Or who shall descend into the deep? - These words are also a part of the address of Moses, Deuteronomy 30:13. But it is not literally quoted. The Hebrew is, "Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldst say, Who shall go over the sea for us, etc." The words of the quotation are changed, but not the sense; and it is to be remembered that Paul is not professing to quote the words of Moses, but to "express the language of faith;" and this he does mainly by words which Moses had used, which also expressed his meaning. The words as used by Moses refer to what is remote, and therefore difficult to be obtained. To cross the sea in the early times of navigation involved the highest difficulty, danger, and toil. The sea which was in view was doubtless the Mediterranean, but the crossing of that was an enterprise of the greatest difficulty, and the regions beyond that were regarded as being at a vast distance.

Hence, it is spoken of as being the widest object with which they were acquainted, and the fairest illustration of infinity, Job 11:9. In the same sense Paul uses the word "deep," ἄβυσσον abusson - "the abyss." This word is applied to anything the depth or bottom of which is not known. It is applied to the ocean (in the Septuagint), Job 41:31, "He maketh the deep to boil as a pot." Isaiah 44:27, "that saith to the deep, Be dry, etc." Genesis 7:11; Genesis 8:2; to a broad place Job 36:16; and to the abyss before the world was formed, Genesis 1:2. In the New Testament it is not applied to the ocean, unless in the passage Luke 8:31 (see the note on that place), but to the abode of departed spirits; and particularly to the dark, deep, and bottomless pit, where the wicked are to dwell forever. Revelation 9:1-2, "and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit;" Greek, "The pit of the abyss."

Revelation 11:7; Revelation 17:8; Revelation 20:1, Revelation 20:3. In these places the word means the deep, awful regions of the nether world. The word stands opposed to heaven; as deep as that is high; as dark as that is light; while the one is as vast as the other. In the place before us it is opposed to heaven; and to descend there to bring up one, is supposed to be as impossible as to ascend to heaven to bring one down. Paul does not affirm that Christ descended to those regions; but he says that there is no such difficulty in religion as if one were required to descend into those profound regions to call back a departed spirit. That work was in fact done, when Jesus was recalled from the dead, and now the work of salvation is easy. The word "abyss" here, therefore, corresponds to Hades, or the dark regions of departed spirits.

That is, to bring up Christ ... - Justification by faith had no such difficult and impossible work to perform as would be an attempt for man to raise the dead. That would be impossible; but the work of religion is easy. "Christ, the ground of hope, is not by our efforts to be brought down from heaven to save us, for that is done; nor by our efforts to be raised from the dead, for that is done; and what remains for us, that is to believe, is easy, and is near us." This is the meaning of the whole passage.

Descend into the deep

Rev., abyss. Septuagint, Who shall pass through to beyond the sea? See on Luke 8:31. Paul changes the phrase in order to adapt it to the descent of Christ into Hades. The two ideas may be reconciled in the fact that the Jew conceived the sea as the abyss of waters on which the earth rested. Compare Exodus 20:4. Thus the ideas beyond the sea and beneath the earth coincide in designating the realm of the dead. Compare Homer's picture of the region of the dead beyond the Ocean-stream:

"As soon as thou shalt cross.

Oceanus, and come to the low shore

And groves of Proserpine, the lofty groups

Of poplars, and the willows that let fall

Their withered fruit, moor thou thy galley there

In the deep eddies of Oceanus,

And pass to Pluto's comfortless abode."

"Odyssey," x. 508-513.

"Our bark

Reached the far confines of Oceanus.

There lies the land and there the people dwell

Of the Cimmerians, in eternal cloud

continued...

Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)

10:7 Or, Who shall descend into the deep? Another stumbling block with the Jews was the death and burial of Christ. When Jesus died on the cross, they held it to be proof that he was not the Christ.

Bring up Christ again from the dead. They still were wont to demand that they should see the Risen Christ with their own eyes, or that he be produced from the realms of the dead. To have met the demands of the Jews would have been sight rather than faith.

7. Or, Who shall descend, &c.-another case of impossibility, suggested by Pr 30:4, and perhaps also Am 9:2-probably proverbial expressions of impossibility (compare Ps 139:7-10; Pr 24:7, &c.).

10:5-11 The self-condemned sinner need not perplex himself how this righteousness may be found. When we speak of looking upon Christ, and receiving, and feeding upon him, it is not Christ in heaven, nor Christ in the deep, that we mean; but Christ in the promise, Christ offered in the word. Justification by faith in Christ is a plain doctrine. It is brought before the mind and heart of every one, thus leaving him without excuse for unbelief. If a man confessed faith in Jesus, as the Lord and Saviour of lost sinners, and really believed in his heart that God had raised him from the dead, thus showing that he had accepted the atonement, he should be saved by the righteousness of Christ, imputed to him through faith. But no faith is justifying which is not powerful in sanctifying the heart, and regulating all its affections by the love of Christ. We must devote and give up to God our souls and our bodies: our souls in believing with the heart, and our bodies in confessing with the mouth. The believer shall never have cause to repent his confident trust in the Lord Jesus. Of such faith no sinner shall be ashamed before God; and he ought to glory in it before men.