Wherefore he saith
God in the Scripture, ( Psalms 68:18
)
when he ascended up on high;
which is not to be understood of Moses's ascending up to the
firmament at the giving of the law, as some Jewish writers
F17 interpret it; for though Moses
ascended to the top of Mount Sinai, yet it is never said that he
went up to the firmament of heaven; nor of David's going up to
the high fortresses of his enemies, as another of those writers
F18 would have it; nor of God's ascent
from Mount Sinai, when he gave the law, of which there is no
mention in Scripture; but of the Messiah's ascension to heaven,
which may very well be signified by this phrase, "on high"; see (
Psalms
102:19 ) ( Jeremiah
25:30 ) , and which ascension is to be taken not in a
figurative, but literal sense, and as real, local, and visible,
as Christ's ascension to heaven was; being from Mount Olivet,
attended by angels, in the sight of his apostles, after he had
conversed with them from the time of his resurrection forty days;
and which ascension of his was in order to fulfil the type of the
high priest entering into the most holy place; and to make
intercession for his people, and to send down the Spirit with his
gifts and graces to them, and to make way and prepare mansions of
glory for them, and receive the glory promised and due to him: in
the Hebrew text it is, "thou hast ascended"; there the psalmist
speaks to the Messiah, here the apostle speaks of him; though the
Arabic and Ethiopic read there, "he ascended", as here:
he led captivity captive;
which is expressive of Christ's conquests and triumph over sin,
Satan, the world, death, and the grave; and indeed, every
spiritual enemy of his and his people, especially the devil, who
leads men captive at his will, and is therefore called captivity,
and his principalities and powers, whom Christ has spoiled and
triumphed over; the allusion is to the public triumphs of the
Romans, in which captives were led in chains, and exposed to open
view F19:
and gave gifts unto men;
meaning the gifts of the Holy Ghost, and particularly such as
qualify men for the work of the ministry; these he received
(Mdab) , "in man"; in
human nature, in that nature in which he ascended to heaven;
(hleml ewdyh Mdab) , "in
the man that is known above" F20, as say the Jews; and these
he bestows on men, even rebellious ones, that the Lord God might
dwell among them, and make them useful to others: wherefore the
Jews have no reason to quarrel with the version of the apostle as
they do F21; who, instead of "received gifts
for" men, renders it, "gave gifts to men"; since the Messiah
received in order to give, and gives in consequence of his having
received them; and so Jarchi interprets the words, (Mttl) , "to give them" to the
children of men; and besides, as a learned man has observed
F23, one and the same Hebrew word
signifies to give and to receive; to which may be added that
their own Targum renders it (atbhy) , "and hast given gifts to the children of
men"; and in like manner the Syriac and Arabic versions of (
Psalms
68:18 ) render the words; very likely the apostle might use
the Syriac version, which is a very ancient one: it was customary
at triumphs to give gifts to the soldiers F24, to
which there is an allusion here.