Albert Barnes Commentary Romans 10:7

"or, Who shall descend into the abyss? (That is, to bring Christ up from the dead.)" — Romans 10:7 (ASV)

Or who shall descend into the deep? These words are also a part of the address of Moses (Deuteronomy 30:13).

However, it is not literally quoted. The Hebrew is: Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, etc.

The words of the quotation are changed, but not the sense. It is to be remembered that Paul is not professing to quote the words of Moses, but to express the language of faith; and this he does mainly by words that Moses had used, which also expressed his meaning.

The words, as used by Moses, refer to that which is remote and therefore difficult to obtain. To cross the sea in the early times of navigation involved the highest difficulty, danger, and toil. The sea that was in view was doubtless the Mediterranean, but crossing it was an enterprise of the greatest difficulty, and the regions beyond it were regarded as being at a vast distance.

Hence, it is spoken of as being the widest object with which they were acquainted and the fairest illustration of infinity (Job 11:9). In the same sense, Paul uses the word “deep”—(abusson)—the abyss.

This word is applied to anything the depth or bottom of which is not known. It is applied to the ocean (in the Septuagint: Job 41:31, He maketh the deep to boil as a pot; Isaiah 44:27, That saith to the deep, Be dry, etc.; Genesis 7:11; Genesis 8:2).

It is also applied to a broad place (Job 36:16) and to the abyss before the world was formed (Genesis 1:2). In the New Testament, it is not applied to the ocean, unless perhaps in the passage Luke 8:31, but to the abode of departed spirits. This particularly refers to the dark, deep, and bottomless pit, where the wicked are to dwell forever (Revelation 9:1–2, And to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; Greek, The pit of the abyss; Revelation 17:8; Revelation 20:1,3).

In these places, the word means the deep, awful regions of the nether world. The word stands opposed to heaven: as deep as heaven is high, as dark as it is light, and the one is as vast as the other.

In the passage before us, it is similarly opposed to heaven. To descend there to bring one up is supposed to be as impossible as to ascend to heaven to bring one down.

Paul does not affirm that Christ descended to those regions. Instead, he says that there is no such difficulty in religion as if one were required to descend into those profound regions to call back a departed spirit.

That work was in fact done when Jesus was recalled from the dead, and now the work of salvation is easy. The word abyss here, therefore, corresponds to hades, or the dark regions of departed spirits.

That is, to bring up Christ, etc. Justification by faith had no such difficult and impossible work to perform as would be an attempt for man to raise the dead. That would be impossible; but the work of religion is easy.

Christ, the ground of hope, is not by OUR EFFORTS to be brought down from heaven to save us, for that is done; nor BY OUR EFFORTS to be raised from the dead, for that is done; and what remains for us—that is, TO BELIEVE—is easy, and is near us. This is the meaning of the whole passage.