From: Paul Toseland (paul@toseland.f9.co.uk)
Date: Sat Jun 24 2000 - 06:47:59 EDT
Mark
Eph 4:9
TO DE ANEBH TI ESTIN EI MH hOTI KAI KATEBH EIS TO KATWTERA MERH THS
GHS
So far as grammar is concerned, the genitive THS GHS could be
appositional, in which
case it explains TO KATWTERA MERH: 'he descended to the lower parts,
namely, the
earth'. Whether 'he' ascended first (to the heavens), and then
descended (to the
earth), or descended first, and then ascended must be determined from
the context.
Given 4:8, which seems to refer to Christ's Ascension following his
resurrection,
there seem to be two possibilities: either the descent occurred first,
in which case
the descent would be a reference to the Incarnation; or the ascent
occurred first, in
which case the descent would presumably refer to the descent of the
Spirit at
Pentecost.
Your own translation, taking THS GHS as a partitive genitive, suggests
a reference to
Christ descending to Hades, presumably after his death and before his
resurrection,
so you would then take the ascent (back to the surface of the earth?) to
follow the
descent. Though this is possible grammatically, I think Wallace is
right that the
Incarnation/Pentecost option has much to commend it.
The decision between these options will depend upon one's
understanding of the
passage as a whole; you would probably want to work right through
4:1-16 to really
get the drift of Paul's argument. You might find one of the major
commentaries
helpful, e.g. Andrew Lincoln's Word Commentary* has a helpful
discussion of 4:9 on pp
244-48.
Hope this helps.
Paul Toseland
*Ephesians, WBC 42, Word Books 1990; ISBN 0-8499-0241-X
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