-The ‘it’ (which most translations have as the pronoun), which Paul says is saying something, is God’s Word, Psalm 68.18 to be exact. Yes, Paul here quotes one of the Psalms. But thus God is the One Who actually is speaking, not some impersonal ‘it’ (and from the original Greek you could translate either ‘it’ or ‘He’). Fascinating indeed to find an Old Testament passage which speaks to the fact of Christ ascending back to heaven, taking (former) captives with Him and distributing gifts to those who remain behind.
-The primary point, however, at least for Paul in this context, is that the Scripture substantiates the point he is making that Christ has indeed given gifts to His people. These He gave at some point after He "ascended on high". The Ascension we know came 40 days after the Resurrection and some 9 days before the Feast of Pentecost. Pentecost was that great Jewish feast celebrating the end of the early grain harvest, also known as the Feast of Weeks, coming exactly 7 weeks after the Feast of First Fruits, which incidentally coincided with the resurrection of Christ (note in Leviticus 23.12-13 how the Feast of First Fruits involved the sacrifice of a male lamb and the offering of bread and wine - the very symbols which Jesus used to recall His sacrifice). But then, as we learn elsewhere, the gift of the Spirit and His diverse manifestations were first bestowed on that climactic, consummational day of Pentecost right after Jesus did ascend back to heaven, that day when God finally and permanently poured out His Spirit on His people, brought in a harvest of some 3000 people into His family in just a single gathering and inaugurated the assembling of a body of Spirit-drawn-and-gifted Christ-followers which continues unabated to this day. But the salient point being, each of us has a charisma, a gracious grace-gift. And clearly this gift is tied to the harvest. The question is, what is the gift and to what end exactly was it given? Read on...
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