and gave gifts to men when He ascended to the highest place.
This was fulfilled by Jesus of Nazareth when He ascended into heaven and was seated at the right hand of His heavenly Father after His resurrection.
Therefore, the strong inference here in Ephesians 4:8 from the assertion Ephesians 4:7 is that Jesus Christ fulfilled the contents of the Messianic Divine Warrior prophecy in Psalm 68.
He did this when He ascended into heaven and was seated at the right hand of His heavenly Father after His resurrection while bringing with Him the dead Old Testament saints and the saints who died before His resurrection and also giving spiritual gifts to the members of His body, His future bride, the church.
In other words, the contents of Ephesians 4:7 are confirmed by the contents of Psalm 68 in that Jesus Christ fulfilled the latter when He ascended into heaven and was seated at the right hand of His heavenly Father after His resurrection while bringing with Him the dead Old Testament saints and the saints who died before His resurrection and also giving spiritual gifts to the members of His body, His future bride, the church.
The contents of this quotation serves as the basis for the assertion in Ephesians 4:7.
Habakkuk 3:3-15 is an example of a Divine Warrior Psalm.
Paul employs the third person singular present active indicative conjugation of the verb legō (λέγω) to introduce this Old Testament quotation.
This verb pertains to expressing oneself orally or in written form with indication of the person or thing about which something is said, or that is meant by something.
The referent of the third person singular form of this verb is the Old Testament Scriptures and in particular Psalm 68:18.
The present tense of the verb legō (λέγω) is used in indirect discourse and the syntactical category of the present tense of this verb is a “perfective” present, which is used to emphasize the results of a past action.
The past action is Jesus Christ authorizing the distribution of spiritual gifts by the Holy Spirit to those whom the Father declared justified through faith in Himself.
The results is that these justified sinners received a spiritual gift.
Therefore, as we noted in Ephesians 4:8 Paul quotes from Psalm 68:18.
Psalm 68:18 You ascend on high, you have taken many captives. You receive tribute from men, including even sinful rebels. Indeed the Lord God lives there! (NET)
Paul’s use of Psalm 68:18 here in Ephesians 4:8 as support for his assertion in Ephesians 4:7 has created enormous difficulties for interpreters throughout the centuries.
The major problem lies with Paul’s apparent alteration of this quotation because the Hebrew the text of Psalm 68:18 asserts that the Messiah received tribute or gifts from men but the Greek text of Ephesians 4:8 states that Jesus Christ gave gifts to men instead.
Like many expositors, I interpret Paul as not attempting to quote Psalm 68:18 specifically or verbatim but rather he is simply summarizing the entire contents of Psalm 68, which is a Divine Warrior Psalm calling for the Messiah to rescue His people.
This interpretation is indicated by the fact that Psalm 68 contains many words which are similar to the words found in Psalm 68:18.
Psalm 68:18 asserts that the Messiah captured captives and gave gifts to men when He ascended to the highest place.
Paul also as noted above changes the text for the purpose of supporting his assertion in Ephesians 4:7.
He can do this because he’s an apostle of Jesus Christ and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
In other words, Paul was writing Scripture.
Psalm 68 to certain extent was fulfilled by Jesus of Nazareth when He ascended into heaven and was seated at the right hand of His heavenly Father after His resurrection.
It will be completely fulfilled at His Second Advent and subsequent millennial reign.
The purpose of this quotation is to assert that Jesus Christ fulfilled the contents of the Messianic Divine Warrior prophecy in Psalm 68 when He ascended into heaven and was seated at the right hand of His heavenly Father after His resurrection.
The quotation from Psalm 68:18 by Paul in Ephesians 4:8 serves as the basis for the assertion in Ephesians 4:7.
I believe that the reason why Paul changed the text from the Messiah receiving gifts to giving them is that he was attempting to emphasize the transcendent nature of God’s love from which He pours out unmerited blessings to sinners who trust in Him as Savior, i.e., grace.
The Psalmist describes the Divine Warrior, i.e., the Lord ascending His throne after defeating His enemies and receiving tribute or gifts from those whom He had conquered.
However, Paul in Ephesians 4:8 describes the Lord Jesus as ascending into heaven but instead of receiving gifts from His enemies, He instead gave gifts to them, namely, regenerate human beings who once belonged to Satan’s kingdom and were enslaved to the sin nature.
In other words, the Lord gave gifts to those who were once His enemies.
This beautifully describes God’s grace policy towards sinners and which policy flows from the exercise of the attribute of His love.
Therefore, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul is giving us additional revelation of the Messiah, which is in addition to the revelation of Him in Psalm 68.
The latter will be perfectly fulfilled during Jesus Christ’s Second Advent and subsequent millennial reign when the nations of the earth at that time will bring tribute to the Lord who will be King over the earth’s inhabitants.
The apostle Paul chose Psalm 68 for at least three reasons.
First, it exalts in God’s victory over his enemies and describes the victorious triumphal procession of the victorious Lord receiving gifts from the defeated kings and praise from those whom He delivered.
This we noted will be fulfilled during Jesus Christ’s millennial reign.
Secondly, this psalm alludes to an extremely important theme in Ephesians, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ defeated Satan and his fellow evil spirits and restored the rulership of planet earth to human beings (Ephesians 1:10, 20-21, 3:10, 6:10-18).
In fact, in Colossians, Paul teaches that Jesus Christ disarmed Satan and the members of his kingdom and made public spectacle of them by means of His suffering the wrath of His Father in the place of all of unregenerate humanity on the cross (Col. 2:15).
Thirdly, the word “ascend” in this psalm is an important theme in Paul’s Christology because in Romans 10:6-8, he quotes Deuteronomy 30:12-14 to teach the Roman Christian community that the return of Christ is imminent and is still offering salvation to all of humanity.
Also, the Christ hymn in Philippians 2:6-11 describes Jesus Christ as the Son of God who descended to earth and then ascending back to His Father after His resurrection and receiving the sovereign rulership over all of creation and every creature as a result of suffering the wrath of His Father on the cross for all of sinful humanity.
