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Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching
St Irenaeus of Lyons, tr. Robinson, 1920
Chapter 83
And that, being raised from the dead, He was to ascend into heaven, David says thus: The1 chariot of God (is) ten-thousandfold, thousands are the drivers:2 the Lord (is) among them in Sinai in (his] sanctuary. He ascended up on high, he led3 captivity captive: he received, he gave gifts to men. And by captivity he means the destruction of the rule of the apostate angels.4 He declares also the place where He was to ascend into heaven from the earth. For the Lord, he says, from Sion ascended up on high.5 For over against Jerusalem, on the mount which is called (the Mount) of Olives, after He was risen from the dead, He assembled His disciples, and expounded to them the things concerning the kingdom of heaven; and they saw that He ascended, and they saw how the heavens were opened and received Him.
Notes
- Ps. lxviii. 17 f.
- As though reading εὐθυνόντων (as some MSS. of LXX) for εὐθηνούντων: so too in the Arm. Psalter, which in the next verse has after “captive”: “He received booty, he distributed gifts, and gave to the sons of men.” It is possible therefore that here “he received, he gave” is a reminiscence of his own Psalter on the part of the translator.
- Eph. iv. 8.
- Just. M. Dial. 39: προεφητεύθη αἰχμαλωτεῦσαι αὐτὸν ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τῆς πλάνης καὶ δοῦναι ἡμῖν δόματα.
- This is not a fresh quotation, but part of the comment on the passage before quoted: “The Lord . . . in Sinai in his sanctuary: he ascended upon high.” Irenaeus seems to have taken it as though it were “in Sion in his sanctuary.”