Ver. 8. διὸ λέγει: wherefore He saith, when He ascended on high. The διό introduces the words which follow as a confirmation of what has just been said ; and these words are not a parenthesis, but part of a direct and continuous state- ment; = ‘the fact that it is thus with Christ and His gift, and that the grace which we possess is bestowed by Him on each of us in varying measures as He dis- tributes it, has the witness of God Him- self in OT Scripture”. The quotation which follows is obviously taken from Psalm Ixviii. 18, and in the main in the form in which it is given in the LXX. There are difficulties in the rendering which Paul uses and in the application he makes of it. But they are not such as to
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justify the assertion that the passage isa quotation from some Christian hymn, and not from Scripture. There is nothing in the verse or in the context to suggest any- thing else than the Psalm. The question is raised whether the introductory λέγει is personal or impersonal; and whether, if personal, ὁ Θεός, or ἡ γραφή, or τὸ πνεῦμα is to be understood. OT quota- tions are usually introduced by the per- sonal term in such forms as ὁ προφήτης λέγει (Acts ii. 17), ἡ γραφὴ λέγει (Rom. x. 17), Ἡσαΐας λέγει (Rom. x. 16, 20), Μωυσῆς λέγει (Rom. κ. 19), Δαβὶδ λέγει (Rom. iv. 6), ἡ δὲ ἐκ πίστεως δικαιοσύνη λέγει (Rom. x. 6). Sometimes, again, passive forms are used, γέγραπται (Rom. Χ. 15), μαρτυρεῖται (Heb. vii. 17), etc. In other cases the simple φησί (1 Cor. vi. 16; Heb. viii. 15), εἴρηκε (Heb. iv. 4), or λέγει (Gal. iii. 16 ; 2 Cor. vi. 2; Eph. iv. 8, v. 14) is used ; and in one case the λέγει is introduced as continuing γέγραπ- tat (Rom, xv. 10). Some, therefore, hold that, in cases like the present, λέγει is impersonal, = “ it is said,” as ( is used impersonally in Attic (Abb. ; cf. Light. on Gal. iii. 16). As the NT, how- ever, makes a very limited use of imper- sonal verbs of any kind, most take these undefined verbs by which quotations are introduced as personal, and so it is with λέγει here. The subject to be supplied must be the one most readily suggested by the context ; and here, as in most
cases, that will be neither ἡ γραφή nor τὸ Πνεῦμα, but ὁ Θεός. The full formula
λέγει ὁ Θεός occurs in Acts ii. 17, and is implied in the πάλιν τινὰ δρίζει ἡμέραν, “ Σήμερον," ἐν Δανεὶδ λέγων of Heb. iv. 7. It is also confirmed in some degree by the analogous mention of the Holy Ghost in Heb. x. 15 (cf. Win.-Moult., p. 656; Blass, Gram. of Ν. T. Greek, p. 75).— ᾿Αναβὰς εἰς ὕψος : when He ascended on high. In the Psalm the victorious Subject is addressed in the second per- son; here the “ Thou” becomes “ He”. In the Psalm the ascent expressed by
pind mby (= “ Thou hast,gone up to the height”) is the triumphant ascent of the God of Israel to Zion, the place of His earthly rest, or (better) to heaven His proper habitation, after the victory He achieved for His people. Here it is the ascension of Christ to the right hand of God (cf. Acts ii. 33). The aor. part. has its most proper temporal force, denoting something that preceded the main event in view. It means here, therefore, that Christ’s ascension had taken place before He distributed the