Ephesians 4:8 quoting Psalm 68:18 – Gifts to, from, or in men?
We translated Paul’s words at Ephesians 4:8 like this:
‘To the highest places, he has stepped up,
And he led captives into captivity;
Then he gave gifts to the people.’
This is a faithful translation of what Paul said in Greek.
Literally, from our Greek interlinear:
‘Therefore he-says having-gone-up into height he-led-captive [a]-captivity he-gave gifts to/the men.’
The Aramaic version of Ephesians agrees by having Paul say lab’naynashah, meaning ‘to people’.
Well, this all seems to add up, so what’s the problem? It’s over what he was quoting, a Psalm!
If we look up Psalm 68:18 (67:19 in LXX numbering), it appears to say something different in both Greek and Hebrew:
Greek: ‘having-gone-up into height, you-led-captive [a]-captivity, you-took/received/siezed gifts in/on/among/with/by-means-of men.’
Hebrew: ‘you-have-ascended on-high, you-have-led-captive [a]-captivity, you-have-taken/received gifts among-men.’
What does this mean? Well, different Bible translations interpret it in different ways:
- The men themselves are the gifts that he received
- The men gave him gifts
Which is the correct one?
We would say: neither!
A view that matches everything
First, let’s trust that Paul quoted and applied the Psalm accurately.
In the context, Paul was quoting this Psalm to show how Jesus was giving miraculous gifts to the members of the Christian congregation. The verse directly beforehand sets out that he’s talking about the ‘gift’ of the spirit.
‘Now, the amount of loving care that was shown to each of us depends upon how much of the Gift the Anointed One measured out to us.’
So his quote fits the context of his own words very well.
Then why is the Psalm different in Hebrew and Greek? Was the Greek Septuagint of Psalm mistranslated? Was the Hebrew text of the Psalm corrupted?
No.
A simpler explanation is that Hebrew is simply misunderstood, and the Greek text is translated very literally and is, therefore, misunderstood in exactly the same way.
The Hebrew text may have a subtle implication that isn’t immediately obvious. When it says:
‘you-have-received gifts among-men‘
The word among may imply that the gifts that he received were immediately shared with the men. After all, the Greek uses an equivalent word that can mean both among and with or even by means of! Remember it literally says this:
‘you-took/received/siezed gifts in/on/among/with/by-means-of men‘
So it could be understood as saying that ‘He’ is sharing the gifts he has received with the men. He receives gifts and distributes them among the men.
If that’s the case, then it matches what Paul said perfectly! Yes, Jesus had received gifts and shared them with members of his Christian congregation. That’s exactly what was happening.
Indeed, if the Psalm wanted to say that the men themselves were the gifts, or that gifts were received from the men, there are much clearer and well-established ways to say these things. This is not the wording one would use for such a simple statement.
So that all now matches up. The Hebrew (and its literal Greek translation) was just a little hard to understand, but Paul understood it perfectly. Yet, Paul’s wording is still a bit different from the Hebrew and Greek. Did he create his own paraphrase or rewording of the Psalm in order to make it clearer? Or did he rephrase it to emphasize his point?
No, it seems he didn’t.
Paul was quoting the Aramaic version of the Psalm
The Aramaic version of the Psalm says exactly what Paul said.
Tim Mitchell, the editor of Peshitta Inc, comments:
‘The Psalm version that Paul is quoting seems to be reflected in the OT Peshitta Psalms. He is either quoting from the Peshitta Psalms directly or he is quoting from the text that the Peshitta Psalms was translated from. Here is the text of the Psalm from the OT Peshitta (First Century Aramaic Bible):
‘You have ascended on high and you have captured captivity and you have given gifts to the children of men and rebels will not dwell before God.’
Also, Ephesians 4:8 from the Peshitta NT is an exact match for the Peshitta OT in this place (Original Aramaic New Testament):
‘He ascended to the heights and took captivity prisoner and he has given gifts to the children of men.’
