Language Studies

Difficult Sayings

Does Paul misquote Psalm 68:18?
Ephesians 4:8

"⁷ But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. ⁸ Therefore He says:
'When He ascended on high,
He led captivity captive,
And gave gifts to men.'" (Ephesians 4:8 goes on to talk about the appointing of the so-called fivefold ministry of apostles and others within the Church. These then seem to be regarded as Christ's gifts to men. The source of the quotation is undoubtedly Psalm 68:18 (LXX 67:19; MT 68:19), which in the NKJV reads as follows:

"¹⁸ You have ascended on high, You have led captivity captive; You have received gifts among men, Even from the rebellious, That the LORD God might dwell there. ¹⁹ Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loads us with benefits, The God of our salvation!" (Psalm 68:18-19's quoting of Zechariah 12:10 which turns "me" into "him" when the speech is no longer direct but reported. Here, however, we have in addition a change of verb from "received" to "gave". Furthermore, the Psalmist's recipient was God and the givers men, even rebellious ones; whilst Paul's quotation renders Christ the giver and man the beneficiary and ignores the stubborn rebels.

Is this first century biblical interpretation at its best? Is this some kind of Qumranic pesher or midrash playing with the original Hebrew verse (pesher and midrash are known forms of Jewish first century exegetical styles)? Could it be a difference between the Hebrew Masoretic Text and the Greek Septuagint? Was Paul simply quoting from memory, badly?

The last of these is most unlikely. Whilst we may from time to time misquote a verse this was rare in Judaism because of its strong oral memory tradition and strong rabbinic strictures on misquoting another teacher let alone the Lord himself.

Some have suggested that Paul may be giving a kind of reported speech summary of Psalm 68 as a whole rather than citing verse 18 incorrectly:

"...it is better to think that Paul was not quoting one particular verse of the psalm but rather that he was summarizing all of Psalm 68, which has many words similar to those in Psalm 68:18."^F1

The original Hebrew says לָקַחְתָּמַתָּנוּתבָּעָדָם lâqach'tâ mattânôwth bâ'âdhâm which literally means "you took/carried gifts in/by the-man/mankind". The verb is very definitely לָקַח lâqach "took" (Strong's #3947) although it has a secondary sense of "carry", but it is not the Hebrew verb נָתַן nâthan to "give" (Strong's #5414), although it could be a dyslexic reading of חָלַק châlaq "to distribute" (Strong's #2505), transposing the final Hebrew consonant to the beginning. The small Hebrew preposition בָּ bâ- is the same that begins the Bible "In [the] beginning…" and usually means "in, with" or "by", but is definitely not the Hebrew preposition "from" nor "to", for which separate words exist. A fair translation could equally be "among men" but this still does not lend itself towards a New Testament appropriation as "to men".

Calvin says of this verse that "Nor when Paul speaks of Christ having given gifts to men, is there any real inconsistency with what is here stated, although he has altered the words, having followed the Greek version in accommodation to the unlearned reader." Has he, indeed, used the Septuagint instead of the Hebrew? A typical English translation direct from the Greek is as follows:

"Thou art gone up on high, thou hast led captivity captive, thou hast received gifts for man, yea, for they were rebellious, that thou mightest dwell among them"

So Paul's words "gave gifts to man" are still not exactly those of the Septuagintal text םלןבםףדומןתןםנןנקרופו elabes domata en anthrôpô "You have received gifts for man". Paul seems to imply the presence of an original text along the lines of םדוכםדומןתןתוףןנקרופוף edôke domata en anthrôpois. Some have indeed thought that an uncorrupted Septuagint might have read ןנקרופוף anthropôis rather than ןנקרופו anthrôpô implying possibly "You have received gifts on account of men", i.e., on their behalf, and that Paul is simply making the sense easier for the general reader by adopting a verb of giving instead of receiving.

The small dative preposition םנ en usually means "with, in, on, at, near, by, before, among, within, by" and very rarely "to" or "for". So a simple Greek translation would suggest, "you have received gifts among men" as being the only sensible one; "for men" would make limited sense but fit the context less well. Alternatively, "gifts of men" would imply that the captives and/or worshippers themselves were the human gifts to God. But is Paul justified anywhere in the Greek or Hebrew in making the giver God in Christ and the gifts men for the Church?

