(Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?
All Commentaries on Ephesians 4:9 Go To Ephesians 4
Irenaeus of Lyons
AD 202
For this reason also were the eyes of the disciples weighed down when Christ's passion was approaching; and when, in the first instance, the Lord found them sleeping, He let it pass,-thus indicating the patience of God in regard to the state of slumber in which men lay; but coming the second time, He aroused them, and made them stand up, in token that His passion is the arousing of His sleeping disciples, on whose account "He also descended into the lower parts of the earth".
Then also the apostle says, "But when He ascended, what is it but that He also descended into the lower parts of the earth? ".
If, then, the Lord observed the law of the dead, that He might become the first-begotten from the dead, and tarried until the third day "in the lower parts of the earth; "
