Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Ephesians 4:8

"Wherefore he saith, When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, And gave gifts unto men." — Ephesians 4:8 (ASV)

Paul supplies biblical proof of the foregoing by a quotation from Ps 68:18. “It says” is not the apostle’s usual formula to introduce Scripture, and some expositors infer “he” (i.e., God, see NIV note) as the subject. Which is assumed is immaterial, because for Paul Scripture cannot be separated from its Author. The quotation itself, though undoubtedly biblical, is not without its difficulties, since Paul does not cite either the Hebrew or Greek OT. His major change is from “received gifts for men” to “gave gifts to men.” Attempts have been made to account for the apparent discrepancy by conjecturing that Paul was quoting from memory and that his recollection was imperfect. With more plausibility some have claimed that, under the inspiration of the Spirit, Paul felt free to amplify the meaning of the Psalm, since the “giving” is implicit in the “receiving for.” But it seems most probable that the apostle was drawing on an ancient oral tradition reflected in the Aramaic Targum on Psalms and in the Syriac version of the OT, both of which read, “Thou hast given gifts to men.”