Again, Calvin says:

"To serve the purpose of his argument, Paul has departed not a little from the true meaning of this quotation. Wicked men charge him with having made an unfair use of Scripture. The Jews go still farther, and, for the sake of giving to their accusations a greater air of plausibility, maliciously pervert the natural meaning of this passage. What is said of God, is applied by them to David or to the people. "David, or the people," they say, "ascended on high, when, in consequence of many victories, they rose superior to their enemies." But a careful examination of the Psalm will convince any reader that the words, he ascended up on high, are applied strictly to God alone."^F2

So he regards Paul as having, to some extent, twisted the meaning to his purpose, as Matthew was also wont to do with his fulfilment quotations in his gospel. Calvin, sees this as being on a higher moral and exegetical high ground than Jews who were attributing the Psalm passage to David's ascent rather than a divine figure. He goes on to resolve the misquote issue by suggesting that Paul finishes his citation with the captivity clause and that "he gave gifts to man" are Paul's own words, not a quotation - and hence not inaccurate, and summary of the intent and typological fulfilment of the Psalm.

Finally, let us turn not to the Greek as is so often the preference of New Testament scholars and even Old Testament interpreters for the preferred version of first century non-diaspora Jews was just as likely to be an Aramaic Targumic paraphrase rather than a Greek text. We know this from the Essenes and the copies of Hebrew Scriptures found at Qumran. The Dead Sea Scroll versions of key biblical books are virtually identical to the Hebrew text as we have it today. What we do have, however, are Pesher texts or "interpretations", more that just a paraphrase they contained an inserted commentary within the text itself and we have examples from such books as Habakkuk and Nahum. Perhaps Paul was "interpreting" the Psalmist's text or simply wrapping his theological idea in Old Testament biblical imagery, not necessarily implying that the Psalmist's intention was his, but that this was how he was using the passage.

Less problematic were the pre-Christian Aramaic paraphrases known as Targumim dating from as early as Nehemiah's time. These paraphrases the Hebrew text into Aramaic, a sister language, and interpreted the odd phrase, like the Pesher above, but to a much lesser extent and were this closer to the biblical Hebrew original. The Targum of the Psalm 68 reads as follows:

"You, prophet Moses, ascended to the firmament, you took captives captive,
you learnt/taught the words of the Law and gave them as gifts to the children of men."

This re-interprets the words of the Psalmist concerning God as referring to Moses and refers to a Jewish tradition that on Mount Sinai Moses went higher than the mere mountaintop to receive the Torah. The gifts become the words of Torah and are "given", not "received", "to … men", not "from" or "among". This is pretty close to Paul's usage who does something similar with the text but interprets the gifts not as "the words of the Law" but as spiritual gifts and spirit-filled ministries. As the Targum is a Jewish pre-Christian text this is what may have been in Paul's mind rather than either the Hebrew or Greek versions that still need considerable ingenuity to make them endorse Paul's actual wording. Lincoln^F3 notes that the Targum on the Psalms may be a relatively late work and so Paul and the Targum may both be making use of an earlier rabbinic interpretation preserved in the Targum.

Similarly, the pre-Christian Syriac Peshitta has, "You ascended on high, led captivity captive and gave gifts to the sons of men", though "the reading at this point in the Peshitta may be a corruption, which makes its value as evidence precarious (cf. Lindars, Apologetic, 52 n. 2)"^F4. The Arabic language version has something along the same lines. So other Jewish Semitic language versions pre-dating Paul, and not the Greek, may be the passage Paul is quoting or adapting in Ephesians. This places his Scriptural interpretation firmly in the Jewish milieu of the first century or earlier and does not imply a Christian tampering with the Hebrew text but if anything a typical Jewish adapting of the text to fit a prophetic purpose.

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FOOTNOTES:
F1: Walvoord, J. F., Zuck, R. B., & Dallas Theological Seminary. (1983-c1985). The Bible Knowledge Commentary : An Exposition of the Scriptures. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
F2: Calvin, J, Calvin's Commentaries (Eph 4:7).
F3: Lincoln, in his Word Biblical Commentary : Ephesians, refers to Rubinkiewicz, Novum Testamentum 17 (1975) pp.219—24, who cites Testament of Dan 5.10,11 for further evidence of an earlier tradition, however the Dan passage is hardly convincing.
F4: Lincoln, A. T. (2002). Vol. 42: Word Biblical Commentary : Ephesians. Word Biblical Commentary (p.242). Dallas: Word, Incorporated

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