Commentaries:
Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)
Now this (to de). Paul picks out the verb anabav (second aorist active participle of anabainw, to go up), changes its form to anebh (second aorist indicative), and points the article (to) at it. Then he concludes that it implied a previous katabav (coming down).
Into the lower parts of the earth (eiv ta katwtera thv ghv). If the anabav is the Ascension of Christ, then the katabav would be the Descent (Incarnation) to earth and thv ghv would be the genitive of apposition. What follows in verse Ephesians 4:10 argues for this view. Otherwise one must think of the death of Christ (the descent into Hades of Acts 2:31).
Other Robertson's Word Pictures (NT) entries containing Ephesians 4:9:
1 Peter 3:19
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