4:9–10

Paul proved that this quotation from the Psalms applies to Christ, since Christ is the only one who descended from heaven before he ascended.

General Comment on 4:9–10

Some English versions put these verses in (parentheses) to show that this is background information given by Paul. If you are able to do this in your language and it would be natural to do so, you will want to consider following the example of those versions. If not, following the example of the Berean Standard Bible, which does not use parentheses.

4:9a

What does “He ascended” mean: This is a rhetorical question. So Paul is not asking the question so he can get an answer. He asked this question in order to introduce a new aspect of his teaching to his readers. He then explained how Psalm 68:18 applied to Christ.

ascended: The word ascended means “went up.”

There are two ways to translate this question:

• As a rhetorical question. For example:

Now, what does “he went up” mean? (Good News Translation)

• As a statement. For example:

Notice that it says “he ascended (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
The words “he ascended” mean…

Translate this in a way that is most natural in your language.

4:9b

except that He also descended: Here, the words except that have the meaning of “it could only mean that.” The Revised Standard Version and English Standard Version translate except that as:

but that

He also descended: Beginning here, Paul talked about Christ and how the words of the quotation in 4:8 are like Christ. So the pronoun He refers to Christ, and you can translate it that way if necessary. To make it clear that Christ descended before he ascended, the Good News Translation says:

first came down (Good News Translation)

Here are some other ways to translate the word descended :

came down (New Century Version)
-or-
had gone down (God’s Word)

to the lower parts of the earth: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible literally translates as to the lower parts of the earth may refer to:

(1) the earth below in contrast to the highest heaven. This refers to where Christ was when he became a human. For example:

This clearly means that Christ also descended to our lowly world (New Living Translation (2004))

(Berean Standard Bible, New International Version, Revised English Bible, Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English, New Living Translation (2004), English Standard Version, NET Bible, New Century Version)

(2) Hades. This refers to where Christ was after he died. According to some interpretations of 1 Peter 3:18 and 1 Peter 4:6, Christ descended into Hades after his death. For example:

…it means that Christ had been deep in the earth. (Contemporary English Version)

(Good News Translation, Revised Standard Version, New American Standard Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, King James Version, Contemporary English Version, God’s Word)

If possible, translate in a way in which either interpretation could be understood. If you must choose one interpretation, choose interpretation (1). You may also want to include a footnote that gives the other interpretation.

© 1999, 2019 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.