From this, we can see that this was a widespread understanding of the verse, present throughout the Aramaic-speaking world. Paul did not do something new or unique at all. He was merely quoting the widely-understood meaning. It seems it was the Aramaic translator of Psalm 68 who clarified the text when translating it from Hebrew.
This confirms our earlier conclusion that the Hebrew and Greek texts are simply misunderstood today, for an ancient translator from 2,000 years ago clarifies what the verse meant.
That’s very reassuring!
So it seems that Psalm 68:18 was really is a prophecy about how Jesus would go up ‘on high’ and receive gifts from God, which he would then share with his Christian congregation (‘he has given gifts to the children of men’).
Disputed
However, some like to dispute these conclusions. You see, they prefer to translate the verse in a way that implies that certain men are themselves ‘gifts’ that are given to other people. They prefer this translation:
‘…he gave gifts in men.’
Why are they so bothered, you may wonder?
Because they claim that they are the gifts that God has given to other Christians. Yes, these are prominent men who are trying to justify their authority over others, and they use this verse to imply that they and their authority are a gift from God!
Yes, they are a ‘gift’ that God has given to you, and ought to be very grateful! And therefore, you ought to do whatever they say! And if you don’t - you’re rejecting a gift from God himself! How terrible of you! You are surely siding with Satan, the first rebel!
In support of they ignore the verses directly beforehand, which say:
‘Try hard to recognize the unifying force of [God’s] breath, and its power to bring you together … For there’s just one ‘body’ and one spirit… Now, the amount of loving care that was shown to each of us depends upon how much of the Gift the Anointed One measured out to us.’
This indicates that the gift he’s talking about is indeed God’s breath, the spirit.
But they ignore that context, and move ahead a couple of verses to Ephesians 4:11. The New Living Translation translates it this way:
‘Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.’
However, both the Aramaic and Greek words do not call these ones gifts, but instead use a verb which can mean give but can also mean place, put, grant, make, consign, or as we would say, assign. So we translate it like this:
‘Then he assigned some to be Apostles, some to be Prophets, some to be messengers of the Good News, and some to be shepherds and teachers.’
This is quite logical, as once these ones have received the gifts of the Spirit, they can then be assigned to certain roles.
Of course, in addition to twisting this verse, they are also ignoring other verses about only having the Anointed One as your leader (Matthew 23:8). But they always have a series of excuses to explain that away too.
It’s also important to point out that when such roles were ‘assigned’ in the first century, these ones had miraculous gifts, such as the power of healing, or the instant ability to speak another language, or the ability to prophesy.
Nobody has such miraculous gifts today.
Usually, men are ‘assigned’ by some bureaucracy, by a vote, or by themselves and their mates. For such ones to claim that these men are ‘gifts’ from God (who must be obeyed) is an extraordinary claim not supported by any evidence or miracle.
Not males only
We also feel compelled to point out that the Greek text doesn’t actually say that the gifts were only among the males in the congregations. The word is anthropon, that is, people, and not aner which means males.
Yet, most other Bibles deliberately and incorrectly translate anthropon as men, which gives the false impression that the gifts were given to just the males – something clearly false, as the Bible tells us that women also received the gifts of the Spirit (Joel 2:28-29; Acts 2:17-18).
The same is true of the Hebrew word used at Psalm 68:18. For that word is usually translated as men, but just like the Greek word, it also means people.
This is also confirmed by the Aramaic version of the Psalm we quoted eariler, which says:
‘given gifts to the children of men‘
Yes, the gifts that Jesus gave were the gifts of the Spirit, which were poured out upon all in the congregation and which created the Apostles, Prophets, and all the rest. These included both males and females.
As for the modern concept of a Church heirarchy with layers of authority, that was not developed until much later, and is neither described nor established in the New Testament.
- See our article Translating and Authority of the Church for more details.