Texts in Conversation
Ephesians reads Psalm 68 similarly to the Aramaic translation in the Targum by changing God receiving gifts into God giving them. In the Targum, Moses ascends and gives gifts through teaching the Torah. Ephesians may follow a similar Aramaic tradition.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Ephesians 4:8
New Testament
4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you too were called to the one hope of your calling, 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he captured captives; he gave gifts to men.” 9 Now what is the meaning of “he ascended,” except that he also descended to the lower regions, namely, the earth?
Date: 90–100 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Targum Psalm 68:19
Targum
18 The chariots of God are two myriads of burning fire, two thousand angels guiding them; the presence of the Lord rests on them, on the mountain of Sinai, in holiness. 19 You ascended to the firmament, O prophet Moses; you captured captives, you taught the words of Torah, you gave gifts to the sons of men, and even the stubborn who are converted turn in repentance, [and] the glorious presence of the Lord God abides upon them. 20 Blessed be the Lord, every day he weighs us down, adding commandments to commandments; the mighty one, who is our redemption and our helper forever. 21 God is for us might and redemption; and from God the Lord death and loss of breath are inflicted on the wicked through suffocation.
Date: 200–600 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
“... It is clear that the text cited and commented on in this passage is a form of Ps 67(68):19, one, however, which is not that of the Hebrew text or of the Septuagint. The Hebrew has a very obscure text in verse 17(18)c: literally “The Lord among them Sinai in the holy (place)” (NRSV: “The Lord came from Sinai into the holy place”), rendered in the Greek as: “The Lord is among them, in Sinai in the holy place.” This is followed by words addressed to an unnamed person: “You ascended on high; you took captivity captive; you received (from the root lqḥ) gifts for men” (with the singular/collective “man,” b-’adam; or “among men”). The ending is rendered more or less literally in the Septuagint: “. . . you have received gifts for (or: among) man (elabes domata en anthrōpō). The text in Ephesians understands the psalm passage as “giving, distributing” rather then “receiving,” probably reading a Hebrew root ḥlq (“divide, distribute”) instead of lqḥ. This is the understanding and rendering of the passage we find in the Targum of Psalms, which is also that of the rabbinic commentary on this book. [...] The unnamed person addressed is Moses. The verse is rendered in Targum Psalms (italics indicate additional paraphrase): “19. You ascended to the firmament, O prophet Moses, you took captives, you taught the words of the Law, you gave them as gifts to the sons of man; even among the rebellious who are converted and repent does the Shekinah of the glory of the LORD God dwell.” [...] Targum Psalms is generally regarded as a late composition. Its language is considered by some as virtually the same as the Targum of Job and Pseudo-Jonathan. It is variously dated from the fourth to the seventh century. The relation of this paraphrase to the Epistle to the Ephesians would be another instance of the continuum in exegetical tradition. ...”
Martin McNamara, Targum and Testament Revisited: Aramaic Paraphrases of the Hebrew Bible: A Light on the New Testament, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010), 234–235.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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Today in my daily reading Psalm 68 came up again, and it stirred up the same frustration I’ve always had. I’ve always wondered, what in the world is Paul getting at in Eph 4:8, and how is he using Psalm 68:18? When you look at the Hebrew and the LXX it reads “received gifts,” not “gave.” That always ...
Today in my daily reading Psalm 68 came up again, and it stirred up the same frustration I’ve always had. I’ve always wondered, what in the world is Paul getting at in Eph 4:8, and how is he using Psalm 68:18? When you look at the Hebrew and the LXX it reads “received gifts,” not “gave.” That always confused me.But then in my reading I checked the Aramaic Targum to Psalms 68:19 and, to my shock, it says “gave” instead of “received,” just like Paul in Ephesians:
19 You ascended to the firmament, O prophet Moses; you captured captives, you taught the words of Torah, you gave gifts to the sons of men, and even the stubborn who are converted turn in repentance, [and] the glorious presence of the Lord God abides upon them.
https://intertextual.bible/text/targum-psalm-68.18-ephesians-4.8
https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.68.19?lang=bi&with=Aramaic%20Targum%20to%20Psalms
When I saw how the Targum (the ancient Aramaic paraphrase) was framing the psalm and how that might work with Paul, I was shocked. The way the Targum interprets it is that Moses ascended Sinai, received Torah, and then gave it, even for the rebellious. Paul may be drawing on that same tradition but applies it to Jesus. Just as Moses gave Torah, Christ ascended and gave the Spirit and ministries.
The pattern is:
• Moses ascended Sinai and gave Torah to Israel, even the rebellious, so that they could repent and learn.
• Christ ascended and gave the Spirit and ministries to the original apostolic community, anchoring the authority of their teaching.
• Through that apostolic teaching about the Messiah, the other messianic communities are discipled and united to Him through the Spirit, no longer tossed around by other teaching and philosophies.
Paul unpacks this later in the chapter: “So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart” (Eph 4:17–18).
So just as the Targum shows Moses giving Torah even to the rebellious so they might repent and learn, Paul shows Christ giving gifts to bring the Gentiles, who walk in futility, ignorance, and hardness of heart, into the life of God through the apostolic teaching about the Messiah and by being united to Him through the Spirit.